Liberalism: A Brief History

"What is liberalism? It is easier to say what it is not. It is not what came before it, a worldview that gave kings and emperors the divine right to rule and that conferred on their subjects whatever lot in life they were lucky or unlucky enough to be born into. It is not rooted in the theology of any one religion, nor in the imagination of any one thinker.

Liberalism is an amorphous set of ideas, constructed on the fundamental principle that people are endowed with basic inalienable rights–to life, liberty and property–that they should be equal before the law, and that they should have a say in how they are governed and how society is organized. Where people’s rights come into tension, any resolution should be arrived at through reason, with tolerance for people’s differences. Liberalism imagines a world that progresses to the point where conflicts are resolved peacefully.

Finally, liberalism is flawed. It has been capacious enough both to advance universal human rights and to accommodate slavery and the denial of women’s right to vote. The technological progress valued by liberals has given humanity horrible weapons of war and the power to annihilate itself. Yet liberalism also inducted an era of co-operation among democracies after the second world war, including the relatively free movement of goods, capital and people across borders... 

Source:Walt Blackman with an excellent look at Liberal icon, John F. Kennedy.

From The Economist

I believe The Economist gave you a pretty good idea about what liberalism actually is. I'm going to give you an excellent idea about what liberalism isn't. As well as give you an idea of what I believe liberalism is in my own words and tell you what I think are the biggest threats to it as well are.

So there are 2 competing philosophies in the western world to liberalism. Which is strange because 1 is very similar to liberalism and the other has very little, if anything to do with liberalism. Sort of what like elephants have to do with fish, or Martians have to do with Humans. But because the s-words are still seen as 4-letter words and being called an s-word by a lot of these folks... you think they were just called a terrorist, or a rapist, etc. You would think they are so insulted by that, that they would want to sue you for libel or something. 

So the philosophy that's a lot like liberalism, when you are talking about the belief in individualism, individual freedom, freedom of choice, personal responsibility, rule of law, property rights, equal rights, equality under law, free speech, etc... that philosophy is obviously what's known as libertarianism. 

The Libertarian movement came out in the late 1960s and and early 1970s, in response to the New-Left Socialist radicals, who the mainstream media was labelling as "Liberals," even though they never had much in common with Liberals. As well as closeted leftists who preferred to be known as "Liberals", especially during the Cold War in the 1960s and 70s, when socialism was seen as like a political disease in America. 

Libertarianism was also a response to the growing cultural war movement in the Republican Party, with all Christian fundamentalists in America, moving into the Republican Party. In the 1970s, what's called "MAGA" today, was known as the "Christian Right". 

I think a lot of Americans, but smaller in numbers with the growing number of Americans who are figuring out what liberalism actually is and what it isn't, who also believe in free speech, personal freedom, free choice, the rule of law, property rights, equal rights, quality opportunity... when the Americans who don't think that's what liberalism really is, when they think of "Liberals", they think of people... guys at least: 

who don't shave, or always have some type of facial hair, with either a really militant looking short haircut, or are longhaired 

who speak primarily in hipster dialogue, 

who view the Che Guevara's of the world and other Socialist radicals, as their heroes, 

who drink coffee all day 

don't eat meat 

only watch women's sports when it comes to sports, perhaps soccer as well,,, they think of the late 1960s and early 1970s Hippies, but 55 years later. 

And the so-called "liberal women", are people who think:

that women should rule the world and most men are pigs

who only wear long, baggy pants, when it comes to pants 

who primarily only wear sandals or sneakers when it comes to footwear and don't like socks

who eat and talk like the male hipsters in this movement. And the only sports that they watch, are women's sports and perhaps soccer, just like with the men. 

But liberalism is about the freedom of the individual. It's not some cultural or ideological movement that argues that everybody has to be the same, has to think the same, talk the same way, dress the same way, has to live the same way, have the same resources as everyone else, in order to be decent, morale people. 

Liberals believe that if women want to have purple hair, or green hair, shave off their hair voluntarily... that's their right. But you are not making a liberal statement by doing that and telling people you are a Liberal. You are just making and living by your own personal choices in life. 

Liberalism is about the individual, Hipsterism is about being cool and being in on all the latest cultural trends. Socialism is about the collective and using big government to make sure that no one has to live without he basic necessities in life. 

And as far as the biggest threats to liberalism in America and the rest of the western world... we're already seeing that, especially on the far-right, but not exclusively on the far-right. But the biggest threats to liberalism on the far-right, are demagogues who are seeing their majority populations in their country, at least the lower educated and blue-collar factions of these populations, who have lost ground economically and culturally due to multiculturalism and globalization. 

And these demagogues, who are just wannabe dictators, living in democratic societies, see the "left behind" as their tickets to obtaining absolute power in their country. And they tell them that if you get behind them 100%, all the time, on absolutely everything, they'll solve their problems for them. When the fact is all they care about, are themselves and obtaining as much absolute power for themselves as possible, which no checks and balances on their power, and keeping that power for as pong as they possibly can. 

The Economist also has a very good description of the biggest threats, at least to western liberalism: 

"The greatest threat to liberalism today comes from within Western democracies. The two elections of Donald Trump, the electoral gains of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party in France, and the Brexit referendum along with, more recently, the growing popularity of Nigel Farage and Reform UK in Britain, demonstrate the appeal of nativist populism. The global financial crisis of 2007-09 and liberalism’s failure to correct rising inequality almost surely contributed to this populist surge, which has pinned the blame for social problems on scapegoats such as immigrants, minority groups and liberal elites. With universities, science and media under intensifying attack, liberalism has an daunting challenge to restore confidence in its ability to solve modern social problems." 

The New Democrat has been a liberal blog since we went online back in 2009. John F. Kennedy is 1 of our heroes. And in 1960, then Senator Kennedy, when he was running for President,  gave an excellent definition of what it means to be a Liberal: 

"What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label, "Liberal"? If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." But, if by a "Liberal," they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people - their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties - someone who believes that we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say that I'm a "Liberal."

From The American Presidency Project

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