Definition of a Liberal? Multiple Choice Poll:

[Cassandro]

Questioning a liberal's political beliefs is like questioning someone else's religious beliefs. If you disagree with them, you are EVIL.

 

[Pogo]

None of the above, not even nearly. And you can't write a definition off a random example anyway. That's not how definitions work.

A Liberal believes political power derives from the People. Government, where it's necessary, acts as a sort of referee and when it's not needed, gets out of the way. Basically the opposite of Authoritarianism, which Liberalism opposes. Liberalism rose to take power away from the First and Second Estates, those being the Church and the Aristocracy, the until-then dominant system based on a hierarchy. Liberalism opposes that sort of top-down approach.

Liberalism is passive government rather than active. My usual go-to example: to declare "all men are created equal" is Liberalism, but that's as far as it extends; to then use government to force the statistics to reflect that through Affirmative Action is a step beyond Liberalism.

All men are created equal is not liberalism, that is conservatism.

Bullshit.

Liberals invented this country and its government based on that principle. "Conservatism" at the time meant fealty to the King, who in turn ruled by Divine Right. Liberalism came along to say, "**** that, we'll run ourselves". In 18th century vernacular of course.

Liberalism is believing government can make all people equal.

Wrong again Gummo. Might want to learn your own Country's history. Liberalism starts out with the belief that all are equal, in the sense that no such theoretical hierarchy of Church and Aristocracy exists and that "divine right" emanates from the collective will and consent of the governed, and specifically NOT from such an élite. That was the whole point. This is a major step in human evolution advancing from feudal lords, kings and popes -- the hierarchical structure we left behind... the one that assumes the existence of the Unwashed, those unfit to govern themselves who need to be told what to do by authority.

>> Liberalism first became a distinct political movement during the Age of Enlightenment, when it became popular among philosophers and economists in the Western world. Liberalism rejected the notions, common at the time, of hereditary privilege, state religion, absolute monarchy, and the Divine Right of Kings. The 17th-century philosopher John Locke is often credited with founding liberalism as a distinct philosophical tradition. Locke argued that each man has a natural right to life, liberty and property,[10] while adding that governments must not violate these rights based on the social contract. Liberals opposed traditional conservatism and sought to replace absolutism in government with representative democracy and the rule of law.

Prominent revolutionaries in the Glorious Revolution, the American Revolution, and the French Revolution used liberal philosophy to justify the armed overthrow of what they saw as tyrannical rule << (Wiki)​

Liberalism doesn't attempt to force that principle to exist; it begins with the basic assumption that that principle already exists, naturally. To artificially force it into being might be leftism, but it isn't Liberalism.

 

[Pogo]

Questioning a liberal's political beliefs is like questioning someone else's religious beliefs. If you disagree with them, you are EVIL.

-- link?




no... guess not.

Thanks for that deep rumination. Nanoseconds of synapse sweat went into this post. I can tell. Call it a sixth sense.