WTF is a Neo-Liberal?

[SCVDem]

Dr. Cornell West used this term on tonights Real Time with Bill Maher show.

This is how he defines our next president.

Whatizzit? Anyone? Bueller?

Why is this guy a thing?

At 61, am I a Paleo-Lib?

[applegrove]

1. neocons without the crazy foreign policy. They want everything privatized.

Think Ireland before the financial meltdown or Reagan and Thatcher.

[SCVDem]

2. Hillary

Is not a neolib.

This word must die!

[shenmue]

51. Of course

[LeftyMom]

3. Let me wiki that for you:

Neoliberalism (or sometimes neo-liberalism)[1] refers primarily to the 20th century resurgence of 19th century ideas associated with laissez-faire economic liberalism.[2]: 7 These include extensive economic liberalization policies such as privatization, fiscal austerity, deregulation, free trade, and reductions in government spending in order to enhance the role of the private sector in the economy.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] The implementation of neoliberal policies and the acceptance of neoliberal economic theories in the 1970s are seen by some academics as the root of financialization, with the financial crisis of 2007–08 as one of the ultimate results.[10][11][12][13][14]
The term has been used since 1938[15] but became more prevalent in its current meaning in the 1970s and '80s by scholars in a wide variety of social sciences[16] and critics.[17] Advocates of Free Market policies avoid the term "neoliberal".

and later in the same article:

United States[edit]
David Harvey uses the term neoliberalism to describe Lewis Powell's 1971 confidential memorandum to the US Chamber of Commerce.[56] A call to arms to the business community to counter criticism of the free enterprise system, it was a significant factor in the rise of conservative organizations and think-tanks which advocated for neoliberal policies, such as the Business Roundtable, The Heritage Foundation, The Cato Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Accuracy in Academia and the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. For Powell, universities were becoming an ideological battleground and recommended the establishment of an intellectual infrastructure to serve as a counterweight to the increasingly popular ideas of Ralph Nader and other opponents of big business.[58][59][60]
Neoliberalism gained prominence in the United States in 1981 with policies put into place by the Reagan Administration which included tax cuts, increased defense spending, financial deregulation and trade deficit expansion. Congress followed Reagan's basic proposal and cut federal income taxes across the board by 25% in 1981.[61][62]
During the 1990s, the Clinton Administration also embraced neoliberalism by supporting the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, continuing the deregulation of the financial sector through passage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act and the repeal of the Glass–Steagall Act, and implementing cuts to the welfare state through passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act.[62][63][64] The neoliberalism of the Clinton Administration differs from that of Reagan as the former purged it of neoconservative positions on militarism, family values, opposition to multiculturalism and neglect of ecological issues.[57]:50-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism

[ronnie624]

4. Seriously?

You've posted more than 2000 messages here, in a period of more than four years, and you've never seen the term before?

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=376

[SCVDem]

12. I may have seen it

I don't recall.
But. When applied to OUR candidate for president, it got my attention.

[dembotoz]

33. we do love our buzzwords and its hard to keep up

ask away

a discussion like this is good because sometimes meanings get distorted and it is good to redefine and recenter

[Lord Magus]

5. Do you want the actual definition or the meaningless buzzword definition?

The latter is the definition used by Pinebaggers who claim Hillary is a neoliberal.

[ronnie624]

7. The term has a specific definition.

Political leaders are judged to be neoliberal, based on the economic policies they support.

[Marr]

10. She's undeniably a neoliberal. So is Bill.

I don't see the point in pretending the word is some kind of vague slur.

[Lord Magus]

20. Bullshit. She does not in any way fit the definition of a neoliberal.

Neoliberals support things like austerity and privatization. Neoliberals are fundamentally anti-Keynesian. Anybody who calls Hillary Clinton a neoliberal has no idea what the word actually means.

[mdbl]

26. Let's hope you're right

Her speech resonated that she's left of the neolibs, but her husband was a big one!

[mcar]

28. Why bring up her husband?

He is not the nominee.

