Recently, I had the opportunity to speak on WhickTV about the rise of Lockheed Liberalism. Whick provided an excellent platform for introducing the topic to his audience and offered thoughtful questions and points of clarification that helped sharpen exactly what it means. After reflecting on that conversation, I wanted to take this opportunity to lay it out more clearly and comprehensively. So who are we?
Lockheed Liberals are leaders who unapologetically champion the core liberal values of liberty, institutions, the rule of law, and democracy. We are action people. We hold ourselves personally accountable for the changes within our reach, because if we do not step forward, no one else will.
We refuse to cede linguistic ground to competing philosophies, understanding the damage that retreat invites. Hard-left ideologies have successfully infiltrated the American liberal coalition. They lower the bar of criticism so low that you can’t help but trip over it and the moment you do, they ratchet up your criticism to the extreme. Weak leaders have driven our movement to these illiberal directions as they grasp for power they do not deserve. Their weakness is evident in their inability to unite, their failure to offer a compelling vision, and their lack of any real pathway to a better America. Only strong leaders are capable of this.
Lockheed Liberals understand that the best liberty demands more than unchecked freedom to act on individual will. True liberty requires a commitment to social duty, and respect for the inherited institutions that sustain our civilization. Society requires a partnership that binds the living, those to be born, and even the dead. We caution against the destruction of social order because we know radical upheaval leads to anarchy, violence, the rise of irresponsible leaders, and ultimately tyranny. We understand the necessity of ordered liberty as a construct of law and duty because rights are inseparable from duty.
This brings us to our unwavering support for the defense sector in its entirety. Lockheed Liberals stand firmly behind America’s defense industry because we recognize it as the backbone of our open society and the Liberal International Order (LIO) itself. Without credible military power, the rules, norms, alliances, and institutions, would collapse to illiberal authoritarians.
There are also many justified criticisms of the LIO. Most notably, over the years we have seen support for authoritarian, illiberal regimes. In times of greed or weakness, we have seen leaders embrace authoritarian China and brutal imperialists like Israel. We have selectively applied our values to our own actions and the actions of supposed allies and partners. But it is our very liberal values that empower us to reflect, criticize, and correct these mistakes.
Liberalism has fallen pray to weakness and corruption at home as well. This has resulted in the corruption of liberal values and in many areas, the abandonment of them entirely. Weak leaders have made calculated decisions to move away from our guiding philosophy and it has cost us our direction and soul. Furthermore, the illiberal community they have attempted to court won’t even show up when we need them.
American leadership’s failure to uphold liberal values has destabilized the world. In the lack of American leadership, Europe has refused to step up. The first and second world wars already warned the world of European decay. Even now, Europe has allowed a war of fearful proportions break out on their continent, one that arose in significant part from miscalculations involving the European Union itself.
The EU refused to meet the meager spending requirements for NATO and chastised the United States as the “world police.” They even laughed in America’s face when we warned them of their dependence on russian energy (which they still refuse to abandon).
In 2018, 4 years after russia invaded Ukraine, Germany laughed at American leadership as they warned them of the perils in relying on russian energy
But Lockheed Liberals are pragmatists. Although we see Europe’s shortcomings, we don’t bully our allies, and we don’t abandon them. Instead, we seek to reach out and empower them. We lift them higher, forge them into stronger, prouder, and more capable versions of themselves, turning them into the rock-solid partners America needs so we can stand shoulder-to-shoulder and defend the LIO that keeps freedom alive for generations to come.
So a call to action! The world demands strong American leadership. The shame of our mistakes and then, the accountability of them, must motivate stronger Americans to step forward to the helm. We are responsible for the greatness of the 20th century and we are responsible for stewarding the West into the 21st century.
