Posted on Jul 5, 2017
Hated by the Right. Mocked by the Left. Who Wants to Be ‘Liberal’ Anymore?
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"Each side has drawn tremendous energy from opposing this idea of liberalism. At the same time, the space occupied by liberalism itself has shrunk to the point where it’s difficult to locate. Different strands of it now live on under different names. Conservatives have styled themselves as the new defenders of free speech. Democrats have sidestepped ‘‘liberal’’ and embraced ‘‘progressive,’’ a word with its own confusing history, to evoke the good-government, welfare-state inclinations of the New Deal. Some of the strongest defenses of liberalism’s achievements come from people who identify as ‘‘socialists.’’ And free-trade advocates, with no more positive term to shelter under, are now tagged, often derisively, as ‘‘neoliberal.’’ The various ideas to which ‘‘liberal’’ has referred persist, in one form or another, among different constituencies. Liberalism may continue. But it may well end up doing so without any actual liberals behind it."
Hated by the Right. Mocked by the Left. Who Wants to Be ‘Liberal’ Anymore?
Posted from nytimes.com
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Posted 7 y ago
Responses: 11
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I self-identify as a Liberal, one who loves liberty. To be such a Liberal, one must be willing to do two things: (1) Take responsibility for oneself, their words and deeds; and (2) Respect the liberty of others, in that your liberty ends where theirs begins. Most people use "Liberal" today to hide their penchant for the opposite. First, they do not want to take responsibility for themselves and second, they do not respect the liberty of others. "Progressive" is another word with "nice" connotations, that is used by people who pursue the opposite of progress. They seek a paternal government that assumes responsibility for them (one that stands in loco parentis), and that is regressive, not progressive. These self-styled progressives love to claim responsibility for real progress (such as the end to slavery, the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Women's Suffrage, et al) even though they represent those forces that opposed these things. Fundamentally, it is dishonesty. They are dishonest people, afraid of letting others see their true nature. Thus, cowards.
BTW, Bernie Sanders is not a "Liberal". He is not even a socialist (he doesn't even know what socialism is). Bernie is just confused...
BTW, Bernie Sanders is not a "Liberal". He is not even a socialist (he doesn't even know what socialism is). Bernie is just confused...
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LTC (Join to see)
Sir, I agree that we have collectively lost the memory of the Classical Liberal and capital L Liberal philosophy. You are correct in that today's liberalism is not anything like past Liberalism and the focus today is in group identity and victimization. There can be no Individual in Liberalism today because they believe that the State is superior to the individual; the individual must surrender their Right's and Liberty for the good of the group. Yet, the Followers fail to see the hypocrisy of their leaders. The Left today vilifies success only on the Right. They have their fair share of millionaires and billionaires and Liberal owned Corporations are ok if its Apple, Amazon, Starbucks, ect, as long as they follow the political strategy of condemning your opponent at every minute of every day, never stop preaching. I think this is why we see panic on the Left today. Classic Liberalism is easily debated in the arenas of ideas. But, we see on college campuses a restriction of debating ideas and an even prohibition of thoughts differing than their own. So to the MSM narrative is not to thoughtfully discuss the issues. The MSM is simply a smear merchant of the Left offering no constructive ideas and solutions.
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SSgt (Join to see)
So you would fall into the classic liberal category discussed in the article not the American liberal category.
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They aren't called "Liberals" anymore.... folks caught on... now the term of art is "Progressive". but as i keep pointing out (to them), that's what the old Soviet Union called themselves, "the forces of Progressivism"
stand by for #libtard v3.0
stand by for #libtard v3.0
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I'm of neither party, so I think they both need to take a long hard look at the way they do things.
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