United States | Lexington

“Freedom” is America’s latest political football

But on the right and left, politicians are groping for a new definition of what it means

Democrats and Republicans are competing over which party is the true defender of freedom in American life, but the claims of both have become muddy. What the debate really illuminates is how far the parties have drifted from decades of consensus about liberty in American economic and social life, without yet articulating where they are headed, if they know.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Not just another word”

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