There’s no hope for a near-term turnaround in the US. If there were any decency left in America, Trump, Rubio, Homan, Leavitt, and the rest of the crowd would be climbing out of the Potomac, covered with tar and feathers. I’ve done what I can, pointing out one outrageous act after another. Nothing helps. The United States is a nation of cowards with a large minority that favors thuggish central rule and controls Congress.

Concentrating only on the short term leads to despair. Avoiding tyranny in the US — or recovering from it — requires understanding its causes and changing the intellectual climate. There can be a resurgence of the liberal ideal in America, but it will take time.

Yes, I said the liberal ideal. The left stole that word in the middle of the twentieth century and used it to mean advocacy of a strong central government that heavily taxes people and directs what they may do. Originally it meant respect for people’s freedoms and choices under a constrained and consistent system of law. It’s coming to mean that again. The Trumpist right, of all people, has helped to push it back in that direction. When it attacks “liberalism,” it’s usually attacking due process, respect for people who are different, and accountability.

These days, I call myself classical liberal more often than libertarian. The conference on “Liberalism for the 21st Century” in DC presented an important step in reclaiming the term. It’s a broad-umbrella term, and people who call themselves liberal in this sense may disagree on many things. I’d include the following positions as basic requirements for counting as liberal:

• Laws should apply to everyone in the same way.
• Fairness and due process in enforcing the laws.
• Accountability for those who do the enforcing.
• A presumption that people should be free to make their own choices, with any exceptions needing strong justification.
• Responding to disagreement with reasoned arguments, not name-calling, threats, and force.
• Showing respect for personal choices that are different from one’s own, as long as they don’t injure anyone.

Liberalism has a personal and a political side. The first four items in the list fall into the political realm, the last two in the personal one. It isn’t just about not putting people in jail, but also about reason as the basis of human interaction. Without that, political freedom isn’t going to happen.

This means I’m reaffirming my commitment to the Sanity Project on this blog. I won’t give up the occasional post on political and human rights issues, but I’ll increase my effort to focus on the broad ideas, not just what’s happening right now. On Bluesky, I need to focus more on contributing to a liberal community and not just on the outrage of the day. It will do more good. And, of course, I’ll keep up the posts on classical music and silent movies.