essay for liberal party

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US government and civics

Course: us government and civics   >   unit 5.

• Ideologies of political parties in the United States

Ideologies of political parties: lesson overview

• Ideologies of political parties

Dominant US ideologies and political parties

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General characteristics

• Political foundations
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• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Liberalism
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• Kwantlen Polytechnic University - Liberalism and Modernity
• Academia - Joint and Nuclear Family
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• liberalism - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
• Table Of Contents

What is liberalism?

Liberalism is a political and economic doctrine that emphasizes individual autonomy , equality of opportunity , and the protection of individual rights (primarily to life, liberty, and property), originally against the state and later against both the state and private economic actors, including businesses.

The intellectual founders of liberalism were the English philosopher John Locke (1632–1704), who developed a theory of political authority based on natural individual rights and the consent of the governed, and the Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith (1723–90), who argued that societies prosper when individuals are free to pursue their self-interest within an economic system based on private ownership of the means of production and competitive markets , controlled neither by the state nor by private monopolies .

In John Locke ’s theory, the consent of the governed was secured through a system of majority rule, whereby the government would carry out the expressed will of the electorate. However, in the England of Locke’s time and in other democratic societies for centuries thereafter, not every person was considered a member of the electorate, which until the 20th century was generally limited to propertied white males. There is no necessary connection between liberalism and any specific form of democratic government, and indeed Locke’s liberalism presupposed a constitutional monarchy .

Classical liberals (now often called libertarians ) regard the state as the primary threat to individual freedom and advocate limiting its powers to those necessary to protect basic rights against interference by others. Modern liberals have held that freedom can also be threatened by private economic actors, such as businesses, that exploit workers or dominate governments, and they advocate state action, including economic regulation and provision of social services , to ameliorate conditions (e.g., extreme poverty ) that may hamper the exercise of basic rights or undermine individual autonomy . Many also recognize broader rights such as the rights to adequate employment, health care, and education.

Modern liberals are generally willing to experiment with large-scale social change to further their project of protecting and enhancing individual freedom. Conservatives are generally suspicious of such ideologically driven programs, insisting that lasting and beneficial social change must proceed organically, through gradual shifts in public attitudes, values, customs, and institutions.

liberalism , political doctrine that takes protecting and enhancing the freedom of the individual to be the central problem of politics. Liberals typically believe that government is necessary to protect individuals from being harmed by others, but they also recognize that government itself can pose a threat to liberty . As the American Revolutionary pamphleteer Thomas Paine expressed it in Common Sense (1776), government is at best “a necessary evil.” Laws, judges , and police are needed to secure the individual’s life and liberty, but their coercive power may also be turned against the individual. The problem, then, is to devise a system that gives government the power necessary to protect individual liberty but also prevents those who govern from abusing that power.

The problem is compounded when one asks whether this is all that government can or should do on behalf of individual freedom. Classical liberalism , an early form of liberalism, and modern "neoclassical liberals" (i.e.,  libertarians ), answer that it is. Since the late 19th century, however, most liberals have insisted that the powers of government can promote as well as protect the freedom of the individual. According to modern liberalism, the chief task of government is to remove obstacles that prevent individuals from living freely or from fully realizing their potential. Such obstacles include poverty , disease , discrimination , and ignorance. The disagreement among liberals over whether government should promote individual freedom rather than merely protect it is reflected to some extent in the different prevailing conceptions of liberalism in the United States and Europe since the late 20th century. In the United States, liberalism is associated with the welfare-state policies of the New Deal program of the Democratic administration of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt , whereas in Europe it is more commonly associated with a commitment to limited government and laissez-faire economic policies ( see below Contemporary liberalism ).

This article discusses the political foundations and history of liberalism from the 17th century to the present. For coverage of classical and contemporary philosophical liberalism, see political philosophy . For biographies of individual philosophers, see John Locke ; John Stuart Mill ; John Rawls .

Liberalism is derived from two related features of Western culture . The first is the West’s preoccupation with individuality, as compared to the emphasis in other civilizations on status , caste , and tradition. Throughout much of history, individuals have been submerged in and subordinate to their clan , tribe , ethnic group , or kingdom. Liberalism is the culmination of developments in Western society that produced a sense of the importance of human individuality, a liberation of the individual from complete subservience to the group, and a relaxation of the tight hold of custom, law , and authority. In this respect, liberalism stands for the emancipation of the individual. See also individualism .

Liberalism also derives from the practice of adversariality, or adversariness, in European political and economic life, a process in which institutionalized competition—such as the competition between different political parties in electoral contests , between prosecution and defense in adversary procedure , or between different producers in a market economy ( see monopoly and competition )—generates a dynamic social order. Adversarial systems have always been precarious, however, and it took a long time for the belief in adversariality to emerge from the more traditional view, traceable at least to Plato , that the state should be an organic structure, like a beehive, in which the different social classes cooperate by performing distinct yet complementary roles. The belief that competition is an essential part of a political system and that good government requires a vigorous opposition was still considered strange in most European countries in the early 19th century.

Underlying the liberal belief in adversariality is the conviction that human beings are essentially rational creatures capable of settling their political disputes through dialogue and compromise. This aspect of liberalism became particularly prominent in 20th-century projects aimed at eliminating war and resolving disagreements between states through organizations such as the League of Nations , the United Nations , and the International Court of Justice (World Court).

Liberalism has a close but sometimes uneasy relationship with democracy . At the centre of democratic doctrine is the belief that governments derive their authority from popular election; liberalism, on the other hand, is primarily concerned with the scope of governmental activity. Liberals often have been wary of democracy , then, because of fears that it might generate a tyranny by the majority. One might briskly say, therefore, that democracy looks after majorities and liberalism after unpopular minorities.

Like other political doctrines, liberalism is highly sensitive to time and circumstance. Each country’s liberalism is different, and it changes in each generation. The historical development of liberalism over recent centuries has been a movement from mistrust of the state’s power, on the grounds that it tends to be misused, to a willingness to use the power of government to correct perceived inequities in the distribution of wealth resulting from economic competition—inequities that purportedly deprive some people of an equal opportunity to live freely. The expansion of governmental power and responsibility sought by liberals in the 20th century was clearly opposed to the contraction of government advocated by liberals a century earlier. In the 19th century liberals generally formed the party of business and the entrepreneurial middle class, but for much of the 20th century they were more likely to work to restrict and regulate business in order to provide greater opportunities for labourers and consumers. In each case, however, the liberals’ inspiration was the same: a hostility to concentrations of power that threaten the freedom of individuals and prevent them from realizing their full potential, along with a willingness to reexamine and reform social institutions in the light of new needs. This willingness is tempered by an aversion to sudden, cataclysmic change, which is what sets off the liberal from the radical . It is this very eagerness to welcome and encourage useful change, however, that distinguishes the liberal from the conservative , who believes that change is at least as likely to result in loss as in gain.

163 Liberalism Topic Ideas & Examples

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🏆 Best Liberalism Topic Ideas & Essay Examples

🎓 simple & easy liberalism essay titles, 👍 good essay topics on liberalism, 💡 interesting topics to write about liberalism, ❓ questions about liberalism.

In a liberalism essay, you can write about the importance of liberalism, characteristics of classical liberalism, and other topics. Check out the following list of 46 ideas and get inspired!

