Live Liberal: Hudson Website Gets National Attention

A lesson for D.C. Democrats, from the backwoods of Wisconsin

By Alston B. Ramsay

"Evil," "corrupt," and "brain-dead." That's how Howard Dean refers to his right-of-center counterparts, when he's feeling charitable. "They want to kill me and my children if they can," noted former Clinton aide Paul Begala last summer. It's not terribly surprising, then, given Begala's concerns, that Republicans didn't have "any problem with Hitler" — at least according to Thomas Frank, the best-selling author of What's the Matter with Kansas?. With enemies like conservatives, who needs that vision thing?

Well, just in case those on the left are looking for a backup plan — that is, if Howard Dean, John Murtha, and the impeachment crowd can't find the road back from political purgatory — they may want to go outside the fricassee of Beltway politics: Deep in the Wisconsin backwoods, one family is trying to breathe life back into the decayed husk of liberalism.

Live Liberal is the name, and redefining "liberal" is the game. The infant organization, which was started last spring, is the brainchild of Daniel Bruch, an erudite man whose degrees form a veritable alphabet after his name (D.Min, Ph.D, Sc.D., etc.). "We're starting at the simplest level: We're first confronted with the reality" that "liberal" has become a negative word to many. The goal of Live Liberal, then, is to "just get the word out in the public eye again, and in a positive way," he explained. This means avoiding the catcalls and bickering so dominant on the political scene; in fact, it means avoiding politics period, at least in the traditional sense. "We're going to try really hard to stay above the political fray."

Read more: National Review Online