How Did Classic Liberalism Become Everyone's Enemy?
Liberalism was the political life-blood of Western Democracies, but now some actor wants to spill it on the altar of their extremist ideologies
Once upon a time, civil rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of thought, and freedom of commerce, were prized by the political left, the good ol’ “bleeding heart liberals.” People who would champion the rights of women, religious minorities, and racial minorities not to be discriminated against.
Even classic conservatives could argue for a free market and for traditional values but defend someone’s right to disagree with them in the name of liberty.
I am old enough to remember the ACLU defending neo-Nazis and Oliver North!
Freedom For Me, But Not For Thee
It is mind-boggling that the extreme left and extreme right seem weirdly united in their rejection of liberal principles of freedom from coercion.
On the right, you have Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán championing an “illiberal democracy” and Christian Nationalists calling for coercion in matters of religion and enforced obedience to biblical laws against liberalism.
An extreme vision is a Presbyterian Taliban propping up a Christian prince who will use violence to effect a religious and racial purification of society.
On the left, you have the radical progressives contending that liberalism is the philosophy that undergirds capitalism, white supremacy, and heteronormativity. Therefore, liberalism must be dismantled and replaced with a hierarchy of the oppressed. Political and economic systems must be reengineered, by force if necessary, to ensure equality of outcomes.
The worst imaginings here is an army of Rainbow Guards putting people on trial for everything from hyper-whiteness to lesbians who refuse to have sex with trans-women.
Maybe this double-pincer movement from the left and right against liberalism is because classical liberalism is incoherent and unworkable in the end.
Such is the argument of Catholic political philosopher Patrick Deneen who believes “liberalism is built on a foundation of contradictions: it trumpets equal rights while fostering incomparable material inequality; its legitimacy rests on consent, yet it discourages civic commitments in favor of privatism; and in its pursuit of individual autonomy, it has given rise to the most far-reaching, comprehensive state system in human history.”
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