FrontPage Magazine published my response to University of Chicago Law professor Geoffrey Stone’s Chicago Tribune essay, “What it means to be a liberal.” When I read his propositions, I found myself thinking “That’d be the day!” to several of them. I realized this was another example of “liberalism” as opposed to true liberalism.
Stone writes:
3. Liberals believe individuals have a right and a responsibility to participate in public debate. It is liberals who have championed and continue to champion expansion of the franchise; the elimination of obstacles to voting; “one person, one vote;” limits on partisan gerrymandering; campaign-finance reform; and a more vibrant freedom of speech. They believe, with Justice Louis Brandeis, that “the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people.”
My response:
3. Leftists believe people have an obligation to ? that is, they should be forced to ? fund public social-welfare programs. Leftists believe people should be on the hook not only for the political schemes by elected politicians, but also they should be made to pay for the political campaigns of all kinds of aspiring scheming politicians. Leftists believe that forcing private individuals to fund extremist politicians who could never garner private donations on their own is a way to improve elections. Then leftists believe that private donations to campaigns ought to be severely limited and that campaign advertisements should be, too.
When leftists curtail liberty like that, they have to resort to euphemism to try to put it in a positive light. So they call those things creating “a more vibrant freedom of speech.” Just like the “most vibrant” people can be found in cemeteries.
