A community of mere liberals. Discussing, defending, and applying the many varieties of liberalism. liberalcurrents.comhttps://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.comhttps://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mmau7vvyns23"If a person has freedom of speech and freedom of religion, but they are compelled to work for pennies or starve, they are not free." https://www.liberalcurrents.com/socialism-and-liberalism-a-path-towards-estrangements-end/20 May 2026 02:28 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mmau7vvyns23https://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mmarmwbves23"Much as the West overestimated the Soviet Union in the 1970s and ’80s by discounting its internal problems, outside observers may be overestimating China’s ability to keep rising. Authoritarians don’t have fewer domestic problems than other political systems, they’re just better at hiding it." https://www.liberalcurrents.com/staggering-towards-anarchy/20 May 2026 01:41 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mmarmwbves23https://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mmanq4lpf223"We need to stop whining about 'the media.' If 'the media' in the 1960s was good enough for the Civil Rights Movement to have viable options, our current media is more than good enough." https://www.liberalcurrents.com/rather-than-whining-about-the-media-we-should-fight-to-win/20 May 2026 00:31 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mmanq4lpf223https://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mmacrr2j4s23"People are as unavoidably political as they are diverse, social, and self-interested. Liberalism recognizes that and provides the institutions under which peace is still possible. Liberalism can explain why politics is a result of cooperative positive-sum exchange." https://www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalism-reunited/19 May 2026 21:15 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mmacrr2j4s23https://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mma52dqs522k"If judicial supremacy can be entrenched by constitutional politics, it can be defeated by the same means." https://www.liberalcurrents.com/editors-notes-can-we-defy-courts-while-believing-in-r/19 May 2026 19:33 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mma52dqs522khttps://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mma2a3anz22o"While they’ve increased participation in U.N. peacekeeping in the 21st century—with 2,274 Chinese troops participating in missions as of 2024, the 10th largest contribution—they lack the capabilities for something much larger." https://www.liberalcurrents.com/staggering-towards-anarchy/19 May 2026 18:42 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mma2a3anz22ohttps://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mm7xxepd422o"That the far right adopted so much anti-government rhetoric should have been a bigger warning sign for fusionists opposed to far-right politics." https://www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalism-reunited/19 May 2026 18:02 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mm7xxepd422ohttps://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mm7v7um6d22o"The constitutional settlement under which all of us have lived for decades is already gone, it is already dead, and the war is now fought to determine what the next one will be." https://www.liberalcurrents.com/editors-notes-can-we-defy-courts-while-believing-in-r/19 May 2026 17:13 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mm7v7um6d22ohttps://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mm7t7vjx4222"'Let bygones be bygones.' Do you remember that? I do. I remember Barack Obama's choice not to prosecute Bush-era torturers or the banksters who stole the world." https://www.liberalcurrents.com/prosecute-these-corrupt-bastards/19 May 2026 16:37 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mm7t7vjx4222https://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mm7qjquov22o"Trump went pursuing concessions on trade and deals for American businesses, and practically begged Xi for help opening the Strait of Hormuz. He got none of that." https://www.liberalcurrents.com/staggering-towards-anarchy/19 May 2026 15:49 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mm7qjquov22ohttps://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mm7nk5qusc2o"Trump is throwing away many of the things that made America the world’s premier power, and as the United States declines, China has the most to gain." https://www.liberalcurrents.com/staggering-towards-anarchy/19 May 2026 14:55 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mm7nk5qusc2ohttps://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mm7kv7ydn22o"Skepticism about government action and power does not demand that classical liberals abandon liberalism’s other commitments. Classical liberalism can remain liberal, seeking to break down limited-access power structures and hierarchies to replace them with open societies" https://www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalism-reunited/19 May 2026 14:08 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mm7kv7ydn22ohttps://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mm7jdgomo22dCurrent Readings: "The