Liberal forces such as free markets, internationalism and tolerance have helped shape the current world yet appear to be on the wane.
Do the divisions within the Liberal Party reflect differences of personality and tactical emphasis? Or do they come down to differing worldviews?
AAP/Mick Tsikas
The decline in Malcolm Turnbull’s popularity and the increasingly explicit critiques of his leadership have raised the question of whether the Liberal Party has a unifying ideology.
Malcolm Turnbull can put his values into practice by calling on all members of his party to vote in favour of legalising same-sex marriage.
AAP/Lukas Coch
A vote on whether same-sex couples can get married is discriminatory because it applies a standard to them that does not apply to heterosexual couples.
The GOP’s problem with Pope Francis is that he may be too conservative.
Reuters
If Reclaim Australia were rallying Muslims, the liberal media would examine its religious inspirations. Yet the media treat its supporters as disgruntled individuals rather than Christian representatives.
It’s not that studying psychology made me a bleeding heart, but that studying psychology gave me a better understanding of how people think and behave.
Sign via www.shutterstock.com.
Efforts to address Africa’s developmental challenges are hampered by features of the global governance architecture that undermine national policy and international cooperation.
Liberalism means something completely different in South Africa compared with the US and UK, and has racist connotations.
shutterstock
Liberalism is a dirty word for the majority of South Africans. This goes back to early colonialism. Liberals opposed apartheid but not the close relationship between capitalism and apartheid.
Jimmy Carter meets with Senator Edward Kennedy in the Oval Office in 1977.
President (1977-1981 : Carter). White House Staff Photographers.
Ted Kennedy, long idolized as the Lion of the Senate, miscalculated badly when he challenged incumbent Jimmy Carter for the Democratic nomination. The results haunt liberals to this day.
From boyhood to late in life, Malcolm Fraser always seemed to be slightly removed from those around him.
AAP/Tim Dornin
Malcolm Fraser’s record in public life was remarkable, ensuring he’d be remembered not only for his role in The Dismissal, but for how far apart he and the party he once led came to be.
In American Sniper, Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) is the ‘sheepdog’ – someone who operates in a state of constant, anxious alertness against inevitable attack.
Entertainment Weekly
Many are decrying the film as merely conservative propaganda. But American Sniper – as with many of Eastwood’s films – has a more nuanced approach that addresses modern anxieties.
Jeremy Thorpe, who has died aged 85, was tagged in the BBC radio reports of his death as “the Liberal leader tried for conspiracy to murder at the Old Bailey”. Old friends and current Liberal Democrat…
Federal attorney-general George Brandis wants to champion a ‘classical liberal’ approach to human rights, but what does this actually mean?
AAP/Daniel Munoz
Tim Wilson, Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner, has announced that he will take a “classical liberal” approach to human rights. There is a fair degree of confusion about what this means. Classical liberalism…
The recent tobacco tax rise showed the usual entrenched positions of public health advocates and libertarians.
Nick|Allen/Flickr
Predictable positions followed the recent announcement of an increase in tobacco tax by 12.5% a year for four years. Public health advocates praised the tax, labelling those questioning it as “tobacco…
Chief Research Specialist in Democracy and Citizenship at the Human Science Research Council and a Research Fellow Centre for African Studies, University of the Free State