Forbes: Opinion: George Leef: Its Liberalism Day. Time For Liberals to Take Back Liberalism

thenewdemocratus:

(via It’s Liberalism Day — Real Liberalism, Not The Phony, Authoritarian Kind - Forbes)

I agree that America needs a return to what I at least call real liberalism or probably what is more known as classical liberalism. And call people who are known as ‘modern liberals’ what they really are. Which are leftist collectivists or democratic statists even. People who believe in democracy and tend to be democratic, but where the central or federal state is a lot bigger so it can take care of people regardless of income level for them. Where we would really have a superstate or welfare state to manage a lot of the affairs of Americans. But not just as it relates to the economy, but also what we would be allowed to eat, drink and even how we talk to each other. Where certain political speech they these statists disagree with would not be tolerated. 

For the record liberalism is not MSNBC talk, The Nation, the AlterNet, Salon or the more socialist oriented think tanks like the Roosevelt Institute to use as examples. They believe in the things that I just laid out in the first paragraph. Liberals believe in freedom that all people are entitled to it until they do something like hurting innocent people where they no longer deserve their individual freedom economic or personal. Liberals don’t believe in government or business. That is not what our ideology is centered around. We believe in the individual that if the individual is educated they’ll have the tools they need to live in freedom and live a productive life managing their own affairs. 

What separates Liberals or classical Liberals even (as long as you aren’t talking about Libertarians) is that Liberals aren’t anti-government. We are anti-big government. That is government that tries to do too much. Trying to do things for the people that they can do for themselves. We believe government can and should and play a role in helping people at the bottom get the tools they need to move up in society and live in freedom as well. Not take care of mentally and physically able body people indefinitely. But support them in the short-term as they are preparing themselves to be self-sufficient. 

Libertarians at least today are essentially anti-government and do not have much of if any role for government at all federal or at any level. Liberals truly believe in limited government and limiting to doing what we need it to do. Which is mostly about protecting our freedom. Not running our lives for us and supporting people in the short-term who need it. As they are working their way up to self-sufficiency.