Your Liberal Beliefs It imperative that we on the left agree on a concise statement of core beliefs and call it liberalism for the sake of simplicity, because that is the term that most people understand when they think about leftist beliefs. Here are the five beliefs which I think most clearly define liberalism and separate it from conservatism. No person, culture, religion, tradition or way of life is superior to any other. All citizens share a common heritage which cannot be divided.
Democracy takes precedence over capitalism.
A broadly based democracy is founded on social, economic and political equality and justice. Neither money nor power should confer advantage to any individual or group in obtaining equality and justice. Individuals do not exist apart from the societies into which they are born. There is no such thing as an individual in the abstract. We live in a world of cause and effect, in which past events determine present events.