• Socialism and Liberalism Comparison From aristocracy to socialism, equality and equitable distribution of wealth has been the reason for conflict between the masses and their leaders.
• Comparison Between Theories: Realism vs. Liberalism Research Paper While realism is taken to portray pessimism in the relations between states in the international system, liberalism depicts optimism and positivism in as far as the relations and goals of states in the international system […]
• John Rawls’ Philosophy of Liberalism: Strengths and Weaknesses It is possible to note that Rawls’ philosophy can be applicable in the contemporary world as it addresses major issues associated with unequal distribution of resources.
• Liberalism versus Marxism Marxism isolates the predispositions and laws of capitalism so as to understand the direction of capitalism; and in this case the direction of capitalism is in four phases which include the beginning, maturity, decline and […]
• Schools of Political Economy: Marxism, Liberalism and Mercantilism It seeks to understand the driving forces of the economy and the key actors in the world economy. Governments and economic actors are the key elements in the economy, according to liberalism.
• The Aspects of Abstract Liberalism This paper discusses abstract liberalism, as it is considered the most important among other frames and the hardest to explain. Bonilla-Silva states that the abstract liberalism frame entails combining notions associated with political liberalism and […]
• Liberalism in International Relations In international relations theory, liberalism is a social school of thought that emerged in the 1970s. According to political theory, the state is not subject to the internal or external authority of the military or other internal authorities (Sørensen et al., 2021). Furthermore, understanding the elements of liberalism has become even more crucial due to […]
• Liberal Arts Education and Value Breadth Areas I learned that the knowledge of this area of liberal arts is related to behavioral and social sciences and enhances individuals’ understanding, enabling them to be productive within relationships and contribute positively and other people […]
• Neo-Liberalism vs. Classic Liberalism One of the reasons for this is that, unlike what it happened to be the case with Classic Liberalism; Neo-Liberalism refuses to refer to the notion of freedom as an abstract category, which represents the […]
• Human Freedom: Liberalism vs Anarchism It is impoverished because liberals have failed to show the connection between their policies and the values of the community. More fundamentally, however, a policy formulated in such a way that it is disconnected from […]
• Locke vs. Burke: From Political Authority and Glorious Revolution to the Interpretation of Liberalism and Conservatism Therefore, it seems that the Glorious Revolution was more of a revelation for the people of their power to choose and to change.
• Liberal Education and Moral Values of World Citizens While the issue is approached differently, one common theme is a deterioration of moral and ethical principles and lack of objective foundation resulting from the openness as the main direction taken by the primary education.
• French Revolution: Liberal and Radical Portions Of course, a hope that the presence of revolution promoted certain changes and made the government to think about the improvement of citizens’ lives and wellbeing was inherent to the French.
• Classical and Modern Liberalism Classical liberalism focused on the issues of political and economic freedoms, the natural rights of the individual, and the social contract. The novelty of the ideas of classical liberalism is based on the European and […]
• The Concept and History of Liberal Nationalism It can be argued that it is only in the “Age of Renaissance where one can find the emergence of this particular idea, the idea that a group of people came together to form an […]
• Modern Liberalism and Modern Conservatism Modern conservatism has it that God’s law is the ruler of both people and the countries and should ever be in their hearts.
• Contemporary Religious Education and Liberal Arts The provision of contemporary religious education becomes a necessity and guide and ensures that more people are in a position to transform their lives.
• Liberal, Formal, and Natural Education Comparing formal education with the process of learning in the context of surviving in the environment, the author claims there are no uneducated people in the world.
• Liberal vs. Conservative: Comparative Analysis Some of the ideas associated with liberals include the belief in the power of education to improve society, support for a strong central government, civil rights and equality, and belief in the importance of helping […]
• The Liberal and Conservative Perspectives on Free Healthcare It is worth mentioning that the US healthcare system is a complex system and a leader in terms of the resources concentrated in it.
• Aspects of Classical Liberalism The renowned theme of Separation of Church and state is one of the multiple interconnected ideas that could be summarized as the separation of the economy from the state, differentiation of the land from the […]
• Woke Liberals Abuse History to Control Present This article relates to the topic and readings of federalism because it talks about how a group of people with different ideas on politics can come together and agree on something suitable for everyone.
• Liberalism, Socialism, and Anarchism For instance, the existence of anarchic views that deny the superiority of the law and the power of the government is acceptable from the liberal point of view when the person does not infringe the […]
• Liberalism and Conservatism in the US Moreover, the examples of potential citizens’ beliefs in relation to liberalism and conservatism further skillfully illustrated the existence of the “gray area,” often ignored by the media.
• The Meaning of Liberal Democracy in the US The establishment of diplomatic relations with the USSR during Roosevelt’s presidency was an important event in the history of the two states and the entire history of the world.
• Conservative and Liberal Arguments on Abortion Governments and health organizations’ move to control access to abortion led to the emergence of groups and movements supporting and opposing abortion.
• Why Liberals and Conservatives Flipped on Judicial Restraint The legal power of the USA arms of government, the Executive and the legislative actions to be subjected to review and the power to examine their conventionality with the constitution.
• Conservatism and Liberalism: Discussion of the Decline of Nuclear Families The role of the institution of family in present-day society is one of the major subjects which evokes the concerns of scholars.
• Democracy, Republicanism, and Liberalism in 19th Century Mexico and Colombia They emphasized the role of Mexico and its republican, democratic, and liberal principles in those changes. They started to imitate the political principles in Europe and the U.
• “Neo-Liberalism as a Creative Destruction” by Harvey Starting from the explanation of neo-liberalism, Harvey draws the reader’s attention to the “naturalization” of the neo-liberal approach and the reasons behind the global neo-liberal turn.
• Realism vs. Liberalism: Differences in Examples The proponents of this theory argue that the war between all is a natural human behavior, which is reflected in the interaction of states on the global scale.
• Political Philosophy: Liberalism and Libertarianism Following the release of A Theory of Justice by John Rawls in 1971, which marked a milestone in the development of the enlightenment project, Nozick’s Anarchy, State and Utopia, published in 1974, represented the application […]
• The Fundamentals of Liberalism Thus, when talking about liberalism, it is important to take into account that international cooperation implies independent contributions of the states in order to maintain peace and supply equality.
• Triumph of Capitalism and Liberalism in Kagan’s “The Jungle Grows Back” In this situation, Kagan argues that it is not rational for the US “to mind its own business and let the rest of the world manage its problems”. It is to demonstrate the need to […]
• “The False Promise of Liberal Hegemony” and “Can China Rise Peacefully?” by Mearsheimer The arguments in the first lecture relate to the explanation of the liberal hegemony and how it leads to failure, concluding that it contradicts the country’s values.
• Francis Fukuyama: Can Liberal Democracy Survive the Decline of the Middle Class? Then, the author shifts to explaining the importance of the existence of a strong and abundantly represented in the society middle class layer as it is a foundation for all the democratic values in the […]
• Achieving Communicative Liberal Learning Outcomes The fact that the major components of the traditional path I took to achieve the critical thinking outcomes were obscure in nature brings in the similarity between this traditional path and the nontraditional path that […]
• US Healthcare Debate: Social and Liberal Analysis A social democratic analysis of the healthcare system would therefore seek to create a welfare state that seeks to cater to the needs of everyone by providing a system that empowers the citizens economically through […]
• Terrorism and Liberal Democracy: What We Should Know When confronted with external coercion like global terrorism, democracies react like a pendulum by first of all providing security and then vacillating back in the direction of moderation, the quest of lenience, and the encouragement […]
• Why Wars Happen: Liberal, Realist, Identity Perspectives The Kuwaiti attack by Iraq saw the torching of oil fields, the death of several Iraq and Kuwaiti soldiers as well as the citizens of the two countries.
• Culture War in Australia: Conflict Between the Conservatives and Liberals This paper will attempt to investigate the origin of culture wars and Australia’s involvement since early 1990, its relation with the struggle between Keating and Howard, the Media’s role in promoting a focus on culture, […]
• Study of Liberal Democracy In the true sense of liberal democracy, the government is chosen by the voters, and in this sense, the government should answer to the people.
• Neοliberal Regime in Facilitating Ecοnοmic Activity In place of government allocation of shares across constituents, the market ensures that the distribution of rewards across economic actors is tied to their respective contributions to output.
• Liberal Definition of Freedom Its origins lie in the rejection of the authoritarian structures of the feudalistic order in Europe and the coercive tendencies and effects of that order through the imposition of moral absolutes.
• Humanities. Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada declares the adherence to liberal principles of individual freedom, responsibility, and the dignity of the person within the limits of a fair society and political freedom within the limits of […]
• My Journey Through Liberal Arts Art is one of the main forms of liberal arts which influences the perception of the world and understanding of its beauty, allows a person to adapt to the new environment, and develops critical thinking […]
• Canada as a Liberal Capitalist Democracy It includes also the re-organization of the enterprises in order to make a profit, for instance, changing management of the enterprise or adding new departments in the organization.
• Liberal Feminism Movement Analysis The outcome of eradicating the concept of a patriarchy can only result in the liberation of women, gays, minorities and men as well.
• Feminism: Liberal, Black, Radical, and Lesbian 2 In the 1960s and the 1970s, liberal feminism focused on working women’s issues and the impact of experiences that females of any race could have.
• Economics: Socialism vs. Liberal Capitalism Karl Marx, a great proponent of socialism, refers to the ethical, economic, and political contribution of socialism to the welfare of the society in asserting his position on the debate of the best economic model.
• Western Liberal and Democratic Values The principal idea of Fukuyama’s end of history resides in the assumption that the spread of western liberal and democratic values signifies the end of the sociocultural evolution.
• Liberals and Conservatives’ Differences in Politics Lakoff puts the state as a family and the government as a parent to illustrate opposing political views of conservatives/Right and liberals/Left even when the two use same the metaphor to discuss the same topic […]
• Visual Symbol of Classical and Modern Liberalism The bag as a collector and protector of money represents the outcome of the application of the principles of Classical Liberalism.
• “The Retreat of Liberalism” by Robin Niblett He pointed out that the United States and the United Kingdom were at the forefront in the global expansion of the so-called international liberal order.
• David Ricardo’s Liberal Economic Theories However, it is still worth noting that, at a comparatively young age, he experienced a change in environment as his family moved to Amsterdam, which was swarming with financial and economic opportunities, Credited as the […]
• Leader Selection in Liberal Democratic Minimalism On the other hand, the deliberative model of democracy is one that promotes the importance of consensus and authentic agreements among individuals living in a particular state. Also, the model outlines the essence of power […]
• Liberalism and Its Critics Karl Marx was one of the philosophers who opposed liberalism arguing that the system is based on a defective policy that allows the rich and the powerful in society to own the means of production […]
• How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed? Throughout the book, the author argues that the liberal initiatives that were aimed at promoting equality and economic development have had the opposite effect.
• Liberalism: History, Ideologies, Justification As of today, liberalism-related discourses incorporate a vast variety of liberalism’s definitions, which in its turn; can be explained by the fact that the very concept of liberalism never ceased being the subject of an […]
• Liberal and Illiberal Democracies Comparison In addition, Zakaria is of the opinion that for a government to be described as liberal, it must reinforce the rule of law from the top to the lower levels of governance. Every citizen in […]
• Cornel West’ Views on Liberalism West is of the view that blacks in the United States are different from those in other parts of the world because of the exceptional levels of unregulated and uncontrolled violence that is always directed […]
• Gender Studies of Feminism: Radical and Liberal Branches This type of feminism is the most suitable for me because it states that women have the right to provide for their families and be successful suppliers independently from men.
• Liberalism and Realism: Ensuring the Nation’s Growth Liberalism set up a code of conduct in the political structure of a nation through identifying the norms of a state or country.
• Trade Liberalization: Public Concerns and Comparative Advantage The essay discusses the reasons for the disquiet among the public. Under a free market, firms have the opportunity to practice a comparative advantage than in a market of regulations and trade laws.
• Liberal Ideal in History He was a great contributor of liberal ideas which have been firmly grounded in the governing principles of Finland and Sweden as well as across the world from as far as the 18th century to […]
• Mid-Nineteenth Century Liberalism The articles are “The Exhibition The Crystal Palace” and “The First Half of the Nineteenth Century: Progress of The Nation and Race”.
• Economic and Political Liberalism and Democracy The essay also examines the importance of the concept of economic and political liberalism and the relationship between liberalism and democracy.
• “The End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War” by Alan Brinkley The objective of the book is to give a fresh look to the Great Depression and the post war liberal new deals.
• Contemporary Stage of Globalization and Neo-liberalism in Europe When evaluating the globalization level in the European regions, it is vital to begin by classifying the substantial elements that describe the changes that globalization induces and their likely influence on the economy.
• Pluralism and Neo-Liberalism on a Contemporary Workplace This is regurgitated in the context of collective representation of the employees. Articulation of diverse views is more welcomed and makes the society a healthy place to live in.
• Liberal Democracy, Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust The Nazis and other populist political movements in Germany believed that the Jews had undue influence in the country through their prominent positions in the media and the financial system4.
• How is Narco-Governance Related to Political Liberalism? The impunity displayed by these drug lords goes beyond just controlling the government spending; the government is always at their beck and call and any disgruntled voices are either intimidated into silence or killed, in […]
• Financing, Liberal Arts, and Equity as the Educational Issues Thus, the proper examination of this issue requires paying much attention to such aspects as the difference between equity and adequacy in financing schools, the value of a liberal arts education, and the peculiarities of […]
• Conservatism and Liberalism Approaches in Analysis Public Policies Liberalism is inclined on the ideas of existence of a compact between government and its people to which people are accorded the rights of revolution in case the compact is breached. Ideally, this means that […]
• Liberal Person: Characteristics and Values One of the types of people is the liberal person. The liberal person is of the opinion that respect should be accorded to the different beliefs that people have.
• “It is Liberalism, not Realism that offers a more realistic understanding of contemporary international relations” The question that remains in the minds of scholars and practitioners of international relations is whether China will regard itself as an ordinary member of the world community or will see itself as a special […]
• Definition of Political Liberalism The word freedom refers to a person being free to do whatever he fells or wants to do without any restrictions from the agent, self and other obstructions.
• The Liberal Way of War: Killing to Make Life Live The authors’ claims to develop the work of Foucault and in addition extend his conception of bio-politics to the liberal way of war.
• What Is More Valuable in a Liberal Democracy: Positive or Negative Liberty? In the understanding of the concept of liberty, it is equally important to underscore the fact that it promotes freedom within a society.
• Concept of Liberalism Ideology in Modern Society For instance, the advertisements made on television, print media, and the social media do not represent the views of the consumer, but instead they aspire to convene the interests of the capitalists, including the most […]
• Liberal Theories and Society The structure of payoff, the future of the shadows, and the players’ numbers are the factors that affect existence of cooperation in states that are afflicted by anarchy.
• John Rawl’s Philosophy of Liberalism The contribution that members of a given society have in forming rules that decide how social and economic resources are distributed improves living standards for all.
• Political Liberalism Pros and Cons According to Rawls, some of the good things are exceptions as the society remains neutral and retains the values of justice.
• Thomas Paine: Liberal and Conservative Ideas Paine mentions the royal family and notes that the very existence of the king in the society is a sign of its being wrongful.
• The Liberal Position of Democrats and Republicans In this regard, the right to own property and the principles of capitalism are given great emphasis whenever leaders stand to speak to the public.
• Classical Liberalism: A Faction within Ideology Nonetheless, liberals of the twentieth century claimed that this was not a restriction, but a guidance to ensure equal opportunities for all.
• Minimal State Liberals & Active State Liberals: A Critical Discussion In similarities, it is clear both welfare and neo-classical liberals believe in the value and promotion of individual liberty and a desire for a more open and tolerant society, not mentioning that they are guided […]
• Similarities and Differences Between Minimal-State and Active-State Liberals The purpose of the discussion is to identify the differences and similarities between the two forms of liberalism based on a modern concept.
• Minimal State Liberalism vs. Active State Liberalism Minimal state liberals argue strongly that government intervention is a bad thing for the freedom of Americans and active state liberals argue strongly that government intervention is necessary to preserve the freedom of Americans.
• Neo-Liberalism in Theory and Practice This is the world’s fastest growing industry due to the need for people and companies to keep in touch with the rest of the world.
• Realist and Liberal Theories of International Relations Realism is a theory of international relations that arose slowly out of the work of various theorists who took a distinctive attitude and view in the analysis of international affairs.
• Distinction Between Realist, Liberal and Other Approaches to Peace and Security This paper covers two topics: the fall of the League of Nations and the subsequent creation of the United Nations, and the development of the European Union.
• Liberal and Socialist Feminist Theories The development and growth of feminist movements and gender roles were accompanied with the emergence of various theoretical models that explained the roles of women and their positions in the society.
• Realizing Development Objectives: Neoliberalism Requirements In order to ensure that the economy realizes relevant development, governments need to ensure that the interest rates in the country are determined by the market.
• What Is ‘Liberal Representative Democracy’ and Does the Model Provide an Appropriate Combination of Freedom and Equality? Freedom and equality are guaranteed under this form of democracy because they are enshrined in the constitution which is always the supreme law of a given country.
• Principles of Liberalism and Its Connection to Enlightenment and Conservatism A person has the freedom to be in business according to the classical liberalism. There were inspectors to check the working conditions of the workers.
• To What Extent Are Liberal Theories of Humanitarian Intervention Complicit With Imperialism? In this, traditional theories such as Liberal Internationalism, which forms the basis of discussion in this essay, have also undergone a revival; particularly since the end of the Cold War, when with the failure of […]
• Liberal Optimism for Post Cold-War Period Essentially, the liberals believed that the damage caused to the allies in the Cold War would clarify the stance of the liberals.
• Liberal Vision of the Society The traditional view of a woman as a house wife and minority in the society has been overtaken by the liberal acceptance of a modern and successful career lady.
• The Conscience of a Liberal Thereafter, he develops the theory of movement conservatism that he argues led to the collapse of the New Deal policies. One of the factors that led to the rise of the party was the naturalization […]
• The Value of Liberal Arts Education in College or University This paper will argue that liberal arts education should be encouraged since it adds value to society by offering the ideal college experience that promotes intellectual growth, personal development, and the acquisition of a wide […]
• Realism vs. Liberalism In the international system, the United Nations plays an important role in influencing the foreign behavior of states. In contrary, realists observe that the only actor in the international system is the state.
• The Impact of Premature Financial Liberalisation on Macroeconomic and Financial Stability Effects on rate of savings and investment One of the roles of liberalisation is to remove rigidity in the control of rates of exchange and rates of interest, compulsory allocation of credits from banks, and […]
• Mercy Otis Warren: Liberal Woman and Explorer Warren’s place, as a woman, gave her plenty of time to consider the activities of the revolution and offered a keyhole, which allowed her to record the events of the war.
• Assessing the Role and Impact of Social and Political Structures in the Working of Modern Liberal Markets The main purpose of this research is to prove the difference in the level of embeddedness between economic structure and the social and political structures.
• Definition of the Liberalism Ideology The generation of wealth is the collective duty of every member of the society, and rules of justice only seek to enhance the ownership and distribution of these resources.
• The Era of Liberal Consensus When republican Dwight Eisenhower succeeded the presidency, he continued the New Deal policies, enlarging the scope of the Social Security and promoted the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 which authorized the construction of the Interstate […]
• World Politics: Realist, Liberals, and Feminists Theories The development of the League of Nations to protect the interest of the allies, the partnership of France, Britain and USA to form the allies and the struggle for Germany to control Eastern Europe clearly […]
• Conservative and Liberal Languages For example, in his debate for gay marriage Sullivan indicates that conservatives consider gay marriage to be “a slippery slope towards polygamy and other things such as pedophilia, or even bestiality” and as such it […]
• Concept and History of the Liberal Feminism Hence, the individual feminism theory stands as a core vehicle that could be exploited to create a favorable condition in which women are treated equally as is men.
• Thinking Government: Conservatism, Liberalism and Socialism in Post World War II Canada This leads to the second implication which was summarized by political scientists in the following statement: “nothing can be guaranteed in life and that all individuals are also free to fail, to stumble to the […]
• Political Liberalism Ideology and the U.S. Politics Rather, it is the establishment of a particular form of political stratification and liberal procedures. Instead, they should be founded on an ethos of belief which according to Schmitt is the foundational basis of all […]
• Neo-liberalism in Latin America: Brazilian and Cuban Models It entailed the reduction of economic roles of the Brazilian state, characterized by the transfer of several trade functions traditionally under the control of the state to the markets.
• Classical Liberalism Concepts These philosophers also believed that the right to own, profit from, and dispose of private property rather than living as serfs, tied to the land without owning it, would contribute to the health and wealth […]
• Development Of Classical Liberalism, Its Critique By Modern Liberalism The origins of Modern Liberalism range from the anti-industrialism of the Luddites, to the Utopian visions of the early Socialists, to the readiness for violent revolutionary action of committed Communists.
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Getting the Insight Out

