It behooves us to remind ourselves of classics since people like Obama forget ( or never knew!)

"On Liberty," a philosophical work by English philosopher John Stuart Mill, was a radical work to the Victorian readers of the time because it supported moral and economic freedom of individuals from the state. Perhaps the most memorable point made by John Stuart Mill in "On Liberty," and his basis for liberty, is that "over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign". John Stuart Mill makes this assertion in opposition to what he calls the "tyranny of the majority", wherein through control of etiquette and morality, society is an unelected power that can do horrific things. Mill's work could be considered a reaction to this social control by the majority and his advocacy of individual decision-making over the self. John Stuart Mill also articulates the famous "Harm Principle" in "On Liberty," which is basically that people can do anything they like as long as it does not harm others. All branches of liberalism-as well as other political ideologies-consider the "Harm Principle" to be one of their core principles. "On Liberty" was an enormously influential work; the ideas presented in the book have remained the basis of much liberal political thought ever since. Aside from the popularity of the ideas themselves, the book is quite short and its themes are easily accessible to a non-expert. It has remained in print continuously since its initial publication. To this day, a copy of On Liberty has been passed to the president of the British Liberals, and then Liberal Democrats, as a symbol of office and succession from the party that John Stuart Mill helped found.
About the Author
John Stuart Mill (1806–1873), English philosopher, political theorist, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential British Classical liberal thinker of the 19th century whose works on liberty justified freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control. He was a proponent of utilitarianism, an ethical theory developed by Jeremy Bentham, although his conception of it was very different from Bentham's. Hoping to remedy the problems found in an inductive approach to science, such as confirmation bias, he clearly set forth the premises of falsification as the key component in the scientific method. In the pages of “On Liberty,” John Stuart Mill sets forth an impassioned defense of free speech, arguing that free discourse is a necessary condition for intellectual and social progress. We can never be sure, he contends, that a silenced opinion does not contain some element of the truth. He also argues that allowing people to air false opinions is productive for two reasons. First, individuals are more likely to abandon erroneous beliefs if they are engaged in an open exchange of ideas. Second, by forcing other individuals to re-examine and re-affirm their beliefs in the process of debate, these beliefs are kept from declining into mere dogma. It is not enough for Mill that one simply has an unexamined belief that happens to be true; one must understand why the belief in question is the true one.
****Now, does the modern "liberal" accord with Mill's definition of "liberal?"****