We Need a New Kind of Liberalism
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We need a new kind of liberalism that works. Today liberalism, in its current form in the United States, is unpopular, demonized and quickly on the retreat. Why has the right-wing gained such an ascendancy in the last 20 years? The average guy on the street has little interest in the liberal agenda, when ironically enough, it is to little guy that liberalism seeks to protect. Why is this? What went so badly wrong that liberalism is unpopular in this new millennium?

In many ways, liberal ideas are painted as counter intuitive these days. And in a lot of ways, the federalism that started in the 30s and advanced so much later in the fifties and sixties is on the wane. With massive government institutions, bloated budgets and ridiculous red tape many federal programs seem to not be credible anymore. Welfare was discredited during the Clinton Administration and effectively destroyed. Even the enshrinement of the most progressive program ever installed by the federal government ahs been dismantled: affirmative action. By and large, these have been relatively popular things in most states.

What programs are next on the chopping block? Medicare cannot keep up with the demand. And the soon to be retiring Boomers are projected to drain the federal coffers dry when Social Security will fail in 20 years. The EPA is under sustained attack by the current administration.
COST

The government is clearly not capable of delivering the services that the people want, ask for and need. Nor do we see the politicians willing to allow the bureaucracy do their jobs effectively. Consider the fact that the beloved US Military has not been allowed by our civilian administration to conduct their main job, defending America. Now that their job is defined more as a good offense rather than a good defense, we see that even this government institution, so beloved by the right, is not allowed to conduct their business as they see fit in the most recent war in Iraq. Less troops than were asked for were provided, less time to prepare was allowed and less input from the Joint Chiefs of Staff was listened to. What was the major driving factor to ensure this? Cost and subsequently speed. Donald Rumsfeld clearly did a fantastic job of keeping expenses down. A $20 billion war to oust a dictator and remake the political landscape of an entire region is a heck of a deal.

Now think about this. If even the most essential arm of the government is not allowed to spend money while at war, what can we say for the social services? Even the new Department of Homeland Defense is under funded. States and Municipalities are not getting the funds they need to maintain security. How are they going to be allowed to spend money. I would say the picture is mighty bleak for any liberal agenda. With this current Administration pushing through a massive tax cut, how will there be any cash left for a government that is no in a state of deficit spending, especially when we are at a time of war?

LOST FAITH

Many of the liberal ideas that were enshrined in law and government programs are now on the chopping block, not just because they are expensive and now deliver dubious results, but because people no longer believe in these programs. Many of the ideas of forcing openness, forcing people to share and forcing people to participate are wildly unpopular. Is there not a way for us to find a new kind of liberalism that will be popular?

We need to find a way to explain to people why certain things are important in a way that they can understand. Or perhaps come up with an alternative that suits their needs. An excellent example was affirmative action. Past a certain point, it became reverse discrimination. The best people were not being picked for the job or the school, but the person who fit the profile. Here was a liberal idea that at the time made good sense to get the institutions of the land to be representative of the people of the surrounding area. It was a legal solution to a social problem that was eventually discredited as being unfair.

THE CHALLENGE

The current Democratic Party is lost in the woods. The Green Party is far too radical to be elected. It is clear that the liberal agenda has waned in this current climate. The challenge to the liberal leaders is to come up with a new program that makes sense to the man on the street, to main street America. Liberals need to learn to speak the language that the center can accept again. Liberalism needs to find a way to be seen as patriotic again. We need to keep this country on a course that maintains a civil society of equality and compass.