Writes Ezra Klein, in "The Book That Changed How I Think About Liberalism" (NYT).
Klein is reading books looking for the answer. The book referred to in the title is "The Lost History of Liberalism," and here's the interview he does with the author, Helena Rosenblatt. There's a lot of talk about the historical meaning of the word "liberal," which hasn't got much to do with the predicament of the Democratic Party in recent years. What was "this grand victory" for liberalism in electing Obama? Klein only refers to Obama's race and demeanor!
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Liberalism is a philosophy of divergence.
even I don’t think I could tell you what liberalism’s vision is
Don't worry, nobody can. Liberalism means more and bigger government; it means more programs, more rules and regulations, more of the economy absorbed by government to be doled out to favored groups.
There is no vision, only insatiable hunger for control.
Today's "liberals" keep trying to take credit for yesterday's liberalism despite the fact that they have added nothing to its achievements. The people who most closely resemble yesterday's liberals vote Republican.
Turns out, Obama's race and demeanor were all he had to offer.
Journolister hack along with yglesias
Trump is cleaning up the messes of Obama and Biden. So sick of Obama being put on a pedestal after the division HE caused in this country. We GOT Trump BECAUSE of Obama.
There was a stepwise transformation of the Democratic Party from Carter to Clinton to Obama.
Carter was a sincere idealist, and also naive and unrealistic and a terrible leader.
Clinton came in as "Slick Willy" and "the first black President." He felt your pain and told you what you wanted to hear with no moral angst about shaving the truth. Upon losing Congress in 1994, he pivoted toward triangulation and putting lots of blacks in prison. Never mind that he also rented out the Lincoln Bedroom, both literally and metaphorically.
Obama was the birth of the Party position that Identity = Merit. Blackness rather than experience was the justification for his election in 2008, and Sarah Palin's sarcastic convention speech "when those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot" shook him visibly. Everyone knew he was a stuffed shirt, if honest.
So, the Party gave the USA Wokeness after 8 years of "black = justified leadership = superior" shallowness. Never mind that Obama is 50% white, his surface appearance was all that mattered.
There is no 'liberalism' in the Democratic Party today, just the lust for power coupled with regressed-to-the-mean impulse, fantasy, greed, and confusion.
when it had this thoughtful, deliberate and, frankly, quite popular liberal leader.
Why "and, frankly," as though it might be controversial to suggest Obama was quite popular?
There's no question Obama was quite popular. It's much more debatable to say he was thoughtful, deliberate or even that he was a liberal.
Klein only refers to Obama's race and demeanor!
That's all that was required. A black Democrat -- any black Democrat -- was to be elected to the highest office. There were no required policies or outcomes by which to judge him, just his blackness.
As long as he was fulfilling the role of black President, no one could critique his performance in office without it being translated by the media into either "not black enough" or "too black".
Either way, the legitimate criticism could be dismissed out of racism.
"frankly, quite popular liberal leader."
Yet Trump got millions more votes.
Biden got many millions more than both of them. That don't seem right, does it?
"But here’s the thing: Donald Trump is not working out."
Right there is where you lost it for sure, Ezra. Preceding sentence raised a stink, but right there it became the stench of just your opinion. No facts to be learned here. Bye-bye.
...as a civilization we should be obligated to satiate the needs of every liberal and her friends...
Modern times. "Liberals" aren't very liberal, and "conservatives" don't conserve much.
...now that they've exhausted every epithet trying to make Trump go away, and failed, what ammo do they have left to make the next one go away?
If you only see race, then when Obama was President, didn't we have just as much a white President as a black one? The identity politics is kind of selective with that guy.
...if everyone's invited to this whine festival Obama was never popular with me or my friends. We saw through the bull to recognize the prop he was. And just for the record- half black...
...my friends and I like good policy and aren't willing to compromise that in favor of a President we want to be friends with or have sex with or whatever feels...
Then there is THIS load of bullshit....
Obama CAUSED the division, the hate, and the chaos that brought TRUMP in, to clean it all up. Talk about using the Justice Department.... How many TRUMP people were put in prison, or raided at 5 in the morning, or even prosecuted??? Everything they try to blame on Trump....Obama did, and got away with it. I am really hoping they did find evidence in those burn bags to throw this MF in prison where he belongs.
