How Socialism Made Liberal a Dirty Word, and What Will do the Same to Conservative.

Thomas Jefferson was a "Classical" Liberal. The Mises Institute defines it like this:

"Classical liberalism" is the term used to designate the ideology advocating private property, an unhampered market economy, the rule of law, constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion and of the press, and international peace based on free trade. Up until around 1900, this ideology was generally known simply as liberalism. The qualifying "classical" is now usually necessary, in English-speaking countries at least (but not, for instance, in France), because liberalism has come to be associated with wide-ranging interferences with private property and the market on behalf of egalitarian goals. This version of liberalism — if such it can still be called — is sometimes designated as "social," or (erroneously) "modern" or the "new," liberalism. 

Classical liberalism sounds a lot like present-day limited-government conservatism. It sounds a lot like "libertarianish" conservatives. Jefferson was also against big, energetic, government- because he felt it led to tyranny. Liberalism challenged traditions and the most narrow form of "conservative"- the most narrow form of "conservative" would think that the rule of law was secondary to whoever is in charge now being able to bend the rules so that they stay in charge.  Equality under the law for all citizens and skepticism about how much good a big intrusive government could do were hallmarks of classical liberalism. By that latter standard both major parties are "conservative"- they want to bend the rules so that those on top now stay on top. Bail-outs for them, but not for us.

So classical liberalism sounds pretty good. It started a good thing. It became a dirty word because socialists wanted to hijack the positive association of "liberal" to mask their own policies. They used the liberal respect for equal treatment under the law to blend in with them and appropriate the label. But as the section from Mises above hints at, leftists had a vastly different idea of "equality" than classical liberals. They wanted to use government intervention to force equality of outcomes. All classical liberals wanted was the government to treat everyone equally under the law. They wanted government to follow its own rules and treat everyone the same- even if they didn't go to the "right" church or were not from the "right" ethnic background.

And so at first the left joined with liberals under the guise of sharing their goals for equality, but they wound up hijacking the movement. Leftists identified themselves as "liberal" because they wanted to hide their socialism. Eventually, they tainted the word. Leftists were not really liberal, but they used similar language to get into the club, even though their version of "equality" wound up a totalitarian nightmare where goodies were handed out, not by merit or production in free choices between individuals, but by being connected to government re-distributors.

There is a lesson in here for conservatives, because they are next. Soon "conservative" is going to be a dirty word, if its not already. The hallmark of conservatism is respect for tradition. Ironically, many of the traditions conservatives respect were originally "liberal" ideas- the rule of law, suspicion of overly-large government, religious freedom, free-markets. The "liberals" just like those things for what they were, the conservatives valued them as part of our heritage.

But just like socialists co-opted liberalism and turned it into a dirty word so another group is doing the same to the "conservative" label. Like the socialist left, they are so good at it that many conservatives are slowly changing their thinking so as to reflect the values of another philosophy that only masquerades as "conservative."  This philosophy puts "national greatness" over civil rights. It puts "security" over civil rights. It warps our special heritage into some sort of "duty" for a special kind of government program called "war". That is, because our heritage is special we should spread military bases all over the planet and try to compel the rest of the globe to behave in ways that Washington D.C. deems proper (even though D.C. values are even out of touch with that of our own people). That is not the tradition of our founders!

Trade is another area that is warped. They call their trade agreements "free trade" because that is a conservative-liberal value. But again they are just using that name to mask the very different policy of cronyism. As with socialism, goodies are distributed more by connections to the system. They just distribute to corporate collectives instead of collectives of people, such as racial groups or union members.

Now the philosophy that supplanted and corrupted classical liberalism had a name- socialism. The philosophy which is supplanting classical conservatism, which again is also like classical liberalism in policy but for somewhat different reasons. also has a name. Let me sum up the features of the philosophy and see if you can guess what the name of the political philosophy is: 1) It puts national greatness and state security above individual liberty, and thus is collectivist. 2) It often has a belligerent and combative foreign policy since it believes that the special destiny of the nation gives it a right or even duty to impose its will by force. 3) It takes a low view of the checks and balances in a Republic in favor of a "great man" who should be given tremendous power. 4)  There should be a loyal following to his person more than in a set of ideas or principles (like the constitution). Ideally, he should be able to switch positions with his opponent and their followers would never even notice the contradiction. 5) Power should be centralized so that the great man can do great things. 6) It represents the merger of state and corporate power.

Do you know what the original name for that philosophy is?

Wait for it.

Wait for it.

Wait for it.

It's.....

Fascism. The above six points describe fascism to a "T". For obvious historical reasons those who hold this philosophy don't want to call it by its historical name. Their unwillingness to see and call their philosophy what it has been historically called does not change the truth- they are fascists. And if true conservatives- those who treasure classically liberal values but for different reasons than Jefferson did- don't begin to distance themselves from this philosophy and the people who hold it then their label will become as thoroughly poisoned as classical liberalism was poisoned by the socialists who hi-jacked it.

Even worse, over time this failure to sort through these differences will drag your own philosophy of government further and further over into de-facto fascism just by association. As Proverbs says "Do not be deceived, bad company corrupts good morals". The classical liberals had bad company in the socialists, and now "liberal" is considered a dirty word. The same thing is happening to "conservative." Conservatives are noted for valuing tradition and history, we should learn from it.