The Mission of a Liberal

[True Blue Door]

1. To solve problems in such a way as to avoid perpetuating them - i.e., first do no harm. (As distinct from leftism)

2. To create new opportunities without compromising existing ones. (As distinct from libertarianism)

3. To ensure absolute equality of rights, and practical equality of opportunities. (As distinct from conservatism)

[cali]

1. although I like your definitions- general as they are

I have no idea why you believe that so-called "leftists" are willing to countenance harm in the furthering of goals.

[baldguy]

2. Those who thnk that political purity s more important than progress

And that having no solution to a problem is better than having half of one, especially when it can be colored as a compromise.

Such as with health insurance reform, for example.

[cali]

3. there's some accuracy in that as there is in this:

those who think partisan politics are more important than progress.

[True Blue Door]

4. Like it or not, leftism has an ideological element that cares more about form

than about consequences. That's how totalitarian Communism came about, and in modern times in the US why so much of the left is fragmented into solipsistic issue constituencies and has such a hard time uniting despite having the exact same underlying values.

And BTW, I don't mean liberalism is about harmlessness per se - it's literally impossible to lead without putting relative value judgments on things. But rather that it must reject false dilemmas that other viewpoints embrace. For instance, the left and the right embrace a false dilemma between markets and governments - liberals see them both as tools to serve humankind, and put them in their proper spheres, with democracy over all.