"Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on liberty, consent of the governed and equality before the law.[1][2][3] Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but they generally support free markets, free trade, limited government, individual rights (including civil rights and human rights), capitalism, democracy, secularism, gender equality, racial equality, internationalism, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion."
In the US, the overton window is so far right that liberals are considered left of moderates. But liberals are not leftists, i.e. people who would support socialism. It's like
left --------------------- liberals --- moderates ---- right
Liberals are not a moderate part of a socialist faction. They critique the democrats like they critique republicans because neither are in any way compatible with socialism.
Leftists are not liberal; the two are diametrically opposed to each other. (Right-wingers are similarly opposed to liberals, just in a different way.)
Liberalism favors democracy, rule of law, freedom of things like speech, free trade, free-market economics to various extents, etc. Leftists oppose much of this. If you want to see what leftists support, just read about the history of the Soviet Union. (And if you want to see what the right-wingers support, read about the history of Nazi Germany.)
Liberalism is an economically right-wing, pro-capitalist ideology (this part is incompatible with leftism!), that is socially liberal (this part isn't).
In the US, due to the two-party system, liberals and leftists are forced to share a party, but that doesn't mean they want the same things.
Then again you are using the North American definition for left and socialist, because the North American liberals are neither of those two.
Edit: to be fair though, I wouldn't consider liberals of any definition to be left or socialist. They might have some left leaning positions on immigration or the environment, but due to their capitalist nature they can not be considered left.
'Liberal' parties in much of Europe lean toward socialism, pushing for higher taxes and better public services. Over here, the people you describe as liberals would be considered extremist conservative.
Left and liberal do not mean the same thing. Basically all of my blue or red friends agree with the principles of Liberalism, which brought us the enlightenment and [modern] civilization. You can ask your own friends, here's a definition:
In terms of numbers, about 8% of the US population is.. left. 25% is traditional conservative. And the other 67% is regular folks who in fact agree on most policy questions
From Wikipedia:
> Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on liberty, consent of the governed and equality before the law. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but they generally support individual rights (including civil rights and human rights), democracy, secularism, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion and a market economy
Liberals are left of center in American politics, but whatever. I like liberalism and I favor policies that are frequently associated with progressives.
It all depends on what you want to be liberal about. You could be liberal about gun rights and advocate laissez-faire capitalism, but not be liberal on social issues such as gay rights and religion. Liberalism is not technically left or right-wing. When someone on the right is saying they don't like "liberals" they mean they don't like social liberals.
Liberals don't necessarily seek progress and change, those would be progressives, liberalism is concerned with personal liberties and equality.
It's also important to note that liberalism does not have necessarily an affinity as far as the left/right wing goes, or to be more exact by definition liberalism is an intrinsically centric view.
Communism is just as enemy of liberalism as Fascism is and for all intents and purposes both modern and classical liberalism are by far more compatible with current US conservatism than with either of those.
And historically the opponents of laissez-faire capitalism were the conservatives who did not like the political and social changes that economic liberalism brought.
However the GP is quite correct that these days liberalism in the US is not focused about it's original or historic core values, modern US conservatives are the ones who root for the causes of traditional liberalism.
Liberalism in the way it was adopted by the left in the US is very much focused on statism and socialism way beyond what one might be considered traditionally liberal, especially considering that historically liberalism fought against taxation (especially progressive taxation) and government intervention.
What was and should be liberal today in the US is more in line with the "libertarian" worldview, while the "liberals" are more in line with socialism and it's various offshoots.
What I am saying is that liberal has nothing to do with left-wing or right-wing, conservative or progressive.
The first line of wikipedia for liberalism is: "Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed and equality before the law. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but they generally support individual rights (including civil rights and human rights), liberal democracy, secularism, rule of law, economic and political freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, private property and a market economy."
I sincerely hope that is something we can come together and agree are important in the US. Even though it sounds like you and me have very different political views it also sounds like we agree that all of these are good. That means we have a wide array of items we agree on, but that are in danger at the moment. It seems to me there is a common platform most of us could agree to, but both parties have been to some degree hijacked by extremist so both of us to some extent are supporting illiberal candidates when we really don't agree with that.
Agreed, but I’ve noticed that over the past few years there’s been a shift away from talking about implementing some socialist policies into capitalism and towards the irredeemably of the capitalist system. At least that’s been my experience among my liberal circle. I think it’s the influence of the growing far left movement, who are now the cool kids on the left. The word “liberal” is a pejorative to describe them; synonyms with someone who defends the status quo, which is deeply uncool.
I think this article brings up an important problem wrt how people interpretation what “liberal” means.
Liberal != Left
> It's confusing because we tend to use them interchangeably in the US. But as far as the true meaning of the terms:
Classical Liberalism: the early form of liberalism popularized in the 1700s. strongly rooted in individual liberty in both social and economic matters. Opposes the idea of a strong activist government and believes in the free market economy and and believes strongly in freedom of speech, freedom of religion, etc. U.S. Libertarians are often a good example of a "classical liberal".
social liberalism: A more modern form of liberalism. They generally believe in many of the same values: (market capitalism, individual liberty) but differ in the fact that they believe the government has more of a role in ensuring the market allocates resources fairly and making market corrections were the free market fails (social welfare, environmental regulation, etc.) they also tend to see more of a role for government in protecting people's liberty (lgbt protections etc.) Many mainstream Democrats are social liberals.
Leftist: Generally have adopted the term Progressive in the US. They mainly differ from social liberals in that they believe the free market system is inherently flawed to favor the rich and powerful and believe that the government should either work within the framework of the market system but heavily regulate it and pay for more social services and welfare through higher taxation on the rich and corporations (social democracy) or abandon the free market all together in favor of socialism. There are not really in mainstream figures in the US that are true socialist, but "progressive" figures in the US such as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders (even though he calls himself a democratic socialist) tend to favor some form of social democracy.[1]
In many European countries, liberals used to be left in the 19th century, whereas conservatives were right. Then liberals won, replaced conservatives on the right with socialists of various kinds on the left. In many European countries (not all), conservatism is dead, but the US, conservatism never died. Possibly because slavery required a hierarchical view of society; one of the tenets of conservatism, and at odds with the fundamental principles of liberalism.
But liberalism is primarily about freedom, about equality under the law, but not necessarily economic equality. Low taxes, little social security, wealthy industrialists owning everything is still compatible with equality under the law. So there are economically right-wing and left-wing interpretations of liberalism.
Similarly, people who are for or against economic equality can have liberal or authoritarian views on how to accomplish that.
> The american definition of "liberal" basically means socialist.
No, it doesn't.
Though it overlaps with a common American use of “socialist” to mean anyone outside of the far-right. Most American “liberals” are center-right corporate capitalists, which is also the narrow sense of “liberal” in much of the world.
> In 2020, "liberals" in america have very little to do with the original meaning of the word which meant "in favor of freedom".
This is false, and even more than just being liberal in this vague sense, most American “liberals” and a great share of American “conservatives” are adherents to ideologies which evolved fairly directly from 18th century classical liberalism, differing largely in whether they view the immediate goals of 18th century liberals as having been terminal or steps in the direction of the desired goal.
"Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on liberty, consent of the governed and equality before the law.[1][2][3] Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but they generally support free markets, free trade, limited government, individual rights (including civil rights and human rights), capitalism, democracy, secularism, gender equality, racial equality, internationalism, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion."
In the US, the overton window is so far right that liberals are considered left of moderates. But liberals are not leftists, i.e. people who would support socialism. It's like
left --------------------- liberals --- moderates ---- right
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