How Liberalism self-destructed

[Henk Elegeert]

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 How Liberalism
self-destructed<http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45376.html>
 [image: Light rail vehicles in Seattle are pictured. | AP Photo]
The author says Obama emphasized an urban agenda that promoted nationally
directed smart growth, including inefficient light rail. | AP Photo Close
By JOEL KOTKIN | 11/19/10

Democrats are still looking for explanations for their stunning rejection in
the midterms — citing everything from voting rights violations and Middle
America’s racist orientation to Americans’ inability to perceive the
underlying genius of President Barack Obama’s economic policy.

What they have failed to consider is the albatross of contemporary
liberalism.

Liberalism once embraced the mission of fostering upward mobility and a
stronger economy. But liberalism’s appeal has diminished, particularly among
middle-class voters, as it has become increasingly control-oriented and
economically cumbersome.

Today, according to most recent polling, no more than one in five voters
call themselves liberal.

This contrasts with the far broader support for the familiar form of
liberalism forged from the 1930s to the 1990s. Democratic presidents from
Franklin D. Roosevelt to Bill Clinton focused largely on basic middle-class
concerns — such as expanding economic opportunity, property ownership and
growth.

Modern-day liberalism, however, is often ambivalent about expanding the
economy — preferring a mix of redistribution with redirection along green
lines. Its base of political shock troops, public-employee unions, appears
only tangentially interested in the health of the overall economy.

In the short run, the diminishment of middle-of-the-road Democrats at the
state and national level will probably only worsen these tendencies, leaving
a rump party tied to the coastal regions, big cities and college towns.
There, many voters are dependents of government, subsidized students or
public employees, or wealthy creative people, college professors and
business service providers.

This process — driven in large part by the liberal attachment to
economically regressive policies such as cap and trade — cost the Democrats
mightily throughout the American heartland. Politicians who survived the
tsunami, such as Sen. Joe Manchin in West Virginia, did so by denouncing
proposals in states where green policies are regarded as hostile to
productive local industries that are major employers.

Populism, a traditional support of liberalism, has been undermined by a deep
suspicion that President Barack Obama’s economic policy favors Wall Street
investment bankers over those who work on Main Street. This allowed the GOP,
a party long beholden to monied interests, to win virtually every income
segment earning more than $50,000.

Obama also emphasized an urban agenda that promoted nationally directed
smart growth, inefficient light rail and almost ludicrous plans for a
national high-speed rail network. These proposals appealed to the new
urbanist cadre but had little appeal for the vast majority of Americans who
live in outer-ring neighborhoods, suburbs and small towns.

The failure of Obama-style liberalism has less to do with government
activism than with how the administration defined its activism. Rather than
deal with basic concerns, it appeared to endorse the notion of bringing the
federal government into aspects of life — from health care to zoning —
traditionally controlled at the local level.

This approach is unpopular even among “millennials,” who, with minorities,
represent the best hope for the Democratic left. As the generational
chroniclers Morley Winograd and Michael Hais point out, millennials favor
government action — but generally at the local level, which is seen as more
effective and collaborative. Top-down solutions from “experts,” Winograd and
Hais write in a forthcoming book, are as offensive to millennials as the
right’s penchant for dictating lifestyles.

"

Wat heeft het liberalisme hier dan nog te bieden?

Henk Elegeert

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