In the United States, we often have a term for liberals – softies. While we cherish our liberal ideologies, since they are what shaped the Western world, there is this perception at least in our country that liberals just cannot get things done. Let us see if that’s really true, shall we!

The key thing about liberals is that they aim to be politically and culturally progressive. Now, that is definitely a broad stereotype, we are aware, but for the sake of argument let’s continue with it. When you aim to be like that, which is something all of us should aspire to, you need to be empathetic and understanding.

And why is that? It is because we live in a diverse and mixed world where we have people of different races, genders, sexual orientations, nationalities and preferences within close proximity. Each person has a different emotional threshold. Empathy becomes key under these circumstances.

When you are extremely understanding, there is a big flipside. When it comes to making crunch decisions in government that influences different people in different manners, you need to have the mental toughness to take those decisions. The general perception of liberals is that they consider the effects of any decision to such an extent that they don’t even make them.

Obama’s questionable but decisive stand

Well, sorry to say that, but that isn’t true. If anything, one of the complaints against the ultra-liberal Obama administration was the questionable act of bombing people using drones. While that was intended as a counter-terrorism measure, there were significant casualties. That is not the act of an “indecisive person”.

Macron and ultra-socialist France

France recently passed a counter-terrorism bill that converts a few exceptional emergency policing powers to permanent law. Such policing powers allow cops to conduct certain operations without having necessary permits. Raids, for example. However, there is a general suspicion that this can significantly affect the Muslim community, with Muslims being the key immigrant group in France. In fact, this is a prominent recent event concerning terrorism and its deterrence.

While these two are perhaps not the best examples considering that they put liberals on a questionable spotlight, it nevertheless serves to highlight that even ultra,left leaning liberals can be decisive when it comes to issues of public interest and security. Taking decisions is the function of any government, and normally one would consider it preposterous that an entire political party is shy of that.