Opinion: Why I’m Voting for the Liberal Party

This opinion piece is part of a broader week-long MJPS Online series on voting intentions. Check  here  for other components of the series. The views expressed in this piece are solely those of the author and do not reflect the position of the editor, the McGill Journal of Political Studies, or the Political Science Students’ Association.

On October 21, Canadians will vote in the 43rd general election. This election is not a referendum on a prime minister, but a choice. Our options are re-electing a Liberal government led by Justin Trudeau or electing a Conservative government led by Andrew Scheer. I believe the choice could not be clearer.

Over the last four years, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has stood up for students and made real progress on the issues important to many of us. The government’s decision to double funding to the Canada Summer Jobs Program, once cut by the Conservatives, has allowed thousands of Canadian students to find meaningful summer work that gives important real-world experience. 

This government lowered interest rates on student loans, making it easier to obtain a quality education. Just last week, Justin Trudeau promised to increase Canada Student Grants by 40 per cent and institute a two-year grace period for student loan repayments, a positive sign for students at a time when the Conservatives across the country are making major cuts to education. Landmark investments in postsecondary institutions like McGill will allow future generations of students to attend more sustainable, better-resourced, and cleaner campuses.

Students like me also understand the real and pressing threat of climate change. While Conservative MPs debate whether climate change is real, the Trudeau government became the first in Canadian history to put a price on pollution across Canada and give the revenues back to Canadians. Leading economists and scientists agree : carbon pricing is the best way to lower our emissions. While Conservatives would roll back our progress and do nothing to fight climate change, the Liberal plan increases the price on pollution every year to continue lowering national emissions.

A strong economy over the past four years has also benefited students. Our unemployment rate is at a record low , and the government has opened new markets for Canadian small businesses to start up, scale up, and export their products. Under Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, Canada became the only G7 country to have free trade agreements with all other G7 countries. And of course, the government’s hard work building ties in the United States allowed it to stand up to Donald Trump and get a good NAFTA deal .

While Andrew Scheer would scale back our role in the world, over the past four years, Canada returned to its proud tradition of multilateralism. By running for a seat on the UN Security Council, Canada can contribute to global peace, rather than turning away from international institutions as Andrew Scheer would have us do. At a moment when Canada needs to do much more in foreign aid, Andrew Scheer would cut it by 25 per cent.

At this troubling time in world politics, Canada cannot be the next country to fall to right-wing populism. While the threat of populism once seemed confined to other countries, that is simply no longer the case. Conservative leader Andrew Scheer’s fearmongering and misinformation on migration , intolerance towards LGBTQ2+ people, opposition to women’s rights, and dog-whistles to the worst elements of our society are real and concerning. Indeed, Scheer’s own campaign manager was a founding director of The Rebel, a far-right website that routinely publishes Islamophobic and anti-Semitic slurs.

In contrast, Justin Trudeau became the first sitting prime minister to march in a Pride parade, showing the LGBTQ2+ community that Liberals will always stand up for them. And the Liberals have taken real action. New legislation introduced and passed by the Liberals protects against discrimination based on gender identity. Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives vocally opposed and voted against this law. Alarmingly, it’s 2019, and Mr. Scheer continues to boycott all Pride events. That’s because he still believes that same-sex couples lack the “essential element” of marriage. That’s not a view we can go back to.

