Classicial liberalism was, yes. It has a long and honorable history. That has nothing to do with what we now think of as the left.

The liberals of the nineteenth century would be astonished and disgusted by the current left-wing obsession with "group rghts' and the endless grievances of self-appointed special interest groups who make demands based on self-pity, self-righteousness and self-absorbtion.

The ACLU's weird hatred of religious faith - which is extreme even the by standards of the far left - has turned them into a national joke. But those who are the focus of the frivolous lawsuits are not laughing.