Conservatives and AM hate talk radio has demonized the left for decades, not only drawing a line between the two groups, policy wise, but their goal has been to make people "hate and despise" the progressive left instead of disagreeing with them.

However, Americans are not buying into their massive propaganda efforts anymore: identifying oneself as "liberal" is not the dirty word it used to be. (The mainstream media had a lot to do with propagating this meme as well)

Gallop released a new poll and found Americans identifying as Liberals is on the rise:

Since Gallup began routinely measuring Americans' political ideology in 1992, conservative identification has varied between 36% and 40%. At the same time, there has been a clear increase in the percentage identifying as politically liberal, from 17% to 25%. This has been accompanied by a corresponding decrease in the percentage identifying as "moderate," from 43% to 34%.

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More Americans continue to label themselves as conservative than as moderate or liberal. However, the liberal percentage has been growing, mainly at the expense of moderates.

People who once opted for the word "moderate" may be more willing to call themselves "liberal" even if their views on the issues are the same. However, with major changes over the past two decades in Americans' acceptance of gay marriage, support for legalized marijuana and growing opposition to the death penalty, at least some of the shift in labeling appears to be rooted in changing perspectives.

Gallop doesn't take into account the rise of the progressive blogosphere since 2000 in their research, but we've had an impact in no uncertain terms.

Now that Trump has captured the White House, I expect the term "liberal" will once again be a badge of honor.