Liberals are supposed to be liberal. Some are not.

June 29, 2017

I think I’m a liberal, at least in the American context:

  • I support health care for all;
  • I favor low-tuition – or even tuition-free – education at public universities;
  • I want the federal government to take strong measures to fight unemployment, promote higher wages, and reduce inequality;
  • I support the right of gays and lesbians to marry;
  • I’ve consistently voted for Democrats since 1992.

I was – and am – appalled by the intolerance, ignorance, and closed-mindedness of many Trump supporters and others on the right. But I used to think intolerance was mainly on the right. I was wrong. A few things have happened recently to change my mind.

The shooting of Republican congressman Steve Scalise by a deranged Bernie Sanders supporter is certainly one of the worst atrocities by an American “progressive”. It would be easy to write this off as the random act of a crazy person with a gun. But some Twitter posts by “progressives” have applauded it, or at least argued that Scalise had it coming. Kathy Griffin’s photo shoot holding Trump’s decapitated head might have been a lame attempt at humor – she’s a comedian – but it was worse than just poor taste.

On a less gruesome note, but also of concern, was Sen. Bernie Sanders’s questioning of Russell Vought, Trump’s nominee for deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. A year before, Vought weighed in on a controversy involving Wheaton College, his alma mater. The evangelical college had fired Larycia Hawkins for stating that Muslims worshipped the same God that Christians do. Vought supported the college, arguing that Muslims reject Jesus Christ, and so are condemned. Sanders questioned him hard on this, and then argued that Vought was an Islamophobic bigot who should not be confirmed. As a somewhat more liberal Christian, I disagree with Vought – and Wheaton College – but their arguments are based on reasonable interpretations of the Bible and should be treated with respect. Bernie Sanders applied a religious test to the appointment, essentially rejecting Christians with evangelical beliefs as unfit for public office. The Constitution, fortunately, prohibits this.

The problem wasn’t just with Bernie Sanders. On its Facebook page, the normally responsible “Being Liberal” site condemned Vought for his “incredibly Islamophobic” statements. Many of the commenters agreed.

Jaelene Hinkle, the conservative Christian goalkeeper for the US women’s soccer team, withdrew from the roster for “personal reasons”. Her likely reason was that the team’s jerseys included numbers in the LGBT rainbow and replaced the player’s name with “Pride”. Ms. Hinkle, like many other conservative Christians, opposes same-sex marriage and probably felt her witness would be compromised by wearing the jersey. She was skewered as a bigot in social media for her very discreet decision.

There’s more, of course. Liberal universities have canceled speeches by right-wing speakers, such as Milo Yiannopoulos and Ann Coulter. In academia, “political correctness” threatens free speech.

Liberal intolerance can also be found outside the US. Tim Farron, an evangelical Christian, resigned from his post as the head of Britain’s Liberal Democrats after a campaign where his views on whether gay sex was a sin were the subject of repeated press questioning.

It’s easy to object that the other side is worse, and it most certainly is. But that doesn’t excuse us who call ourselves liberals when we speak and act illiberally. Liberals are supposed to support freedom, especially the freedom to dissent from the prevailing views of society. That’s why freedom of thought, press, and religion are dear to liberal hearts, as is tolerance for people who think and act differently. In other words, illiberal liberals are hypocrites. They also provide ammunition to the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, who are pleased to trumpet any examples of leftist bigotry.

More pragmatically, left-wing intolerance undermines our ability to compromise with reasonable people on the other side. For a democratic system to survive, it’s essential that people who disagree find compromises that most people can live with. But when we’re intolerant toward those who think differently, we add fuel to the fires of polarization and make compromise impossible. After all, isn’t it immoral to compromise with evil? Many on the right are guilty of this, of course. But when people on the left do the same, it reinforces the radical right in their obstruction and uncompromising stance.

We liberals hope to regain power in Washington and the states, so we can begin to solve the massive problems our country has. Realistically, though, we can’t do this without stripping away some of the right’s supporters. White evangelicals, who voted 80 percent for Trump, are a group we can make inroads with. Jesus told his followers to feed the hungry, cure the sick, visit those in prison – in short, to love our neighbor as ourselves. Liberals’ compassion for the poor and dispossessed has its origin in Christ’s teachings. Christians who support Ayn-Rand-type libertarians, such as Paul Ryan, do so mostly out of ignorance. If we focus on helping the poor and middle class, we can win many evangelicals over if we don’t treat them as enemies.

This means we need to respect evangelicals’ beliefs, even those we disagree with. But respecting other people’s opinions has always been the essence of tolerance, and liberalism.