There remains much more to do. In particular, we must press forward on reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. I and many others would like to see the full and complete implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the lifting of all drinking water advisories as quickly as possible. 

Trudeau’s Liberals have promised to do both. The Liberals will implement UNDRIP in the first year of a new mandate and are on-track to eliminate drinking water advisories on reserves by 2021. And the Liberals have made real progress already, with new legislation to protect Indigenous languages and reduce the number of Indigenous children in foster care. 

Over the past four years, the Liberals’ action on these matters led the Assembly of First Nations’ National Chief Perry Bellegarde to declare that Trudeau’s Liberal government “has done more for First Nations people than any government in history.” On this issue, the choice Canadians face is perhaps the starkest. While the Liberals would do even more, the Conservatives would do nothing. In fact, Andrew Scheer’s entire Arctic policy did not once mention the word “Inuit.”

Over the past four years, the Liberal government has made real progress. Expanded social programs like the Canada Child Benefit have lifted 900,000 Canadians out of poverty , including 300,000 children . Ottawa has made record investments in Montreal’s transit network, including a recently-announced $1.3 billion investment into the blue Metro line extension. Cannabis is legal, the economy is booming, and Canada is making meaningful headway on reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. Now more than ever, we cannot afford to turn back the clock.

In a world where populism, xenophobia, racism, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism are on the uptick, Canada cannot afford a government that would flirt with the far-right, fail to take action on climate change, and make callous cuts just like Doug Ford has.

On October 21, please do what so many around the world dream of. Find your polling station, make a plan to vote, and cast your ballot. I’m choosing to stop Andrew Scheer, Doug Ford, and Jason Kenney from taking us backwards. I’m voting to re-elect a progressive Liberal government that will continue to take us forward.

Edited by Evelyne Goulet. 

This opinion piece is part of a broader week-long MJPS Online series on voting intentions. Check  here  for other components of the series. For general information on how to vote in this month’s federal election, see  this resource  from Elections Canada. If you’re a university student, you can vote on campus. Find out how  here .  

The views expressed in this piece are solely those of the author and do not reflect the position of the editor, the McGill Journal of Political Studies, or the Political Science Students’ Association. Questions regarding this series can be directed to  [email protected] .

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Essay Samples on Liberalism

Resistance to freedom: comparing h. bergeron and a&p.

Resistance is liberal, leaping over all restraints to challenge the authority around people and to rebel against the established society. In John Updike’s short story A&P and Kurt Vonnegut’s fiction of story Harrison Bergeron, the authors, through the distinctive color of liberalism, create the protagonist's...

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Moral Foundation for Liberal Egalitarian Politics

Left-libertarianism is a promising englobement of the values that define liberal egalitarian politics. In this essay I will argue that left-libertarianism does in fact provide a compelling moral foundation for liberal egalitarian politics. Furthermore, throughout the essay I will bring in discussion certain elements that...

True Essence Of Liberalism And How It Improves The Lives Of Countless People

A survey is going around town asking individuals from families how happy they are and to measure how much freedom they feel they have in their household. The families fall under four different categories: Conservative, Anarchist, Liberal and Libertarian. The Conservative household chose to be...

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Analytical Philosophy amid Orthodoxy: Liberalism and Conservatism

A liberal attitude toward anything means more tolerance for change. There are many meanings for liberal, but they mostly have to do with freedom and openness to change. Liberalism involves belief in personal freedom. Liberalism comes in many forms. Basis of liberalism is toleration of...

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Challenges Faced by The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan

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Classical Liberalism in the Philosophies of Locke and Brucke

What is classical liberalism? This is an ideology and a branch of liberalism which advocates for civil liberties under the rule of law with emphasis on economic freedom. John Locke was an English philosopher, who first unified these ideas as a distinct ideology. This inherently...

The Concept of Liberty and Being Liberal According to John Mill

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Liberalism as a Way to Resolve France's Relations with Chad

Today, France is one of the seven most powerful nations in the world. France is a free country with an overall score of ninety from The Freedom House. France is a democratic republic with free and fair elections. Before the French Revolution, France’s form of...

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Liberalism and Modernism Influences in Pakistan

What is Liberalism Liberalism is a political and good way of thinking dependent on the freedom, assent of the administered, and balance under the watchful eye of the law. Nonconformists embrace a wide cluster of perspectives relying upon their comprehension of these standards, yet they...

The Historical Context and Background of the Liberalism Movement

Liberalism is a political and economic belief that highlights separate independence, equivalent chances, and the security of personprivileges in the state. Liberalism is a political idea and philosophy that emphases on the defense of entity’s rights and securing the liberty by warning the government’s control....

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Analysis Of The Relevance And Impact Of A Multicultural Approach

Globally, the discourse about Multiculturalism has surfaced and can no longer be ignored in our Arab world. Nations worldwide are trying to come to terms with this growing diversity, trying to find workable solutions that would help gain a sense of control over their borders,...

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A Quick Look Into The Ideologies of The Libertarian Party

With a very limited knowledge of the Libertarian Party, I decided to take this opportunity to learn more about this interesting organization. In a largely Republican and Democrat dominated government, it’s important to have these other parties in order to add another point of view...

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The Liberal Philosophy Of War According To Michael Howard

If it is true, as Michael Howard claims, that nowadays almost all Anglo-Saxon political thinkers are liberals, then his argument, first published in 1978, promises to be and remain highly relevant. In the new foreword to this third edition, Howard expressly makes the claim that...

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Best topics on Liberalism

1. Resistance to Freedom: Comparing H. Bergeron and A&P

2. Moral Foundation for Liberal Egalitarian Politics

3. True Essence Of Liberalism And How It Improves The Lives Of Countless People

4. Analytical Philosophy amid Orthodoxy: Liberalism and Conservatism

5. Challenges Faced by The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan

6. Classical Liberalism in the Philosophies of Locke and Brucke

7. The Concept of Liberty and Being Liberal According to John Mill

8. Liberalism as a Way to Resolve France’s Relations with Chad

9. Liberalism and Modernism Influences in Pakistan

10. The Historical Context and Background of the Liberalism Movement

11. Analysis Of The Relevance And Impact Of A Multicultural Approach

12. A Quick Look Into The Ideologies of The Libertarian Party

13. The Liberal Philosophy Of War According To Michael Howard

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Canada’s Liberals are an empire in decline with a leader in trouble

Under Justin Trudeau, the Liberals have lost many of the values and stabilizing influences that kept his predecessors connected to Canadians

This article was published more than 1 year ago. Some information may no longer be current.

Jeffrey Simpson is the author of eight books and the former national affairs columnist for The Globe and Mail. This essay is adapted from a speech delivered at St. Francis Xavier University on Oct. 20.

Here’s a conundrum or a contradiction: Canada’s Liberal Party has won three elections in a row, yet it has been in long-term decline for some decades.

For much of the 20th century, the Liberals were the world’s most successful democratic party, winning more elections and staying in power longer than any other. They were “Canada’s natural governing party.” And yet, the Liberals retained power in the last election with the smallest share of the popular vote for a “winning” party in Canadian history . Polls taken since the last election, for what they are worth, show little movement in the Liberals’ favour despite tens of billions of dollars spent during the pandemic and a subsequent summer showering the country with announcements of fresh spending.

Under Canada’s first-past-the-post system, seats rather than share of the popular vote dictate which party forms the government. The Conservatives pile up huge majorities of the popular vote on the Prairies, and in rural British Columbia and Ontario. These majorities, however, provide fewer seats than the ones captured by the Liberals in and around Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa and especially Toronto. In two consecutive elections, the Liberals won fewer votes than the Conservatives but enough seats to form minority governments.

In the last election, the Liberals won 32 per cent of the vote . In 2019, they took 33 per cent , a six-point slide from 2015 when they attracted 39.5 per cent . These totals compare unfavourably with popular-vote shares amassed by Liberal prime ministers Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin in winning the elections of 1993, 1997, 2000 and 2004: 41 per cent , 38.5 per cent , 41 per cent and 37 per cent . Pierre Trudeau, Justin’s father, led the party in five elections from 1968 to 1980, during which the party’s share of the popular vote was 45.5 per cent , 38.5 per cent , 43 per cent , 40 per cent and 44 per cent .

Put another way, Liberal victories under Justin Trudeau were won with an average share of the popular vote of 35 per cent, compared with 39 per cent under Mr. Chrétien and Mr. Martin, and 42 per cent under Pierre Trudeau. In a late-September poll this year by Leger, the Liberals stood at 28 per cent, six points behind the Conservatives. An Angus Reid Institute survey , taken at the same time, showed the Liberals with 30 per cent, seven points behind the Conservatives. A new Nanos poll, released this week, puts the Liberals at 30 per cent, six points behind the Conservatives.

At the provincial level, the Liberals are in desperate shape. They govern only one province in Canada: Newfoundland and Labrador. Conservatives are in power in the other Atlantic Canada provinces. The once-mighty Liberal Party of Quebec is now a rump largely confined to non-francophone ridings. In Ontario, the party finished third in the last two provincial elections. The Liberals’ standing on the Prairies is so weak that one might paraphrase what prime minister John Diefenbaker once said of his Progressive Conservatives in that region: The only laws protecting Liberals are the game laws. In British Columbia, although there is a “Liberal Party” as the Official Opposition, that party is an unwieldy coalition of people who dislike the New Democrats more than they like each other.

Federal-provincial political fidelity, it should be noted, does not always bring harmony. Fierce rows have sometimes defined relations between Liberal premiers and Liberal prime ministers. There has also been a pattern for either party in power in Ottawa to lose ground provincially. Strong provincial partners, however, bring volunteers and money at federal election time.

Provincial Liberal governments can also provide a proving ground for candidates and political staff who land later in Ottawa. At no time was that more evident than when so large a raft of staffers from the former Ontario Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty swarmed into Justin Trudeau’s government that Ottawa might jocularly have been called Toronto-on-the Rideau.

Nor is there much left of a national Liberal Party organization. Today, anybody can join the party, no money or long-term commitment required. Just show up and be counted, then disappear. Long gone, too, are regional ministers with clout and power in cabinet and among the rank-and-file. These posts, a hallmark of many former Liberal cabinets, were scrapped by Justin Trudeau, one example of power centres collapsing in the face of governing by the Prime Minister and his entourage.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sits between his deputy, Chrystia Freeland, and the Governor-General, Mary Simon, at the cabinet swearing-in on Oct. 26, 2021. Justin Tang/The Canadian Press

A party leader in the Canadian system has always been primus inter pares . When cabinets were smaller (today’s Liberal cabinet is a bloated 39 members ), some ministers were serious heavyweights in their regions. They had to at least be noticed by the prime minister, if not always followed. They were stabilizing cogs in the Liberal Party, but they are now gone, replaced by Prime Minister-as-Sun King surrounded by his circle of advisers and, when called upon, pollsters.

