I often hear from liberals lamenting they don't fight like conservatives. They've taken, it seems, to presenting themselves as victims of a punishing conservative counter-punch in contemporary politics.
I don't know if it's true but if it is, I can only surmise that maybe this is so because liberals have wielded special influence over the public imagination for the better part of the post-war era. It is the triumph of liberal ideas that has led to a conservative push back.
The totality of their grip was such that their ideas no longer needed, or so they may have felt, defending since they became common. The prevailing default posture was to be liberal.
Since the 1960s, the conservative movement has mobilized and gone on the attack and this leaves liberals dazed and confused to the point their only rebuttal is "b-but, we have the monopoly on progress and therefore truth!"
They no longer articulate and debate as well as they think.
This perhaps, is why it's been claimed there's a liberal "bias" on college and university campuses and in the media?
As far as I can tell, both sides are well-represented on television, radio, magazine publications and newspapers. Maybe an argument can be made that the slight edge goes to the left because they've done so well mastering the art of intellectual seduction over the years.
Whether empirical evidence or science was ever in their favor is fast becoming a subject of debate on the right side of the equation.
Where conservatives have a net advantage, I think, is on the Internet with blogs in particular. Conservatives are ready to defend the cause using blogs.
If liberals are to remove the stench of smugness and loss of arguing skills, they have to first rediscover what they believe in. There are indeed liberal outlets that do believe in their cause but it has to find a way back into our collective imagination.
At the moment, personally, they have a lot of work to do.
Merely using a subliminal "because we say so" message (liberals always act stunned when people don't support them) or arguing in a way that leads people to conclude all liberals thoughts and ideas conclude with tax hikes, government interference or state coercion is increasingly being questioned.
And those doing the questioning don't mind doing it online.
Rebranding time?
The rise of current liberal thought began pretty much began with FDR's New Deal and most western countries followed suit with similar Keynesian policies. The peak of such thought was in the 1960s and 70s with all the good and bad that came out of it, but since that time, it has been in steady decline.
ReplyDeleteThis kind of welfare liberalism is on the defensive today simply because they have been fresh out of new ideas for quite a while, and conservative thoughts and ideas (neoliberalism especially) are experiencing renewal and revival after years of having been exiled to the political wilderness, but they have not peaked yet.
More than a rebranding, I think that liberalism needs to face current realities and reinvent itself.
Well said.
ReplyDeleteI would add another reason for their ineffectiveness is, and I meant to mentioned it in the post, that liberals took for granted they are "right" and people would simply follow. In their eyes, they're rational.