The phenomenon of Donald Trump is the product of the way both the left and right in this country have obsessively placed tribal identity ahead of principles. When ideological orthodoxy trumps intellectual honesty, when social justice trumps personal liberty, when ideas no longer matter because our minds are already made up that's when our fringe elements become mainstream. That's when we get Trump.
Fascism and Stalinism won't appear waving copies of mein kampf or pravda. They'll seep into the mainstream through the eyes of regular people who are frightened and angry at a political rally for a populist celebrity stoking fear and arousing bigotry, and they'll be young college students snapping their fingers and hysterically shouting about their need for a "safe space." We have to start countering this sinister folderol now by promoting our principles. If we don't promote our enlightenment values: democracy, pluralism, freedom of expression, the rule of law, then the definitions get confusing for people and they will gravitate to the charismatic angry people who are speaking to them.
Dogmatism and orthodoxy stifles debate and leads to a bleak place. Fascism comes in many flavors, but whether it's Nazism, Stalinism, Klanism, Nationalism, or Theocracy, it has these constants: it promises answers that cannot be questioned and a perfect society or paradise that cannot be achieved, and it provides people with enemies both inside and outside to keep the paranoia and barbarism perpetually boiling. These ideologies are sadistic and suicidal. The enlightenment revolutionaries did not promise utopia. All they promised they demanded for themselves: freedom under law. The open societies that adopted the enlightenment principles are not paradise. They are not intended to be perfect, because people and ideas are not perfect. The promise of the open society is only that my freedom and your freedom are one and the same and as long as we demand this, we have a chance at justice and we have a chance at a functional society where equality is inherent. It is this delicate balance of freedom under law that holds up the center and keeps the radical fringe at bay.
The progressive movement, the regressive left, the libertarians, modern conservatism and academia have failed us. Today we have allowed the fringes in to our homes and they got drunk and won't leave. The right is drunk on xenophobia, anti-intellectualism, conspiracy theory and idiotic tribal rage. The left is drunk on their own sense of superiority and their concept inherent injustice. They're both redefining words to suit their philosophy and insisting that only they may debate issues on their terms and by casting everyone who disagrees with them into one group of "racists" or "socialists" they devalue the meaning of words.
All across the political spectrum, there are true liberals who care about liberal principles and intellectual diversity. Some if them call themselves conservative, some call themselves liberal or progressive. Some are atheists and some are religious. It matters that these people do not agree on everything because what they agree on is made stronger by their differences. In the months since Ben Affleck appeared on Bill Maher's show calling both Maher and writer Sam Harris gross and racist for criticizing ideas like female genital mutilation, and since the privileged students at universities across the US and Europe have begun attacking free speech, there has been an awakening of sorts. We who reject the regressive left and the reactionary right are not going to be silent. It is time to defend our principles. It is time for Magna Carta Liberalism.
Magna Carta Liberals who value enlightenment principles must challenge and ridicule this shit every single day. Freedom under the rule of law and intellectual pluralism is necessary for humans to have dignity, equality and justice. What matters is not your tribal identity, but your ideas. We should not apply different principles to different people. We must begin with principle.
