Liberal Worldviews

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Does it often seem that many American politicians and pundits are talking past each other? That is because they really are. The frustrating nature of public debate arises in large part from the fact that Americans do not share a single worldview. A worldview is a more or less coherent understanding of the nature of reality, which permits its holders to interpret new information in light of their preconceptions. Clashes among worldviews cannot be ended by a simple appeal to facts. Even if rival sides agree on the facts, people may disagree on conclusions because of their different premises. Both the conservative and liberal camps include people with different and sometimes incompatible worldviews. American public debate is arguably…show more content…
victory in the Gulf War shaped the neoliberal worldview, so earlier historic events — the Great Depression, the rise of fascism and America’s extraordinary mobilization of labor and resources during World War II — shaped the thinking of social democratic liberals in the mid-20th century and continues to do so today. As social democratic liberals see it, the Great Depression, the third in a series of major depressions since the 1860s, proved that industrial capitalism at both the national and global levels is inherently unstable, without intelligent government regulation and intervention. The abandonment of democracy in many countries during the Depression convinced social democratic liberals that an economic safety net, protecting citizens from unemployment, sickness, poverty in old age and other disasters, is necessary if democratic government is to retain popular support. And the remarkable mobilization of the U.S. economy during World War II convinced social democratic liberals in America that public policy was capable of organizing full employment and high levels of private sector production, even if market forces on their own were
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