Liberalism

When Vice President Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz as her running mate, many pundits lamented her decision. In their view, the Democratic nominee should have chosen a vice presidential candidate who could mitigate her liabilities, and balance out her party’s ticket — such as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

Liberal groupthink makes American life creepy and could cost Democrats the election.

In a recent piece in the New York Times, New York University historian Steven Hahn contextualizes Donald Trump’s illiberal tendencies. Trump’s illiberalism, argues Hahn, is not so un-American after all: “That Mr. Trump continues to lead in polls should make plain that he and his MAGA movement are more than noxious weeds in otherwise liberal democratic soil.” Hahn proceeds to document a host of illiberal episodes and strains of thought from American history, from racism to anti-Catholic bigotry. He concludes: “Illiberalism’s history is America’s history.”

Natalie, a 28-year-old in Arizona, collects screenshots of people’s dating app profiles in a folder on her phone, including one person’s list of qualities they don’t want in someone they’re dating: being vaccinated, being liberal, being bisexual, and not wanting kids.

“It seems like the apps are filled with very much mostly conservative men,” Natalie says. “Like not being super conservative is a dealbreaker right away.” Natalie considers herself independent, with more liberal views on reproductive rights and more moderate views on topics like immigration.

Women to the Left, men to the Right. And heaven forbid there is any crossover. These days, young people are floundering in their sex-based political silos wanting different things: girls are still seeking equality and boys miss being the good guys. This isn’t a battle of the sexes — we’re too far apart to fight.

Recently, I wrote a piece at The Federalist titled “Hell Hath No Fury Like A Single Liberal Woman,” based on my own experience as a former liberal, and offered some explanation as to why single women make up such a large proportion of the Democrat Party. And why, as Jesse Kelly commented, many of those women seem to be somewhat mentally unstable. Based on comments in my inbox and on social media, the piece was fairly well received. Well, mostly well received.

We are living in an age of backlash to three decades of revolutions in different realms. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the world saw the liberalization of markets, the democratization of politics and the explosion of information technology. Each of these trends seemed to reinforce the other, creating a world that was overall more open, dynamic and interconnected. For many Americans, these forces seemed natural and self-sustaining. But they were not. The ideas that spread across the globe during this era of openness were American, or at least Western, ideas, undergirded by U.S.

A liquor store has opened in Saudi Arabia for the first time in over 70 years, a diplomat reported Wednesday, a further socially liberalizing step in the once-ultraconservative kingdom that is home to the holiest sites in Islam.

While restricted to non-Muslim diplomats, the store in Riyadh comes as Saudi Arabia’s assertive Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman aims to make the kingdom a tourism and business destination as part of ambitious plans to slowly wean its economy away from crude oil.

The Trump years had a radicalizing effect on the American right. But, let’s be honest, they also sent many on the left completely around the bend. Some liberals, particularly upper-middle-class white ones, cracked up because other people couldn’t see what was obvious to them: that Trump was a bad candidate and an even worse president.