does liberalism have a lot of internal contradictions?

[freepcrusher]

There are a lot of liberals who dream back to a time fifty years ago where top tax rates were ninety percent and the middle class was thriving and what have you. Middle class of course is a big term for these types. They also talk about how everything was made in the U.S.A. too. I see someone like J.K. Galbraith as the archetype of these types but there are others too.

Then you have a certain type of liberal like Herbert Marcuse who tends to have a cynical/skeptical side and sees that period differently. There never was any liberal consensus and America at that time they felt was a fundamentally racist and antisemitic society. The culture was that of John Wayne, Norman Rockwell or Walt Disney and not one of Seth MacFarlane/Louis CK/Eric Idle.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Then you have a certain type of liberal like Herbert Marcuse...

Wait, what?

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

The culture was that of John Wayne, Norman Rockwell or Walt Disney and not one of Seth MacFarlane/Louis CK/Eric Idle.

Why should the culture be that of any of these people?

[Paul Kemp]

I'm confused.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I'm sure there's a point to this thread, I just can't put my finger on it.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I don't think "American Liberalism" can in any way be considered a coherent ideology.

[pbrower2a]

I don't think "American Liberalism" can in any way be considered a coherent ideology.

It doesn't have to be. The fossilized liberalism of an earlier time is conservatism.

[TJ in Oregon]

Liberals have 1950s nostalgia? I thought conservatives had close to a monopoly on that.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Liberals have 1950s nostalgia? I thought conservatives had close to a monopoly on that.

There was more upward mobility, less global warming, and more union jobs.

Of course there were definitely plenty of things worse about the 1950s, too.

[dead0man]

There was more upward mobility, less global warming

But oddly TONS more pollution, at least in the west.  The air is substantially cleaner now than in the 50s.

[politicallefty]

I wouldn't say there is any contradiction in liberal beliefs. However, it is a fact that the average American worker has been in decline since 1973, which is certainly not coincidental with passage of legislation during the Great Society. There is a serious problem when it comes to the middle and working class of this country. Democrats stand for the poor, Republicans for the rich, and no one stands for the middle class. That is not new. If Democrats had ever stood for the middle class, we'd surely have a strong national healthcare system, sick/vacation pay, and a reasonable tax system (at the least). It's hard to see any middle class prosperity since WWII as being anything more than incidental.

[DC Al Fine]

Liberals have 1950s nostalgia? I thought conservatives had close to a monopoly on that.

They have nostalgia for the 50's for the unions and high tax rates, just like conservatives have nostalgia for the lack of divorce and tons of stay at home moms.

I forget who said it, but "Liberals want to work in the 50's, conservatives want to go home there."

[All Along The Watchtower]

Democrats stand for the poor

Uh....

[© tweed]

Then you have a certain type of liberal like Herbert Marcuse...

Wait, what?

just when you think you've seen it all here, something no online generator could dream of spitting out emerges.

[bballrox4717]

Not really, it's just different kinds of liberalism. Liberalism has been losing on matters such as unions, tax rates, domestically manufactured goods, corporate regulation and winning on social issues like gay marriage, abortion, civil rights and gender equality.. We live in a more equal, free society that would be radical even in the 1970's (see the McGovern blowout) but also in an economic world that a union Democrat like Hubert Humphrey would see as an unmitigated disaster.

Liberals have 1950s nostalgia? I thought conservatives had close to a monopoly on that.

They have nostalgia for the 50's for the unions and high tax rates, just like conservatives have nostalgia for the lack of divorce and tons of stay at home moms.

I forget who said it, but "Liberals want to work in the 50's, conservatives want to go home there."

That quote says it all.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Democrats stand for the poor

Uh....

Well, at least they are not actively working at ruining their lives.

[Beet]

It's the communitarian vs. anarchist tendencies at work.