We Must All Remember What Liberal Meant

This is another great read about the current state of affairs. Thanks for the great article.

I have been feeling a similar way, since about 2013. I mean, I still don’t like Bush, Cheney, Rice, and their authoritarian conservatism, but nowadays the hard left is perhaps even worse. Worse still, liberalism is endangered by the rise of both leftist collectivist ideology and alt-right nationalist ideology. Let me explain.

In truth, liberalism has always been about the same core values: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, individual liberty, and equal opportunity for all, regardless of background. These things motivated Locke and Mill, Lloyd George and Roosevelt, and Rawls and Kennedy alike. Anything that is not about these values is, by definition not liberal.

On the other hand, not everything leftist is liberal: Stalin and Pol Pot were the most famous examples, but things like radical feminism have also never been liberal (I say this as a dedicated liberal feminist myself; you may want to study the ongoing bitter disagreements between these two types of feminism).

Americans have traditionally believed that left and liberal were synonymous, but since illiberal left thinking is (finally) beginning to assert itself in American politics, we need to wake up: leftists aren’t always liberal, and the hard left is certainly NOT liberal.

In the face of illiberal ideology from both the hard left and the alt-right, it’s time that liberalism re-asserted itself. Back in 2011, then British PM David Cameron called for a Muscular Liberalism, saying that we needed less passive tolerance of illiberal ideas and a more muscular and active liberalism (he was referring to Islamic extremists but I think it equally applies to the alt-right and hard left domestically). Yes, it’s time for a muscular liberalism, based on true liberal values:

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