"Obama made it plain that he no longer harbors illusions about the nature of the Trump Presidency. His early prediction that Trump was capable of rolling back only a modest percentage of Obama’s achievements, and that political norms would prevail, has not remotely proved to be the case. Trump has used the Justice Department to prosecute his political enemies."
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/05/11/barack-obama-in-the-age-of-trump
Only the most politically insulated thought Obama was politically popular. He had zero political coattails after his initial election.
US liberalism has always claimed it looked out for regular people and the working class. Liberalism after Obama abandoned that in favor or affluent leftists and niche groups.
Also, here are all the things Ezra Klein has been right about……
Not surprisingly, Klein didn't think this through much. More like just statements of imaginary facts, also known as feelings. Why can't "liberals" think anymore?
Trump has used the Justice Department to prosecute his political enemies
...they are people guilty of real crimes that just so happen to be his enemies...
If by "Liberalism" Klein means "What the NYTs/WaPo editors like" then liberalism is doing just fine. Wars in the middle east, massive illegal and illegal immigration, social liberalism, Globalization, and the well-to-do getting richer and richer.
What is Klein complaining about? That the POTUS doesnt agree with 100 percent of the liberal agenda? Congressional Democrats and the Uniparty Republicans do. As do the MSM, the Universities, and most of the Judiciary.
Biden was far more "liberal" than Obama - because he had the opportunity. So, why is he harking back to the Big O?
...since apparently Election-Year-Violence-Summer may not have been approved by the strategists I'll expect more of these Vote-For-Our-Nazis-Because-Trump's-A-Nazi fluff pieces here on the Althouse blog...
One might consider that biden was one of those nesting dolls for obama (autopen mode)
People like Klein are always playing games with these political labels. What is liberalism vs. Leftism? Who in the USA is "left"? Why are we told that so and so is "far Right" but no one is labeled "Right". And what does "Rightwing" or "Conservatism" mean anymore? Is Mark Levin "rightwing"? He seems to think so. Rod Dreher says he's conservative and Tucker is "far-right".
People need to start talking about concrete political issues and stop with the "name game".
So, why is he harking back to the Big O?
If I thought they were capable of shame through all that Xanax I'd say they were too embarrassed to admit they were duped by President Weekend At Bernie's but I know better...
Don't you just love how "liberals' Skip past the left's corruption?
Antifa thuggery, SPLC, hate and assassinations, for starters.. The list is long.
Just skip right on by. The left is bankrupt.
It means nothing
Green candidate who supports paying slavery reparations revealed to be descendant of slave traders https://share.google/qRSbpIUjFfJKLZtIk
Most old fashioned liberals are blind about the radical left progressive's neo-Marxist turn. (now combined with communism and theological Islam)
So they only have one thing. TRUMP HATE.
Klein is just as disappointed with Obama as the rest of us, but some of us expected to be let down. Klein can only blame himself for being played so easily by his own party. It's really amazing how easy the play was: some extra melanin, some flowery vague bullshit written by a 20 something. It should be embarrassing. The only people who should have voted for Obama are MAGA (Tea Party) people disgusted by the Republican offerings - some did.
I still have a T-shirt from the first Tea Party rally in Santa Monica, CA in April 2009. I was struck that day by the diversity there. I was hanging with a group of lesbians and the minority there was white straight guys.
The right similarly has gone into group-think mode, a consequence of popularity driving down the average IQ. Additional converts are even lower IQ, hence the style of right-wing clickbait.
It's always the other guys' fault. You MAGA dipshits are just as stupid and vapid as Ezra Klein.
Klein did his part with the journolist
"Modern times. "Liberals" aren't very liberal, and "conservatives" don't conserve much."
Indeed.
Mispelled progressives who are pro feudalism
"What was "this grand victory" for liberalism in electing Obama? Klein only refers to Obama's race and demeanor!"
It was a victory for the radicals who co-opted the Democratic Party.
Peachy said...
"Most old fashioned liberals are blind about the radical left progressive's neo-Marxist turn. (now combined with communism and theological Islam)"
Only because of the steady march through our institutions.
"So they only have one thing. TRUMP HATE."
It's crude, but unfortunately, effective. The best antidote is sunlight - and thank Elon Musk for freeing up TwitterX.
Ezra probably supported Biden and Kamala.
Fun how these leftists skip right past Biden's pile of destruction.
That tells us a lot. It informs us that leftists support million of illegals, Walzian billions in fraud, COVID lies and forced jabs - and all the other hot garbage that came with Biden - Obama's puppet.
...they are people guilty of real crimes that just so happen to be his enemies...
YES! (Except for the "real crimes" part. 🤣)
Social democracy is a mugs game like michela pointed about 100 years ago
He couldnt stop clapping
But here’s the thing: Donald Trump is not working out. He is not making people want more of what he is....
I wonder if it would surprise Klein to learn that I want plenty more of Trump’s winning. If it weren’t for the rear guard of buggy-eyed leftie judges, each of whom thinks executive authority resides in their gavel, Trump’s presidency would be massively successful. Unfortunately Congress is a stagnant shithole that has been blinded by self interest and corruption.
- Krumhorn
Once you know kleins function (which the daily caller discovered 16 years ago) you see through the artifice
I remember a long time ago, William F Buckley saying, "If you're done with the name liberal, can we have it back?"
Ez gets red pilled
Chapter 1
We will hear all the rest much later on, and it will be as smug as ever
Everything he says is a lie (lillian hellman)
They dont want higher wages lower crime energy independence
COVID lies and forced jabs
Funny how MAGA forgets that Trump was responsible for the vaccinations and was running the country during the lockdowns. Funny how MAGA forgets that Trump banned landlords from evicting dead beat tenants. (The Marxism is coming from inside Mar a Lago.) Funny how MAGA forgets all the free COVID welfare checks Trump sent out to people who didn't need it. Funny how MAGA forgets that Trump enacted never ending unemployment insurance for lazy fucks who didn't feel like working during COVID. Other than hating immigrants and taxes, Trump governs like a Marxist. Who started the canard that he is in anyway "conservative" or that MAGA is a conservative movement. There is more to conservatism than just hating immigrants.
(At least there used to be.)
The White Left thought they could cleanse themselves of their white guilt with their blind faith adoration of the con man from Chicago. More of the same. They miss those faux halcyon dayz.
I strongly object to labeling the Democrats as "Liberals". There's not a damn thing liberal about them, at least in the classical sense of liberalism.
They are Leftists, plainly and simply.
DD - Trump was not "responsible" for the jabs.
In fact you moron leftists were horrified by "TRUMP'S JABS! When the jabs were in the works (they were not Trump's jabs) - AS soon as Biden got in, they became BIDEN"S jabs - & you leftists could NOT get them fast enough nor could you keep yourselves from shaming everyone - if they dared to question the jab.
They were rushed and improperly vetted jabs. They are not Trump's jabs. Don't be an idiot.
Wilbur - I agree.
The modern left are not Liberal at all.
Neo feudalists
They got nothing, but they are going to win anyway, and make all of their cronies rich, just like always.
The difference between what we have and feudalism? Well, in feudalism to pay rent for life to a "lord" for a plot of land that you can never own, and what we do is pay interest on everything we do own, unless you are lucky enough, or savvy and disciplined enough to wangle your way out of it. In other words, we are mostly serfs, and the Democrats have a lot to do with making it that way.
The great white father wilson was antithetical to the republic
Every thing stands from there
When you can’t run on your policies you’re stuck peddling bullshit like “hope and change”.
DD - Roll the Tape:
The collective left: "OMG! I refuse to take Trump's jab!"
Evil Trump made it himself in the lab! - and I will not take it!"
Biden is installed:
The collective left: "HOW DARE anyone question the jab! YOU are a criminal if you don't take the jab!"
^^^^^^^^^^
Wokeism happened. Link
Democrats have not transitioned back to traditional Liberalism.
"You will own nothing, and be happy," sounds like feudalism, except for the second part.
Can they come up with better material
Trump was not "responsible" for the jabs.
We're here to discuss a monumental national achievement. From the instant the coronavirus invaded our shores, we raced into action to develop a safe and effective vaccine at breakneck speed. It would normally take five years, six years, seven years, or even more. In order to achieve this goal, we harnessed the full power of government, the genius of American scientists, and the might of American industry to save millions and millions of lives all over the world. We’re just days away from authorization from the FDA, and we’re pushing them hard, at which point we will immediately begin mass distribution."
