On liberalism

Ifv you want to know the ideas of Classical Liberalism, they are referenced in the Declaration of Independence so famously:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

They also pushed for set law, and equal application of the law. They sought an end to the common practice of the time (the 1700s and before) where a single judge decided if you were guilty and how to punish you, and a different set of punishments for the rich, famous or powerful than for the common man. And one of the foremost ideals was that freedom wouldnt last oif a man couldnt own property and have the means to defend it.

For centuries, "Liberalism" focused on individual freedom protected from a deliberately small, limited government. All authority not specifically given to the government was considered to be denied to it; any powers, rights, jurisdiction, or ownership that was not specifically stated was implied to be outside the power of the government. And then FDR and his followers came along.

Today, the United States associates liberalism with the welfare-state policies of the New Deal made cooked up by FDR. It should be noted here that almost 2/3rds of his programs were found unconstitutional and eliminated. So he added more judges to the Supreme Court to tip the balance in his favor and keep the rest from being declared unconstitutional as well. By this time, enough of the population was ignorant of history to allow him to get away with such a trick. (In fact, a Supreme Court Justice named Samuel Chase had been impeached for judging based on political beliefs rather than actual law already, but was not removed from his seat as there wasnt enough evidence; this gave precedence for removal of the extra justices, but no one thought of it at the time) Of course, the system was expanded considerably under LBJs "Great Society". The modern liberal believes the government should take care of you from cradle to grave. Apparently, they've never seen any of the documentaries they make on how badly the government cares for those already under its care, the military.

The modern American belief (polar opposite from the classical)  is that a centralized government should have sufficient power to control just about everything, just as was done in the past. Part of this problem is that most nations of the past were the size of one American state, and not any of the big ones. Its easy to have a benevolent dictatorship that has absolute power over everything when your "nation" is the town and the few small farm the surround it. Even if you're England, it still only takes a few days to cross the island. All of Europe Is America east of the Mississippi River and Texas, and look how many countries its been divided into. Our nation is too big, with too many differences to be governed by a single central, all-powerful government. Our founding fathers knew this; that's why states were given so much power and freedom in the constitution. Just to add a few fast examples; that $150K income that barely makes minimum wage in California make the family in the Fly-over states qualify as "Well-off" to "rich". Pushing for everyone to get rid of their cars and either ride bikes or take public transit makes sense in the big cities, where the use offsets the cost and most people are (comparitively) close to their job. There are a significant number of towns and cities in America that are too small to even have a bus line. The environmentalist push to get everyone out of personal vehicles fails for that simple reason.


It is funny that a liberal will believe in the best about other people; their world-view is that people are essentially good and want to do good, and yet they believe that commerce, and the people involved in commerce are inherently evil. Liberals will talk about how so-and-so is a great guy, wondferful and generous, and make assumptions of his good will and nature....right up until they find out he's a business man. Now, it depends on the business, thats true; if he's involved in a business that supports or services one of their causes, he's still a hero, or at least a necessary evil. If he isnt aiding them, or from one of the near-endless list of things they hate, then he's just evil to be ended when convenient. But if his industry is on "the list", something they hate (and some days, that feels like almost anything that makes money or allows for modern society to exist) then they seek total destruction, and Im not exaggerating. They want the business closed, the owner impoverished, the man they met (assumong he isnt the owner) unemployed, and no possible option of recovery.

A modern liberal will fight for the rights of the en-vogue class. They dont really care about the cause, the people they are standing up for, or the results. All they care is that its popular, and they can claim to care. We see the proof in the current headlines: somehow, not letting a man use a bathroom meant for little girls is supposedly as bigoted as the Jim Crow laws, where blacks couldnt use the same drinking fountains or bathrooms as white. At all. A baker can refuse, for any reason, to make a cake for a heterosexual couple. But if that couple is gay? Against his will, against his beliefs (unless he happens to be of another protected class) he is forced into labor. We have several words for the act of forcing someone to labor against their will; all are synonyms of the word "Slavery" which was illegal in this country from 1865 until 2012. Since 2012, gays are allowed to practice indentured servitude (a form of limited slavery) and force anyone they want to do whatever they want with the government enforcement by claiming "discrimination".

Classical liberalism is a philosophy to be admired; an ideal that all people are born equal, and are free to live that life as best they can. Modern liberalism is really the same old Feudalism/Monarchism that Classical liberals fought so many revolutions to end. It is a shame that anyone would support such a thing as modern liberalism in today's world, especially in America.