The Topography of Liberalism... and Bill Clinton

In considering the widely accepted hypothesis that the Republican victory in the elections of 1994 was a popular rejection of the liberalism allegedly incarnate in President Bill Clinton, it is important to distinguish between 2 distinct liberalisms. As a paradigm, the old liberalism was rooted deeply in the experience of the Great Depression and in the policies and practices that were promulgated as a response to that catastrophe. The focus of the old liberalism was on the economy. It did not look beyond the criteria of economic benefit or reach beyond its economic goals. Bill Clinton is not an old liberal. The policies and practices of his administration have mostly been the antithesis of old (New Deal or welfare) liberalism. Rather, Clinton is characterized by a new liberalism that is rooted in the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s. This new liberalism is of the empower-and-liberate kind. The focus is not on the economy, but on values and images.