The Newsstand Sophisticate

Norm writes about a hilarious piece by Matt Taibbi in Adbusters examining the creeping horror many leftists feel when someone describes them as “liberal.”

Taibbi is not, apparently, out to make new friends. He refers to the American left as “the saddest collection of cowering, ineffectual ninnies ever assembled under one banner on God’s green earth.” I find much to agree with in the characterization, but I don’t agree that the term should be abandoned. The problem is that “liberal” has become, especially in the U.S., a synonym for “left.” As Norm points out, leftists have, to their shame, often embraced and defended regimes and institutions that are not liberal at all in the classical, and I would say proper, sense of the term. (The list of leftist betrayals of liberalism is long and by no means a thing of the past, as the continued enthusiasm among some leftists for thuggish autocrats like Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez attests.)

If anything, the fact that so many are avoiding the term liberal is a good reason for those who believe in liberal principles (human rights, democracy, the rule of law, to name a few) to reclaim the term and bring it back to its historical use. The longer I live, the more I think the most important political distinction is not between left and right but between liberalism and the various forces of authoritarianism—religious, statist, and otherwise—that seek to impose their will on us. I’m quite happy to join other liberals, from the libertarian “right” to the democratic socialist “left,” to defend and extend liberal values in whatever small way I can despite my disagreement with these groups on some matters.

If anything, perhaps the label “left” should be abandoned, as there are far more sordid and embarassing statements being voiced by self-described members of the left than by the few people still willing to call themselves liberals.