For a moment when I read Centreri's first post about liberals opposing possible undertones of Federal influence on education I thought he was spot on.

Then I realised he was using 'liberal' in the American sense. Liberal and conservative are such vague, nebulous terms in American usage. People opposed to apparent central government control over the education system could be described as 'liberal' because a classical liberal believes in freedom of the individual and the market and that government shouldn't interfere in the lives of the people.

However, the American 'definition' of liberal seems to mean a group of people with progressive social views who want to effect change through the initiative of federal government. So I don't understand why this kind of liberal would oppose the speech of a socially progressive president who is possibly encouraging a stronger federal role in education.

Politics really can't be boiled down into the absurd Liberal-Conservative dichotomy. I may make a topic about this.