The Silliness of Slogans

People on Catholic blogs (in the US anyway) still insist on using terms like “liberal” and “conservative”, and using them in a vacuous sense. Here’s Forbes doing its best to define a latter-day “liberal”:

“Broadly, a “liberal’ subscribes to some or all of the following: (1) progressive income taxation; (2) universal health care of some kind; (3) opposition to the war in Iraq, (4) and a certain queasiness about the war on terror; (5) an instinctive preference for international diplomacy; (6) the right to gay marriage; (7) a woman’s right to an abortion; (8) environmentalism in some Kyoto Protocol-friendly form; (9) and a rejection of the McCain-Palin ticket.” [numbers mine]

So the Catholic Church would affirm (1)-(5) and (8), deny (6) and (7), and has no opinion on (9). What does that tell you? Nothing beyond the meaninglessness of these slogans.