[HereSince1628]

18. Pinebaggers? Gotta compass heading to follow to get to the source of that?

[KG]

6. I lulz'd

[Tom Kitten]

8. No, Paleo means old!

61 is middle age, so I'd say Meso-Lib!

As far as I have it figured, neo-liberals are said to push for more deregulation & privatization, free trade, austerity, globalization, that sort of thing. And like a previous poster stated, minus the neo-con foreign craziness. It's a term I started hearing since the recession, comes from a left perspective.

[yallerdawg]

25. 61 is middle age?

What are you, a 100?

From Wiki:

What is the average life expectancy in the United States?

For women, 81 years. For men, 76 years.

[LuvNewcastle]

35. Yes, 40 is middle-aged.

61 is definitely over the hill. I can say that because I'm almost 47 and will soon be over the hill.

[OhioBlue]

9. neo-liberal, new Democrat, DLC

Essentially, more centrist, business-friendly dems that steer away from economic populism. It isn't an insult, it is a fact that there is a faction of Dems that lean this way. Al From founded the DLC and Bill and Hillary were both members.

It is my hope now that Hillary wins and adopts a more populist platform as President.

[Warpy]

11. First, "liberal" in the word is being used in the offshore sense

where it isn't really left at all. Second, neoliberalism has been around long enough that most people here should be acquainted with the term. Wikipedia's got a pretty good discussion of it, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism

It's not a good thing, at all, unless you're in the top 0.1%, in which case it's the best thing ever.

[SCVDem]

13. Is neo anything good?

Neo Con
Neo Lib
Neo Nazi

It appears to be the same old crap in a new wrapper.

[geomon666]

15. Neopolitan

That's some good ice cream.

[OhioBlue]

16. No, it isn't "the same old crap in a new wrapper".

Neo Liberal describes a movement within the Democratic party to move the party to a more centrist position on economic issues. Research the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) and New Democrats. Bill Clinton was a chairman of the DLC and Hillary was a member while she was in the Senate. This isn't some slur by Dr. West. (btw - I am not defending the positions or things that he has said, but THIS thing that he said isn't something outrageous, he is stating a fact.)

[HereSince1628]

24. Anything that becomes a label of self used by a political opponent is a problem.

People object to their brand being identified as not desireable. It's something to fight against. And if you can't win that fight you have to abandon your public brand. We saw that when the name change of the DLC into 3rd-Way took place.

It's pretty amazing how anti-DLC DU was for many years. Now when major players in that movement cycle toward seats within the executive branch, they do it under a different label, but one which can still be criticized and which has again made people unhappy about a brand label

But the important thing is it doesn't really matter what the definition of neo-liberal, or who those New Dems have been (ya know Al Gore was a DLC chair, too).

[aidbo]

50. Hmmm

[GaYellowDawg]

14. Dr. West has had some important things to say about society.

But I think he's full of shit when it comes to President Obama and Sec. Clinton.

[Hekate]

17. It's the new meaningless insult meant to divide Democrats, imo.

[justhanginon]

19. Bingo!

[FSogol]

22. +100 n/t

[auntpurl]

29. And THERE it is.

[Paladin]

32. Bullseye. Hence, West's use of the term. (nt)

[treestar]

34. +1000

[gollygee]

41. There is a such thing

Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Donald Rumsfeld, there are lots of them. The issue is that HRC isn't one.

[Hekate]

42. Here's something I noticed at DU awhile back: take a word that used to mean something...

oh, I don't know, like Third Way. I used to have some notion of what that might have meant back in 1995, but here at DU it was always said with a sneer, then a snarl, then with utter ferocity and dripping contempt. Before I myself actually got called a "Turd Wayer" I had it figured out. It no longer meant anything beyond "You shithead, I disagree with you."

Then, very abruptly toward the end of last year or the beginning of this one, the term disappeared at DU. But never fear, a handly replacement immediately appeared: Neo-liberal.

How do I know this is the replacement? It could be the sneer and the snarl. It could be the contempt.

Whatever it used to mean before it got here, it's pretty clear what it's being used for in DU discourse.