Framers didn’t choose winner-take-all. They inherited it, the way you would have inherited your grandparents’ rope bed if you were around in 1789, because it was the only bed available." Lee Drutman (@leedrutman.bsky.social) on the history of gerrymandering: https://leedrutman.substack.com/p/a-brief-237-year-history-of-gerrymandering19 May 2026 13:40 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mm7jdgomo22dhttps://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mm7i4g5rhc2o"The world now isn’t trading the American Century for a Chinese one. It’s changing into something like the more chaotic multilateral system that prevailed in the first half of the 20th century, an era of world wars and economic depression." https://www.liberalcurrents.com/staggering-towards-anarchy/19 May 2026 13:18 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mm7i4g5rhc2ohttps://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mm7gjqhcfs2o"These provisions were adopted, nearly a century apart, for the express purpose of guaranteeing the political rights of African-Americans. After Callais, they cannot be used for this purpose. Instead they function to limit black political power." https://www.liberalcurrents.com/how-the-120th-congress-can-crush-the-gerrymandered-maps/19 May 2026 12:50 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mm7gjqhcfs2ohttps://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mm7exyhq322o"If countries sold off U.S. bonds, stocks, and currency, there aren't enough denominated in Chinese, European, Japanese, etc. currency to absorb the resulting funds." https://www.liberalcurrents.com/staggering-towards-anarchy/19 May 2026 12:22 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mm7exyhq322ohttps://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mm7dlbqkkc2o"Housecleaning must be done promptly. Trump's lackeys will spare no effort to insulate themselves from consequences or burrow into institutions. They will throw up every roadblock they can imagine." https://www.liberalcurrents.com/prosecute-these-corrupt-bastards/19 May 2026 11:57 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mm7dlbqkkc2ohttps://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mm7awore622f“It’s an open question if the Chinese military could invade and occupy Taiwan, an island about 120 kilometers off China’s coast. The biggest things they’ve done this century is crush democracy in Hong Kong (. . .)and gain a little territory in the Himalayas from border clashes with India.” https://www.liberalcurrents.com/staggering-towards-anarchy/19 May 2026 11:10 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mm7awore622fhttps://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mm74fdrtrc2f“But just because America is declining and China is rising does not mean China is poised to take over as global leader. Instead, what will replace U.S. global leadership after the Trump-accelerated American decline is nothing.” https://www.liberalcurrents.com/staggering-towards-anarchy/19 May 2026 09:48 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mm74fdrtrc2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mm6jpgztak23"It will not be difficult for a future Democratic administration to find highly competent, highly motivated legal professionals. These people are by and large champing at the bit to get their hands on Trump criminals." https://www.liberalcurrents.com/prosecute-these-corrupt-bastards/19 May 2026 04:14 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mm6jpgztak23https://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mm6dzp6wds2g"In his house at Mar-a-Lago there are buffoons, there are scammers and grifters, there are mummers and murderers and both at once drunk on cheap champagne paid for by the people's dime. They think justice is never coming for them." https://www.liberalcurrents.com/prosecute-these-corrupt-bastards/19 May 2026 02:32 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mm6dzp6wds2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mm6bjktxms2g"Given the horrific circumstances which first gave rise to Israel’s war march, Mr. Netanyahu might feel like he has adopted the most ‘rational’ course of action. This has come at a high moral cost." https://www.liberalcurrents.com/and-should-i-at-your-harmless-innocence-melt/19 May 2026 01:48 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mm6bjktxms2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mm5wcdozk22s"It is not our fault that Trump and his lackeys decided to commit so many crimes. It's just our mess to clean up." https://www.liberalcurrents.com/prosecute-these-corrupt-bastards/18 May 2026 22:27 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mm5wcdozk22shttps://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com/post/3mm5qljnchk2tToday candidate for VA's fifth district @tracinski.bsky.social talks with @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com about the danger Donald Trump's corruption and lawlessness poses to the country, Robert's road from a member of the Tea Party to a staunch liberal, and more https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-constitutional-crisis-is-here-neon-liberalism-74-with-robert-tracinski/18 May 2026 20:45 +0000at://did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mm5qljnchk2t