Quoting this to say that I do think it’s somewhat important for liberals to not be so cynical about people.
If you’re a lib and think average people are hogs that can’t improve or be counted on for self governance, no matter the institutions, I think your liberalism is weird.
One thing that’s really striking reading early liberals is how positive they were about human nature.
We’re so negative about “the people” these days
People were much worse then, more intolerant, less educated, etc etc
Why do we feel so much worse about the people today?