re: #198 dragonfire1981

Classical liberalism is actually closer to today’s Tea Party than contemporary Liberals in terms of political beliefs.

I don’t know who here has read/suffered through Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism but in that book he goes on at GREAT length about the distinct differences between modern Liberalism and “classical liberalism”. I put that in quote as I’m not sure Goldberg uses the correct facts about classical liberalism in his book. It could well be he presents a view of it designed to match the aim of the book which is, obviously, to vilify modern Liberals.

This is same book by the way, that dedicates a whole chapter to the argument that Hitler was, in fact, a raging Left winger.

The thing to keep in mind about people like Goldberg, Barton and Glenn Beck is they are historical revisionists. Classical liberalism was a well documented influence on the founding fathers and our Constitution so historical revisionists have an interest in adapting it to their modern political goals. Anything Glenn Beck and Goldberg say about the philosophy of John Locke, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin or Adolf Hitler can safely be ignored as revisionist bullshit.