Reply #12: I don't think that love of liberty can only come from the left...

[LeftishBrit]

but I think that the *reality* of liberty *for all* can only come from the left, or at least from outside the real right.

As I said on another thread, one cannot do without *either* civil liberties *or* humane social and economic policies that protect people from discrimination, poverty and hardship. Economic protection without civil liberties leads either, when opposed to big government, to a right-wing populism that tramples on minorities, or, when combined with big government, to the pseudo-left authoritarianism of Communist countries. But civil liberties without economic protection are *no* civil liberties. Coercion by poverty and hardship can be as harsh and indeed murderous as coercion by state police.

Paul Craig Roberts is right on this particular issue, and I don't know enough about him to know whether he's moved to the left in general. So I'm not saying that we shouldn't listen to him on this. But I am saying that we cannot compromise on social and economic liberalism,, any more than we can compromise on civil liberties.