This is a question that has been popping up in my mind, I still consider myself a Liberal in the classical sense, but when did Liberalism become bastardized? Was it with FDR disastrous policies in The Great Depression or was it before that?
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This historical survey of Liberalism does, I think, answer your questions:
It bears out your suggestion that there was a 20th Century change of understanding of what Liberalism should be (a change - yes - vividly illustrated by FDR’s policies).
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Quotations from the Britannica article:
“The disagreement among liberals over whether government should promote individual freedom rather than merely protect it is reflected to some extent in the different prevailing conceptions of liberalism in the United States and Europe since the late 20th century. In the United States liberalism is associated with the welfare-state policies of the New Deal program of the Democratic administration of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, whereas in Europe it is more commonly associated with a commitment to limited government and laissez-faire economic policies.”
That passage indicates the change that came about in the definition of “freedom”. Change from “leave people alone to make their own choices and do their own thing” to “government knows best and the people must obey for their own good”. The earlier (or “classical”) liberalism (which you and I like) wanted government to protect freedom; the later “liberalism” (now the predominant form in the US especially) was and is for the “promotion of freedom” by government - as if having to obey government in activities of your life where government has no business could ever be accurately called freedom! The idea is essentially an oxymoron. This "liberalism’ is not liberal!
And there is this passage which sums up the change:
“The expansion of governmental power and responsibility sought by liberals in the 20th century was clearly opposed to the contraction of government advocated by liberals a century earlier.”
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Thank you for this information, Jillian.
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Yes, you can see where the concept became corrupted, during FDR’s time in office.
It’s no coincidence that that’s when our government had really begun to be heavily infiltrated by communist agents such as Alger Hiss. From the very beginning of the communist’s influence, they corrupted the meaning of words such as “liberal”, hijacking them to cover up their real intentions, which were always the exact opposite. They are still doing the exact same thing.
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