I can across this commentary last week and it addressed a question I have been puzzling about for a while.

“What exactly is a Liberal?”

I have peripherally been following the Conservative/Liberal clash in the US and am puzzled why the term ‘Liberal’ has picked up such a bad connotation. ‘Liberal’ has been the hallmark of American politics for over 220 years.

Mahablog answers this in a perceptive way, A liberal is one who believes that ‘The People’ can govern themsleves; a conservative believes that ‘The People’ can’t govern themselves, but instead appeals to a higher or singular authority to enable governance. (This makes Scalia’s comment a lot more obvious.)

The conservative approach is to appeal to a higher authority, to deify or sanctify one individual, usually the President in US politics, and say that he is the Ruler and that what he wants is the ‘right thing’ and that all who oppose him are evil. If the President doesn’t come up to snuff, then you can point to an ayatollah or a newt for governance.

Kings, Caesars, Dictators, High Priests, Archbishops, Witch Doctors, Chiefs, Elders, Popes, Jedi Knights. These are all higher authorities that people look to for guidance. So often, it is the cultural background that demands obedience without evidence. And questioning them for the evidence is heresy and undermines the faith of others. Faith. That is the ultimate appeal of the higher authority. You don’t need evidence if you have faith.

When ‘The People’ singularly, or within groups, give up their right to determine for themselves who shall represent them, and instead follow the dictates of a demagogue who is influenced and guided by larger demagogues, then democracy is lost.

It will be interesting to see what happens in Iraq in the next few years. My impression, albeit from sketchy sources, is that the Iraqi people don’t necessarily believe that ‘The People’ should govern themselves. There are learned and wise people who have studied the arts of governance and they are the ones that need to be in charge. How they determine the top dog is their problem, not a problem for ‘The People’. I hope I am wrong. I hope that the Iraqi’s will work out the governance problems and become liberals. We shall see.

Democracy is not pretty. Democracy involves working with people you wouldn’t want within a thousand meters of you. Democracy means being a liberal.