Liberal Democrat

Liberal Democrat
Individual Freedom For Everyone

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

The Atlantic: David Frum- 'Liberal and The Illiberal Left'

Source:The Atlantic- the left-wing The Atlantic with an article about the illiberal left in America.
Source:The New Democrat 

"A liberal,” Robert Frost once said, “is someone who can’t take his own side in an argument.” If conservatives are often caricatured by their detractors as unfeeling, liberals are painted as uncertain, weak, and easily bullied. Back in the 1980s, the centrist British politician David Owen joined the two accusations in a jibe against Britain’s Prime Minister Thatcher and her then Labor opponent: “She doesn’t care, and he doesn’t dare.”

These stereotypes exert real-world political effects. In the 1970s, a Yale sociologist went to live for two years among an exotic tribe: not in the South Seas or up the Amazon, but in the working-class neighborhood of Canarsie, next door to New York’s Kennedy Airport. For a political generation, the Jews and Italians of Canarsie had voted overwhelmingly for New Deal Democrats. Since 1970, their preference had shifted to Richard Nixon’s Republicans. The sociologist, Jonathan Rieder, wanted to understand why. Here’s what he found... 


Conservative David Frum and Progressive Jonathan Chait, both wrote good and interesting pieces about the illiberal New-Left in America this winter. And how hard they’ve come down against free speech and push so hard for their version of fascism, which is political correctness. I’ve called people who are so Far-Left and even see people like Karl Marx, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and others as heroes, or at least as people who are worth supporting, as the New-Left in America. And have more in common with Communists, than they would with a Liberal Democrat like Jack Kennedy. Who was always against communism and authoritarianism in general. And always a strong supporter of free speech, especially for people who he disagreed with.

This is very simple. If you don’t believe in free speech, even for people you disagree with and perhaps even find offensive, you’re not a Liberal. Perhaps you’re on the Far-Left, or Far-Right, but someone who doesn’t believe in free speech, is not a Liberal, but a fascist. The Illiberal-Left in America, are not Liberals, because they don’t defend liberal values. With Freedom of Speech being the number one value. You can’t have a liberal democracy without Freedom of Speech and Assembly. The Right to Privacy and Property Rights, would be two other keys in a liberal democracy. That today’s Illiberal-Left, doesn’t seem to either appreciate, or is even against. With their so-called political correctness movement to protect people from criticism that they believe deserves special protection from society. And this idea that people shouldn’t own things. But that we as a society should share everything.

Bill Maher, who has real socialist leanings, at least on economic policy and was seen as a hero by the Far-Left in America, before last fall when he started criticizing Islam, but who is a true Liberal when it comes to personal freedom and social issues, is a perfect example of how the Illiberal-Left tries to destroy people simply when they disagree with them. That in their little world, it is not enough to disagree with people you disagree with, because others may agree with them. So what you do is trying to destroy them and get their voice censored, so they can’t be heard. And only your side can get their message out. Which is pure fascism and something that Karl Marx would applaud, that Jack Kennedy would’ve been disgusted with.

No comments: