Liberalism today is not the liberalism of yesteryear. It’s not
Franklin Roosevelt’s or John Kennedy’s liberalism. It’s not even the liberalism
of Bill Clinton. It has become something much more radical. Bill Clinton talked
about the “era of big government” being over. True, that was then, this is now.
Today, there is virtually no government program that liberals won’t embrace.
Wild Bill once had an out-of-mind experience and actually repudiated extremism
in his party. Today liberals, to include Hillary and Sanders, can’t get close
enough to the “black lives matter” movement or "Lil Al Sharpton's" wise counsel.
Liberals have surrendered to or created the horrid culture of
intolerance that infuses our popular culture. To this extent, they are not at
all different from some self-proclaimed right-wing people who do the same.
But the difference is—or at least is supposed to be—that liberals profess to be
the party of the open mind. They have become anything but. Now that they
control so many of our institutions—our universities, high-tech corporate board
rooms, the entertainment industry, and increasingly even some mainstream
churches—they are closing the door behind them, making sure that no one,
especially conservatives, will sneak in the back door.
Liberalism has
become hostile to open inquiry. Liberal intellectuals used to love open-ended
debates because they thought they could win people over with their intelligence
and wit. No more. Today’s liberal intellectuals are much more interested in
stifling debates than having them. After all, who needs debates when all the
big questions have been answered by their ideology. Liberals are no longer the
scruffy radicals of Washington Square, but a tenured Mandarin class hotly
competing for government research grants.
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