Well said Klavan on the Culture! I think Edmund Burke put it concisely long ago:
“A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper and confined views. People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.” Based on this quotation it is no surprise that most modern liberals in this country embrace both abortion and euthanasia.
That one quote explains all one needs to know about liberalism.
The best definition of liberalism is “equal freedom,” and it is deeply embedded in the American founding. Unfortunately it has evolved today into anarcho-tyranny, and the “conservative” movement has waaaay too much right-liberalism (“freedom” as of a high value). Yet liberalism is also inescapable in our socio-political context (we are not the French and the Spanish conservatives of old, and cannot be, sadly, being born of revolution).
This can be seen even in Burke, the Whig and defender of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 (and a man I very much admire).
Catholic conservatives have extremely little place in Anglo-American thought, and the reason is the turn away from Aquinas, from Henry VIII to the Prince to both George III and the revolt.
Ambrose Bierce may have had it right: “A conservative is a statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the liberal who wishes to replace them with others.”
My father-in-law always says that the word “liberal” (in the political context) means a “liberal application of laws” (ie. more laws) while “conservative” (also in the political context) means “a conservative application of laws” (ie. less laws).
When I used these in a discussion with a liberal friend, he called me a liar and that it was exactly the opposite. You know what they say, denial is the first step towards acceptance.
A liberal is a person who is:
Valiantly fighting the injustices
Caused by the last generation of liberals
Thus providing injustices
To be valiantly opposed
By the next generation of liberals.