Trump spent $200,000,000 on the election stunt of sending 6,000 troops to the border, then withdrew them before the caravan arrived

[Wanderfound]

@Ryuthrowsstuff

Ecconomic liberalism. A term that’s not directly related to the political liberals. Its basically an archaic term for laissez faire.

I’d argue that it was a core feature of historical liberalism. Recall that Locke’s original formulation was life, liberty and property.

He also thought that the children of the poor should be forced into workhouses from the age of three onwards, BTW. And was heavily invested in the slave trade.

[jerwin]

I propose a new system:

One Axis: Government’s control of Society
One Axis: Society’s control of Government.

[beauwillamson]

I think of proper government as the mediator between public and private interests.
“No one is free who is not alone.” _Issabelle Eberheardt

[anon29537550]

I had never heard that quote, but I like it.

[strokeybeard]

@anon50609448

I think people in the UK tend to use “liberal” in a different sense, where it is more aligned with Thatcher - closer to what Americans would call libertarian (at least I’ve seen in used that way but maybe just by academics). Obviously in Canada the word “liberal” has had it’s meaning utterly overridden by the Liberal party.

No, Thatcher was in no sense a liberal. A neo-liberal yes, but not a liberal - these are completely separate things.

In the UK the Liberal Democrats (the successors to the Liberal Party) sit straddling the centre-left/centre-right divide with Labour on the centre-left to medium-left and Tories on the right to hard-right. The far right are occupied by the likes of UKIP.

To compare to the US the Democrats are roughly equivalent to the Tories and the Republicans are some distance past UKIP.

[strokeybeard]

@beauwillamson

It’s not my United States. Not my republican party. Again, I’m guilty of over simplifying, but did you not understand what I meant about the republican party being labeled neo-liberal? You know that the Liberal party in Australia is right wing? In Europe- Liberal does not mean the same thing as it does to our North American Ears. They wouldn’t call a left of center party Liberal. I’m definitely not saying that the Republicans are ‘liberal’ the way that word is used here in North America.

I’m curious to know which European parties you’re thinking of. Liberalism in Europe is generally centre/centre left.

Liberalism in Europe