In the video embedded below (also found on PragerU and YouTube), Dennis Prager shares his thoughts on how the political left and liberals have diverged in the US. Something about this struck me as wrong, so I have put together my thoughts on why I think it is wrong.
Caveat: I'm not offering an opinion on what he sees as the political shift; I'm only questioning the idea that left and liberal have become separate concepts.
I disagree with Dennis Prager's view here. When I was in school, I was taught that the right means political conservative and the left means political liberal by definition. I also learned that the definition of conservative (and the right) is the side that leans toward traditional values and views and wants to maintain the status quo. A liberal (the left) tends to be progressive, interested in change, open to new ideas, and discarding tradition. The dictionary definitions tend to align with my memory of what I learned in school.
I also was taught that views on political issues of the political right and left can differ depending on the context. This is analogous to two people facing each other. One person would say the door is on the right, while the other sees the window on his left. In politics, for example, in the US the right (conservative) view is pro-capitalism because capitalism is the established, traditional viewpoint. However, in the USSR (when I learned it in the 1980s) the right (conservative) view was pro-socialist because that was the established system, and the left in the USSR was the pro-capitalists.
I think the confusion comes in a few ways:
1. The word "liberal" has several difference meanings. What I mentioned above is the political definition. However, the other definitions of liberal can refer to generosity, a large quantity, and broad ideas. Sometimes we use different definitions of liberal in the political conversation. For example, as a political conservative (on the right), I am liberal (meaning generous, not political left) on defense.
2. The use of right and left sets the conversation up to assume only 2 points of view, in opposite directions along the line between right and left. However, on some issues, not all opinions lie along that line. At other times we assume the left and right is a binary choice rather than a continuum, a finely distinguished gradient of views.
3. The definition of conservative and liberal (right and left) change over time because the definitions themselves are relative to what is established and traditional. If the established practice or view has changed over time to create a new norm, then the definition of conservative is relative to that new standard. Thus, the liberal view also shifts to be something that is not the norm by definition. In this way, what was liberal yesterday could now be what is conservative in political terms.
4. There is mainly one way (per issue) to be conservative because it is the established way (gross over-simplification, I know). Since liberal (left) means non-traditional, there are many ways to be liberal, some of which could oppose each other. As such, I would expect more varied viewpoints from the liberals than from conservatives.
Having said that, I'm not attempting to challenge the trends that Mr. Prager identified. I just think the redefinition of the left/liberal definition is not really accurate.
