[Overpaid Slacker]

Liberalism is in no way irrelevant, though I agree it is dormant in its purer, more useful form. Neoconservatism, which began primarily as an economic movement, has adopted many of the foreign policy principles of Liberalism (as alluded to in the 2nd. para of the piece I quoted).

I believe its decline is due in some small part to its elasticity, ironically enough. Moreso today than in recent periods, people equate adamancy, stridency and publicity with virtue. Liberalism was able to cope, coordinate and compromise with other tenets (maybe too much), and being reasonable is not going to get you very far nowadays.

I realize there are gross overstatements in the prior paragraph. It's not that the Civil Rights Movement (for example) was "reasonable" or "accommodating"; it was, however, just and therefore prevailed. In the absence of principled, just motive, you can't be reasonable. But you can be loud, wholly unconcerned with detail and aprosexic. Oh, and a victim.

JP