The point isn't that "liberal" is a dirty word. It's that when you throw all those things together it sounds not like a dispassionate description of reality but

The point isn't that "liberal" is a dirty word. It's that when you throw all those things together it sounds not like a dispassionate description of reality but propaganda meant to motivate action against domestic political opponents -- not to help people in the city and heal society but to demonize them. The "law and order" platform has been around a long time and has always sounded like this.