The big difference

Conservatives never said you can’t have standards and expect people to conform to them.  They may have been wrong about thinking that you should, but they never said you shouldn’t.  They were quite content with saying a society has to have standards and morals that people should be expected to follow.

The left, on the other hand, in the glory days of 70s and 80s liberalism, was all about a nation where only the old fascists and Orwellian wannabes would boycott or ban or call for shutting down someone over a belief or expressed opinion.  Not so, the promise of liberalism went.  We will have a society where all are welcome to express themselves.

You support gay rights? No problem. Welcome aboard. You oppose gay rights?  No problem.  Welcome aboard.  Sure, the country would have to make some executive decisions, but everyone would be free to express themselves.

So Political Correctness that suggests there are certain ideas or thoughts or beliefs are are unacceptable, that must be banished to the closest and catacombs, and that federal retribution could be appropriate for failing to embrace the latest mandated morality, sounds a lot like moving from all animals equal to some animals more equal than others.

Liberals might have a hard time accepting this, I understand.  But anyone who’s not hardcore to the left, or younger than 30, might well remember the difference between liberalism then and now, and why conservatives might be wrong for thinking morals can be imposed, but they’ll not be hypocrites for doing so.