Charles Murray has decided that the real problem with the American left isn’t with liberals, it’s with progressives:
As a libertarian, I am reluctant to give up the word “liberal.” It used to refer to laissez-faire economics and limited government. But since libertarians aren’t ever going to be able to retrieve its original meaning, we should start using “liberal” to designate the good guys on the left, reserving “progressive” for those who are enthusiastic about an unrestrained regulatory state, who think it’s just fine to subordinate the interests of individuals to large social projects, who cheer the president’s abuse of executive power and who have no problem rationalizing the stifling of dissent.
Huh. I wonder what he thinks about those of us who believe that powerful actors in a modern world need to follow clear rules, but don’t believe in “unrestrained” regulation; who believe in some large social projects like universal health care but not others; who think the president has probably overstepped his bounds a few times but that the “abuse” epithet is mostly just partisan nonsense; and who don’t believe in stifling dissent?
Somehow I suspect that unless I took a just barely left of center approach to these things, Murray would conclude that I’m an evil progressive, not a good liberal. But maybe I’m wrong. I think Murray should create one of his fun little quizzes to determine which of us are liberals and which are progressives. Then we’d know for sure.
