Dec. 28, 2016 - Rubin Report - Dave Rubin
06:38
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unidentified
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(upbeat music) | |
| For the last show of 2016, let's unpack the two words that everything circled back to for me this past year. | ||
| Classical liberalism. | ||
| We've had many conversations on the Rubin Report focusing on classical liberalism and how this political philosophy is different than both progressivism and libertarianism for subtle but important reasons. | ||
| For those of you who are a little late to the party, classical liberalism can be defined as a political ideology that values the freedom of individuals, including the freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and markets, as well as limited government. | ||
| It developed in 18th century Europe and drew on the economic writings of Adam Smith and the growing notion of social progress. | ||
| So as you can see, freedom is right at the top of the pyramid of importance to a classical liberal. | ||
| You have freedom to practice any religion you want, or none at all. | ||
| Freedom of the press to hold the government accountable. | ||
| Freedom of assembly to protest those in power. | ||
| And freedom for the markets to move the economy. | ||
| All of these are vital in the eyes of a classical liberal. | ||
| These ideas are rooted in the liberty of the individual and a limited government. | ||
| Of course, when you say things like liberty and individual and limited government, these words are usually thought of as libertarian or conservative ideas. | ||
| This is why some of my critics say I'm actually a right winger. | ||
| I'm not bothered by this charge because it doesn't even make sense if you understand the original meaning of liberalism as I just laid out. | ||
| When people say to me, you're not a liberal, what they're really trying to say is you're not a progressive. | ||
| I'll get to more on that in just a second. | ||
| A true liberal is for gay marriage because they believe a gay person should have the same rights as a straight person. | ||
| A true liberal is pro-choice because they believe it is the right of the woman to do with her body as she sees fit. | ||
| A true liberal is for legalization of marijuana because you should be allowed to smoke whatever you want in your own home. | ||
| A lot of this sounds like libertarianism, which I know is scary for a lot of card-carrying liberals to hear, but this is exactly where we can start building bridges to a new political center. | ||
| So what, then, is the difference between a classical liberal and a libertarian? | ||
| And how is a classical liberal not on the right? | ||
| There's a couple things at play here. | ||
| First off, there's the dirty little truth that classical liberalism is technically more a part of the American right because of the importance it puts on individual freedom. | ||
| I know a lot of liberals don't want to hear that or believe that they could be part of the right. | ||
| And I also know that the left-right paradigm is rapidly crumbling as the two-party system is becoming more archaic. | ||
| The reason liberalism became so identified with the left is because of social liberalism, which took over in the mid-19th century. | ||
| For a while, this brand of liberalism worked and helped tremendously, causing huge social change like equality for black people and for women. | ||
| At some point though, social liberalism changed from judging people on the content of their character, as Martin Luther King Jr. | ||
| professed, to instead judging people on immutable characteristics, like skin color or sexuality. | ||
| This was the shift that liberalism made to progressivism, which places the group over the individual, and ultimately, in my opinion, isn't very progressive or liberal at all. | ||
| By judging people as groups instead of as individuals, the minorities within a minority will always be thrown under the bus. | ||
| This is where the social justice ideology came from, a liberalism which was rooted in the amorphous term social instead of the clearly defined word liberty. | ||
| That's why being liberal these days, in the classical sense, has very little to do with being on the left anymore. | ||
| Silencing dissent, deplatforming speakers, hurling unfair charges of racism and bigotry aren't liberal ideas at all, although sadly they've become part and parcel of today's left. | ||
| As I often say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and I have no doubt that most progressives believe they are correct in their thinking. | ||
| So it's our job as liberals to show them where they've gone awry. | ||
| Then, and only then, can true liberalism be part of the left again. | ||
| As I've mentioned before, I love the convergence of classical liberal and libertarian ideas because it shows that two different ideologies can come to the same conclusions if they're based in individualism and liberty. | ||
| So if you're a liberal who's for gay marriage because you want gay people to be treated under the law, that's just as good as a libertarian who wants the government out of your personal life altogether. | ||
| There's many other places where you can apply this line of thinking which begs the question, what's the difference actually between a classical liberal and a libertarian? | ||
| I've discussed this with a few guests in my partnership with Learn Liberty and would recommend that you check out my interviews with Steve Davies of the London School of Economics and Randy Barnett from Georgetown University for more on that. | ||
| Long story short, classical liberals do see some valid role for government to the ends that it enhances human freedom. | ||
| Libertarians, for as much as you can define them, are a bit harder to pin down on this notion. | ||
| Speaking of Learn Liberty, we're continuing our partnership with them this week and joining me is author of 17 books, economist and former professor of English history, economics, and communications at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Deirdre McCloskey. | ||
| Deirdre also happens to be transgender, transitioning to female over 20 years ago. | ||
| We'll talk about her journey, both personally and professionally, and how individualism, liberty, and freedom are the keys to a prosperous economy and a rewarding life. | ||
| As we look towards 2017, let's refocus on freedom, liberty, and the rights of the individual. | ||
| The voices trying to tear us apart have made it very clear that they're only going to get louder and angrier. | ||
| Russia and fake news are not the problem. | ||
| We are. | ||
| Only when we look in the mirror and are willing to challenge ourselves to be more tolerant of other opinions can we find real answers. | ||
| The only way that we can drown out the extremists on both sides of the political spectrum is by finding allies where we used to find enemies. | ||
| I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you're an old school liberal, your enemy is no longer the old school conservative. | ||
| Defending liberal principles has become a conservative position. |
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