Bleeding heart liberals

Posted by ESC on May 11, 2004

In Reply to: Bleeding heart liberals posted by ESC on May 11, 2004

: : Hi! Can you please tell me what this means and how the phrase originated? Thanx, Sax

: BLEEDING HEART -- "an ultraconservative view of ultrliberals, as those whose 'hearts bleed' for the poor, who are 'suckers' for every 'sob story,' and who place tax burdens on all in a mistaken effort to cure social ills...The expression was introduced into political usage in the thirties by columnist Westbrook Pegler. Its origin may be the Order of the Bleeding Heart, a semireligious order of the Middle Ages honoring the Virgin Mary, whose 'heart was pierced with many sorrows.'...By the 1990s the term was applied more broadly and, not without irony, even to ultraconservatives. In April 1990, U.S. News and World Report described New York Federal Judge Robert Sweet as being 'no bleeding heart when it comes to meting out rough sentences.'..." Another passage said Mr. Pegler's most frequent "target" was first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. From Safire's New Political Dictionary by William Safire (Random House, New York, 1993).