Liberalism didn't fail, it won so successfully that it has nothing left to do. The problems that remain are problems that can't be solved with more liberalism. This is why you can't think of liberal solutions, all those that work have already been implemented and the only liberal ideas that remain are those that won't work.
Liberalism hasn’t failed; it has been taken for granted. Liberalism/neoliberalism, whatever you call it, has been successful. Yes, the rich in America are very rich (too rich, IMO), but even the poor in America consume more than their comparison groups abroad. The reason that Trump’s B.S. is so appealing is that Americans have never experienced illiberalism and also, perhaps, that progressives got out over their skis in promoting transgender “rights” and “wokeness.” I expect that if Trump actually pursues the policies that his appointees so far seem to promise, the honeymoon will be very short.
To create a new liberalism that meets the challenges of our time, we must look beyond liberalism for answers. In the twentieth century, liberals turned to socialism and social democracy because they were alternative existing value systems. All we have now are far-right populism and neoliberalism, and neither one is fit to the basis of an advanced civilization
“in general we should build a proposal for society founded on common, historically grounded values, and have a proactive and not reactive political outlook”
So, Make America Great Again? Labeling something proactive or reactive depends entirely on which side you’re on.
The first half of your piece I agreed with. But then you don’t connect liberalism to the crises we are seeing today. Liberalism “winning history” is what caused this because at its core, it has always been an ideology of justifying material inequality and exploitation under the garb of ideas of rhetoric. And those only work till a certain degree of material stability & controllable-crisis-driven-distractions are enabled.
But inevitability, the energy in the system become uncontrollable and the facade falls apart.
There is no new liberalism because the historical conditions that allowed its creation don’t exist anymore.
What could be more fascist than the American system of universal suffrage? Think about it…people 18 and over who know nothing about the United Stares Constitution, government, history, or economics have the power to decide who will lead us and what policies will be enacted. How is that not fascism? These ignorant voters are ripe for manipulation by demagogues and psychopaths and megalomaniacs. In Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, only military veterans who put their lives on the line to defend their country had the right to vote. Maybe that’s a little extreme…but at least we ought to require some sort of citizenship test about the United States Constitution and our system of government that American citizens have to pass before they can vote. Doesn’t that make sense? Otherwise, ignorant voters will elect fascist leaders who will take away the rights of those same ignorant voters. The founding fathers knew this…which is why the franchise was limited to property holders and people who stood to lose big if incompetent leaders came to power. Universal suffrage of everyone over eighteen is a joke and a nightmare…it’s the proverbial ship of fools that sails straight to fascism.
Can you think of anything better than fast inclusive (and CO2 emissions reducing) growth? I can't. The problem is that the things I can think of to achieve that end -- lower deficits by taxing consumption progressively, merit based immigration, tax of net CO2 emissions, freer trade to deal with Chinese dominance of global manufacturing -- are not particularly popular politically..
1) conservatives are happier (literally every statistic shows this)
2) conservatives do a better job governing (just look at red states vs blue states, the dysfunction of the big blue cities)
In the lefts corner you have the fact that the credentials racket siphons off a lot of the economy and thus has a lot of goodies to give away to the credentialed class. Then it becomes a question of whether that siphon works faster the institutional dysfunction can squander it. For a while in say the 90s and 00s that was the case but since the 2010s it’s basically sucked to live anywhere run by leftist and the money spigot turned out not to be infinite.
Then since 2020 everything went into overdrive and you got a gotterdammerung of leftist insanity. Even Silicon Valley (the leaders not the NPCs) tapped out and said enough is enough and choose Trump. The entire Trump coalition, including Trump, are just a bunch of 90s liberals pushed out of the tent.
The leftist tent is now composed entirely of the credentialed class, single women (mostly on the take), and a shrinking urban minority vote bank. Everyone else is on the outside.
The red state/blue state thing is exaggerated based on selection--Mississippi and Louisiana are cherry-red and nobody thinks they're well-run. And while the Silicon Valley honchos have turned red, this probably has as much to do with love of tax cuts and hatred of Me Too as love of red governance. It's still a fifty-fifty country, or maybe 51-49.
Mississippi is almost 40% black and has been poor forever. Its worst governed parts are cities like Jackson, which are 80% black and run by a Dem black machine. They can't even manage to keep clean tap water running.
A better comparison might be some heavily black rust belt Dem city in the North.
The closest thing we have to an apples to apples comparison would be CA/NY vs TX/FL. Big populous states with many industries near coastline and not too many blacks. TX/FL have been clobbering CA/NY in livability, GDP growth, and internal migration for decades now.
Or if you prefer just find some deep blue city and red suburb/exurb surrounding it and marvel at the difference in governance. The North is full of these I lived in them most of my life.
