My friends on the right call me a liberal. I used to think I was fairly middle-of-the-road when it comes to political ideology. But now I think they’re right. As the two main political parties in America have moved farther apart in their opinions of our most pressing problems and what the appropriate solutions should be, I find myself increasingly in the liberal camp.
I’m liberal because I support liberal values. I refer to values like freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, racial equality, and gender equality, among others. In fact, the values declared in the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights are liberal values. Conservatives will probably claim that the rights declared in the Bill of Rights are conservative values, too. But let’s examine the historical record.
America’s “Founding Fathers” were the liberals of their day, and very progressive liberals at that. The values they put into the Constitution were revolutionary (pun intended). The conservatives of that day were called Royalists. Conservatives don’t like change, unless the change is “backward” to an earlier time, and the Royalists wanted no part of creating a new country. They liked things as they were and wanted to remain British subjects. In the end, liberal revolutionaries won the day and America was born.
America’s Civil War was a war between liberal progressives and militant conservatives as much as it was anything else. Liberal progressives wanted to abolish slavery, while militant conservatives were ready to fight to the death to defend the institution of slavery and maintain the status quo. In the end, liberals won the day, slavery was abolished, and the United States remained united.
Liberals didn’t push for segregation and Jim Crow laws in the South after the Civil War. That was done by conservatives who wanted the people they had subjugated during slavery to remain subjugated after slavery had been abolished. Southern conservatives desperately wanted nothing to change in the South. Although blacks were no longer slaves, many black sharecroppers remained in economic bondage to white landowners.
The battles to bring women the vote, to bring women and all races and ethnicities equal rights in job opportunities, education, and pay were battles brought by liberals in an attempt to bring America closer to the values enshrined in the Declaration of Independence—that not just white men, but all people, are created equal, and all should have the same opportunities for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Liberals believe all people must be treated fairly and equally by government and ultimately by all of society, with the same rights and the same opportunities for education, jobs, and pay.
Today, the battle for LGBT rights is another liberal battle. As is often the case, the battle is about allowing a minority to have rights that conservatives don’t want to grant them. And just as conservatives lost the battle to remain British, and lost the battle to spread slavery, and lost the battle to deny women the vote, and lost the battle to deny civil rights to minorities, they are destined to lose the battle to deny the LGBT community the rights that others take for granted. The arc of progress is toward more equality, not less; toward more fairness, not less.
By making these observations, I do not intend to imply that liberals are always on the side of the angels, while conservatives are always wrong and somehow bad. In some instances, such as racial segregation, I think it is obvious that conservatives were on the wrong side of history. And I think liberals have sometimes been overly zealous in their pursuit of a more just society, to the point that one could make the observation, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Stated more directly, acts that were undertaken with the best intentions sometimes had unforeseen negative consequences.
There are many factors that make one a liberal or a conservative. For example, if you believe in science, then you probably believe man-made global warming is real, and that, in turn, will likely lead you to conclude that global warming is the biggest threat we face today. If you don’t believe in science (or you only believe the science you want to believe), then you may believe that man-made global warming is a hoax being perpetrated on the world by some nefarious conspiracy or foreign power, so you will likely conclude that something else—perhaps terrorism—is our greatest threat today. If you believe a wealthy country should provide a safety net for its poorest citizens, then you probably support some forms of welfare. If you believe that self-reliance is an important virtue, then you will likely be opposed to government programs that, in the worst case, perpetuate dependence on government assistance to the ultimate detriment of the individual.
As a liberal, I believe the political realities of 21st century America cannot always be aligned with the values of 18th century America. We live in a very different nation, and a very different world, than did our mostly agrarian, 18th century ancestors. Society evolves in order to meet evolving challenges. People today don’t want to just survive. People today want, and indeed need, a fair opportunity to achieve happiness, fulfilment, and a sense of security and well-being. They are demanding the opportunity to obtain those things. Ultimately, and however crooked the path, our society will evolve toward those solutions, liberal or conservative, that work best at meeting those needs. To that end, sooner or later everyone must take a stand; everyone must decide which solutions are likely to work best—not which solutions will best fit into an ideology learned by watching television and reading works of fiction.
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