PoliticalChic
Diamond Member
…of how Liberalism went wrong.
1.While I read it, I don’t generally quote from the Jewish publication, The Tablet….too liberal for me…but this week, the essay “It’s the Liberalism, Stupid,” [It’s the Liberalism, Stupid] is spot on.
It takes us on an erudite journey from the Enlightenment, through the woke outlook, and back to the roots of what made Western Civilization the apotheosis, the high point, of social development.
I present the journey in five posts.
2. Our guide, the author of the essay, Mr. Leibovitz, begins with I might construe as an attack on my beliefs:
“…the history of the past 30 or so years in America goes something like this: Once upon a time, back in the halcyon days of the 1990s, America was great, because Americans all observed a shared creed called liberalism. This relaxed civil religion nurtured our individual liberties and kept us honest, hardworking, and good. It gave us civil rights and gay marriage, Tom Hanks and Sesame Street, bipartisanship and Teach for America. And it would have bloomed eternal if the barbarians hadn’t shown up one day to sack our glittering Rome.
Who, exactly, are those modern-day wreckers of civilization? Again, many of our intellectual betters are certain they have the answer: The barbarians are Marxists, extreme leftist agitators here to replace our sacred liberal order with a pagan religion of their own, complete with a set of rituals (taking a knee) and articles of faith (gender is fluid). Our mission, therefore, is to resist these savages at every turn, and do whatever we can to turn the clock back and reinstall liberalism as our exclusive and infallible operating system.
It’s a compelling story, complete with deliciously malicious bad guys and wonderfully virtuous sheriffs counting the minutes to High Noon. It’s also, alas, entirely wrong.”
I’m chagrinned!!!
3. While it is exactly my belief that Leibovitz says is wrong, what the author claims is all wrong, it is exactly the sort of response I have always hoped to find when I post my views….when he admits to that ‘creed.’ Central to both my conservative beliefs, and Leibovitz’s pure liberalism is this statement of America’s Creed, which is the opposite of what I see in the current Democrat/woke philosophy:
…the creed embodies “the political principles of liberty, equality, democracy, individualism, human rights, the rule of law, and private property.”
Samuel P. Huntington’s Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity, p.46
And Leibovitz sees how far Liberals have strayed from that shared belief in the creed.
4. If Liberals today were as Mr. Leibovitz describes an earlier version, there would hardly be an argument between the sides. I don’t call myself a Liberal…I’m a conservative…but I am far more liberal than any Leftist today because I’m an American, with American values, and those values are about individual liberty and freedom and the American ethic and the Bill of Rights and the Constitution and the privileges bestowed by God, not by the state. The other side views everything as bestowed by the power of the state because, in their mind, they were responsible for the death of God long ago.
5. Our author admits to the infirmities of today’s Liberalism:
“…let us catch a glimpse of its vices as well. The world into which Rousseau and the other founding fathers of the Enlightenment emerged was one governed by a simple philosophical proposition, cultivated for centuries by religions of all sorts. It was this: Man is capable of both great good and great evil (see under: Cain and Abel), which is why we, poor souls, are constantly in need of moral instruction to help keep us on the up and up. “Moral instruction” being the sort of medicine that can, if administered imprudently, do more damage than good, it is therefore a good idea to entrust its development and application to the cautious wisdom of the ages. Enter tradition, a way of life that allows for gradual change but holds that, when faced with a thorny new problem, first look to your grandmother for advice, because there is nothing all that new under the sun.”
I am disarmed by his openness, his honesty. This is where the two sides find common ground. Sadly, for Democrat voters, they see a very different reality: No shared values, no longer an American party…they oppose free speech, individualism, the second amendment, and the free practice of one’s religion.
But Mr. Leibovitz sees a light at the end of this tunnel.
And I agree!
1.While I read it, I don’t generally quote from the Jewish publication, The Tablet….too liberal for me…but this week, the essay “It’s the Liberalism, Stupid,” [It’s the Liberalism, Stupid] is spot on.
It takes us on an erudite journey from the Enlightenment, through the woke outlook, and back to the roots of what made Western Civilization the apotheosis, the high point, of social development.
I present the journey in five posts.
2. Our guide, the author of the essay, Mr. Leibovitz, begins with I might construe as an attack on my beliefs:
“…the history of the past 30 or so years in America goes something like this: Once upon a time, back in the halcyon days of the 1990s, America was great, because Americans all observed a shared creed called liberalism. This relaxed civil religion nurtured our individual liberties and kept us honest, hardworking, and good. It gave us civil rights and gay marriage, Tom Hanks and Sesame Street, bipartisanship and Teach for America. And it would have bloomed eternal if the barbarians hadn’t shown up one day to sack our glittering Rome.
Who, exactly, are those modern-day wreckers of civilization? Again, many of our intellectual betters are certain they have the answer: The barbarians are Marxists, extreme leftist agitators here to replace our sacred liberal order with a pagan religion of their own, complete with a set of rituals (taking a knee) and articles of faith (gender is fluid). Our mission, therefore, is to resist these savages at every turn, and do whatever we can to turn the clock back and reinstall liberalism as our exclusive and infallible operating system.
It’s a compelling story, complete with deliciously malicious bad guys and wonderfully virtuous sheriffs counting the minutes to High Noon. It’s also, alas, entirely wrong.”
I’m chagrinned!!!
3. While it is exactly my belief that Leibovitz says is wrong, what the author claims is all wrong, it is exactly the sort of response I have always hoped to find when I post my views….when he admits to that ‘creed.’ Central to both my conservative beliefs, and Leibovitz’s pure liberalism is this statement of America’s Creed, which is the opposite of what I see in the current Democrat/woke philosophy:
…the creed embodies “the political principles of liberty, equality, democracy, individualism, human rights, the rule of law, and private property.”
Samuel P. Huntington’s Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity, p.46
And Leibovitz sees how far Liberals have strayed from that shared belief in the creed.
4. If Liberals today were as Mr. Leibovitz describes an earlier version, there would hardly be an argument between the sides. I don’t call myself a Liberal…I’m a conservative…but I am far more liberal than any Leftist today because I’m an American, with American values, and those values are about individual liberty and freedom and the American ethic and the Bill of Rights and the Constitution and the privileges bestowed by God, not by the state. The other side views everything as bestowed by the power of the state because, in their mind, they were responsible for the death of God long ago.
5. Our author admits to the infirmities of today’s Liberalism:
“…let us catch a glimpse of its vices as well. The world into which Rousseau and the other founding fathers of the Enlightenment emerged was one governed by a simple philosophical proposition, cultivated for centuries by religions of all sorts. It was this: Man is capable of both great good and great evil (see under: Cain and Abel), which is why we, poor souls, are constantly in need of moral instruction to help keep us on the up and up. “Moral instruction” being the sort of medicine that can, if administered imprudently, do more damage than good, it is therefore a good idea to entrust its development and application to the cautious wisdom of the ages. Enter tradition, a way of life that allows for gradual change but holds that, when faced with a thorny new problem, first look to your grandmother for advice, because there is nothing all that new under the sun.”
I am disarmed by his openness, his honesty. This is where the two sides find common ground. Sadly, for Democrat voters, they see a very different reality: No shared values, no longer an American party…they oppose free speech, individualism, the second amendment, and the free practice of one’s religion.
But Mr. Leibovitz sees a light at the end of this tunnel.
And I agree!