What Is the Liberal Position Anyway?

It has become common lately for liberals to complain that President Obama has "betrayed us" on issues like NSA surveillance or the recent drift into attacking Syria. But at the same time the Obama administration has not received much useful advice on the questions of defense and security. The problem is that any Democrat who is elected President, no matter how Liberal his or her inclinations may be, will be confronted with an environment in which the Conservative view of national security, defense, and much of foreing policy has become the "default" view. There are no liberal policy positions to serve as alternatives to the conserative view.

The reasons for this are complicated. Since the 1980's many liberals have taken the position that "We don't have to propose any alternatives, all we have to do is criticize." But in order to have an impact on policy, we need to have credible policy alternatives on issues like national security and defense. These are real problems that need to be addressed. It is not enough to criticize existing policies, we need to offer credible alternatives.