STAR PARKER COMMENTARY: The Democrats Revive Liberalism

The conservative Republican commentator writes: "Being labeled a liberal fifteen years ago was the kiss of political death. Today's Democratic presidential candidates seem to wear it like a badge of honor. Or perhaps I should qualify this to say that the programs and ideas they're selling are pure garden-variety liberalism. Maybe they are less enthusiastic about the liberal label. A popular term of left wing spin-meisters these days is 'progressive.' Liberalism did not fall from favor like an out of vogue restaurant or some fad. It lost its glow because facts show it doesn't work. I am talking about the liberal idea that government is the answer to our problems. Tax here and spend there, take from this one and redistribute to that one, and you can solve any social or economic problem. Ironically, globally, as China, India, and Africa see the light of day by shedding government controls and planning, this is where our Democrats want to take us. There has been ink about the Democratic candidates snubbing the annual meeting of the Democratic Leadership Council, which represents the moderate wing of the Party, while they plan to attend a bloggers convention sponsored by the ultra-left Web site Daily Kos. You can argue as several have that in the general election the Democratic nominee will scurry back toward the center. But today every Democratic candidate is entrenched unapologetically in the far left."

Ms. Parker continues her commentary about Democrats & liberalism: "The deeply held belief of the left, that government can solve the problems of the poor, destroyed black families and black communities. The deeply held beliefs of conservatives -- faith, traditional values, work, and personal responsibility -- is restoring these families and communities. The left may talk today about courting values voters. But big government values voters is an oxymoron. The country now is at a real crossroads and we're going to have to wake up if we care about our children. The failures of the welfare state and social engineering go beyond poor black women. Robert Samuelson of the Washington Post wrote this past week about the unsustainable entitlement burdens of Social Security and Medicare. Taxes will have to go up, according to Samuelson, anywhere from 30-50 percent to meet the outstanding obligations of these entitlements. The chunk of the federal budget that they will consume will increase from 40 percent, to 75 percent in 2030. Yet every Democrat today is talking about new government poverty programs, new entitlements, and socialized medicine. Can voters next year possibly buy into this denial of reality and delusional retreat into the failures of the past?"

My response: Liberals are not there yet, as many (most?) of them still shun the term. For example, Sen. Hillary Clinton ducked & dodged a qustion at the CNN/YouTube debate about whether she called herself a liberal, preferring to call herself a "progressive" (which has quite a racist history, so I wonder why so many liberals are now latching on to that term). I should add that the term liberal was hijacked in America from its traditional sense, although Europeans still correctly use it to mean someone for small government, individual freedoms, property rights, and free markets. Or what we in America would call a libertarian. Ms. Parker should have pointed out this fact. In its classical sense, liberalism does work. It is the hijacked version - which glorifies Big Government - which has created some problems, particularly in black communities. There was a time when a heightened focus on work, personal responsibility, patriotism, and faith was not a conservative nor liberal value in America. However, liberals have basically ceded this ground to conservatives. I'd disagree with Ms. Parker that every Democratic presidential candidate is in the "far left". I'd argue that only Rep. Dennis Kucinich falls into that category. The other candidates are mainstream liberals or moderate-liberals. Be fair.