This kind of political leadership can work to build and maintain support on one condition: that the prime minister remains reasonably popular in the country. Alas for the Liberals, Mr. Trudeau’s popularity has been sliding, a fate not unknown to prime ministers after a while in office. In the last two elections, he fortunately faced lacklustre, even incompetent, Conservative Party leaders. Time will tell whether Pierre Poilievre performs better, and whether he recognizes there are more available votes toward the middle of the country’s political spectrum, shrunken as it has become, than on the right-wing fringe.

The Liberal vote is due partly to the fracturing of the party system. The separatist Bloc Québécois now seems a fixture in federal politics. The Trudeau Liberals, rather than defending individual rights in Quebec in contrast to the collectivist politics of Premier François Legault, decided not to confront the popular Premier. Abandoning traditional Liberal principles did them no good politically, as they fell well short of their objective of more Quebec seats in the last election.

The Greens, although a flop in the last election (and in internal chaos ever since), retain a small coterie of voters. The People’s Party of Canada grabbed a few votes, but its members seem to be gravitating to the Poilievre Conservatives. So, yes, fracturing has meant some bleeding from two big national parties. But fracturing alone cannot explain the Liberals’ decline, since the Liberal Party at its zenith accommodated and absorbed protest parties.

Many Canadian voters remain somewhere in the broad, fiscally prudent/socially progressive/proud-of-country Canadian mainstream, which is where the Liberals used to be anchored. These are the voters that the great Liberal strategist of the Pierre Trudeau era, Keith Davey, used to call “garden-variety Canadians.”

There are many reasons tied to the day-to-day decisions and crises that chip away at a party’s support, and all parties evolve. They shift positions according to expediency, the challenges of the time, the priorities of the leader. No party in 2022 would run on the same platform as 50 years ago. That today’s Liberal Party is not the same as it was under Pierre Trudeau, let alone his predecessors, is not surprising. But there are traditions and outlooks that go beyond the turmoil of the day that cause swaths of the electorate to see themselves and their interests and regions reflected in a particular party, and so tend to support it election after election.

Mr. Trudeau joins Grade 2 students in Surrey, B.C., on Oct. 20 to make lights for Diwali and Bandi Chhor Divas, Hindu and Sikh holidays, respectively. Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters

Justin Trudeau, quite apart from this or that decision, has decoupled the Liberal Party from some of its historical moorings, and is paying the political consequences. These moorings – patriotism and respect for Canada’s past; a balance of fiscal prudence and social priorities; defence of a strong central government; a bridge between English and French speakers – defined the Liberals in a positive way for millions of Canadians.

Liberals always had their critics on the right and the left (and among Quebec nationalists), as is the case today. But the party, more than the others most of the time, anchored its appeal in a strong sense of Canadian pride, spending where appropriate but not excessively, defending Ottawa against provincial demands for more autonomy, and reflecting the country’s linguistic duality.

Those moorings are now rusted or gone, and with their departure has vanished some of the Liberal Party’s historical support, which has not been replaced by new sources. Defenders of today’s Liberals would object to this observation and insist, correctly, that the party has gained female supporters. And why not? A gender-balanced cabinet. Budgets defined by “gender.” A “gender-based” foreign policy. A Prime Minister self-described as a “feminist.” More appointments of women to very senior positions than ever before. Spending programs for female entrepreneurs. A new multibillion-dollar child-care plan . And so on.

Any political analyst knows men and women vote for various reasons, of which gender is only one. Nonetheless, the Justin Trudeau Liberals purposefully set about cultivating female voters, and it would appear they succeeded in driving up their support among women.

Simple arithmetic rather than sophisticated political analysis, however, shows that something else happened. If the Liberals’ share of the female vote is going up while the party’s overall share of the national vote is declining, it must mean the vote among men has fallen faster.

The Angus Reid poll cited above illustrates the point. Forty-six per cent of women over 55 prefer the Liberals, compared with 31 per cent of men in that age category. Only 24 per cent of men 35 to 54 years of age prefer the Liberals; just 15 per cent of men 18 to 34 prefer them.

The Liberals have a huge problem with male voters, and they have no idea how to fix it. And that is because whereas there is a feminist vocabulary that the Liberals use incessantly, along with female-based policies, there is nothing equivalent for men. At least not overtly. This targeted Liberal approach is part of a “progressive” thinking in which politics (outside Quebec, with its different political culture) goes beyond gender to appeals based on the identity of race, Indigeneity and sexual orientation. The Liberals under Justin Trudeau have been in the vanguard of this narrative, reflecting and abetting trends in the English-Canadian intelligentsia, cultural and educational institutions, museums and galleries, publishing houses and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (but not Radio-Canada).

Sophisticates cringed when Mr. Chrétien used to declare in speeches that “Canada is number one!” The line was so corny, even jingoistic, they said. Audiences did not cringe. That corny cry conveyed two messages: pride and unity. Pride in Canada’s past and confidence in its future. The other, more subliminal meaning of being No. 1 was that for all the country’s differences and diversities, Canadians could be One.

Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party has turned Mr. Chrétien’s meanings inside out. Mr. Trudeau has apologized more often than any prime minister for more past wrongs while almost never speaking about past accomplishments.

It is entirely appropriate to revisit history and uncover matters once pushed under the rug. It is a salutary exercise for a country to hold up a mirror to its past weaknesses. History is propaganda when it only extols the positive. But history is also propaganda when the mirror of past errors ignores a country’s achievements. When that happens, as it is today, we are no longer talking about a rounded view but about today’s political agendas.

Under today’s Liberals, and for most of the English-Canadian cultural class and institutions, Canada’s past is a sad litany of sins unleavened by triumphs of the human spirit or generosity. Polls – for example, those taken by Angus Reid – show that pride of country has declined among those under 30 years of age, although it remains high among the garden-variety Canadians who do not see that pride in Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party. The majority of those Canadians are prepared to acknowledge and atone for past sins such as residential schools, but they are not prepared to have their country defined by their Prime Minister and his party as an unbridled legacy of wrongdoing, genocide and racism.

Mr. Trudeau wipes tears at Sept. 30's National Day of Truth and Reconciliation in Ottawa. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

Forgotten by the Trudeau Liberals and the English-Canadian cultural elite, it would seem, is that Canada was formed quite improbably. It brought together in the 1860s French Catholics and English Protestants whose ancestors had been fighting in Europe and North America for a long time. Given that history, Canada unexpectedly became the world’s oldest federation born in peace and unscarred by civil war. The resulting country provided a better life for millions of subsequent arrivals while treating Indigenous peoples poorly.

For decades, the Liberals were the party of Canadian patriotism. From the time of Wilfrid Laurier to Mr. Chrétien, the Liberals wanted to place some distance between Canada and Britain and create Canadian institutions, including a Canadian flag, that were opposed by the Progressive Conservatives of the day. Conservatives clung longer and more tightly to the British connection. The Liberals’ appeal to patriotism didn’t always work, as during the party’s fight against free trade with the United States. More often than not it was the party’s high card. Under Justin Trudeau and the identity politics he plays, it has almost entirely disappeared.

There are two kinds of identity politics, as the American political theorist Francis Fukuyama explains in his recent book, Liberalism and Its Discontents . He writes: “One version sees the drive for identity as the completion of liberal politics. … The goal of this form of identity politics is to win acceptance and equal treatment for marginalized groups as individuals, under the liberal presumption of a shared underlying humanity. … The other version of identity politics sees the lived experience of different groups as fundamentally incommensurate; it denies the possibility of universally valid modes of cognition; and it elevates the value of group experience over what diverse individuals have in common.” Mr. Trudeau has chosen the second definition, and in so doing unmoored his party from its classic position as exponent of broad-tent Canadian patriotism.

Mr. Trudeau has also unmoored his party from its traditions in another important way. Every Liberal cabinet as far back as Mackenzie King’s – and throughout Pierre Trudeau’s and Mr. Chrétien’s time – was like a plane with two wings. One wing was composed of what might be loosely called “spending Liberals,” the other “business Liberals.” These are admittedly imprecise definitions for they suggest that the “spenders” were oblivious to the economy, tax and fiscal policy, and the business climate; and that the “business” Liberals lacked a social conscience. But ministers tended to lean in one direction or another, owing in part to what they did before entering politics.

Pierre Trudeau, second from left, walks to a cabinet swearing-in on July 6, 1968. With him, from left, are James Richardson, D.C. Jamieson, John Turner, Jean Marchand and Gerard Pelletier. Doug Ball/The Canadian Press

Thinking back to Pierre Trudeau’s cabinets recalls ministers now likely forgotten but important in their day. There were the “spenders” such as Jean Marchand, Gérard Pelletier, Louis Duclos, Allan J. MacEachen, Bryce Mackasey, John Munro, Monique Bégin and Lloyd Axworthy. And there were the “business” Liberals who had been in the private sector or practised law before entering politics, including Don Jamieson, Edgar Benson, Donald S. Macdonald, Ed Lumley, John Turner, Bud Drury, Bob Winters, Mitchell Sharp and Bob Andras.

Pierre Trudeau, as prime minister, weaved between the factions, especially during the “stagflation” decade of the 1970s, which featured high interest rates, high unemployment and slow growth.

Mr. Chrétien’s cabinet featured the same balance, with spenders offset by business Liberals such as Paul Martin, John Manley, Doug Young, Anne McLellan and Roy MacLaren. Mr. Chrétien himself had a large social conscience but liked to remind listeners that as Treasury Board president earlier in his career he was known as “Dr. No” for turning down spending proposals. His government launched a “program review” that was the most successful postwar effort to cut spending.

Justin Trudeau’s cabinet is quite different. Only two of its 39 ministers worked in largish business companies before entering politics: Innovation Minister François-Phillippe Champagne and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson.

The other ministers, starting with the Prime Minister himself, are teachers, journalists, lawyers, academics, social workers, public servants, engineers, health care workers, police officers, consultants and career politicians. It could be argued that not one has ever met a payroll, and few have experience in private enterprises.

