"A liberal is a person whose interests aren’t at stake at the moment” is a statement that appeared in the November 1966 Reader’s Digest. The saying was attributed to Willis Player (an author?), cited from the San Diego (CA) Tribune. The saying (implying that liberal ideas aren’t practical) has been included in many books of quotations.


November 1966, Reader’s Digest, “Toward More Picturesque Speech,” pg. 100:
A liberal is a person whose interests aren’t at stake at the moment. (Willis Player quoted by Neil Morgan in the San Diego Tribune).

Bartleby.com
AUTHOR: Willis Player (1915– )
QUOTATION: A liberal is a person whose interests aren’t at stake at the moment.
ATTRIBUTION: WILLIS PLAYER, quoted by The Washington Post, Potomac magazine, November 15, 1972, p. 12. Unverified.  (November 5, 1972 is the correct date—ed.)
SUBJECTS: Liberals

2 November 1977, Wall Street Journal, “Saint: A Dead Sinner, Revised and Edited” by Michael G. Gartner:
Or Willis Player’s viewpoint that a liberal is a person whose interests aren’t at stake at the moment.

Google News Archive
7 June 1993, Rome News-Tribune, “A sense of humor is essential, particularly about Washington” by David Z. Walley, Jr., pg. 4, col. 3:
From the world of politics: “A liberal is someone whose interests arent at stake at the moment.”

Google Books
The Quotable American
Edited by Alex Barnett
Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot
2003
Pg. 128:
A liberal is a person whose interests aren’t at stake at the moment.
WILLIS PLAYER

Google Books
The Big Curmudgeon:
2,500 Irreverently Outrageous Quotations from World-Class Grumps and Cantankerous Commentators
By Jon Winokur
New York, NY: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers
2007
Pg. 275:
A liberal is a person whose interests aren’t at stake at the moment.
WILLIS PLAYER