Historic Liberalism
Our liberal values have a long 300 year history. Originating as part of the enlightenment of the 17th century, they were expressed by John Locke in his Treatise on Government, published in 1690. Tom Paine, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison. Adam Smith (known as the founder of economics), John Mill and John Stuart Mill expressed these values, as have many others to this day.
Liberal values appear in our Declaration of Independence in such statements as "All men are created equal." and "With due respect for the opinions of mankind ..." But `all men' did not in practice include men without property, nor women, nor slaves of African ancestry. Our American expression of liberal values as 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' emphasizes community less that the French expression of `liberty, equality and fraternity'.
For 300 years, our liberal values have remained the same, focused upon enhancing liberty (freedoms and opportunities) and upon equality among members of our community in possessing this liberty. Over time, we have also enlarged our understanding of who is included in our community. As circumstances have changed, we have led struggles against different challenges to freedom and opportunity. Learn more about our Liberal history in Harvard Sitkoff (ed.), Persepectivies on Modern America, Making Sense of the Twentieth Century.
Many Victorious Liberal Struggles
Liberals have won many struggles to extend and enhance our freedoms and opportunities, against opposition from conservatives.
1690's - John Locke struggled to place parliamentary limits upon the English King and this occurred.
1770's - Our liberal colonists led the struggle against the English and their Tory supporters (who were the conservatives of that time) to free us from colonial rule.
1800's - Due to liberals, the right to vote was gradually expanded to include men without property and our national legislators came to be elected directly by voters instead of by state legislators.
1830's - 1860's - Opposed by southern conservatives, liberals supported abolition of slavery. Through our devastating Civil War, slavery was abolished.
1890's - Liberals called populists opposed exploitation of farmers and others by giant corporations. Robert La Follett fought monopolistic pricing by railroads. Theodore Roosevelt obtained trust-busting legislation to dismantle large monopolies.
1890's - Muck-raking journalists exposed many abuses of consumers and workers which led to liberals passing protective legislation.
1890's - 1920's - Liberals supported legalizing property, voting and other rights for women. Conservatives opposed them. Women obtained these rights.
1930's - Responding to the great depression, liberal FDR and his New Dealers won the struggle against conservatives to regulate markets, provide a safety net (including social security) and ensure the rights of labor to organize. After World War II, macro-economic Keynesian fiscal policies were adopted to counter business cycles.
1940's - As occurred during and immediately after previous wars, liberties were threatened in the name of security. Japanese Americans were interned in concentration camps. But President Truman began racial integration of the military. As the cold war mounted, conservatives increased their attacks upon liberals, but McCarthyism has become a bad word.
1960's - Liberals mounted a civil rights movement to eliminate legal supports for racial segregation. President Johnson managed the passage of civil rights legislation
1960's - As poverty amid affluence was noted, liberals led by President Johnson initiated the `War on Poverty'. Poverty was much reduced; increased again under conservative Reagan, reduced under liberal Clinton and increases again under Bush.
1960's - Against corporate opposition, liberals won the passage of much environmental legislation, including the endangered species, clean air and clean water acts.
1960's and 1970's - Liberals led the struggle to end the Vietnam War.
1990's - 2000's - Liberals struggled against Christian conservatives to grant equal freedoms and opportunities to gays and lesbians. Gays and lesbians are gaining more rights. More than 60% of younger Americans now support equal rights for gays and lesbians.
2000's - The newest group to have its freedoms and opportunities opposed by conservatives are our immigrants.
Beginning in the 1820's, conservatives placed restrictions for the first time on immigration to America. In the absence of sufficient legal ways for immigrants to come and work as needed labor, immigrants are coming anyway and with the tacit support of employers are working. Conservatives oppose legalization and are currently threatening the impossible task of deporting or jailing millions of immigrants. Just as we couldn't enforce prohibition of alcohol, we can't enforce prohibition of immigration in response to work opportunities. Conservatives have only hurt themselves by losing the votes of our fast growing immigrant population. Liberals now support legalizing immigrants who come, take needed jobs, and will help support our social security.
We Liberals have always won. Often only after long and costly struggles and sometimes setbacks, as are occurring now with our increasing poverty rates. We can wish that liberals had undertaken some of these struggles earlier and won more quickly, but history can't be redone.
Our task now is to struggle strongly to enhance freedoms and opportunities for not just all Americans, but for all humans. We have many unfinished tasks, including removal of dictators, peaceful settling of disputes between and within countries, enforcement of human rights internationally, provision of adequate safety nets, protection of our environment, and. reduction of corporate oppression.
Our liberal values can be easily used as a basis for our liberal positions concerning: tax policy, balanced budgets, social investments, social services, protection of civil rights, equal gender rights, women's pregnancy choices, same-sex marriage, environmental protection, regulation of corporate and other responsibilities, regulation of campaign contributions and lobbying, and most if not all other positions shared by most liberals. By extending our community to include all of our world's people, we base our foreign policy upon the same values.
History is not over. History will never be over. We liberals will always be enhancing our freedoms and opportunities and extending them to more people. We may not win each battle; but we will always win each war.