The Liberal Backbone

With American democracy facing its greatest crisis since the Civil War as a corrupt autocrat returns to the presidency, I want to do my part, however small, to help right now.

So I’m going to try an experiment: writing a shorter, more tightly focused book, and releasing chapters as I write them. They’ll appear as posts and podcast episodes, like this one.

There are many reasons why we are where we are, and in this little book I’m not going to try to address all of them. Instead, I’m going to try to answer what I think are two of the most important but most poorly understood questions we’re facing:

How did Democrats, and liberals in general, get so bad at politics?

And what can they do about it?

More: dastardlycleverness.com/liberal-backbone-chapter-01

— Spencer

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Ever since I published my book,Patriots of Two Nations in 2020,
I've been working on another one,a much bigger one, as it's turned out.
And I'm still working on that big book.
But with American democracyfacing its greatest crisis
since the Civil War, with the returnof a corrupt autocrat to the presidency,
I want to do my part,however small, to help right now.

So I'm going to try an experiment: writing a shorter, (00:24):
undefined
more tightly focused bookand publishing it in real time.
I don't know if this is going to work,but I'm going to set myself
the goal of releasing chapters of thisbook as I write them.
They'll appear as postsand podcast episodes, like this one.
At the risk of being about as presumptuousas a writer can be,

(00:45):
I'll say that my plan is something likewhat Charles Dickens did when he first
published The Pickwick Papersin a newspaper, chapter by chapter.
There are many reasons why we arewhere we are.
And in this little book, I'mnot going to try to address all of them.
Instead, I'm going to try to answer whatI think are two of the most important,

(01:06):
but most poorly understood questionswe're facing:
How did Democrats, and liberalsin general, get so bad at politics?
And what can they do about it?
Yes, the right wing media bubble, bigotry
and other factorscontributed to Donald Trump's victory.
But Democratshave their own advantages, advantages

(01:27):
they often squander, startingwith the fact that Democratic policies
are popular with large majoritiesof the American public.
The trouble is, Democrats and liberals
in general are not.
I hope you'll consider taking part
in this experimentas I publish each chapter.
Please feel free
to give me any comments, suggestionsor corrections you have to offer.

(01:51):
Patriots of Two Nations becamea better book than it might have been
because of the generosity of advancereaders.
You'll find those readers thankedfrom my heart at the front of that book.
My working title for
this new book is The Liberal Backbone.
What follows hereis my first draft of Chapter One.
Here we go.

(02:12):
I sure hope this works.
What, if anything, the liberals stand for?
It can be hard to tell,and it has been for a long time.
Back in 1941, RobertFrost described a liberal
as someone who never takes their own sidein a quarrel.
And Frost was far from the firstto notice.

(02:34):
Two decades earlier, Carl Schmitthad declared that if you asked liberals
to choose between crucifying the Messiahor a bandit,
their response would be “proposalto adjourn
or appoint a commission of investigation.”
It's bad enough when you have to admit
that a beloved poetand fellow liberal had a point.
It's so much worsewhen it's a top Nazi lawyer.

(02:58):
One of the
strongest arguments for liberalismis its openness.
Aboveall, liberalism is an ideology of freedom.
Hence its name, derivedfrom the Latin word for freedom, libertas.
And openness to nearly all ideasis essential to freedom as liberals
define it.
For this reason, a liberal societyis often called an open society.

(03:20):
But openness also invites the endlessdithering for which liberals
are notorious.
And opennessalso leaves them open to attack.
There could hardly be a worsetime for that.
Across the world,liberalism is under attack.
In the world's leading liberal democracy,it has suffered a grievous defeat

(03:41):
with the reelection of Donald Trump.
A crucial factor in Trump's triumph
was his supporters’ beliefthat he stands for something.
In particular,they believe he stands for them.
Even if they don't like him — and manydon't — they voted for him anyway.
“He may be a bastard,” as the old sayinggoes, “but he's our bastard.”

(04:03):
By contrast, many voters see liberals
as standing for nothing — or for anythingan opponent claims they stand for.
In the Trump era, that's includedstealing elections, opening the border
to hordes of criminals and terrorists,destroying the economy,
sending boys home from school as girls,both communism and fascism somehow,

(04:24):
and much more, going back to BarackObama declaring Sharia law.
Liberals often dismiss or even laughat such claims, but a more politically
useful response would be to ask, “Whydo so many people believe them?”
As usual, there's more than oneanswer to such a question.
A popular and valid oneis the power of pervasive disinformation.

(04:47):
But why is the disinformationnot only pervasive, but persuasive?
In large part,that's because for many voters,
liberalism is a blank screen onwhich its enemies can project any image.
Even liberals
have a hard time saying just what it isthey stand for.
If you ask them — or ask yourselfif you're a liberal — you may

(05:09):
very well find that what you get inresponse is a list.
Any or all of the items on that listmay sound admirable:
freedom, equality,tolerance, the rule of law and so on.
Even liberal politiciansgive answers like this
and will even run their campaignson lists: lists of values

(05:29):
and lists of promises,addressing lists of interest groups.
There are exceptions,but the exceptions tend to prove the rule.
After Obama's exceptional campaigns
in 2008 and 2012,Hillary Clinton's in 2016
showed what happenswhen Democrats revert to their mean.

(05:49):
The candidate was a highly qualifiedtechnocrat,
expert in all aspects of governing, and,I'm confident,
driven by a genuine desire to do good.
But her speeches were all too similarto PowerPoint

presentations (06:02):
one list after another.
No one is inspired by a list.
No one believes in a list,and no one stands for a list.
To stand for something is to be willing
to fight for it and maybe even die for it.
That's the origin of the metaphor.
Where you're standing is on a battlefield.

(06:24):
Those who aren't standingare running away, or being cut down.
And yes, I am speaking metaphorically.
For liberals.
actual violencemust be the very last resort.
In addition to being history'smost successful ideology of freedom,
liberalism is history'sbest alternative to violence.

(06:44):
But as some of history's best leadershave demonstrated,
nonviolence does not have to meanpassivity.
And courage doesn't have to require
shedding blood, although some have beenwilling to shed their own.
For most of us, most of the time, courage
simply means statingand showing what we believe in.

(07:06):
So what do liberals believe in?
That's what I'm going to address here.
This is about what liberals actuallystand for and how they can stand up for it
— something too many seemto have forgotten how to do.
We're going to rediscover the liberalbackbone, and, I hope, straighten it out.