The People's Line

The People's Line

Sunstein is right: there are indeed racist liberals

Another look at the inbox.

Carl Beijer's avatar
Carl Beijer
Sep 25, 2025
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From the inbox:

Carl - I saw you post that Cass Sunstein’s definition of liberalism was much more defensible than Matt McManus’s. Can you explain this?

Just to clarify, this question was asked in the context of Isaac Chotiner’s recent interview with Sunstein about liberalism. And the answer is yes, though I think the most useful thing would be to explain my own conception of liberalism and talk about how it differs from their. In my view it is really quite simple:

Liberalism calls for expanding human freedom through the defense of a set of universal rights that belong to every individual, which have historically included the right to free expression, to vote in democratic elections, and to private property.

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