Reason

by Joel Tannenbaum

books

What's more confusing than the continuing popularity of the Atkins diet? The history of the word "liberal." The architects of classical liberalism, folks like John Locke and Adam Smith, were archproponents of free-market capitalism and archenemies of big government (Locke was also a strong supporter of the slave trade). And yet somehow, in the past 40 years or so, the word "liberal" has come to be associated with everything from flag burning to state welfare programs. Just to add to the confusion, "liberals" in countries like France and Japan are right-wingers. What a mess.

Luckily, former Bill Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich is going to clear all of this up for of us. Sort of. In his latest book, Reason: Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America (Knopf), Reich lays out point-by-point what exactly it is that American liberals stand for, and what exactly their opponents (Reich calls them "Radcons," many of whom serve in the current administration) are up to. He also seeks to address the confusion surrounding the word "liberal" and sort it out once and for all: Reich suggests that oldhead liberals were interested primarily in nice-sounding things like tolerance and compromise, and that somewhere in the midst of the Great Depression, they suddenly reversed their centuries-long anti-government stance and became advocates of responsible government intervention instead.

Reich's program for stopping America's rightward drift is appealing, as is his vision for an America that looks something like a European social democracy. Perhaps, if he, Al Franken, Jim Hightower et al. are serious about implementing their plan, they should stop trying to rehabilitate the word "liberal" and discard it altogether. After all, aren't we all confused enough as it is?

Robert Reich reads Thu., May 20, 8 p.m., $6-$12, Free Library, Central Branch, 1901 Vine St., 215-567-4341.

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