Three simple words - freedom, justice and honesty. These sum up what the Liberal Democrats stand for.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Freedom. And Justice. If you have those two, it covers everything. You must stick to those principles and have the courage of your convictions.
Liberals are stalwart defenders of civil liberties - provided we're only talking about criminals.
Freedom. Freedom of religion. Freedom to speak their mind. Freedom to build a life. And yes, freedom to build a business. With their own hands. This is the essence of the American experience.
Freedom is the one value conservatives place above all others, yet time and again, their ideal of freedom ignores the growing imbalance of power in our society that's eroding the freedoms of most people.
Most liberals think of civil liberties as their Achilles heel. It isn't.
Self-reliance - that's a dirty word to Democrats. They want people to believe that self-reliance means you don't do anything with anybody. They don't want it thought of as accepting responsibility for one's life. Enterprise. Imagination. Independence. Entrepreneurism.
Whether you're a libertarian liberal or a more egalitarian liberal, the idea is that justice means being non-judgmental with respect to the preferences people bring to public life.
Responsibility and respect of others and their religious beliefs are also part of freedom.
While Democrats fussed with the details of health care reforms, conservatives spent months telling the nation that the real issue is freedom, that what's on the line is American liberty itself.
The idea that you earn things - that you earn respect, that you earn income, responsibility, the vote, punishment... these ideas are anathema to the liberal mind.