Fukuyama: Who are the "Discontents?"

as opposed to good-guy liberals

When you read Francis Fukuyama’s Liberalism and Its Discontents it is clear that liberals are the good guys, the chaps in the middle of the Overton Window. As for the rest of the world…

Who are the “discontents” with liberalism, and why?

First of all, there are the populists on the right: Trump, Brazil’s Bolsanaro, Hungary’s Orbán. But there are also the progressives from the left, that feel that liberals are not honoring their “ideals of equal treatment of all groups.”

But why are the discontents discontented? Because of neoliberalism (meaning Thatcher and Reagan),

which dramatically increased economic inequality and brought on devastating financial crises that hurt ordinary people far more than wealthy elites in many countries around the globe.

The two discontents, left and right have different solutions to this problem

On the right, there have been efforts to manipulated the electoral system in the United States in order to guaranteed that conservatives remain in power… [plus] use of violence and authoritarian government…

On the left, there are demands for a massive redistribution of wealth and power… as well as policies to equalize outcomes between groups [based on race and gender].

Of course, the threat from the right “is more immediate and political; the one on the left is primarily cultural and therefore slower acting.”

Fukuyama thinks that the challenges don’t really have a problem with the “essence” of liberalism, but because certain liberal ideas have been “pushed to extremes.”

Do you see why I think Fukuyama is living in LaLa Land? Let’s critique him.

Fukuyama says that from “the end of the Second World War up through the 1970s, the global financial system had been highly stable.” But deregulation applied in the 1980s and 1990s “proved disastrous… with the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008.”

Chantrill says that the postwar financial system worked until it blew up in 1971 when other countries objected to the US exporting inflation, and resulted in a decade of inflation until Volcker and Reagan and Thatcher implemented their hard money and lowered tax-rates. Then everything was fine until the 60-year New Deal policy of subsidizing and federalizing home mortgages blew up in 2008.

So who is right? You make the call.

Fukuyama says that conservatives have been trying to manipulate the electoral system.

Chantrill says if only!

What do you think? Have conservatives been trying to manipulate the electoral system or have Democrats actually succeeded, as in 2020 and 2022? You make the call.

Fukuyama says that progressives want massive redistribution and group rights.

Chantrill says but that is what you have carefully taught the educated class. You chaps corrupted the Civil Rights Act from an act about universal rights into a regular gubmint program dishing out benefits to regime supporters with quotas and affirmative action and diversity. If a few quotas didn’t work, then the natural thing for progressives is to believe that more quotas are needed.

What do you think? Have liberals got what they deserved or are they the helpless victims of the young wokies? You make the call.

But overall, I’d say that our liberal friends are getting what they deserve by never getting out of their own narrative bubble.

Of course, my whole life is about poking holes in the liberal narrative. Yes, the Trumpists are pissed off. But do you think, dear liberals, that the white working class might have a genuine grievance against a race policy that makes them into monsters.

And yes, your progressive kids are pissed off. But do you think, dear liberals, that they are just practicing what you have taught them? Group rights! Big government programs! Become an activist! Protest the monstrous injustices of the patriarchy, or the rich, or the racists, or the corporations, or racial inequality! And as for greedy bankers.

Rule One for any ruling class is to make sure it understands why the peasants with pitchforks are revolting.

It’s pretty clear to me that Francis Fukuyama doesn’t have a clue. He knows that he and his kind are the good guys. He knows that the right-wing populists are evil. He knows that the lefty progressives are a bit extreme.

So liberalism has its discontents. But there is really nothing to worry about, old chap. But make sure those conservative populists don’t get to “manipulate the electoral system.”

Which means that one fine day Fukuyama will wake up and find that the next regime in in power.