Persuasion
Defending classical liberalism from its cultured despisers
On Wednesdays I normally like to feature small, single-author Substack publications offering evergreen content (not journalistic punditry) that aren’t primarily promoting the author’s book. Today I’m going to break that rule to recommend Persuasion. My recommendation is based largely on their overall stated mission and the recent launch of a new series on “Why Liberalism,” starting with this post:
Here’s the opener:
In two short years, Americans will celebrate the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence. Given the challenges we face as a country, this landmark birthday has me wondering… Are the liberal principles underlying the American experiment still guiding that experiment? And, as we ramp up our A250 plans, do we really get what it is that we’re celebrating?
On the first question, a sober assessment requires, well… sobriety. It’s important to recognize that relative to other places and other times, Americans are living lives marked by high degrees of political freedom, material abundance, and social equality. This is indeed worth celebrating.
At the same time, far too few Americans recognize these benefits—equality, material abundance, and social wellbeing—as the fruits of the liberal democratic project. On both the left and right, many pursue authoritarian politics rather than liberal norms and institutions, as the route to improving their lot. Also worrisome is the surge of illiberal extremism, again, on both the left and right. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll finds that 68% of Americans are concerned that extremists will engage in violence if the upcoming presidential election doesn’t go their way. While the motivation behind the recent assassination attempt on Donald Trump is not yet known, the fact that it happened reminds us what’s at stake.
As troubling as illiberal extremism is, however, the rising influence of a more erudite illiberal movement—let’s call it the “post-liberal intelligentsia,” or PLI for short—is just as, if not more, concerning.
Many posts at Persuasion are newsy and journalistic. Others, including this one, as well as a rich set of podcasts and interviews, are concerned with larger issues and principles. Explore for yourself Persuasion’s courageous convictions and “founding manifesto.”
I agree that classical defenders of classical liberalism have fallen down on the job and haven’t taken seriously enough the myriad of challenges emerging from both right and left.
I won’t go so far as to identify myself with classical liberalism in total, partly because I want to maintain independence from all isms — and partly because I agree that there are too many serious critiques, and I haven’t yet been persuaded to full allegiance back to the old system by adequate replies.
That does not mean, by any stretch, that I’m ready to throw out the baby! Over the past 250 years, as
’s article surveys, especially in America and the west, we’ve gained so much from liberalism that we simply must secure its most important tenets in perpetuity, or abandon them at tremendous cost.That doesn’t mean classical liberalism is a rut to be stuck in forever, or that we’ve somehow reached utopia or a Fukuyamanesque end of history. What kind of eyebrow raise might accompany Persuasion’s recent absorption of Fukuyama’s own publications?
I don’t necessarily recommend a subscription to Persuasion, unless you want to, but a follow of your favorite writers would definitely be in order, plus a periodic glance through their offerings and/or an RSS-feed sub, to enable a regular skim.
Persuasion may be read constructively with Discourse Magazine, which perhaps I will feature next week.
