One day they asked the question, "Define what it means to be a liberal."
Forty years later, I still remember the discussion that ensued. Maybe my memory is clear because I could tell they had a fondness for my scholastic aptitude, and they called on me to answer their question.
But I was stumped.
It was in the days of President Jimmy Carter, and my poor answer revolved around picking and choosing some things President Carter did that I heard people call "liberal politics" in the late 1970's. I gave a weak description of what I thought liberalism was. I couldn't give a definition of what liberalism is.
The rebuttal my teachers gave me went like this: "You chose to define a liberal by his actions. You've not given us a definition of the word "liberal." The Patriots of the American Revolution were called "liberals" by the English Parliament in 1776, but today Americans deem 1776 American Patriots as "conservatives." One generation's liberal is another generation's conservative. Give us a definition."
After a flurry of back-and-forth, we eventually came to a definition of a liberal.
"A liberal is one who believes in freedom."
The root word of liberal is liberty. So a liberal is one who cherishes human freedom. The freedom to speak, the freedom to worship, the freedom to think, the freedom to live, and the freedom to pursue happiness as the individual pleases, as long as the pursuit of that personal freedom does not impinge on the freedom of others.
Freedom is the key.
There seems to be a loss of true liberalism in America.
The political left is not liberal anymore. It is regressive in its pursuit of freedom. The regressive left is actually desiring to remove individual freedoms.
The regressive left categorizes people based upon victimization. They class groups of people into classifications of victimhood, and then remove personal liberties for people not in that class. The regressive left has created a modern Olympics of Oppression.
Victimization has become the highest virtue in American leftist culture.
If you are a minority woman who believes in abortion, then you can march in the Women's March on Washington, D.C. But if you are a pro-life woman, you're barred from the freedom of marching and expressing your views, regardless of your color.
If you are a Muslim refugee from Syria whose been victimized by radicals, then you are given American freedom without restriction. But if you are an American Muslim who speaks out against radical Islamic terrorism, then you are called a bigot, and your freedom to speak out against radical Islamic terror is removed.
If you are a minority transgender person, then you are exalted onto the platform of freedom of expression and given your own bathroom, but if you are a straight person with children, then the regressive left seeks to repress you from expressing your views in public and wishes to force you to take your children into a transgendered bathroom.
If you think like the regressive left on university campuses, you are bestowed individual freedom to speak, protest and lead. But even if you are a black woman (minority), and you think like an evangelical Christian, your freedom to speak, protest and lead on a university campus is removed.
Freedom is given to only the virtuous in the regressive left, and the greatest virtue in their way of thinking is victimization.
At some point, America will wake up and see that a true, classical liberal believes in freedom for every individual, regardless of whether or not that individual is in a category of victimization.
One should never be given freedom of worship if one's intention is to hide guns, bombs, and terrorists in a house of worship. Your freedom of worship cannot impinge on the freedoms of others.
One should never be given freedom of worship if one's intention is to hide guns, bombs, and terrorists in a house of worship. Your freedom of worship cannot impinge on the freedoms of others.
Ironically, even some true classical liberals in America are waking up to the fact that their individual freedoms are being removed by the regressive left.
For one of the few times in my life, I find myself agreeing with the New York Times.
CLASSIC liberalism exalted tolerance, reflected in a line often attributed to Voltaire: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”"On university campuses, that is sometimes updated to: 'I disapprove of what you say, so shut up.' Universities risk becoming liberal echo chambers and hostile environments for conservatives, and especially for evangelical Christians. As I see it, we (on university campuses) are hypocritical: We welcome people who don’t look like us, as long as they think like us."The regressive left has left liberalism. They've embraced a form of intolerance that is eroding the freedoms of individual Americans who do not think like them. I will fight for my regressive left friends to express their views freely, but when they plug their ears to hearing a value system different from their own, I will freely point out they've left liberalism and become intolerant.
Oppression olympics are games we Americans should never play.
