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Liberals love to tell their creation story. It begins in the 17th century. Liberalism arose from the political competition between Catholics and Protestants in Western Europe. Pre-liberal and liberal philosophers fought to end religious wars, and they defended religious toleration as a moral principle. Prominent figures include Pierre Bayle, Roger
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As we face another uncertain year, and struggle with challenges to our personal and collective physical and mental health, a long fight for dignity is taking an important turn in Massachusetts. Massachusetts Bills S.1127 and H.1822 seek to ban discrimination based on body size. If passed, Massachusetts would
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The creation, proliferation, and persistence of liberal democracy in the last century is a triumph which we should neither underestimate nor take for granted. For liberals, the protection of liberties, the strengthening of democratic accountability, the quest for lawfulness, the fostering of new capabilities and proliferation of old ones, as
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“The Great Era of Sanction Diplomacy” is nothing more than a ruse. The extreme use of sanctions is not diplomacy at all, though they begin with diplomats, include multinational agreements and negotiations, and ostensibly seeks to avoid the death that is wrought by conventional warfare. Rather, sanctions are, like conventional
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As histories of liberalism go, Liberalism: The Life of an Idea is a remarkable achievement, a history of liberalism over the past two centuries not only as theorized by philosophers and economists, but as practiced by politicians and activists. It’s also a real pleasure to read, with vivid prose.
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In those days I had seen little further than the old school of political economists into the possibilities of fundamental improvement in social arrangements. Private property, as now understood, and inheritance, appeared to me, as to them, the dernier mot of legislation: and I looked no further than to mitigating
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The debate over housing policy cuts to the core of people’s lives. For many families it is their largest expense, and certainly losing one’s home is a disruption that few economic setbacks can match. Thus, the sheer ferocity of housing debates should come as no surprise: generally, on
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I have long considered myself a liberal, in the following sense: I believe in liberal democracy. The ideal of a republic of free and equal citizens is my north star, guiding my own politics here in the messy mundane world. I believe that bodily autonomy is a fundamental right, and
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“If we were to stand silently by and not have the courage to speak out against these proposals, then we could never look anyone in the eye again and say we support alternatives to abortion.” Wanda Franz, a staunch anti-abortion activist and then-president of the National Right to Life Committee,
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Kwame Ture (formerly Stokely Carmichael), who went from marching with Martin Luther King, Jr. as a member of SNCC to allying with the Black Panther Party, is widely credited with introducing the term “institutional racism.” He first mentioned it in a 1966 article, and, together with political scientist Charles V.
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American liberalism is in crisis. The conservative movement in the US has turned against small-L liberalism and small-D democratic values, and America’s future as a liberal democracy is in question. To make matters worse, the alliance of progressives, social democrats and liberal moderates that make up the Democratic Party
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A reading from the Book of Post-Liberalism: In the beginning there was order on heaven and earth. Between Church and laity, state and subject, virtuous and perverts there was reverence and submission. And it was good. Then Francis Bacon stretched forth his hand and said “Let there be progress!” and