There you go, Peachy. Trump had nothing to do with "Operation Warp Speed." 🙄
“ Why "and, frankly," as though it might be controversial to suggest Obama was quite popular?”
I noticed that Kamala Harris inserted the word “frankly” all over the place in her ramblings. I think it’s a filler word like “like.”
It's fine and good to be liberal with your own money. Charitable, big-hearted, friendly and sloppy. There are problems there too, of course. But liberal people are more likable than the suspicious, negative, tight-fisted crowd. Speaking very broadly.
The problem with liberal government is that liberals engage in their liberal philosophy with other people's money. This causes most of us to despise them.
A bigger problem now is that liberals have seemingly abandoned their liberal persona. They don't come across as charitable or big-hearted. In the media, they can be highly negative. And they're often illiberal and harsh. Not believing in free speech, hating on white people and Jews, and with a shocking disregard for American voters. Why the hostility to voter ID?
The other weird thing is that liberals were historically patriots. Now, many of them seemingly loathe the USA. How many "liberals" want to fly on their private jet to Davos and take selfies with the rich and smug? Too many.
Trump on the vaccines that he totally wasn't responsible for:
People that aren’t necessarily big fans of Donald Trump are saying, “Whether you like him or not, this is one of the greatest miracles in the history of modern-day medicine” or any other medicine — any other age of medicine.
So they use aid and the tides foundation and a hundred other tentacles to 'nudge' like cass sunstein, to shape a paradigm
Trump on "masking"
And I see a lot of people at the parties wearing masks. I mean, I would say that I look out at the audience at those parties, and we have a lot of people wearing masks, and I think that’s a good thing.
Well it's always been clear that Ezra Klein doesn't want--and never did want--any part of what Trump is. But I'm not certain that Ezra Klein knows what the "normies" and people in general in flyover country want. Nor does he care--they are just a basket of deplorables after all.
Like bill msher said 'you have to drag them' you need 'a recession to recover our democracy' i havent forgotten what he wrought
There are so many examples that come to mind
Liberalism, with small 'l' died before WWII. A long way to killing it came from its inability to stand up to the communists spreading across Europe so the fascists rose in opposition.
Liberalism is not a bad idea, and using ideas to help organize society is good, but sometimes you have to shoot the socialists. Fascism was willing to punch the communists but they really had nothing after the fight.
Then the US adopted the compulsory economy of the Nazis through the New Deal, the German pattern of socialism.
It cannot be denied that Fascism and similar movements aiming at the establishment of dictatorships are full of the best intentions and that their intervention has, for the moment, saved European civilization. The merit that Fascism has thereby won for itself will live on eternally in history. But though its policy has brought salvation for the moment, it is not of the kind which could promise continued success. Fascism was an emergency makeshift. To view it as something more would be a fatal error.
Mises, Ludwig von (1927). Liberalism
All mankind’s progress has been achieved as a result of the initiative of a small minority that began to deviate from the ideas and customs of the majority until their example finally moved the others to accept the innovation themselves. To give the majority the right to dictate to the minority what it is to think, to read, and to do is to put a stop to progress once and for all.
Mises, Ludwig von (1927). Liberalism
I think it’s a filler word like “like.”
…the better take: the words immediately following the word are a lie.
According to gpt5:
Obama Term averages (Gallup)
First term (2009–2013): ~49% approval
Second term (2013–2017): ~47% approval
For Trump:
First term, 2017–2021 41% (Gallup)term average
Second term, 2025–present not final yet; Gallup has mostly shown him in the mid/high 30s to low 40s so far.
So Obama was 8 pct more popular probably, but not massively more popular not even considering a 3 or 4 pct margin of error in polling. And this in an environment where the media was slobbering all over him. He was the first Black President and everyone likes a first. So my takeaway is that media propaganda is not all that powerful.
But he was more popular than Trump, by these polls.
deviate from the ideas and customs
... the majority the right to dictate to the minority
Neither liberalism nor democracy are attuned to a human, humane consensus., condition.
“ …& you leftists could NOT get them fast enough…”
Peachy you are such a dummy. Althouse, Meade and Original Mike got their Covid shots there in Madison even before I was able to get one in my County.
