Liberalism is on the rise!

The Democratic Party is growing more liberal for the first time in a generation. It’s more antiwar than at any time since 1972. Support is growing for such traditionally liberal values as using the federal government to help the poor. And 40 percent of Democrats now call themselves liberal, the highest in more than three decades and twice the low-water mark recorded as the conservative Reagan revolution swept the country in the early 1980s.



While politicians such as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama shun the liberal label, they’re rushing to court new power brokers who wear it proudly and constituencies that could barely win a nod from party leaders just a few years ago. For example, the top Democratic presidential candidates all attended the YearlyKos convention of liberal bloggers in Chicago this weekend and a Human Rights Campaign debate this week in Los Angeles on gay, lesbian and transgender issues.

They all skipped an annual gathering of the Democratic Leadership Council last week in Nashville, Tenn. The DLC is the centrist group that pushed for welfare overhaul and a pro-business agenda in the 1990s, helped launch Bill Clinton to the presidency and stood by centrist Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., when liberals attacked him for supporting the Iraq war and he effectively was drummed out of the party in a primary last year.

Some highlights from the survey:

- Fewer than half of Democrats now agree with the adage that military strength is the best way to secure peace, a drop of 16 percentage points in the last decade.

- Democrats who think that the federal government should guarantee food and shelter to the needy rose by 12 percentage points in the last 10 years, outstripping rising support from independents and Republicans.

- 40% of Democrats in last year’s elections called themselves liberal, according to the American National Election Studies, a research project supported by the National Science Foundation. That’s the highest since the survey began in 1972.


- The party also is turning against free trade, as Democrats in Congress put the brakes on new trade agreements out of fear that they’re displacing too many American jobs and driving down wages and benefits.