Liberalism can't do without equality

What liberal conservatives miss and why it makes them vulnerable to post-liberal critiques

December 04, 2023

People gathered in the street during the daytime in June 2020 as part of the George Floyd protests in London, UK.

I’m in The Hub this morning responding to some arguments from the most recent Munk Debate, “Be it Resolved, liberalism gets the big questions right”, with George Will (for), Jacob Rees-Mogg (for), Sohrab Ahmari (against), and Ash Sarkar (against).

The debate resulted in a 14% swing against the motion. I focus on the opening statements published in The Hub from Will and Ahmari to illustrate one mistake defenders of liberalism are making: trying to defend liberalism as a status quo ideology with impressive past accomplishments but without answers to problems we haven’t solved yet.

That last bit is, of course, not true—if liberals are willing to reclaim the parts of liberalism that were downplayed or set aside for a 20th-century alliance with conservatism, it has a lot to offer. This includes a liberal accounting of equality, identity, and group participation in politics. Liberalism has much to say about groups, and what it has to say answers the post-liberals’ challenge. But,

“Rather than emphasize the battle for freedom and against inequality that sets liberalism apart and lights a flame in the heart of citizens demanding to be counted, too many liberals have rejected the validity of group membership as a politically salient or unifying issue. Having washed their hands of these groups, liberals then condemn identity-based movements for lacking sufficiently recognizable liberal politics. 

“Rather than making “the building of a free society once more an intellectual adventure, a deed of courage”, [liberals such as George Will] sing the praises of boring politics.”

I hope you’ll check out the whole piece.

I’ve been reading:

I’ve finally finished Kevin J. Elliott’s Democracy for Busy People. It is excellent. Expect some content related to this soon.

Judith Shklar’s Tanner Lectures on Human Values, also published as the short book American Citizenship: The Quest for Inclusion.

This piece on the laws of war is excellent, though paywalled. TLDR: The laws of war help us judge the reasons for war separately from how war is pursued. This is important for maintaining a path back to peace, and inconvenient for those who want the reasons for conflict to justify any response. If you have access, use it!

My pal Adam is one half of the team behind this post in Friday’s Montreal Gazette, on our need to stand against hate and violence at home, even as we make spirited cases for our beliefs about the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

Finally, I’m very pleased to have joined the advisory board for the newly launched World Anti-Extremism Network. Check them out!