American liberalism was once associated with something far more robust, with immoderate presidents and spectacular waves of legislation like Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. To call someone a liberal now, in other words, is often to denounce him or her as having abandoned liberalism. This means the word ‘‘liberal’’ is, for the moment, almost entirely one of abuse. By the 20th century, American liberalism had come to mean something distinct. Democrats have sidestepped ‘‘liberal’’ and embraced ‘‘progressive,’’ a word with its own confusing history, to evoke the good-government, welfare-state inclinations of the New Deal.

Source: New York Times July 05, 2017 09:00 UTC