“Liberalism is the refuge favored by intellectual cowardice, because the essence of the liberal’s position is that he has no position.”
The quote is Buckley’s Up With Liberalism Mind-Twister. It is one of the great political falsehoods of the late twentieth century. William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925-2008) is best known for founding the conservative National Review and his public affairs television show, and in 1959 he produced a popular paperback called, “Up From Liberalism”. It was a fusion of reactionary-type traditionalist conservatism and classical liberalism to cut a path for a rightward turn in the Republican Party. Buckley arrogantly stated:
The Liberals I shall refer to in this book are men and women who are clearly associated with the Liberal movement in America, however often they seem to be deviating to right or left from the mainstream. Because Liberalism has no definitive manifesto, one cannot say, prepared to back up the statement with unimpeachable authority, that such-and-such a man or measure is “Liberal.” But one can say that Mrs. Roosevelt is a Liberal, and do so confident that no one will contradict him. . . . [Liberal] men and women and institutions share premises and attitudes, show common reactions, enthusiasms and aversions, and display an empirical solidarity in thought and action, on the strength of which society has come to know them as ‘Liberals.’ They are men and women who tend to believe that the human being is perfectible and social progress predictable, and that the instrument for effecting the two is reason; that truths are transitory and empirically determined; that equality is desirable and attainable through the action of state power; that social and individual differences, if they are not rational, are objectionable, and should be scientifically eliminated; that all peoples and societies should strive or organize themselves upon a rationalist paradigm.
The weed of a lie, a false narrative, based only on the truths of a few foolish personalities who called themselves “liberal”, and not based on any document of “liberalism” as the intellectual paradigm, has brought about the weed flourishing of thought in the Age of Trumpism. It is an utterly false narrative in 2025 and has always been since liberals themselves have harshly critiqued doctrines of human perfectibility. Reading his attack on liberalism, you can see Buckley is merely attempting to make rightism a centralist position on the political spectrum. Again, on the evidence of political doctrines, Buckley’s narrative is false; as is Donald Trump’s bolden lies.
On the positive side, Natasha Mitchell of ABC Radio National pointed out:
Liberalism isn’t just a political philosophy but the basis of a truly meaningful life. That’s the bold statement of philosopher Alexandre Lefebvre, author of the forthcoming book Liberalism As A Way of Life.
There is hope for a new way of learning.
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Buccola, Nicholas (2019). The Fire is Upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America, Princeton University Press.
Buch, Neville (2024). Buckley’s Chance, Cultural Thinking of Trumpism, and History, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, February 2, 2024, https://drnevillebuch.com/buckleys-chance-cultural-thinking-of-trumpism-and-history/
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Mitchell, Natasha (2025). Liberalism as the basis of life? ABC Radio National, Thurday 2 Jan 2025 at 4:00pm, https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/bigideas/liberalism-meaningful-life/104462892
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Siedentop, Larry (2014). Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism, Penguin
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Neville Buch
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