In the Smithian version of its origin story, liberalism takes the modern (Mercantile) state for granted and understands itself from the start as a reformist and ameliorative project of the many violent tendencies in it. The key conceptual-political move is to turn any zero-sum logic with winners and losers into a win-win agenda that promotes, as a political program, a moral vision -- the good or open society -- that is all about the expansion of individual freedoms (note the plural) and peace. In particular, it focuses on creating the social and legal conditions for the freedom to pursue meaningful choices within the context of moral equality, equality under the law, and robust property protections.
A Liberal perspective on the Culture Wars over Transidentities
