Supersoulty,
OK. The reason that the moderate Howard Dean is perceived as a liberal, and the liberal John Kerry is perceived as a moderate, has everything to do with their respective demeanors and overall attitude.
What I mean is this...in the modern political world, liberals are thought of as angry and negative people who view the "American Cup" as half empty instead of half full. Think of the Left Wing pundits you see on political talk shows like Hardball, O'Reilly, Hannity & Colmes, etc...people like Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Michael Moore, Al Franken, Senator Ted Kennedy, etc, etc...
Modern liberals have turned into "foaming at the mouth" extremists, which is why Dean is perceived as liberal even though his voting record is moderate. In fact, EVEN OTHER LIBERALS mistook him for a liberal because they related to his bitterness, which is part of why the hard left wing of the Democratic Party endorsed Dean so enthusiastically, the other part being his hard anti-war stance. Kerry is more measured and less "shrill" than Dean, hence he's thought of as a sensible moderate even though his voting record is somewhere in the vicinity of Chairman Mao.
And this view is indicative of the ABSOLUTE FLIP FLOP of political perceptions that I've witnessed in my lifetime. When I was kid, "conservative" was a dirty word and people proudly called themselves liberals. There was a phrase used to describe Barry Goldwater as a "wild eyed conservative" and that was the perception in the 1960's and 1970's. But starting with the Reagan Revolution, all of that began to change, and 20 years later only 18% of Americans identify themselves as liberals. Hell, even liberals don't call themselves liberals anymore...they now call themselves "progressives" because subconsciously they are too worried about the negative perception automatically associated with being a self-admitted liberal. A liberal calling himself a progressive is like a fat person calling himself "gravity challenged" LOL
Sorry Democrats...try and dispute the fact that liberals are perceived as more negative than other political persuasions.
I am reminded of the 1992 election in the UK, where exit polls showed a Labour victory, only b/c people were ashamed to admit that they voted Tory, and lied. In reality, the Tories won clearly...
It's the same thing in Sweden as well, "right" is term used by the left to smear opponents, whereas left-wingers proudly call themselves just that.
