Talk:Modern liberalism in the United States

Rename Modern liberalism to Liberalism

I propose renaming the Wikipedia article by removing modern from modern liberalism. The term liberalism is more commonly used than modern liberalism when referring to this ideology. For example, the Democratic Party's infobox labels it simply as liberalism.

Similarly, the Republican Party's ideology is referred to as conservatism, which aligns with the term's usual usage. The existing Liberalism in the United States page could then be renamed to Classical Liberalism in the United States, mirroring the approach taken with the Traditionalist Conservatism article, which reflects the original version of American conservatism. Guotaian (talk) 10:05, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

I would argue that "Modern Liberalism in the United States" is a more fitting title, as this article is specifically about Modern Liberalism. Renaming "Liberalism in the United States" to "Classical Liberalism in the United States" would cause confusion, as Modern Liberalism and Classical Liberalism both are mentioned in that article. ~2025-33405-46 (talk) 02:51, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

Are all major American parties still liberal?

The article quotes Ian Adams in saying that all major political parties are liberal and have always been. I'm not sure, with current events, that both major parties do espouse democratized constitutionalism. Does a 24 year old source really mirror the current situation? Jeypeyy (talk) 18:45, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

Is the Atlantic partisan?

Hi there, I'm interested in how we determine that a institution or - in this case - media organization is "liberal" or "conservative". I'm of course speaking of that box on the right side of the article. That MSNBC is in that box I understand, but is the Atlantic predominantly liberal? In this article from Forbes, the Berlin Scool of Creative Leadership lists media they're seeing as trustworthy sources and - most importantly - free of partizanship. In this list, the Altantic comes at ninth position and is described as subscribing to the "journalism principles of fact-based reporting". Could someone explain how you chose the "liberal" newspapers in this box? Thank you a 1000 times! Darja Georgy (talk) 15:47, 26 August 2025 (UTC)

It's from the WP:SIDEBAR "Modern liberalism in the United States sidebar". That article is Template:Modern liberalism US, where you can add or subtract names. You should discuss this on its talk page.

The bulk of American news media is liberal. Right-wing media is mostly opinion or dishonest reporting, while progressive and left-wing media concentrate on areas overlooked by liberal media. TFD (talk) 20:53, 26 August 2025 (UTC)

History section needs to be updated

The history section ends on events that happened in 2014 and there is no new information thereafter. Notably, this doesn't even cover the end of Obama's presidency, let alone any developments in American liberalism since the rise of Trump.

Part of the problem is that this article is mostly duplicative of information found in other articles. I'm not sure why there even needs to be a separate article on modern American liberalism when there's already Liberalism in the United States into which much of this information could be incorporated. And, indeed, that article is more up to date on current events. I also notice that Conservatism in the United States has no corresponding "modern" article.

That might be a larger discussion of whether this article should even exist in the first place. But, as long as it does exist, then the history section shouldn't be more than a decade outdated. TempDog123 (talk) 09:23, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

Liberalism in the United States is about the ideology that has dominated American politics from the beginning, while modern liberalism is about the section developed around FDR and modern conservatism is about the section developed around opposition to him.

If FDR had instead chosen to call his supporters conservatives and his opponents liberals, we would have a different discussion.

TFD (talk) 19:23, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

"modern conservatism is about the section developed around opposition to him"

There is no corresponding article on Modern conservatism in the United States, that's my point. It seems like the information in this article could be greatly condensed and incorporated into the existing article on liberalism in the United States, in the history section and/or a separate subsection. TempDog123 (talk) 07:23, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Modern liberalism in the United States began in 1607 and is the dominant ideology in the US. After 1933, liberals divided into two groups called liberals and conservatives. Because we cannot have two articles called Liberalism in the United States, the article about the people who are referred to as liberals is called Modern Liberalism in the United States. TFD (talk) 23:29, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Yes, I understand the distinction between liberalism in the traditional sense and how it's used in the modern American context. Use of the term "conservative" to identify political groups in the US also predates FDR. It was used at least as early as the 19th century when ex-Whigs formed various Conservative Parties after the Civil War. History of conservatism in the United States goes back even further than that. But again, if there's a distinction to be made between historical conservatism and the post-New Deal era, then it wasn't viewed as significant enough to warrant a separate article about modern conservatism like this one about modern liberalism.

What I am suggesting, again, is that I likewise feel the information contained in this article could be better incorporated in a condensed format into the existing Liberalism in the United States article. In fact, taking a closer look at that article, that already appears to be the case to a certain extent. There's already a subsection on modern liberalism that could be expanded, and the history section on the 21st century seems to primarily deal with liberalism in the modern context. It even contains more recent information about things like the Paris Agreement, which is entirely absent from this article.

I get that you disagree with this idea. You've made that clear. Regardless, if this article is going to exist then it's woefully inadequate for the history section on "modern" American liberalism to have a stopping point where the information is a decade old. TempDog123 (talk) 04:15, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

When the conservative movement originated in the U.S., some of them attempted to write a history of conservatism going back to the founding fathers. Reagan for example claimed the founding fathers were conservatives, while the Tories who opposed them were liberals. However there was never any consistency in their accounts and they have little academic support.

The few people who used the description conservative in 19th century America saw themselves as occupying the middle ground between extremes. Ironically people calling themselves liberals meant the same thing. Today, we would call both of them moderates. TFD (talk) 10:39, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

OK thanks for the history lesson. Speaking of history, the last person to substantively update the history section of this article was me, ten years ago. Since you've repeatedly rejected my suggestion to merge the articles, hopefully you and the other editors who feel so strongly about this article remaining separate will feel compelled to update the history section this time around. TempDog123 (talk) 18:29, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

We could probably remove the Progressive Era. Parts of the Liberal and moderate Republicans could be moved to after the New Deal.

The real problem seems to be with the other article which in lead provides the quote "all US parties are liberal and always have been" then later contradicts itself by saying the Republicans are conservatives, not liberals. (There is an argument of course about whether with Trump they can still be considered liberal.) TFD (talk) 00:48, 27 November 2025 (UTC)

I agree, but that's a lot of work. Any volunteers? Rick Norwood (talk) 16:52, 27 November 2025 (UTC)

The Flags are Backward

The American Flag Code spells out how to display the American flag: it always goes to its own right. Shorthand: the observer's left, if the observer is opposite the flag (as would be the case here). The staffs are correct, if the American flag was on the observer's left, in that the American flag's staff is to be in front. So, no, just reversing the image will not produce the proper outcome. (Lots of people get this stuff wrong, but gee whiz, it's really not that hard.) ~2025-38652-91 (talk) 01:42, 30 December 2025 (UTC)

Right vs Left Criticism

In the "Criticism" section no distinction is made between what are Right or Left criticisms of Liberalism, they are interspersed with each other for no logical reason. ~2026-24916-08 (talk) 13:39, 24 April 2026 (UTC)