Liberal Leftists: A Dying Breed

The adjective liberal is near, or perhaps past, the end of its run as a useful term for left-of-center thinking. So widespread is the impulse on the Left to shut down speech deemed disagreeable, that illiberalism is now among its defining features: Vehement opposition to freedom of expression, of worship, of pluralism, of tolerance, of due process, and the presumption of innocence are now rallying cries all over the progressive map. Is it progressive, though, to turn back the clock to pre-Enlightenment thinking? Progressives de nos jours seem inordinately attached to retrogression. We need a term for illiberal reactionaries of the Left.

Credit where it’s due, then: A handful of left-of-center writers and talkers whose policy preferences rarely overlap with mine are doing important work in defending liberal values to the Left. Bill Maher, Jonathan Chait, Matt Yglesias, Glenn Greenwald, and Andrew Sullivan are pushing back against their own side with impressive dedication. (I realize Sullivan describes himself as a conservative, but he’s considerably to the left of anyone to whom I would apply that label.) All of these people have been repaid with heaps of scorn and obloquy by members of their own intellectual tribe, but as far as I can tell, being rebranded as outcasts is proving to be invigorating for all of them.

About the Author

Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith is the film critic for the Wall Street Journal.

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The adjective liberal is near, or perhaps past, the end of its run as a useful term for left-of-center thinking. So widespread is the impulse on the Left to shut down speech deemed disagreeable, that illiberalism is now among its defining features: Vehement opposition to freedom of expression, of worship, of pluralism, of tolerance, of due process, and the presumption of innocence are now rallying cries all over the progressive map. Is it progressive, though, to turn back the clock to pre-Enlightenment thinking? Progressives de nos jours seem inordinately attached to retrogression. We need a term for illiberal reactionaries of the Left.

Credit where it’s due, then: A handful of left-of-center writers and talkers whose policy preferences rarely overlap with mine are doing important work in defending liberal values to the Left. Bill Maher, Jonathan Chait, Matt Yglesias, Glenn Greenwald, and Andrew Sullivan are pushing back against their own side with impressive dedication. (I realize Sullivan describes himself as a conservative, but he’s considerably to the left of anyone to whom I would apply that label.) All of these people have been repaid with heaps of scorn and obloquy by members of their own intellectual tribe, but as far as I can tell, being rebranded as outcasts is proving to be invigorating for all of them.