As a word, liberalism can't seem to catch a break. In the '80's, and particularly after the Dukakis debacle in 1988, the right was able to transform the term that had once been embraced by FDR, Harry Truman, and Hubert Humphrey into something derogatory. Those of us who were to the left of center hastened to either embrace the term "progressive" to describe our politics, or would react with outrage that any sort of label was being used. After a wildly successful two-term Presidency, by someone who was generally (but clearly not always) a political southpaw, and a campaign where the combined left of center(Gore + Nader) vote constituted a clear majority, my compatriots now identify themselves as "populists". The distinction between the two terms, as they are used now in common parlance, is barely worth mentioning; historically, of course, "populism" has generally been a politics of demagoguery, often focused on the sort of bigotry and intolerance that liberalism opposes. At least until the next time we get our asses kicked in an election, liberals don't have to remain in the closet, cloaking our identity before a public that has been willing in recent elections to elect our candidates.