THE PUBLIC MIND: LIBERAL AND CONSERVATIVE: NEITHER WORD A COMPLIMENT

To the Editor:

Just as I thought that I had written enough about "liberal" and "conservative" for a while, George Will in a most recent column dissertated the word "liberal" fast becoming an epithet. An epithet the dictionary says is:

1. A descriptive adjective, noun or phrase, ofte~n complimentary, accompanying or occurring in the place of a person or thing.

2. An uncomplimentary name or nickname, or a contemptuous term, used invectively. So, there can be good epithets and bad epithets.

It occurred to me that "liberals" and "conservatives" have each had their good and bad times. Social Security, spawned during the FDR administration as a "liberal" program, nevertheless has had "conservatives" pledging its continuing sanctity. Barry Goldwater went down to defeat because of his unthinkable "conservatism." Midwesterners have traditionally been troubled by Eastern "liberals" and currently, "conservatives" seem to occupy the high ground.

It would be my contention that "liberal" and "conservative" have already become epithets long ago. With an unmanageable recession, a strongly "conservative" Supreme Court, a divided administration and an absent cold war, among other things, it will be interesting to experience what kind of a "spin" the mind managers and politicizers will perpetrate on these long standing epithets.

Gil Degenhardt

Cape Girardeau