"Klein only refers to Obama's race and demeanor! "
As it happens, if you want to hold up Obama as someone who defined 'liberalism's vision,' there's not much else to refer to other than race and demeanor (and demeanor only in the sense of his public speaking). So, in that sense Klein was just playing the hand he was given.
But run with that idea for a moment. If 'race' is key to 'liberalism's vision,' at least as Obama used 'race,' the vision amounted to affirmative action and DEI, both of which Team Obama leaned into heavily. 'Demeanor' has nothing to do with 'vision' on any reasonable view. It's in the same category as civility, which when used by politicians as a quality that the other side supposedly lacks, is defined on this blog as a form of bullshit, and appropriately so.
The difference between the Trump and Biden/Democrat Party/Deep State reaction to the pandemic was that Trump was C-in-C when the outbreak occurred. Nobody knew anything and the entire world was panicking. Trump I administration was undermined by a belief in the system, structure, and bureaucracy of government that would prove ineffective, inefficient, dishonest, and corrupt to the core. Trump's decision to shutdown states was the wrong one, and the vaccine turned out to be about as effective as horse piss, but Democrat Party members used the mandates, the masks, and the shutdowns not out of concern for the safety of the American people, but as tools to control the citizens and enact the open borders evil in the USA.
By the time of the stolen election in November, normies were aware that the mask, distancing, and shutdown mandates were not only ineffective, but harmful, and libtards were using them to wreak havoc and sow chaos throughout the country. The Democrat Party/Deep State also hid the data and the knowledge that the vaccines did fuckall and were harming people, and they are still hiding the truth and lying to cover up their wickedness and crimes.
By the way, Peachy is 100% correct about the libtard Democrat Party position on the "vaccines". Party members like Klam Harris announced very publicly and obnoxiously that she "wa'n't gon' take it ... I ain't takin' it!" The intellectual leader of the libtards then went on camera after the stolen election put her a heartbeat away from the presidency and she allowed herself to be injected with what she claimed was the vaccine, in order to encourage citizens to allow themselves to be injected with an experimental serum that they asserted was essential to survive and save society, while simultaneously allowing millions of 3rd world foreigners to pour across the border without so much as a measles vaccine, andlaughing in the faces of Americans who objected to the blatant hypocrisy and contradiction.
In short, President Trump made mistakes out of caution and concern for Americans. Democrat Party members committed crimes out of spite and contempt for Americans.
I noticed that Kamala Harris inserted the word “frankly” all over the place in her ramblings. I think it’s a filler word like “like.
----------------------------------------
One of the first things one notices - or should notice - with Harris is her imprecision with language. It was striking early on that she gives little thought to the meanings of words or phrases. The obvious example is “What can be, unburdened by what has been”. She uses these as a substitute for forthright, direct speech.
And we're still undergoing outbreaks of formerly eradicated diseases in the USA thanks to the Democrat Party/Deep State open borders of the Biden regime.
Inga- I'm not discussing people who got the JAB - I'm talking about how the Fauci-left and the hack Soviet media FORCED THE JABS.
Ezra Klein is probably very intelligent, but he seems to lack a capacity for critical self-reflection. He is essentially admitting that his political belief system lacks a center of gravity. He seems to regard political discourse as a sort of sumptuary good, to be evaluated in the context of the ability to provide the fleeting joys of momentary consumption. Many people treat their political beliefs this way. They primarily derive value from their political positions based upon the degree to which those positions enhance their social persona. There seems to be no fear on their part that their politics will destroy most of what is good about the society they inhabit. Ezra's political beliefs are latter day ostrich feathers --- the sort of highly restricted status symbols that used to be regulated by sumptuary laws to distinguish nobility from commoners.
I never had a problem with a masks.
A mask doesn't harm you like an untested MRNA jab. forced upon you by Chris Cuomo and aged poorly celebrities and the soviet press.
I did have a problem with little kids wearing masks - esp after it was determined the covid didn't react in children like ti did older adults.
The same people in the Biden regime who forced the jabs - lied about the virus origins on purpose.
