In 1960, when another Massachusetts Democratic senator running for president ran into similar ideological attacks, he dispatched them with this: “If by ‘Liberal’ they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer’s dollar...we are not that kind of ‘Liberal.’ But, if by a ‘Liberal,’ they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about....their health, their housing, their schools...then I’m proud to say that I’m a ‘Liberal.’” He won.