This tilt reflects the political judgment of the Prime Minister and his advisers, and what kind of Liberal Party they believe will be successful. They deem fiscal prudence, often but not always a hallmark of previous Liberal governments, of limited importance. Prudence was ditched even before the first Trudeau cabinet was sworn into office, when a 2015 campaign commitment to balance the budget within four years disappeared. It was replaced by a new target: debt-to-GDP ratio, a much harder idea for the public to grasp than a budget deficit number. “Guardrails,” a loosey-goosey phrase designed to obscure rather than clarify, became the Liberals’ byword for fiscal management.

Ms. Freeland speaks in the media lockup ahead of April's budget release in Ottawa. Justin Tang/The Canadian Press

No one could blame the Liberals for ramping up spending during the pandemic. Perhaps some money was wasted, but the COVID-19 situation was unprecedented. Decisions had to be made on the fly in the face of medical uncertainty. After the surge in pandemic-related costs, however, the government announced another $30-billion for a new child-care program and then, as part of a deal with the NDP, a new limited drug-coverage plan and dental care for children. Political survival in the form of the Liberal-NDP deal buried any possibility of spending restraint – even in the face of soaring inflation. The announcement that Treasury Board president Mona Fortier would lead a group of civil servants to find $6-billion in “savings” over five years on government operations bordered on a joke. Even if such “savings” were found they would already have been subsumed by new spending.

The Trudeau Liberals no longer offer a balance between social spending and fiscal prudence. The business Liberals are increasingly extinct and the few that remain are big spenders themselves. Today’s party has decided that the path to political success lies in poaching votes from the NDP. This is surely how they will deal with Mr. Poilievre before and during the next campaign. They will portray him as a dangerous ideologue even further from the Canadian middle ground than the Liberals themselves. Liberals have scared moderate New Democrats into voting for them before, and they will try to do so again. And if Mr. Poilievre, a career politician, is as convinced of his own political genius as he seems to be, buoyed by his huge victory in the party leadership race, he might just provide the Liberals with the kind of target they need.

The Poilievre victory combined with the Liberals’ abandonment of their historic moorings leaves Canadian politics more polarized than it has ever been. Keith Davey’s garden-variety Canadians – socially progressive, fiscally cautious and patriotically proud – have been abandoned by both major parties. Maybe, just maybe, the parties reckon that this kind of Canadian voter has so shrunk in number that today’s politics is less about attracting them than polarizing voters around identity and ideology. In which case it would be naive to believe that Canada might not be witnessing the beginning – in some form – of the sharpened political divisions recently seen in parts of Europe and the United States.

Illustration by Brian Gable

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The Post-liberal Catholics Find Their Man

As vice president, J. D. Vance would elevate their disdain for American liberalism to the highest levels of government.

Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration.

Updated at 10:24 p.m. ET on August 8, 2024

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When journalists write about ties between Donald Trump and the religious right, they usually focus on evangelical Protestants. That emphasis makes sense, given that evangelicals make up a sizable portion of the GOP’s electoral coalition, and their enduring devotion to the morally and religiously louche Republican nominee remains more than a little shocking.

But Trump’s choice of J. D. Vance as his running mate puts a spotlight on a different faction of the religious right: the so-called post-liberal Catholics, who have been Vance’s friends, allies, and interlocutors since his 2019 conversion to Catholicism (he was raised Protestant) and transformation into a MAGA Republican shortly after.

This group of Catholic intellectuals—which includes Patrick Deneen of Notre Dame, Adrian Vermeule of Harvard Law School, and Sohrab Ahmari, a founder and an editor of the eclectically populist magazine Compact —is known for its sweeping attack on classical liberalism. It claims that a long list of contemporary problems (rising rates of economic inequality, drug addiction, suicide, homelessness, childlessness) can be traced back to moral-philosophical errors made centuries ago by the American Founders and their ideological progenitors. In place of our polity’s commitment to individual rights, autonomy, and pluralism, the post-liberals aim to create a society unified around the common good , which is itself fixed on a theological vision of the Highest Good .

Hence the need for what Deneen calls “regime change” in the title of his most recent book. In concrete terms, this means replacing the people and institutions that dominate America’s cultural, economic, and political life with a new elite willing to eschew liberal norms in service of supposedly higher ideals. In this respect, Vance is the man the post-liberals have been waiting for—a self-identified member of the “post-liberal right,” and now a contender for one of the country’s highest political offices.

Adrian Vermeule: Beyond originalism

Trump and his immediate circle may not share theological convictions with the post-liberals, but the two groups do share certain political impulses. Both exhibit a populist skepticism of elites, deference toward social conservatism, and a preference for putting “America first” when it comes to immigration, trade, labor, and foreign policy. Most of all, Trump and the post-liberals share a willingness, even an eagerness, to smash the entrenched power of the liberal cultural establishment. Vance is the embodiment of these shared hopes and drive for disruption. As vice president in a second Trump administration, he would bring both to the highest levels of government, allowing, for the first time, post-liberal Catholic ideas to exert real political influence.

T hese ambitions mark a significant change in the Catholic right compared with its most recent moment of maximal influence , during the administration of George W. Bush. Then, writers such as Richard John Neuhaus, Michael Novak, and Robert P. George argued that, when properly understood, Catholic Christian revelation, American history and ideals, and the Republican Party’s platform were perfectly harmonious. These thinkers made their case by contending that American liberalism was rooted in theological sources, that Catholic orthodoxy was essentially liberal , and that the GOP was tailor-made to unite the two.

Things feel very different on the Catholic right today. Setbacks at home and at the Vatican—including the election (and reelection) of Barack Obama, Pope Francis’s efforts to push back against the conservative legacies of his predecessors, and the Obergefell decision by the U.S. Supreme Court declaring same-sex marriage a constitutional right—discredited the idea that liberalism and traditional Catholicism could go together. One radical response to these developments can be found on the furthest extreme of the Catholic right, among a group called the integralists. Despite their name, they aim to subordinate the state to the Church, not integrate them.

Vance hasn’t gone that far in his public statements. Yet his account of his conversion to the Catholic Church, published in 2020 in the magazine The Lamp , marks him as very much a man of our post-liberal moment. In his essay, Vance explains the intellectual influences on his spiritual evolution. Some are conventional, such as St. Augustine, the theologian and bishop who has been an inspiration to Christian converts down through the centuries. But one is decidedly less orthodox: the billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel.

Before Thiel spent roughly $15 million on Vance’s successful 2022 Senate campaign in Ohio, Vance worked as a principal for Mithril Capital, one of Thiel’s many firms. Their first encounter, however, came back in 2011, when Thiel delivered a talk at Yale Law School, where Vance was then a student. As Vance recalls in his essay, Thiel, who has described himself as Christian, observed that the meritocratic striving of smart young people (like Vance) often results in both personal existential emptiness and societal stagnation. That’s a variation on a critique of liberal democracy that Thiel has been developing for much of his career . In his idiosyncratic reading of Western history, the theological precepts of Christian civilization are what inspired the great scientific and technological achievements of the past several centuries. The ideals of liberal democracy, by contrast, are responsible for the meaninglessness and inertia that supposedly plague the present.

Read: Peter Thiel is taking a break from democracy

Over the decade following his meeting with Thiel, Vance remained broadly committed to a Bush-era vision of continuity between Christianity and the moral outlook and policy agenda of the pre-Trump Republican Party. That earlier Vance favored pro-business economic policy and saw democracy promotion as a crucial element of American foreign policy. He also emphasized the importance of personal character in public life: Poverty could be explained, in part, by moral depravity, and holding political office required integrity. But around the time that he decided to run for the Ohio Senate seat vacated by the retiring Rob Portman in 2021, Vance underwent a second conversion —to the ideas of the post-liberal Catholics and the right-wing populism associated with Donald Trump.

That’s not to say he got more conservative. This new Vance often sounds like Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, when he talks about economic policy—emphasizing poverty’s structural causes and advocating for a higher minimum wage. On foreign policy, he began defining American interests so narrowly that the fate of a liberal democracy on NATO’s border was a matter of indifference. (“I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another,” he said in early 2022, shortly before Russia’s invasion.)

Most strikingly, after more than four years of condemning Trump, Vance began defending the former president’s most reckless acts and ambitions. He started denouncing the American “regime” and, in September 2021, told a far-right podcaster that “we are in a late republican period” in which it would be necessary to “get pretty wild, pretty far out there, and go in directions that a lot of conservatives right now are uncomfortable with.” This included “a de-Ba’athification program” with the following directives: “seize the administrative state for our own purposes … fire every civil servant in the administrative state [and] replace them with our people.”

The post-liberal Catholics, including Deneen, in his book on regime change, insist that the moral and political revolution they seek can be accomplished peacefully. But Vance appears ready to excuse some dangerous political brinkmanship. In a recent interview with The New York Times ’ Ross Douthat, Vance defended the idea of states across the country appointing alternative slates of electors after the 2020 election. He seemed to concede that such actions could have precipitated a “constitutional crisis.” So be it.

W hat might be most strange about this unapologetically radical style of politics is how tenuous its ties are to the Catholic Church as an institution and even Christianity as a historical community of faith. Whereas the Bush-era Catholics regularly cited the New Testament, Thomas Aquinas, and John Courtney Murray, today’s post-liberals rarely invoke the Bible or theologians in their political commentary. They don’t base their policy commitments on the Catechism of the Catholic Church . They aren’t in the habit of referring to the social teachings in papal encyclicals. (As with any group, there are exceptions. Ahmari, for example, has cited Catholic teaching in support of political arguments in some works.)

Rather, their theological convictions tend to remain in the background , serving as fuel for something more central to their public thought: a politics of reactionary negation. Their faith confirms that liberalism is the great enemy that must be fought and defeated so that something more wholesome and spiritually invigorating can take its place. But until liberalism has been expunged from the world, Christianity remains mainly a civilizational symbol or identity marker whose public substance is held in abeyance.

Tom Nichols: The moral collapse of J. D. Vance

That’s quite a shift for the Catholic right in a single generation. Not long ago, the group insisted on a near-perfect identification between the Church and American liberalism as expressed by the Republican Party. Now it insists on the discontinuity between Christianity and America’s ruling ideology, which requires nothing short of political revolution to overcome.

Maybe somewhere in between these extremes, a more responsible and enriching form of political engagement for pious Catholics could be found. Regardless, we’re unlikely to see anything resembling such a theological deescalation from J. D. Vance and his post-liberal Catholic allies.

This article originally misidentified The Lamp as an online journal. The article has also been updated to note Sohrab Ahmari’s use of Catholic teaching in his political writing.