Klein is like one of those inveterate dopers you knew, back when you were living in a college dorm. They never got outside of their funk, their head stayed in a cloud of smoke. When your ability to focus your thinking is constantly suppressed, you just walk around in a fog, and it's all groovy, man. Obama's still got his crease. He's still the lightbringer. Klein is no more capable of hearing America's popular and electoral voters say 'this is what I voted for, more please' than he is of understanding what Obama's catalog of failures and cheats was comprised of - and why Trump was inevitable, as a consequence.
You mispelled evil
DD - the forced jab portion of COVID occurred under Crook Joe.
The more anti-Semitic Tucker Carlson gets
the more the NYT wants to hear from him
The most draconian job-killing insanity - occurred mostly
within the blue state/& from above Biden. with Chris Cuomo types in the media... lashing out with rage.
The vax /Media unison "No one is safe until we are all safe"
Remember that? yikes.
Now we are finding that the forced Biden era jabs are problematic and causing health issues - sometimes severe.
Tucker Carlson trying to pose as a thinker.
Look up and away.
Now squint.
Two fingers to your chin.
"I’m a professional liberal... and even I don’t think I could tell you what liberalism’s vision is, or who its leaders are, at this moment."
If you're that confused about your leaders and vision, you'll excuse me if I just go ahead disregard your opinion when it comes to your opponent's vision. I'm sure you'll understand.
Like bagoh20 I am fascinated that Obama is considered a black president and not a bi-racial one. If anything, he was raised primarily by a white woman and, for a while, an Indonesian stepfather.
quite popular liberal leader
Obama's approval rating - at this point in his presidency - was approximately where Trump's is ... in the low 40s.
And btw, it's not liberal or liberalism. There is nothing liberal about today's Democrats. They're leftists.
Only the most politically insulated thought Obama was politically popular. He had zero political coattails after his initial election.
Not only did he have no coattails, he actually 'lost' more than 1,000 state/federal legislative/congressional seats.
Why do you think the Democrat's bench looks the way it does? Look at who they're running for President. And who they ran the last three times out.
So the major accomplishment of “liberalism “was to get a man elected, who, while happening to be black also worked with foreign agents to spy on the lawfully elected president of the United States, while lying to a fisa Court and committing the definition of treason.
Oh, and he’s setback race relations to their worst point since the Civil War.
And he sold the country out to the insurance companies.
Andy turns numerous Federal agencies against his political opponents.
I look forward to Obama, stumping for the man who has the Nazi tattoo. Obama was our first national socialist president.
Peachy said...
I never had a problem with a masks.
Of course, not you aren’t one of the generation of children that is growing up unable to connect and communicate because they didn’t see faces for years.
Fitz: "Trump's decision to shutdown states was the wrong one,"
Trump didn't shutdown the states. He left it up to the governors. The one shutdown he suggested - of the NYC region at the height of the Cuomo body count - was immediately rejected by all the affected state and local governments.
And to be fair, even Autopen didn't shut down the states. Governors were able to set the conditions they thought appropriate.
One of the few times the Commerce Clause wasn't inflated to encompass all human endeavor. CC, JSM
Liber is the Latin root for both book and freedom. I am liberal, although most here would consider me a right winger. in no sense is the progressive movement liberal. It is autocratic. It is coercive. It hates both freedom of speech and freedom.
During the Obama administration, the progressive left lurched hard to the extreme left and THAT is exactly what put Trump into the White House. During the Biden administration the progressive left said "You think the Obama years were lurching hard to the left, HOLD MY BEER" and has been lurched harder and harder to the left that anyone could have possibly imagined. The Democratic Party now seems to be run by extremists and they're so extreme that they seem more like extreme socialists and communists than Americans and THAT is exactly what put Trump back in the White House.
It appears that the only thing that the 21st century Democratic Party has to offer "We the People" is baldfaced anti-American, anti-Constitution, anti-law enforcement, chaos in the streets, and political extremism on steroids - they're acting like rebellious middle and high schoolers.
The left has lost their collective minds since 2008 and as much as I dislike Trump, his brash non-Presidential, loose cannon mouth, narcissistic, BS - it's the only thing that's been willing to stand up to the in-your-face left's extremism and tell you where the bear sh!ts in the woods.
The left has made its bed built on hate and delusions and I sincerely hope the majority of voters don't crawl in bed with them in 2026 or 2028.