[Cal Carpenter]

43. It isn't new, and it isn't primarily about partisan politics

It is an economics term, and it describes the prevailing economics of the western world (including, for the most part, the Dem econ platform).

Not everything can be filtered through an election-year partisan lens. At least, not if you want some minimal amount of intellectual honesty anyway.

[LeftyMom]

47. Translation: you choose to ignore it because it's inconveniently accurate.

[Hekate]

52. See my post 42 about how I know what it means at DU in 2016

You are welcome

[AngryAmish]

21. Anything The Economist advocates.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

23. If you substitute the phrase "heap of shit" whenever you see it, no information content is lost.

It's a term the populist far left use to try to trick people into believing that there is no difference between the mainstream left and the mainstream right, and make the former look bad.

It's an invective, not a description; an attempt to attack rather than to describe.

[Marr]

36. No, it isn't.

It's a word with a distinct meaning, that's been used all around the globe for decades now to describe a fairly specific economic stance.

People who pretend otherwise just want to take the discussion of the policies the word describes off the table. Pretending the word 'neoliberal' is some empty epithet is just dishonest.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

37. It was once, it isn't any more.

Yes, Neoliberalism did once refer to the ideas of people like Rand, Hayek and Friedmann.

But it's now usually used to refer to people who disagree strongly with those ideas, by people who couldn't even tell you what those ideas were, and has become a - largely meaningless - invective.

[Marr]

38. It still does refer to those still very prominent ideas.

There are people who use the word as an empty invective, of course. There are people who use the word "Polish" as an empty invective. It doesn't mean word is meaningless, or that people who use it don't know what it means.

[sufrommich]

27. Anyone who doesn't pass the Herbal Tea Party's purity test. nt

[auntpurl]

30. "The Herbal Tea Party"

[msanthrope]

44. You won the Internets with that one. nt

[SCVDem]

39. Thank you all

For the responses and links.

DU at its best when it can be an educational forum.

As for Dr. West? I guess he's an acquired taste. He is a touch overwhelming for me.

Thanks again!

[Grey Lemercier]

40. Cornel West calls black leaders who support Obama and Clinton "house negros" and

Cornel West on CNN: Obama Is America’s First ‘N*ggerized’ President

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cornel-west-on-cnn-obama-is-americas-first-nggerized-president/

African-American academic Cornel West said on CNN that President Barack Obama was the country’s first “niggerized” president, because he was too scared to address white supremacy.

“Look, you can’t talk about wealth inequality, you can’t talk about decrepit education, you can’t talk about massive unemployment and underemployment, and you can’t talk about drones being dropped on people in other parts of the world without talking about white supremacy, and its ways in which it operates,” he said.

“It doesn’t have to be overt, the president is right about that,” West continued. “But too many black people are niggerized. I would say the first black president has become the first niggerized black president.”

“What do you mean by that?” asked dismayed host Poppy Harlow.

“A niggerized black person is a black person who is afraid and scared and intimidated when it comes to putting a spotlight on white supremacy and fighting against white supremacy,” West responded. “…We know he’s president of all America, but white supremacy is as American as cherry pie! We’re talking about moral issues, spiritual issues!”

sickening

[Rex]

46. Dr. West is bombastic.

A lot of people with Dr. in front of their names are slinging mud at our nominee. Dr. West is one of them. You can look at HRC voting record while she was a Senator and look at her policy while she was SoS, it is solid liberal.

[Rex]

45. A lot of folks thought HRC was Third Way-Neoliberal etc.. Which is wrong.

Doing just a little research shows HRC is a solid liberal. Libertarians are neo-liberal. The idiots that wanted the BREXIT are neo-liberal.

It just means someone that want unfettered trade with almost no restrictions, government out of everything, privatize everything and let that good old "invisible hand" sort out the details.

It is kinda like Reagnomics.

[Orsino]

48. Five million bucks, same as in town. n/t

[Exilednight]

49. neoliberalism is the belief that there are market based solutions to the world's ills.

There is a major flaw with this theory, markets have moral limits.

[jamese777]

53. So does the public sector n/t

[JHB]

54. How can you have spent the last 30 years interested in politics...

...and not have heard this term?