Why Liberals Should Unite With Socialists, Not the Right
Conservatives are sounding the alarm bell about a Marxist takeover, with at least one philosopher urging liberals to join forces with the Right to destroy the socialist bogeyman. But the values of liberalism have much more in common with socialism than the Right — and liberals sincerely committed to advancing freedom and equality should unite with leftists.
Liberals sincerely committed to freedom and equality should ask if they are better-off allied to a political right committed to turning back the clock — or striding into the future with progressives and socialists who share many of their fundamentally modernist convictions. (Flickr)
Last month, the conservative philosopher Yoram Hazony published an essay in Quillette on “The Challenge of Marxism.” Hazony is known for his 2018 book The Virtue of Nationalism, which lodged some valid critiques of liberalism, but was ultimately unconvincing in its effort to reframe nationalism as an anti-imperialist endeavor. His chosen exemplars included the United Kingdom, France, and the United States — all countries with long histories of colonialism and expansionism.
With his new essay, Hazony has jumped into the culture wars, attempting to explain and criticize the “astonishingly successful” Marxist takeover of “companies, universities and schools, major corporations and philanthropic organizations, and even the courts, the government bureaucracy, and some churches.” He concludes with a call for liberals to unite with conservatives to halt this takeover, lest the dastardly Marxists achieve their goal of conquering “liberalism itself.”
Hazony’s essay, though long and detailed, has many flaws. In the end, it’s less a compelling takedown of contemporary leftists than another illustration of why conservatives should read Marx.
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