Liberalism didn't fail, it won so successfully that it has nothing left to do. The problems that remain are problems that can't be solved with more liberalism. This is why you can't think of liberal solutions, all those that work have already been implemented and the only liberal ideas that remain are those that won't work.
Liberalism hasn’t failed; it has been taken for granted. Liberalism/neoliberalism, whatever you call it, has been successful. Yes, the rich in America are very rich (too rich, IMO), but even the poor in America consume more than their comparison groups abroad. The reason that Trump’s B.S. is so appealing is that Americans have never experienced illiberalism and also, perhaps, that progressives got out over their skis in promoting transgender “rights” and “wokeness.” I expect that if Trump actually pursues the policies that his appointees so far seem to promise, the honeymoon will be very short.
To create a new liberalism that meets the challenges of our time, we must look beyond liberalism for answers. In the twentieth century, liberals turned to socialism and social democracy because they were alternative existing value systems. All we have now are far-right populism and neoliberalism, and neither one is fit to the basis of an advanced civilization
“in general we should build a proposal for society founded on common, historically grounded values, and have a proactive and not reactive political outlook”
So, Make America Great Again? Labeling something proactive or reactive depends entirely on which side you’re on.
The first half of your piece I agreed with. But then you don’t connect liberalism to the crises we are seeing today. Liberalism “winning history” is what caused this because at its core, it has always been an ideology of justifying material inequality and exploitation under the garb of ideas of rhetoric. And those only work till a certain degree of material stability & controllable-crisis-driven-distractions are enabled.
But inevitability, the energy in the system become uncontrollable and the facade falls apart.
There is no new liberalism because the historical conditions that allowed its creation don’t exist anymore.
I’ve written a bunch about this on my newsletter, most recently about historical arcs: https://www.thefictitiouscapital.com/p/15-the-arcs-of-history
What could be more fascist than the American system of universal suffrage? Think about it…people 18 and over who know nothing about the United Stares Constitution, government, history, or economics have the power to decide who will lead us and what policies will be enacted. How is that not fascism? These ignorant voters are ripe for manipulation by demagogues and psychopaths and megalomaniacs. In Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, only military veterans who put their lives on the line to defend their country had the right to vote. Maybe that’s a little extreme…but at least we ought to require some sort of citizenship test about the United States Constitution and our system of government that American citizens have to pass before they can vote. Doesn’t that make sense? Otherwise, ignorant voters will elect fascist leaders who will take away the rights of those same ignorant voters. The founding fathers knew this…which is why the franchise was limited to property holders and people who stood to lose big if incompetent leaders came to power. Universal suffrage of everyone over eighteen is a joke and a nightmare…it’s the proverbial ship of fools that sails straight to fascism.
Inscrutable reasons, huh?
Can you think of anything better than fast inclusive (and CO2 emissions reducing) growth? I can't. The problem is that the things I can think of to achieve that end -- lower deficits by taxing consumption progressively, merit based immigration, tax of net CO2 emissions, freer trade to deal with Chinese dominance of global manufacturing -- are not particularly popular politically..
The simple answer is that:
1) conservatives are happier (literally every statistic shows this)
2) conservatives do a better job governing (just look at red states vs blue states, the dysfunction of the big blue cities)
In the lefts corner you have the fact that the credentials racket siphons off a lot of the economy and thus has a lot of goodies to give away to the credentialed class. Then it becomes a question of whether that siphon works faster the institutional dysfunction can squander it. For a while in say the 90s and 00s that was the case but since the 2010s it’s basically sucked to live anywhere run by leftist and the money spigot turned out not to be infinite.
Then since 2020 everything went into overdrive and you got a gotterdammerung of leftist insanity. Even Silicon Valley (the leaders not the NPCs) tapped out and said enough is enough and choose Trump. The entire Trump coalition, including Trump, are just a bunch of 90s liberals pushed out of the tent.
The leftist tent is now composed entirely of the credentialed class, single women (mostly on the take), and a shrinking urban minority vote bank. Everyone else is on the outside.
The red state/blue state thing is exaggerated based on selection--Mississippi and Louisiana are cherry-red and nobody thinks they're well-run. And while the Silicon Valley honchos have turned red, this probably has as much to do with love of tax cuts and hatred of Me Too as love of red governance. It's still a fifty-fifty country, or maybe 51-49.
Mississippi is almost 40% black and has been poor forever. Its worst governed parts are cities like Jackson, which are 80% black and run by a Dem black machine. They can't even manage to keep clean tap water running.
A better comparison might be some heavily black rust belt Dem city in the North.
The closest thing we have to an apples to apples comparison would be CA/NY vs TX/FL. Big populous states with many industries near coastline and not too many blacks. TX/FL have been clobbering CA/NY in livability, GDP growth, and internal migration for decades now.
Or if you prefer just find some deep blue city and red suburb/exurb surrounding it and marvel at the difference in governance. The North is full of these I lived in them most of my life.