Liberalism 101

Maybe I ought to title this 'Poli Sci 101' but since this post is about a dumb billboard, and that billboard is titled 'liberalism 101,' I guess I'll stick with this. For those of you not in the Twin Cities this posting may have little to say to you. Then again, maybe not. At any rate, I'd like to take a brief moment to point out that the Taxpayers League of MN, the people who paid for the aforementioned billboard, have got it all wrong. But I'll forgive their libertarian tendencies since their ignorance of what liberalism actually means is in line with the rest of the country- but still oh so wrong.

The billboard, which is smack in the middle of the Twin Cities on I94, basically says this: "Liberalism 101: Tax, Tax, Tax, Spend, Spend, Spend." Okay, so the recent Democratic takeover of the state govt (not the governorship, mind you) apparently was not well received by the taxpayers league here. I'm okay with that but let's get one thing straight, if we're going to use the term 'liberal' then let's at least use it accurately. In its most accurate usage the term more correctly applies to Republicans, not Democrats. Taxes and spending have nothing to do with Liberalism as a body of political thought.

Why do I care? Well, mostly I hate libertarians (sorry old friend) but I also have a pet peeve with common political ignorance. Yes, in this country we often differentiate Republicans and Democrats by calling the former conservatives and the latter liberals (and right and left respectively). But this is a misnomer to say the least. Progressives might be a better term for Democrats (all the more so in MN given the history of populist farm movements at the turn of the century and the fact that the Democratic party here is called the DFL- Democrat, Farm, and Labour party).

What is liberalism? Well, it's a body of thought with a long pedigree and one that crosses between economic and political thought. Liberals of the 19th century fought not only for greater individual freedom and basic political rights, but also for free trade. It is a basic tenet of classical liberal thought that the individual is and ought to be the centre of all economic and political thought. The right to do as we please, to accumulate as much wealth as we desire, to own property, etc is intimately tied (in an admittedly more utilitarian Benthamite fashion) with not only capitalism (as a mode of production) but also the belief that laissez faire market centred economic policies will inevitably lead to a greater good for all. In short, remove all barriers to individual freedom and let the markets do as they will and everyone will be happy.

I won't get into the problems with this here. Suffice it to say that liberalism is not the core focus of Democratic beliefs (unless we are thinking of John Rawls but somehow I doubt Democrats are using his A Theory of Justice to craft policy). Liberalism, with its focus on removing the state as much as possible from the affairs of the market, is best suited to the Republican party- though not the religious extremism part. Taxes, it could be argued, are antithetical to liberalism because they could be considered an unnecessary market intervention.

One could argue that the Democratic party does owe something to the liberal tradition. But it is in opposition to and in recognition of the failures of classical liberalism that we might find the closest link between liberal thought and the Democratic party. John Maynard Keynes rather succinctly laid out the flaws of classical liberal thought and, in a way, the New Deal of the FDR years better encapsulate how Democrats view the state and the market. Whether that still applies today is an open question. Free market beliefs have crept into Democratic discourse since Clinton but the populist roots remain, however silent for the moment.

So, Taxpayers League, if you have a problem with the tendency for Democrats to use taxes to mitigate social inequality then try a better and more accurate slogan for your billboards. Since taxes in MN are going up (for those who earn over 250,000, mind you) then why not have a billboard that says something like this: "Democrats: party of taxes that fund education, health care, and better roads- tax, tax, tax, spend, spend, spend." At least that acknowledges what the party is spending our taxes on...