The political is now a binary of illiberal extremes; the “right” is increasingly rabid and the “left” is so regressive that both sides may be irredeemable at this point.
In our current climate, almost nothing should be more obvious than the absurdity of labeling oneself as a “democrat” or a “republican.” Only those who are enamored with the sound of their own partisan BS could possibly think that this duality still has any merit or consequence. I suspect that more and more people sense how imbecilic and farcical it is to pretend as if any issue could be easily and neatly bifurcated in such a way. “Liberal” and “conservative” don’t fare much better because these terms are loaded with such emotional baggage that they have become nothing more than ways to end a conversation rather than serve as a starting point. We need a new “center.” But how?
If you have gotten this far, this post is for you — an individual who refuses to succumb to the intellectual retrogression that has gone viral in our culture and inevitably leads one into a pit of confusion and factional hysteria. Allow me to suggest a possible pathway out of this cerebral chasm; I will attempt the reclamation of a very misunderstood word… “liberal.”
To say that this word is encumbered with connotations is an understatement. Highly uninformed folks on the right will shudder at the sight of it just as thoroughly ignorant folks on the left will get dewy-eyed at the sound of it. Ready for the facts? Democrats and Republicans, left and right, “regressives” and “neo-cons” are ALL “liberals”... Is this crazy talk? Allow me to make sense of it.
We are all sons and daughters of what is known as the “liberal” enlightenment (Google it… you might be surprised by what you learn). The Framers of the Declaration and the Constitution were greatly influenced by the likes of Thomas Paine and John Locke, among many others. In a nutshell, liberalism is a philosophy that encompasses concepts such as: property rights, civil rights, liberty, equality, individualism, and rationalism, often with close attachments to the idea of progress, market economics, and internationalism.
These *liberal* cornerstones are no less important today than they were in 1776; there is not a progressive, a conservative or an “alt-right theocon” who wouldn’t defend their right to own property, pursue being an entrepreneur or practice freedom of their religion to name only a few. So-called “conservatives” and “progressives” are merely particular flavors on the broad spectrum of general principles that constitute liberalism.
Ultimately, it may be the case that rescuing the tradition of “liberalism” is a hope whose ship has sailed. The reclamation of “liberal” from the burdensome and politically-laden term “left” may be impossible at this point. I have tried to furnish a new perspective on the issue and one can only hope to reinvigorate the public’s interest in the tradition that is the thread that makes up the fabric of this country. We need a new center for our politics; the very possibility of intelligible and productive discourse seems to depend on it, indeed, require it.
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