Liberalism and Democracy

You may not know it, but even if you call yourself a conservative Republican, you are probably, in some respects, a liberal. You probably believe in certain fundamental liberal doctrines like freedom of speech, religion, the press, and all of the other freedoms enshrined in our Bill of Rights. You probably take for granted the right of women to vote, a liberal idea that was not officially recognized in America until adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.

Liberalism is not a fixed set of beliefs. It is an evolving attitude that favors individual freedom, concern and compassion for poor and oppressed people, opposition to governmental totalitarianism, opposition to domination of the weak by the powerful, and support for the rights of minorities. Liberalism has always been a progressive movement calling for political freedom, religious freedom, and equality under the law regardless of race, religion, sex, nationality, social class, age, or wealth.

Liberalism in America was influenced by the philosophy of great European thinkers such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Locke, Hume, and Montesquieu. They spoke of the “Rights of Man.” The American Revolution established the first nation based on the concept of liberal government, especially the idea that governments rule by the consent of the governed. When Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams spoke of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” they were echoing John Locke.

The United States is a liberal democracy. Our institutions are based on liberal ideas. Our Revolutionary War was fought on the basis of a liberal document, the Declaration of Independence. The Civil War was fought to free the slaves, a liberal cause. The civil rights movement to end racial segregation was a liberal movement. Liberalism has always been a movement for freedom wedged between the extreme positions of both the left and right

People sometimes confuse liberalism with its opposite, communism. I once had a debate with a communist. He accused liberals of being soft because we believe in the civil liberties and freedoms that Americans hold dear. I told him that communism crushes the human spirit. It attempts to grind men down and make them into what the philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset called “Mass Men.” Liberalism tries to lift men up, to give them the opportunity to realize their individual potential and their uniqueness as human beings.

Classical liberalism stressed freedom of commerce from government intervention. Adam Smith proposed "laissez-faire" capitalism. Modern liberals became skeptical of laissez-faire capitalism, however, when the Industrial Revolution produced the monopolistic aggregation of wealth and power as well as the exploitation and abuse of working people. The Great Depression of the 1930s further shook liberals’ faith in laissez-faire capitalism. Rather than pushing for socialism or communism, however, liberals like Franklin Delano Roosevelt called for government intervention in aid of the economy and governmental regulation of business.

Liberals do not necessarily favor taxation. They realize that a tyrannical government can use taxation as a method of subjugation and repression. In recent times, however, they have favored governmental expenditures in support of domestic programs including programs that help the poor, the elderly, the sick, the unemployed, the disabled, and other similar groups.

Among the most burning issues that separate today’s liberals from conservatives in America are the liberals’ belief in governmental stimulus of the economy, women’s rights, including the right to choose abortion, and the rights of homosexuals, including the right to marry. Liberals support the use of stem-cell research to cure disease, the availability of methods of contraception in addition to abstinence, and the total separation of church and state.

Despite the anger generated by these disputes, I believe that liberals and conservatives in American have far more in common than they realize. Both believe in the democratic institutions and fundamental rights found in our constitution. I will discuss this further in my next commentary about Conservatism.