I’m an old Liberal of the Jack Kennedy school. I associate that old Liberalism with the belief that America was a blessed nation with an obligation to promote liberty and justice. Those ideals were tested when the Soviets blockaded Berlin and the USA went to the rescue, and again when the Soviets tried to place missiles in Cuba and we took measured military action. When Black Civil Rights were obstructed in the South President Kennedy sent in the federal marshals, and when the nation recognized there was a cancer of organized crime it was institutionally targeted by the administration. When President Kennedy set a national goal of going to the moon, industry responded with great energy and society with great enthusiasm.

I’m reminded of that scene at the end of “Saving Private Ryan,” when Tom Hanks’ dying wish is that Ryan “Earn this!” That generation of old Liberals who had fought World War II were like Private Ryan – they were doing their best to “Earn this.”

New Liberals aren’t so dedicated to old Liberal policies. The new Liberals aren’t very interested in confronting America’s enemies abroad, and although they keep up the Civil Rights rhetoric there isn’t much real abuse to protest. Organized crime has mostly been relegated to cable TV shows, and NASA is pretty much just another federal program. So what are the new Liberal issues and goals?

Read the postings at the Huffington Post or listen to Air America and you’ll find plenty of invective and anger. New Liberal anger is primarily preoccupied with President Bush and other Republicans in office. They’re hunger is for media approval rather than the old Liberal’s hunger for liberty and justice. New Liberals are fixated on popular opinion, especially moving polling statistics in the right direction. They’ve forsaken the old Liberal policies of liberty and justice and attached themselves to trendy issues that invoke politically correct buzzwords like sexism, stem research, second-hand smoke, and global warming. New Liberals are clearly more concerned with politics than anything else.

While the old Liberals were fueled by the lesson’s of World War II, the new Liberal burns with the lessons of Vietnam, but perhaps more importantly with the lessons of Beatlemania. That may sound incongruous, but the power and use of feel-good social causes learned in the 1960s has deeply influenced the Boomer generation. Neo-Libs are much more products of Boomer-era popular culture, while old Liberals were rooted in traditional culture - such as religion, the beliefs of the Founding Fathers, the values taught by the Boy and Girl Scouts, and the symbols of American exceptionalism.

Neo-Liberals believe that Conservatives are motivated by greed and bias, that America should leave other nations and cultures to their own devices, and that European-style socialism provides a better path to the future than traditional American ways and means.

I much prefer the old Liberalism, and I think Jack Kennedy would feel the same way.