Heather Cox Richardson made a quick summary of the goals of liberalism in her May 1, 2024 Substack letter when she described William F Buckley's attack on liberalism:
"William F. Buckley Jr., fresh out of Yale, published "God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of “Academic Freedom.”" Fervently opposed to the bipartisan liberal consensus that the federal government should
- regulate business,
- provide a basic social safety net,
- protect civil rights, and
- promote infrastructure,
The "conservative" notion that we should give it all to business and they will take care of everything was always foolish and has proven to be nonsense. I believe in the need for government to do what business cannot do, and I believe that unregulated business is just a doorway to Oligarchy and Plutocracy - good for the very top of the grasping, greedy, heap and too bad for all the rest.
The financial crash of 2008 showed the lunacy of deregulated Financial Systems, and we have not recovered from that disaster yet. The endless march deeper into disastrous Climate Change and Global Warming show the lunacy of deregulation of the fossil fuel and factory farming industries. And the Supreme Court assist to the return of Jim Crow type voting restrictions in the South show the lunacy and cruelty of deregulated voting laws.
The Republican scare tactics decrying liberalism as Communism and Socialism are meritless, it seems to me. It seems to me that the four goals of liberalism outlined by Heather Cox Richardson above are worthy goals.
