Americans are increasingly turning against liberalism -- but their 'delusion' could end in violence: columnist

Christian nationalists are looking to end liberalism once and for all -- and they're not the only political faction dreaming of the end of the Enlightenment-era ideal of tolerance, according to a Daily Beast columnist.

Anti-liberalism has gained widespread influence in U.S. politics on both the right and left, according to journalist and author Bonnie Kristian in an article published Tuesday. But the various illiberal groups' differing agendas has so far prevented them from gaining anything close to a majority bloc that could win elections.

If it does, she warns, America could be facing a dark future.

"Their plan to overhaul American politics depends, at best, on a delusional belief that if we toss out liberalism, their party will somehow come out on top," Kristian wrote. "At worst, however, it depends on something much darker: forcible subjugation of the many Americans who haven’t embraced their vision for a post-liberal United States. And that’s a plan which could only appeal to those who have forgotten the centuries of horrific violence that led the West to liberalism."

Americans remain politically polarized, which prevents illiberal groups -- which include certain socialist factions on the left and free-market absolutists on the right -- from coalescing around a rising opposition to liberalism's "procedural niceties" and a willingness to weaponize the state to remake society around their preferred vision, Kristian wrote.

"The illiberal promise is that once we’ve dispensed with liberalism’s inconvenience, uncertainty, and constant rumbles of public dispute, you will end up empowered," Kristian wrote. "Your morals will be enshrined in law. Your culture will be propagated by the government. Your friends will be rewarded and your enemies punished."

"But a litany of wars, inquisitions, and purges show that for almost everyone, this promise is a lie," she added. "Without liberalism, you probably won’t end up empowered. You’ll end up bearably oppressed, if you’re lucky, or persecuted or dead if you’re not."