Throughout the course of history, organized groups of people have turned to isolating their adversaries from resources when faced with conflict. They generally do so through two main mechanisms; the rather primitive, yet timeless blockade and its diplomatic successor, the sanction. Appearances aside, deprivation lacks the obvious moral superiority to
The murder of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer has once again brought the issue of systemic racism, police violence, and criminal justice reform to the forefront of the American national conversation, in print and in the streets. As part of that conversation, Liberal Currents solicited
Everyone hates identity politics. Leftists like Walter Benn Michaels argue that antiracism, feminism, and LGBT rights movements divide and undermine the real liberatory battles by emphasizing individual identity rather than universal working class solidarity. Liberals like Mark Lilla, meanwhile, make much the same argument, fretting that identity politics emphasizes difference
The case for universal, direct benefits over those funneled through employers is strong in normal times—direct provision of things like healthcare may cost more in taxes, but saving employers from that burden removes a major distortion from the market and ultimately maximizing liberty and efficiency for both firms and
“In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.” – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the Communist Manifesto Liberals everywhere should cheer the opening essay in
We live in a time when more access to contraceptives means that people have more of a say over their bodies. For women who were of childbearing age in Puerto Rico during the years of 1937–1960, the opposite was true. These women were manipulated by their health care workers
As the COVID-19 virus has spread across the globe, a variety of reactions and questions have emerged. Most responses focus on how to confront it. What steps should be taken? What restrictions should governments enforce, while respecting civil liberties and preventing the economy from breaking down? What can private citizens
“I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it,” Beatrice Evelyn Hall wrote in her 1906 biography of Voltaire. Her words conveying Voltaire’s attitude have become one of the most quoted, and most valorized, summations of liberal principles. Unfortunately, the statement
In 2019, the liberal European parliamentary group Renew Europe won its best election result since 2004. Reflecting on that result, the president of Renew Europe, Dacian Ciolos, wrote, “Europeans have given us a strong mandate to change Europe for the better…[Renew Europe] will stand up for the people who
A divided America has come together in the face of a crisis; to a man they have all agreed that “if the world were organised according to my political views, this tragedy would never have happened.” For a certain class of American, this includes their views on how the media
Trump made headlines in announcing that the US will be suspending financial support to the World Health Organization (WHO) until completing an investigation into its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. While this action has been rightly decried as an attempt to deflect blame for his own response, which was too
“Anyone who believes that if you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem is part of the problem.” Aaron Haspel Guns and fetuses. Out of all the issues that have plagued American democracy in the past few centuries, none seem to reach the tenor and