Victories, even grand victories, can be squandered.
Liberals want to be admired for their beliefs that are rejected by the normies. It's been really difficult since divorce, gay marriage, weird sex have become largely mainstream and people of color have largely escaped oppression. I keep expecting a return to puritanism, probably through conversions to Islam since they have no goals of their own any more.
Civil unions for all consenting adults including trans (e.g. homos, sims). #NoJudgment #NoLabels. Political congruence ("=") is a principle of democratic discrimination a la DEIsm under the Pro-Choice religion.
Progressive is monotonic. Leftistm is authoritarian. The Diversity umbrella, principle of olitical congruence ("="), redistributive change schemes, and wicked solutions are coincident, albeit highly correlated.
Isn’t it cute how the Left fantasizes about the Obama period.
Political terms are relative. What's regarded as liberal or conservative or progressive at one time wouldn't be at another time. They're also owned by small groups (politicians, activists, loyalists) who make of them what they will.
Democrats have gotten so much of what they wanted over the last century that it's hard to see where they could go from here. Medicare for All sure, but what else? There's a split between what the party's leftwing activists want and what its donors will tolerate. There's also the problem that all of the petty regulations liberals want prevent them from executing the kind of big projects they also claim to want. Moreover, so much of what liberals and Democrats want just looks like undoing Trumpism, not like anything that really inspires them or that could inspire the country.
Obama's approval rating - at this point in his presidency - was approximately where Trump's is ... in the low 40s.
And before some leftist jumps on here and starts citing his/her favorite poll, the RCP average has Trump at 41.1 today.
And the AI overview on Obama leading up to the mid-terms?
Throughout 2014, polls frequently showed Obama's approval around 41-43%, close to his lowest levels since taking office.
In addition, when Trump loses 63 seats in the House of Representatives (as Obama did in 2010) get back to me about how bad he is and how great Obama was.
We are not the only country which has a so-called left which is contemptuous of the working class and happy to de-industrialize in the name of Net-Zero. They have no problem with an industrial proletariat with no industry, something Lenin wished to avoid.
Donald Trump is not working out. He is not making people want more of what he is...."
Ezra carrying on the legacy of Pauline Kael.
“I’m a professional liberal... and even I don’t think I could tell you what liberalism’s vision is, or who its leaders are, at this moment."
There is seriously something wrong here…. How can you be a professional at an ideology without knowing what its goals are and who leads you? Seriously, what does that say to about you?
Perhaps the answer is that you are not really that thing that you think you are. You just liked to hang out with certain people somewhere, who also were clueless. But, it was nice, so that’s good enough.
Anyone else recall how Obama and the Dems treated "political norms" when they rammed Obamacare down our throats? I guess it's OK to throw "norms" out the window when you are being "transformative."
The thing is, liberalism as a political philosophy is basically in favor of being neutral and letting people get on with whatever version of the good life they choose for themselves. But the polar extremes on both right and left want to dictate how everyone should live. Social media tribalism means people join their favored vision and attack visions that don’t fit theirs. But what they don’t realize is that their ability to do so rests on liberal neutrality. Without it, if the political wind changes then they may find themselves and their vision on the firing line.
@IEE:
You describe the libertarian (right) and bohemian (left) as both have a 'live and let live' attitude. The right wing wants to aggressively keep things they way they are or were; the left wants to aggressively force change or bring a new set of rulers to power.
"Liberal" follows from the English Civil War and Enlightenment and the rise of science and industry over religion and monarchy. The left has adopted a variety of popular phrases in its propaganda efforts to force change. This included "liberty", "equality", "progressive", "union", "liberal", etc. In contrast, the right wing is always on its heels, always reacting, and always a half step behind. When the right gets aggressive, it's usually because a fix is required and long overdue (e.g., Trump was a reaction to the left, not a cause).
Achilles as usual you didn't read my entire post.
Valentine Smith -
So very true and agree.
@ Enigma:
A restoration of a liberal mode of governance means solving an old equation to fit new circumstances. The equation links capital, labor, markets, methods of exchange and the political power to regulate the basic factors. The earliest law codes dealt with this.
