Doing the Continental?

 In much of continental Europe  the term “right wing” usually has meant authoritarian political  ideas and parties promoting race, nationality, tradition, established religion, obedience to dictates of the state, opposition to free markets, and often anti-Semitism. “Left wing” usually has meant authoritarian ideas and parties promoting nationalization of private property, regimentation of economic and personal life, government control of media, obedience to dictates of the state, opposition to free markets, and hostility to traditions. Right and left have shared an ideological contempt for liberals and liberalism. America has been lucky to avoid having a major left or right wing political party in the continental sense.

Since the beginning of the present two party system in the years before the Civil War and with the exception of many southern Democrats before, during,  and in the hundred years following that war, those in both of the major parties have generally claimed to accept, though surely not always followed, the general principles of liberalism – liberty, free speech, individual rights to life and property, equal justice and the rule of law, freedom of conscience and association, and limits on the power of governments. There has been a strain of leftist authoritarianism among the  Democrats that sometimes (parts of the New Deal, some things in the McGovern candidacy, Sanders) became very influential in the party. There has been a strain of nativism and xenophobia among the Republicans that sometimes (Donald Trump) became very influential in that party. However, neither party has abandoned liberal ideas to the point of becoming explicitly illiberal overall.

Some people worry that our luck is about to run out. There are reasons for the fear. From the green new deal to “equity” demands for delivering equal outcomes at gunpoint to attempts to silence dissent in media and on campuses, there is plenty of bad stuff coming from the Democrats and their supporters in the media. From xenophobic attacks on immigration to demands that America be a Christian country without separation of church and state to Trump’s attempt to overturn the election, there is plenty of bad stuff coming from the Republicans and their supporters in the media. People in both parties these days are unusually intolerant of those with whom they disagree and unusually eager to force their neighbors onto their version of the path to virtue. The behavior of the Republicans and their friends is in one way more worrisome that that of the Democrats and theirs. For about  fifty years beginning with the Goldwater campaign, Republicans were far more likely than Democrats to claim to stand for liberty, individual rights, and limited government. Many still do, but now it is easy to find conservatives arguing that belief in limited government is outdated, that the era of liberalism is ending, and that the choice for the future is between left wing authoritarians and right wing authoritarians.  Too many among the Democrats have had a soft spot for regimes such as Castro’s Cuba, and lately too many among the Republicans have developed one for regimes such as Salazar’s Portugal. Tucker Carlson, whose show is said to be the most popular evening news program in the country, made news recently by visiting Hungary and extolling its right wing regime, even proclaiming that country to be freer that the United States.

While understanding all that, I still  am more optimistic. People - Democrats, Republicans, and many of the rest of us - are standing up for the liberal order and resisting the authoritarians. I think we will be okay, and that neither major party will become Euro left wing or right wing. It will be a struggle, but it has almost always been a struggle. While liberalism is good for people who want to lead their private lives and let others do the same, it is bad for would be rulers with stars in their eyes. There are usually plenty of the latter hanging around, hoping to frighten and enrage people into giving them the power they crave. I think this time there will be enough Americans who won’t be buying explicit illiberalism from either the left or the right.  But I don’t think liberally minded people  should take that for granted. I don’t want to be wrong, and I don’t want it to be a closer shave than would be really comfortable.