Why You Should Feel Good About Liberalism

Hume · Aug 9, 2024

What do we mean by liberalism?

Not progressivism or moderate leftism, as the term came to mean in postwar U.S. discourse. Rather, liberalism in the tradition of Locke, Kant, and the Founders. Its distinctive method of social organization is to rely on impersonal rules and open-ended, decentralized processes to make collective decisions.

Why You Should Feel Good About Liberalism

We need to get better at standing up for the greatest social technology ever devised.

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Hume · Aug 9, 2024

Making this point in his new book Liberalism as a Way of Life, the scholar Alexandre Lefebvre comes out swinging. Yes, he says, liberalism promotes values—and they are awesome values! It teaches freedom, fairness, and reciprocity, which are among the best values out there.

“Liberals suck at defending themselves. Liberals are truly awful at it.” Instead, he said, “What liberalism needs to do is recognize and forcefully assert that at the heart of our doctrine are real and meaningful human goods that can lead not just to good policy but to good lives.”