Interesting. I can't help notice that you don't mention HD Croly, author of "The Promise of American Life". Published in 1909 it was said to be the goad that galvanised T Roosevelt to progressive reform. That TR's 1910 speech followed Croly's book was no accident.

His analysis is similar to yours, but significantly different and, I think, more correct. Its not just that there has been a tension between individual liberty and collective purpose, but that it grossly misconstrued power, risk and intent, and so was inadvertently engineered to fail. In many ways, I think, he predicted our current predicament better than any other commentator I've read.

It would be unfortunate if his unique contribution were forgotten and ignored altogether just when its relevance is most apt.

In fact, Croly is mentioned on page 3 of this essay. It's indeed relevant.

One reason liberals have trouble embracing history in the way that you suggest is that opposition to American greatness -- which you ascribe to liberal policy -- has been at the center of their ideology. Another is that the successive liberal love affairs with Leninism, Stalinism and Maoism in turn have proved so disastrously in error that a reminder of this past can be nothing except damning. Finally, the Long Consensus, as you term it -- the strengthening of central government at the expense of individualism -- was forged as a response to the Great Depression. However, its singular failure to prevent its recurrence in the current Great Recession, is hardly an endorsement of liberal historical credentials.

American liberal and conservative traditions, as we currently understand the terms, have their roots in the disparate religious cultures that were part of the American foundation and rise to prominence. The judeo-catholic, communitarian, altruistic, guilt-driven ethic has always stood in opposition to the protestant, individualist, self-reliant, pragmatic one. The key reason for the conservative narrative's ascendance is the decline of the traditionally communicatian media establishment's monopoly on communication. Because all now can speak and be equally-well heard, polarization can only continue no matter how hard the factions try to rewrite history in their own favor.

http://mythdesisyphus.wordpress.com/

One reason liberals have trouble embracing history in the way that you suggest is that opposition to American greatness -- which you ascribe to liberal policy -- has been at the center of their ideology. Another is that the successive liberal love affairs with Leninism, Stalinism and Maoism in turn have proved so disastrously in error that a reminder of this past can be nothing except damning. Finally, the Long Consensus, as you term it -- the strengthening of central government at the expense of individualism -- was forged as a response to the Great Depression. However, its singular failure to prevent its recurrence in the current Great Recession, is hardly an endorsement of liberal historical credentials.

American liberal and conservative traditions, as we currently understand the terms, have their roots in the disparate religious cultures that were part of the American foundation and rise to prominence. The judeo-catholic, communitarian, altruistic, guilt-driven ethic has always stood in opposition to the protestant, individualist, self-reliant, pragmatic one. The key reason for the conservative narrative's ascendance is the decline of the traditionally communicatian media establishment's monopoly on communication. Because all now can speak and be equally-well heard, polarization can only continue no matter how hard the factions try to rewrite history in their own favor.

http://mythdesisyphus.wordpress.com/

@Sisyphus:

I think you're distorting history. First of all, a tiny little bit of history would be enough to illustrate that "liberal" has not had a stable, consistent meaning, and some precision of terms is important.

This realization undermines the claims of your first paragraph: it's hard to know who you have in mind with folks left-of-center who "opposed" America's greatness, but easy to counter every example you might adduce with a lefty who loved America and wanted it big, rich and strong.

It's also ridiculous to paint everyone left-of-center with the boogyman-colored brush of Stalinism and Maoism.

To be honest, I didn't make it to your second paragraph.

@Sisyphus:

I think you're distorting history. First of all, a tiny little bit of history would be enough to illustrate that "liberal" has not had a stable, consistent meaning, and some precision of terms is important.

This realization undermines the claims of your first paragraph: it's hard to know who you have in mind with folks left-of-center who "opposed" America's greatness, but easy to counter every example you might adduce with a lefty who loved America and wanted it big, rich and strong.

It's also ridiculous to paint everyone left-of-center with the boogyman-colored brush of Stalinism and Maoism.

To be honest, I didn't make it to your second paragraph.

One theme that I think really resonates across the spectrum, and deserves a lot more emphasis by liberal and progressive efforts doesn't fit neatly into Mr. Dionne's liberty vs equality framework:

Fairness.

Just about everything lefties and liberals think is important can be described in terms of fairness, from tax policy to affirmative action to environmental protection.

Taxes and fairness is pretty obvious. Here's an off-the-cuff take on the other two examples:

It's only fair that we not (intentionally or inadvertently) lock some people out of some opportunities.

It's only fair that we not saddle our great-grandchildren with the burden of our selfish and short-sighted decisions now.

And the language of fairness is a much more powerful and effective way to approach these topics than the way we often do.

It's very hard to argue for unfairness - we need to do a better job of painting defenders of selfishness, fear, and divisiveness into a rhetorical corner with carefully crafted appeals to broadly held values like fairness.

I like where Dionne is taking us in his analysis, toward historical grounding for the social welfare state - government for the people. Yet the paradigm of individualism vs. community is not what the political battle is about. Individualism has been squeezed out by a combination of population growth, urbanization, corporate capitalism, military nationalism, and social welfare liberalism. Economically, the failure to maintain individual free enterprise can be traced to the fate of anti-trust legislation, which was pursued with some vigor from the 1870s to WWII, then relegated to reigning in only the most egregious of monopolies. The political fight is mainly between two different forms of collectivism, if one can use this word, corporate-financial-industrial capitalism and democratic-social welfare government. The fight is over decision-making power, who calls the shots. Small businesses still thrive, but they are being beaten down by the Walmarts of the world, globalization, and now internet sales, all of which have nothing to do with government regulations or taxes. There are illusions piled on top of illusions in this business. Dionne pierces through a number of them.