Secular Blasphemy presents a survey of political views including liberals, including classical liberals, conservatives, socialists, and libertarians entitled Maybe you are a liberal after all. It notes the differences in terminology internationally:
It always makes me cringe when I hear the term ‘liberal’ applied to the political left. This is a quite big distinction between the political vocabulary of the US compared to virtually anywhere else in the world, where it refers to the political right. Case in point: The prime minister of Australia, John Howard, is from the Liberal Party.
In this part of the world, a liberal is on the political right, referring to liberalism’s support of free markets with a minimum of state interference. There is another aspect to liberalism, which tends to explain the usage in the US, and that is the meaning ‘permissive’, referring to social issues. A liberal would argue it’s not the state’s obligation or right to legislate moralism. This, naturally, runs counter to social conservatives, who’d like the government to stay out of businesses but be very attentive to what goes on in bedrooms.
After reviewing the various political philosophies, it concludes with:
In a more pragmatic form, libertarianism is quite difficult to distinguish from classical liberalism, discussed above. I suggest many Americans prefer to call themselves libertarians because the term ‘liberal’ is already being used for the political left, and that is an association they will want to avoid.
I commented there that this would have been more accurate pre-Bush and especially pre-Katrina. In recent years it has become clearer that the conservatives/Republicans are the party of big government and increased government intrusion in individual’s lives. In a two party system this forces opponents of this trend into the opposing party, leading to the Democrats having an increased number of people who support liberal social issues but not necessarily traditional Democratic economic issues. Even Democratic leaders such as Jimmy Carter, John Kerry and Howard Dean identify themselves as social liberals and fiscal conservatives, while Markos Moulitsas calls himself a Libertarian Dem.
Following 9/11 and Katrina a hard line anti-government line has fallen out of fashion, changing the desirability of association with libertarianism as opposed to liberalism for many. Labels have problems in grouping people together who disagree in many areas, and separating those who have many areas of agreement. Depending upon the words you prefer and how you define them, this blog could be considered liberal, classical liberal, or even “small-l” libertarian in its concentration on civil liberties and opposing the social policies of the Republicans. Perhaps a few years ago I might have been less likely to use Liberal in the title. Considering the manner in which the Republicans have disgraced the word conservative, I think this is the right time to rehabilitate liberalism from the smears the word has been subjected to from Republicans for the last couple of decades.
More than one-third of the giant planet systems recently detected outside Earth’s solar system may harbor Earth-like planets, many covered in deep oceans with potential for life, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder and Pennsylvania State University.
