Thread by @ThePlumLineGS

1) My defense of liberalism and criticism of where we're falling short has generated a lot of thoughtful and interesting responses -- thanks for that! -- so I thought I'd do a thread with a bunch of further reading on this topic.

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1388461631856910336

2) @HelenaRosenblat's lost history of liberalism captures a lot of the neglected ways in which liberals sought to develop a conception of the common good, which liberalism is constantly (and wrongly) criticized for lacking:

amazon.com/Lost-History-L…

@HelenaRosenblat 3) The great Stephen Holmes' "Anatomy of Antiliberalism" is a really useful cataloging of the criticisms thrown at liberalism over the centuries, and why they falter under scrutiny. Many critiques you hear today have their roots in these old arguments:

amazon.com/Anatomy-Antili…

@HelenaRosenblat 4) Martha Nussbaum's great book "The Cosmopolitan Tradition" captures the immense contributions this tradition has made over the centuries:

amazon.com/Cosmopolitan-T…

@HelenaRosenblat 5) I just want to reiterate, the "conservative populist" habit of sneering at cosmopolitanism with silly caricatures is an ugly and stupid game. As I tried to argue, for many people, cosmopolitanism is a very deeply held value:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

@HelenaRosenblat 6) On the anti-liberal arguments and the ways liberalism's shortcomings have given them an opening, see @zackbeauchamp's comprehensive piece, with a few added thoughts from @seanilling here:

https://twitter.com/seanilling/status/1171418801017147393

@HelenaRosenblat @zackbeauchamp @seanilling 7) And here's a good @Adrian_Rutt piece arguing that some liberals actually are rising to the anti-liberal moment with solid defenses of liberalism:

liberalcurrents.com/gimme-that-old…

@HelenaRosenblat @zackbeauchamp @seanilling @Adrian_Rutt 8) See @gabeschoenfeld's outstanding takedown of some of the biggest anti-liberal arguments of the moment:

the-american-interest.com/2019/04/26/the…

9) On the idea of liberal democracy as something that reflects not just formal commitments, but also deeply held beliefs about the worth of fellow human beings and their capacity to execute intelligent/reasoned judgments and actions, see @willwilkinson:
modelcitizen.substack.com/p/the-anti-maj…

@willwilkinson 10) And you can find a lot more links to great stuff from excellent theorists like @lkatfield, @paulcrider, @adamgurri, and @samuelmoyn in my piece, which I hope you'll read:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…