useless words

I was reading a letter to the editor in Commonweal. The writer called himself a "conservative."

What a worthless word! Along with liberal, progressive, Democrat, and Republican. The last two are at best brands which are redefined formally every four years at a national convention when the platform is created. Do people read platforms any more? Do the candidates? Who cares?

The c-word and the l-word are either implied brands when self-applied, but compliments or epithets when applied to others. As in a number of other languages, the meaning is in the tone of voice.

John McCarthy was a political liberal and a middle of the road pastor. As a bishop, he could not be called anything but orthodox and orthoprax (the spell checker does like me for turning a noun into an adjective).

Joe Fiorenza was a political liberal. As a bishop, he became head of the USCCB. You don't get any straighter than that.

So are/were they liberal? conservative? progressive? orthodox? right-wing? left-wing?

Why do we even have terms still around based on how people sat in the legislature after the French revolution?

I always used to call myself a middle-wing extremist. I may return to that - angry indifference - a quiet rabble-rouser (or would be if I could find a decent rabble).