Member-only story
More on the Evolution of ‘Liberals’
A term USAmericans love to hate
A few months ago, I read Why Everyone Hates White Liberals (Including White Liberals), by Kevin M. Schultz. I wrote about this book in October and mentioned it again a month later, but I’m still thinking about the history of the term liberalism, as Schultz laid it out.
Some things I learned from the ‘White Liberals’ book
Midcentury attacks on the term ‘liberalism’
Since the 1950s, antiliberal political strategists stepped aside from academic questions about liberalism and instead “craft[ed] an image of the white liberal as a foundationless weakling who nonetheless held tremendous power and advantages.” This idea of the white liberal is “a specter, designed to terrorize people.”
Late in that decade, William F. Buckley, Jr. — “somewhat allergic to deep thinking,” as Schultz puts it — chose the relatively easy path of trashing opponents of conservatism rather than describing conservatism itself or offering any positive vision. Buckley wanted to title his book I Smell The Blood of a Liberal, but he took advice and instead echoed Booker T. Washington’s title Up From Slavery. Buckley’s Up From Liberalism was entirely devoted to attacking liberalism.
