To listen to the speeches from the podium at the Democratic National Convention, you’d think Democrats were handing out Friedrich Hayek’s libertarian classic “The Road to Serfdom” on the floor.

In recent weeks, Democrats have made a hard pivot to adopt the rhetoric of freedom, and the tack was particularly pronounced in Chicago last week.

The anthem of the convention was the Beyoncé song “Freedom,” and the Kamala Harris campaign unveiled a new ad, “We believe in freedom.” Borrowing an old Republican chestnut, Oprah Winfrey said, “Freedom isn’t free.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has long made this theme a staple of his speeches, called the Democrats “the party of real freedom.”

And vice presidential nominee Tim Walz leaned on this idea heavily, contrasting Republican freedom that is supposedly all about invading privacy and enabling corporate polluters with Democratic freedom that protects people’s free choice and safety.

There are a couple of things to say about this rhetorical maneuver — one is that it might work in sheer political terms by associating Democrats with a deeply held traditional American value; the other is that it is utterly cynical and runs completely counter to the progressive mode of governance.

It’s as if Bernie Sanders displayed the Revolutionary-era Appeal to Heaven flag once favored by Tea Party activists.

It doesn’t add up. Consider Tim Walz, whose record as governor is not exactly living and let live. During COVID, he imposed incredibly strict rules and shut down schools and churches, while providing a snitch-line so Minnesotans could rat out the noncompliant. None of this was voluntary. He has imposed myriad new taxes, which people obviously can’t choose not to pay. He signed a bill mandating paid family leave — to be paid for by taxes on employers and employees — and a bill mandating that Minnesota utilities transition to 100% carbon-free energy by 2040.

Walz has erroneously suggested that the First Amendment allows bans on “hate speech,” and favors prohibiting the most popular rifle in America in defiance of the Second Amendment. Needless to say, he doesn’t support school choice to enable more parents to decide where to send their kids to school, right-to-work laws that allow employees to decide whether to join a union or pay its dues, or health savings accounts to give people more control over their health care.

A libertarian, clearly, he is not.

When the Democrats say “freedom,” they mostly mean abortion on demand. But this is only a legitimate form of freedom if the unborn child is wrongly considered a non-entity with no rights or interests of its own.

The other forms of freedom Democrats defend — quality education, public safety, etc. — are public goods, not true expressions of liberty.
The falsehoods and misunderstandings may not matter, though. Democrats have sensed an opening as a more populist Republican Party puts less emphasis on freedom. If Democrats get away with their faux libertarianism, it will be a notable triumph of the freedom to mislead.

Rich Lowry is editor in chief of National Review