As Common Sense University continues our series – Back to Basics – today’s article will focus on Liberal principles and again we are leaning and borrowing from another website called conservative-resources.com. A first reaction on your part could be: “What do conservatives know about liberal principles?” Well, please be patient and read on. We will provide objective analysis here based on common sense reality. As with the conservatives before, there are six principles that delineate liberals:
1. Belief in positive law
2. Belief in progress
3. Preference for equality over liberty
4. Belief in the benevolence of government and individuals
5. Belief in the perfectibility of human beings
6. Belief in the community
The belief in positive law simply refers to the belief that rights derive largely from written law. If they believe in one thing, it is their interpretation of the separation of church and state and that laws cannot be anchored in or exist by divine intervention. All laws must therefore come from humans and that we must govern ourselves without any interference from God. Liberals stress that it is ultimate government that grants guarantees rights. While most liberals are spiritual people, they often distrust organized religion.
The belief in progress principle of liberals is rooted in their desire to change the world, they believe that every tomorrow can be made better than the last. This is coupled with the belief to use government as a tool to enhance freedom. Therefore, what conservatives would preserve, the liberals would replace with economic and social experimentation, aimed at improving society in a scientific way.
The preference for equality over liberty reflects liberals thinking in that they are willing to trade away some freedoms, such as greater personal choice, in favor of greater equality and social stability. They like to quote Thomas Jefferson’s words from the Declaration of Independence that “All men are created equal” and it is often as the reason behind their push for more societal equality and they have taken it quite literally.
The fourth principle in the definition of liberals is a belief in the benevolence of government and of human beings. Generally speaking, liberals believe that human nature is essentially good and that, if an individual is corrupted it is usually the fault of some social or economic injustice. Therefore, liberals believe that government, and only government can and should play a positive role in the lives of its citizens, especially in the lives of the disadvantaged. Government, for the progressive, is a champion of the downtrodden and an instrument for the improvement of humankind. This was expressed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his second Inaugural address: “The test of our progress is not whether we can add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.”
The belief in the perfectibility of human beings comes from liberals believing that there is inherent virtue of humanity, in essence in the human race as a whole not the individuals. They think that with proper education, everyone can become virtuous and live a happy, meaningful life. They define education quite broadly so as to refer to an individual’s entire upbringing as opposed to merely schooling. Liberals do not want society to give them something; rather, they want to give themselves a society.
The final principle rests upon their belief in the community, expressed in the feeling “that we are all in this together.” Liberals clearly believe that individuals are stronger working together than they are working alone. At the root of liberalism is not merely the desire for equality but for the social progress that liberals believe only an egalitarian society can achieve. Liberalism is, at bottom, a desire for the kind of community that only equality and progress can bring about. For today’s liberal, to be part of something greater than oneself is to be truly free.