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South Australia's Liberal leader David Speirs has resigned. Who could replace him?

South Australia's Liberal Party is searching for a new leader after David Speirs announced his resignation from the role on Thursday.

Mr Speirs said that he's had a "gutful" and didn't have the energy to fight for the leadership ahead of the next state election in 2026 amid the "current circumstances".

"I reflect, was I a bit early, was it too soon for me to lead the party, or was the party not simply ready for me to lead it?" he said.

The committed southern Adelaide MP took over former premier Steven Marshall in 2022 following the party's electoral defeat.

But speculation about his future started to rear its head in March following the Liberal Party's loss at the Dunstan by-election — a seat vacated by Mr Marshall.

Liberal party members will hold a partyroom meeting on Monday to select his successor.

So who are the top contenders? 

John Gardner

Deputy Opposition Leader John Gardner, a factional moderate, is the second highest ranking member of the parliamentary Liberal party.

The member for Morialta, in Adelaide's east, was first elected to state parliament in 2010 and served as education minister under the Marshall Liberal government.

During his time, he helped steward the transition of year 7 into high school — a structural reform to South Australia's education system which brought it in line with other states.

He was also in charge of the public education system through most of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr Gardner didn't contest the leadership following the 2022 state election loss but ended up as deputy.

In addition to those duties, he's held onto the education portfolio while sitting on opposition benches.

Vincent Tarzia

Vincent Tarzia has been touted in some quarters as a potential Liberal Party leader.

He was first elected to state parliament as the member for Hartley in 2014 and fought off a challenge from former senator Nick Xenophon at the 2018 poll. 

His effort saw him initially rewarded with the speakership during the early years of the Marshall government, before later being elevated to police, emergency services and correctional services minister in 2020.

In opposition, he's held the shadow transport and infrastructure portfolios which has seen him trade barbs with Labor's Tom Koutsantonis.

Mr Tarzia is a moderate who is understood to have been courting conservative Liberal Party powerbrokers.

In a statement on Thursday, Mr Tarzia thanked Mr Speirs for "his hard work as leader of the party".

"Following his announcement I’ll be talking to colleagues and focusing on helping the team to win in 2026," he said.

Josh Teague

Adelaide Hills MP and former speaker Josh Teague was elected to state parliament in 2018 and is another possible leadership contender.

The shadow attorney-general, and factional moderate, put his hand up for the Liberal leadership following the party's defeat in 2022.

"In doing so, I recommitted myself to serve. I believe strongly in merit and inclusion," he said in a statement in 2022.

But Mr Teague wasn't successful and secured only five votes compared to Mr Speirs's 18 votes and Nick McBride's one vote.  

He handles much of the opposition's legislative load in parliament and has been a leading voice critiquing the performance of the state's child protection system and Minister Katrine Hildyard.

Alongside shadow child protection and attorney-general, he's also the opposition's spokesperson for Aboriginal affairs and the prevention of family and domestic violence.

Ashton Hurn 

One person who isn't expected to run for the leadership at this time is first-term MP Ashton Hurn.

The shadow health spokesperson, moderate and former adviser to Steven Marshall has been long-flagged as a possible leader. 

The Barossa MP, who is currently on maternity leave, has spearheaded the opposition's attacks on Labor's management of South Australia's overwhelmed health system.

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South Korea's Yoon seeks dialogue, path to unification with isolated Pyongyang

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol offered on Thursday to establish a working-level consultative body with North Korea to discuss ways to ease tension and resume economic cooperation, as he laid out his vision on unification of the neighbours.

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NSW Liberals in chaos as party fails to nominate council candidates

By max maddison , alexandra smith and megan gorrey, save articles for later.

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The NSW Liberals’ local government campaign is in disarray after the party missed the deadline to nominate candidates in a dozen council areas, including Lane Cove, Northern Beaches, Camden and Wollongong.

Liberal members were on Wednesday afternoon scrambling to assess the extent of the blunder, touted by senior insiders as the worst in the division’s history, with some candidates calling the NSW Electoral Commission to see if they had been nominated.

Liberal candidates will be missing from ballots in a host of seats in next month’s council elections. Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

A circular sent out by Liberal HQ said it was “likely” several local government areas had not been successfully lodged by the noon deadline for the September 14 elections: Northern Beaches, Lane Cove, Shoalhaven, Wollongong, Campbelltown, Camden and Blue Mountains.

The party was waiting on “final confirmation” from the electoral commission that there were “partial nominations” for Georges River, North Sydney, Penrith, Canterbury Bankstown and Maitland.

Clarity would not be likely until a full list of nominations was published ahead of the ballot draw on Thursday at 2pm, with an Electoral Commission spokeswoman saying: “We are still processing nominations, so can’t confirm who has or hasn’t been nominated at this time.”

Woollahra Liberal mayor Richard Shields. Credit: Woollahra Council

Liberal MP for Kellyville Ray Williams said there was widespread anger in the party.

“As a staunch Liberal, I think this is an absolute betrayal of every good Liberal member, of which there are 11,000 across NSW, as well as those people who should be representing our local [government] areas as councillors,” Williams said. “It has simply let everyone down. ”

Incensed party members called for state director Richard Shields to resign immediately, saying the blunder was inconceivable given the Liberal Party existed solely to run in elections. They said Shields had failed to bring in additional resources to deal with the nomination process.

One told the Herald : “If Richard Shields isn’t gone by the end of the week I will be moving a motion of no confidence in his position.”

Another senior Liberal source said Shields could not survive the administrative disaster.

“This is the most catastrophic stuff-up by a state director in living memory. It is hard to think his position is tenable, as we are about to enter two crucial byelections,” the Liberal source said.

NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman has demanded an explanation. Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

NSW Liberal Party leader Mark Speakman withheld judgment on Shields’ future pending his explanation for the unprecedented mishap, saying the “basic administrative tasks” were left to the state director.

“Submitting local council nominations is a matter for the state director and his secretariat, and not a matter for the NSW or federal parliamentary party,” he said. “The state director will need to explain what has occurred and why.”

In a statement, Shields blamed limited resources as he confirmed the party had failed to nominate candidates “in all of the local government areas”.

“The status of nominated Liberal candidates will be communicated upon confirmation from the NSW Electoral Commission. On behalf of the secretariat, I would like to apologise to Liberal-endorsed councillors that were not nominated and to the party membership more broadly,” he said.

With a federal election just months away, Liberal insiders said the nomination failure demonstrated a remarkable vulnerability in the party’s logistical operation. Another source noted the flow-on effect could be felt in state elections, with Liberal councillors using local government as a stage to boost their profile ahead of trying to move into Macquarie Street.

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Essay On The Liberal Party

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Government , House , Home , Ireland , Democracy , Politics , Law , War

Words: 1400

Published: 01/27/2020

ORDER PAPER LIKE THIS

We are focused on the Liberal Party of the UK in this write-up. The direction of our lens will be on the challenges faced by the party during the years 1910 to 1914.

The Liberal Party of the UK was created by the merger of the Old Whigs Party and the Radicals group. The new Liberal Party was very interested in crushing absolute monarchism where the parliament and constitution draws power from the Crown; it would rather want the reverse as the case (Greenleaf). This pitched it in the opposition for a very long time and was only able to taste power for the first time in 1830; an avenue it had to formulate policies in line with its ideologies. It was no surprise that the Liberal Party introduced several reforms to the political system of the UK at that time. The very first was the First Reform Act passed into law in 1832 which extended voting rights to more men, then came the Second Reform Act that passed the House of Common that then had a good majority of Liberals but got rejected at the House of Lords which faced fierce public protests for the non-passage of the bill(Petter). So, when the Third Reform Act was sent to it from the House of Commons, the Lords had little choice, amidst the Crown’s mandate, than allow it to pass and forestall fresh protest. The Third Reform Act took away parliamentary seats from rotten boroughs, which helped the anti-reform politicians win elections, and gave the same voting rights to countryside residents just as their city resident counterparts. William Gladstone was one of the greatest Liberals that ruled as Prime Minister and the party’s leader, coming to power in 1868 (Conservapedia.com). During his tenure, Gladstone pursed financial policies centred on a balanced budget, laissez faire and low taxes to improve the lot of the middle class. Gladstone’s welfare policies were enjoyed by various groups including; children who benefitted from his Elementary Education Act of 1870 and peasant Catholics in Ireland who were given the right to vote like any city dweller through the Third Reform Act, a move that eventually brought about the demand for Irish Home Rule after the Irish Parliamentary Party was set-up.

Highlights of Liberal Party between 1910 and 1914

The coming back to power of the Liberal Party in 1906 enabled it to push for more liberal policies. Some of the new policies are the National Insurance Law, regulation of working hours, and other workers’ welfare regulation (Clarke). Another milestone move of the Asquith-led government of Liberals is the People’s Budget produced in 1909 which became a subject of political bickering and caused the Liberal Party’s popularity to dwindle. The Liberal Party was quick to recognize this and sought to hold on to power by; promoting workers’ welfare in order to gain the support of Labour which already has a growing movement, and champion the cause of a fairly independent Ireland with its Irish Home Rule bill to gain Irish support and remain in power.

The People’s Budget

The budget of 1909 proposed by the liberal government of Asquith was promoted to change the tax system of the UK in order to ‘eliminate’ poverty by increasing taxes so that the liberal government will have more money to fund its welfare programmes. This was met by a stiff opposition from the Conservatives which were the majority in the House of Lords and were land owners who believed that the budget would devalue their assets. A division was then created in the polity and a political battle ensued. The strong political battle that resulted led to the Act of Parliament that checkmated the powers of the Lords in blocking legislation. Also, the rising cost of running government resulting from the welfare programs of the Liberals compelled the Crown to require the government to call two general elections in 1910 so that its position will be validated and its popularity tested. This was a real test of Liberal Party’s popularity because it then discovered that it has lost a lot of followers, it then associated with Labour movements. Some of the highlights of these years are briefly explained below.

An Overwhelming Electoral Win

After losing a hold on power at the expiration of Gladstone’s tenure in the late 1890s, the Liberal Party was again elected into power in 1906 with a landslide victory.

National Insurance Act and Labour Movement

This Act was passed in 1911 to improve the lot of employees in the event of illness, job loss and in retirement. The necessary contribution was made both by the employee and his employer. Labour movement arose to wrestle the government on some points of the welfare program that they believed was taking their wages away from them by the 7s 6d wages covered under the new law.

