Another Rant About What Liberalism Is

I have a pet peeve. The abuse of the word "liberal" by Americans. Americans, both on the right and the left, use the word "liberal" to mean left-wing. American conservatives abuse it further by equating liberal with socialist which they further equate with communist. But this is not what liberal means to political scientists, economist or anyone outside of the United States. To everyone else in the world "liberal" refers to a group of political parties around the world that emphasize individual liberty (thus the name). These parties are all secular (unlike the American Republican party which is de facto a Christian Democratic party) and all espouse strong support for civil liberties (again unlike the Republicans and their Democratic supporters who passed the Patriot Act). Liberal parties also tend to support market based solutions over statist solutions thus distinguishing them from Social Democrats, Christian Democrats, Conservatives and Fascist parties who all espouse various combinations of corportism and mercantilism.

Anyway, my new favorite party is the British Liberal Democratic Party. If you want to see a good argument against the British Labour Party's version of the Patriot Act and against the war in Iraq read this address by Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy.

I fear I'm waging a pointless struggle but I think Americans would naturally take to a truly Liberal Party if only they were given the option. Back in olden tymes, both the Democrats and the Republicans were essentially Liberal parties in the classical sense. They disagreed about which aspects of the Liberal ideology should be emphasized but they were both Liberal. Now neither party is Liberal but the Democrats are closer than the Republicans. The Democrats have a large faction that are essentially Social Democrats and a faction that has the potential to be a true Liberal party (the Democratic Leadership Council - see link to the right). The Republicans have completely abandoned Liberalism in favor of corporatist economic policy merged with "Christian" social policy. That's why I hope that the Democratic party will embrace its Liberal origins and challenge the Republicans' new anti-market, pro-corporate, anti-liberty ideology.