Allum Bokhari, a British political consultant and Liberal Democrat, has penned an interesting column in which he finds a growing gulf between the views of moderate liberals and radical progressives on a number of key social issues. He writes:
The coalition of moderate liberals, skeptical intellectuals, and radical progressives that once stood together against the conservative “moral majority” is beginning to fracture. … [A] number of serious divisions have emerged on the cultural left. And they are becoming increasingly bitter. …
On Islamism:
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a female genital mutilation survivor…was disinvited from a planned speaking engagement at Brandeis University for her criticism of Islam, and was stripped of her honorary degree. Salon.com immediately applauded the decision. … Students at UC Berkeley attempted to do the same to Bill Maher over his alleged islamophobia. … One of their [progressives] core beliefs is that you do not “punch down”—that is, attack vulnerable or marginalized communities. Islam, despite being the dominant religion of dozens of nation-states, is said by progressives to fall into this category. …
On due process:
These days…defenders of due process are more likely to be at loggerheads with radical progressives than Bush-era neocons. Nowadays, it is progressives, not conservatives, who championed the use of campus tribunals to deal with sexual assault on US campuses. These tribunals, conducted by untrained faculty members, with no requirement for defendants to have access to legal representation, have attracted a growing tide of criticism. …
On censorship:
Today…it is progressives who are not just standing up for the right of private censorship, but also actively demand it. It is progressives, not Christian conservatives, who now lead campaigns against sex and violence in the media. And it was progressive students, not middle-aged moral crusaders, who banned a pop song on over 20 university campuses. …
Bokhari concludes:
It increasingly appears that cultural politics, once the great strength of the left-wing movement, is rapidly turning into its Achilles heel. Once a source of unity, it has turned into perhaps the primary source of division. With moderate liberals and radical progressives sharpening their weapons on a number of fronts, a battle for the soul of the left is about to begin.
I fear that’s way too optimistic an outloook, at least when applied to the U.S. From what I can see, there aren’t many “moderate liberals” in this country who are willing to speak out against “radical progressives,” especially regarding due process protections and freedom of expression, although libertarians certainly are doing so.
More. For those who are interested, more from Allum Bokhari, via Britain’s Liberal Democratic Voice website.
Furthermore. Along somewhat similar lines, Jonathan Chait on How the language police are perverting liberalism:
But political correctness is not a rigorous commitment to social equality so much as a system of left-wing ideological repression. Not only is it not a form of liberalism; it is antithetical to liberalism. Indeed, its most frequent victims turn out to be liberals themselves. …
Liberals believe (or ought to believe) that social progress can continue while we maintain our traditional ideal of a free political marketplace where we can reason together as individuals. Political correctness challenges that bedrock liberal ideal. While politically less threatening than conservatism (the far right still commands far more power in American life), the p.c. left is actually more philosophically threatening. It is an undemocratic creed.
8 Comments for “Liberals vs. Progressives?”
posted by Tom Scharbach on
I have to admit that I have no idea who Allum Bokhari might be — an internet search comes up with a kid who is a game theory proponent rather than a Britishpolitical consultant — but “civil war” is overdrawn in my opinion. The liberal/left/progressive movement has always been loud and fractious, and probably always will be.
I was reminded of that fact yet again the other day while reading a history of FDR’s 1944 political campaign, when all the various currents of New Deal political coalition were in collision, and I’ve seen it happen time and time again during my lifetime.
In fact, I can’t recall a time when someone wasn’t predicting that the left/liberal coalition would shortly explode, implode or otherwise self-destruct. It seems to self-correct over time and keep chugging along, disorganized, loud and fractious.
posted by Tom Jefferson III on
The Liberal Democrats was a ‘third way’ party in the 1980s, then it tended to be to the left of the Labour Party (which won a solid majority from 1997 – until recently) and now the party has moved back to being something of a ‘radical center’ or ‘third way’ party.
In the United States — in contrast — the Democratic Party is run by centrist-third way style politics (after doing poorly in the 1980s presidential elections) while the Republican Party is pretty much run by the right-wing and the uber-right wing who wants to smoke pot or shoot unarmed youth.
Third parties — for legal and cultural reasons — do not have the success of say the Liberal Democrats. Although their is talk about some sort of centrist political movement brewing (most recently with Bloomberg),
Also, in the UK “liberal” often gets seen as being (what we would probably think if as Neo Liberal or third way). See; the Liberal International. Progressive sometimes refer to the left of liberal… Yet…In the US liberal and progressive tend to get used as meaning one and the same.
