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Personally, I never have felt comfortable applying the term liberal to the political left. I associate the term liberal with the classical liberalism of the 18th and 19th centuries. While classical liberals held such values as respecting individual freedom and protecting basic civil rights, they also were advocates of laissez-faire capitalism and limited government intervention. As such, I do not agree with the author’s supposition that modern progressivism is heir to classical liberalism. Ayn Rand and Milton Freidman considered themselves classical liberals, and I certainly do not associate either with the political left.
