Back When Liberals Were Actually Liberal

The late, great Richard John Neuhaus once asserted, "The pro-abortion flag is being planted on the wrong side of the liberal-conservative divide." Of course, that was before he was forced by conscience to cross the ideological aisle himself; that was back when he still thought that liberals ought to be, could be, and would be... well, liberal; that was back when it seemed all too logical that caring liberals would surely want to expand the community of care to embrace the helpless unborn; that was back when liberals actually cared about things like justice and mercy rather than simply rights and convenience; that was, I suppose, a long, long time ago now--though I remember it well.