Today's world requires a new social democratic model to effectively regulate a powerful market capital world to achieve a stable equilibrium regarding the equitable distribution of surplus. Otherwise, the capital present in today's markets will continue to ruthlessly aggrandize and concentrate itself based on a reactionary political model. An effective social democratic system keeps people equitably engaged in being productive in a competitive open market system that keeps all members of society moving forward to higher levels of living.
Markets based on exchange deriving from division of labor are foundational to social life. There is always capital present in a market structure through the presence of inventory--an accumulation--and often of either receivables or some medium of exchange which permits the storing of capital. Credit goes with markets like a horse with a buggy. Equitable sharing of both labor employed and rewards distributed that continuously expands while making social provision for all members.
Effectively functioning social democracy has to be renovated and reinstalled. In the US, always the weakest social must undertake a major reinvention.Today's Democratic party confuses today's current system of clientelism and economic dependency with the current and future demands of social democracy in a changing world require. Real change is a lot more than playing the Trump resistance game. New and innovative thinking is required.
@IEE --
Sharing an example of rambling AI drivel?
> I’m a professional liberal...
I see your problem, right there.
> A mask doesn't harm you like an untested MRNA jab
It is harmful, just not to the same degree
Josephb’s stats on popularity are even more impressive when you consider Obama got 99% fantastic press coverage and Trump has endured ten years of slander nazi accusations fake charges and 100% negative press in Corporate Media. Yet they are within a few percentage points overall.
The American public has an enormous capacity to ignore the lying liberal media.
Imagine being a professional plumber and not knowing where the pipes go.
Ezra thinks of himself as a "professional liberal". He's that all right. But after reading enough of Ezra's codswallop you come to realize that he's also a "professional moron".
Trump has used the Justice Department to prosecute his political enemies
INCONCEIVABLE! UNCONSCIONABLE!
No Democrat has EVER done such a dastardly thing.
The American public has an enormous capacity to ignore the lying liberal media.
They keep doubling down and their lies get more obvious and more desperate each year. There is a point at which the law of diminishing returns gives way to the law of unintended consequences, and the lies of the leftist media become positively counterproductive. Reasonable people start to assume that the opposite of what they say is more likely to be true.
I assume that everything I see or hear in the news is tailored for the political advantage of the Democrat Party and the priorities of the permanent government bureaucracy, if I may be redundant, to the same degree of slavishness as every word in Pravda was for the Communist Party and Soviet government. Just as in the days of the Soviet Union, the true story is either what they leave out or what they claim to be false.
@enigma: Thanks for the laugh. Here’s an Ai version of my comment for brevity.
Restoring liberal governance requires updating an ancient equation—balancing capital, labor, markets, exchange, and political regulation—for today's world. Early law codes grappled with the same challenge.
A renewed social democratic model is needed to regulate powerful market capitalism and achieve stable, equitable distribution of surplus. Without it, capital will continue concentrating ruthlessly under reactionary politics. An effective social democracy enables broad participation in competitive open markets, driving shared prosperity and higher living standards for all.Markets, rooted in the division of labor, naturally generate capital through inventory, receivables, and exchange media. Credit is inherent to them. The goal is equitable sharing of both labor and rewards, while expanding opportunity and providing for everyone.
Social democracy must be renovated and reinstalled—especially in the U.S., its weakest link. The current Democratic Party too often confuses clientelism and dependency with genuine social democracy. Real progress demands more than Trump resistance; it requires fresh, innovative thinking. ~ Claude
I'm not sure who Klein is talking too. Most of the people here seem to want more Trump, and harder. More deportations, lower taxes, etc.
Yeah everyone wants lower gas prices but we don't want crazy people to have nuclear weapons more.
"Professional liberal" Is that anything like a certified Proust scholar?
Tells you all you need to know about Ezra Klein.
Klein is that greasy creep who wrote an article in the Times defending Piker. Truly a cockroach.
The goal is equitable sharing of both labor and rewards, while expanding opportunity and providing for everyone.
Equitable sharing of labor, my rosy red ass.
The average Democrat these days just wants to stick a gun in the face of "the rich", take their money, and live a life of idle ease.
They say it's about billionaires, but it's really about looting the pockets of the dentist and engineer and small business owner working 70 hour weeks, because that's where the money is.
Fucking parasites. Lice and leeches. Despicable scum who are not my countrymen.
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