Irish Home Rule

Prime Minister Asquith needed support in some way after realising his Liberal Party had lost many loyalists in the general elections of 1910, so he turned to get support from the Irish and labour. The Irish Home Rule Law, an Act of parliament, came into force in 1914 after getting parliamentary consent, though not at first instance. It is on record that the first bill supported by William Gladstone was rejected at the House of Common while the second scaled through the Commons but was crushed by the Conservative-filled House of Lords. This third presentation of the bill was able to scale through the hurdles because of the reduced power of the House of Lords that was achieved in 1911, the Parliament Act. Irish Home Rule gave the right of home government to Ireland but was never implemented because of the outbreak of World War I. A new law was passed in 1920 called, The Government of Ireland Act.

Women Suffrage

Good to note here, in brief, are the activities of the Asquith-led Liberal Party government which was opposed to women suffrage, though against his Party’s majority wishes. The various women groups that have risen up since the Reform Act of 1832 reduced the voting rights of women continued but recorded limited victory. Thus Asquith suffered attacks from these groups and their supporters.

The Decline

The break out of World War I in 1914 is accorded by some historians as what tore the Liberal Party apart completely, having to face a war that was not prepared for and combining it with the growing home front resentments. Though partially true, the Liberal Party had suffered many internal party strives before the war (Dangerfield). The Defence of the Realm Act6 passed into law in the early weeks of the onset of World War I was seen as illiberal by many Liberal faithfuls, the laissez faire Liberals as well and the party was further drawn to the opposite sides by factions (Laybourn). The coalition government formed by Asquith in the war times could be regarded as well as one of the contributors to the implosion of the Liberal Party which lost power to the Conservatives-backed Lloyd George in 1916.

References:

- Greenleaf, W.H. The British Political Tradition. Volume II: The Ideological Heritage. London: Methuen. 1983. - Petter, Martin. History, The Progressive Alliance. The Journal of the Historical Association - "The British Liberal Party". Conservapedia.com. - Clarke, P.F. "The electoral position of the Liberal Parties, 1910-1914". The English Historical Review - Dangerfield, George. The Strange Death of Liberal England: 1910-1914. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers. 2011. - Laybourn, Keith. "The Rise of Labour and the Decline of Liberalism: The State of the Debate" Wiley.com.

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Former N.Y. Republican Rep. Susan Molinari backs Harris for president

A former Staten Island Republican in Congress is crossing party lines to back Democrat Kamala Harris for president. 

Susan Molinari, daughter of another prominent New York Republican, told Spectrum News NY1 she believes Harris is "smart," “strong” and “knows how to handle herself on the world stage.”

“And she's not crazy,” she said. 

What You Need To Know

Former staten island republican rep. susan molinari is crossing party lines to back democrat kamala harris for president molinari is part of a new “republicans for harris” coalition. it's an effort to reach out to disaffected members of the gop who, like her, may not agree with everything democrats stand for policy-wise, but view former president donald trump as a volatile threat molinari said she is still a republican, and remains hopeful that her party might revert to the one she once knew. it's the party of her father guy, who served as both congressman and staten island borough president she says it makes her "so sad" to see what has become of former new york city mayor rudy giuliani.

Molinari is part of a new “Republicans for Harris” coalition. It's an effort to reach out to disaffected members of the GOP who, like her, may not agree with everything Democrats stand for policy-wise, but view former President Donald Trump as a volatile threat.

Molinari, whose father Guy served as congressman and later Staten Island borough president, argues her announcement should be viewed as “both” an endorsement of Harris and an endorsement against Trump.

In 2020, the former congresswoman also broke with her party, throwing her support behind Joe Biden.

Addressing the Democratic National Convention that year alongside other Republicans, she said, “I've known Donald Trump for most of my political career — so disappointing and lately so disturbing.”

Four years later, Molinari stands by the endorsement, arguing the president’s recent actions have only “reinforced” her decision. 

“Here was a man who was giving up the job he wanted most in life while he was negotiating the return of hostages,” she said, invoking Biden’s decision to step aside from the 2024 presidential contest.

Unlike Molinari, other Republican critics of Trump have opted to stick with the Republican ticket, including former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr. 

Asked about Barr, Molinari said, “I don't want to sit in judgment of anyone. But you know he has clearly said, ‘Trump is a national danger.’ How can you put him back in office?”

Molinari said she is still a Republican, and remains hopeful that her party might revert to the one she once knew. It's the party of her father, who was himself a longtime GOP powerbroker on Staten Island who had the backing of both the state Conservative and Republican parties in various races.

“I would not be surprised that my father would never vote for Donald Trump,” she said. “I think he would be proud of me and understands all the reasons that I was doing it.”

“I wouldn't be surprised if he was not a Republican for Biden or a Republican for Harris,” she added. 

Down ballot, New York is poised to be make or break for which party controls Congress.

Her advice to Republican voters in the state’s competitive districts: be informed and thoughtful, do not hold Trump against the whole ticket, and know that “splitting your ticket is a very easy thing to do.”

Molinari, who was once “very close” to Rudy Giuliani, said it makes her "so sad" to see what has become of the former New York City mayor turned Trump attorney.

“Donald Trump leaves very few people untouched and unscathed. And Rudy Giuliani is probably exhibit number one,” she said.

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Guest Essay

Catholic Converts Like JD Vance Are Reshaping Republican Politics

By Matthew Schmitz

Mr. Schmitz is a founder and an editor of the online magazine Compact.

Despite institutional decline and internal conflict, Catholicism retains a surprising resonance in American life — especially in certain elite circles. It has emerged as the largest and perhaps the most vibrant religious group at many top universities . It claims six of the nine Supreme Court justices as adherents. It continues to win high-profile converts, and its social teaching exerts an influence (often unacknowledged) on public debates, inspiring political thinkers who seek to challenge both the cultural left and the laissez-faire right.

The Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance, who converted to Catholicism after attending Yale Law School, exemplifies this phenomenon. When he was baptized into the church in 2019, he joined an influential group of conservative converts, including the legal scholars Erika Bachiochi and Adrian Vermeule, the political scientist Darel Paul, the Times Opinion columnist Ross Douthat, the theologian R.R. Reno and the writer and editor Sohrab Ahmari, one of my colleagues at the online magazine Compact. (I am also a convert to Catholicism, and I work or have worked with many of these figures.)

Such thinkers disagree, sometimes sharply, on important matters, not least the value of populism and the merits of Donald Trump. But all share a combination of social conservatism and a willingness to question many of the free-market orthodoxies of the pre-Trump Republican Party. In doing so, they can claim justification from Catholic social teaching, a body of thought that insists on a traditional understanding of the family while embracing a living wage and trade unions as means of promoting “the common good.” See, for example, Mr. Vance in 2019 : “My views on public policy and what the optimal state should look like are pretty aligned with Catholic social teaching.”

This group’s economic thinking distinguishes its members from an earlier cohort of conservative Catholic intellectuals such as William F. Buckley Jr. and Michael Novak. Those men laid a stress on free markets, in part because the threat of Soviet Communism had led Catholic thinkers to emphasize the relative virtues of a liberal and capitalist system that had long been subject to Catholic critique.

By contrast, for Mr. Vance and others like him, Catholicism seems to be a resource for pushing back against the excesses of cultural and economic liberalism. As for so many converts before them, the church represents an alternative to the dominant ethos of the age. During the Romantic period, intellectuals like Chateaubriand and Friedrich Schlegel were drawn to Catholicism in reaction to what they saw as a tidal wave of rationalism associated with the Enlightenment. In the 20th century, the writer Evelyn Waugh, another convert, described Catholicism as a welcome foil for what he saw as the “materialistic, mechanized state.”

Many of today’s converts look to resist the left-right fusion of libertarian cultural attitudes and free-market economics that has reshaped Western society over the past three or four decades. But rather than precipitating a radical overhaul of society, as some fear and others hope, they have exerted a subtler influence that is nonetheless significant: altering how the Republican Party approaches policy, and in some cases helping build a new consensus across party lines.

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Rfk jr. could be ‘impactful’ despite lawsuit to keep him off pa. ballot: pollster.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — A legal effort to keep independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. off the ballot in Pennsylvania is picking up steam — and catching the eyes of the Keystone State’s polling experts.

A petition filed Thursday argues that the nominating papers filed by Kennedy and his running mate, Silicon Valley attorney Nicole Shanahan, “demonstrate, at best, a fundamental disregard” of state law and the signature-gathering process.

Kennedy’s paperwork contains “numerous ineligible signatures and defect,” including documents that are torn or taped over, as well as irregular handwriting patterns “suggestive that the indicated voters did not sign those sheets.”

Christopher Borick, who serves as director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion, says such ballot access hurdles are not uncommon for third-party candidates in Pennsylvania.

“We see them a lot in Pennsylvania. They’re classically adjudicated … sometimes resulting in significant rejection of signatures and removal [from] the ballot,” said Borick, also a political science professor at the liberal arts school in Allentown’s West End.

Kennedy — who was already removed from the ballot in New York after a judge rejected his residency claim — has consistently polled poorly in Pennsylvania relative to other swing states.

An Emerson College poll conducted in mid-July found that just 6.3% of Keystone State voters would support a candidate other than Donald Trump or then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden — the smallest share of all battleground states explored by the poll. 

Despite this, Borick believes Kennedy could still be “impactful” in the general election if allowed to remain on Pennsylvania’s ballot.

“Even if he gets 3 or 4 points, of course it becomes a game of who are those votes getting siphoned from,” Borick said.

Asked where Kennedy’s voters could go if he’s kept off the ballot, Borick challenged conventional wisdom that his third-party campaign would hurt Democrats. 

“For a long time, the exception was that [Kennedy] would hurt the Democrats more,” Borick said.

“…But there seems to be substantial evidence that if he moves the needle away from one or the other, that Trump might be more damaged,” he added.

Where Kennedy voters might go in Pennsylvania’s critical down-ballot races — such as the Senate election between Bob Casey and Dave McCormick, as well as tight House races in the state’s 7th, 8th and 17th congressional districts — remains uncertain, according to Borick.

“Can RFK Jr. be impactful? Yeah, Jill Stein was impactful,” Borick said with a chuckle.

Kennedy’s lawyers remain confident that the effort to remove him from Pennsylvania’s ballot will fail.

Kennedy campaign lawyer Larry Otter told the Associated Press that the lawyer who filed the petition “makes specious allegations and is obviously not familiar with the process of amending a circulator’s affidavit, which seems to be the gist of his complaint.”

Besides Pennsylvania and New York, Kennedy faces ongoing legal challenges to ballot access in several other states — including from a liberal PAC in Democrat-heavy Illinois.