BTW….college students don’t necessarily reflect the best (or worst) of the political left or right. To some extent this also applies to the administration.
The fact that many young people don’t seem capable of having a civil and smart debate or disagreement is indeed sad (but not limited to one party or side). I blame much of it on what passes for ‘debate’ on cable news shows, talk radio, online and the like.
posted by Doug on
Maybe you should concentrate on changing the hearts and minds of your Republican evangelical radicals and stop worrying about the progressive left, Stephen.
posted by Tom Jefferson III on
Being an opponent of female genital mutilation (FGM) does not make one guilty of prejudice against Muslims, just like being against, say, child or domestic violence does not make one guilty of prejudice against gay marriage.
Many women (and men) — from many different cultures, classes and creeds — have fought to bring greater attention to various acts of violence against women. It was largely liberals and progressive who fought (since the 1970s) for the United Nations to pay greater attention to women’s rights and the gendered nature of human rights and development issues.
Much of the political right generally disliked the idea of the United Nations and –in the UK– were skeptical of the ability of the European Union to advance human rights principles.
The problem — in terms of prejudice or racism or hatred — is when someone argues that all Muslims are crazy people who want rape and mutilate women/girls…..or that all gay couples are out to ‘recruit’ children and prone to acts of domestic violence….
posted by James in Chicago on
How very true! Just because some gays are especially prone to violently abuse the person they claim to love and just because some of us are in the business of recruiting innocent children into our homosexual lifestyle, it doesn’t mean we all do it! Thanks for sharing, bozo.
posted by Tom Jefferson III on
James;
You seem to reject prejudice against gay people, but are eager to endorse it when it comes to Muslims. It is you who are the bozo here.
Certain members of the political right want to feed off of the “all Muslims are terrorist” trough. I get why much of the media gets off on this sort of thing (“sex and violence” sells), but I it rather odd that people from one marginalized or oppressed group would rush to believe such foolishness.
I find this sort of thing — prejudice directed at Muslims — to be as dumb as the sort of prejudice levied against say, gay people or Jews or Catholics or Japanese Americans.
Are their Muslims who want to kill “infidels”? Yes, and they have to be dealt with (generally with the military/intelligence services) However, that does not justify the prejudice (i.e. “Muslims are bad”) and shouldn’t be used to try and “whitewash” the fact any sort strong religious fundamentalism or a strong dedication to authoritarian politics tends bring out terrorism.
Their are a Christians who are terrorists — i.e. the KKK, White Supremacists and folks that blow up abortion clinics or gay bars. Many of these groups had quite a bit of power in this nation (thankfully less so today). However, that doesn’t mean that “Christianity = terrorism”.
Female genital mutilation is often justified — wrongly — by Islamic beliefs. It really more of old cultural-tribal custom that gets masked as “the will of God”. Such mutilation should be opposed and many NGOs are doing just that (although I doubt too many of them are conservative in their politics).
The lessons to be learned is not “Muslims are bad”, but that religious fundamentalism tends to bring out the worst in people. Just as subscription to a political belief system that does not really have much interest in some form of legit representative democracy, tends to bring out the worst in people.
posted by James in Chicago on
As it happens, I wouldn’t have started commenting on this site recently, if I hadn’t gotten fed up with the extreme liberalism as represented by Salon. Specifically in my case their endless efforts to exonerate Islam, their intellectually shallow and constant promotion of what amounts to, in my mind, a nihilistic disdain of all religion, a simplistic view of race relations, which fails to take culture into account and generally opines that white people are basically evil – make that white MEN – and, as far as sex goes, and you might not believe this, articles such as how a lesbian can fall in love with a man and still be gay – ’cause being queer is really just a way of seeing the world! – and another one that attempted to excuse a female dolphin trainer for regularly masturbating a male dolphin in her care. The dolphin eventually swam to the bottom of the pool and drowned himself. And I actually could go on, but I’m still not a conservative and I still regard libertarianism as, at best, a sophomoric joke.
posted by Tom Jefferson III on
-believe this, articles such as how a lesbian can fall in love with a man and still be gay –
Wow…..Well…yeah….um…their is this thing called “bisexuality”. It might just fit this sort of definition.