There are no influential liberal thinkers because liberal 'ideas' have been discredited by the reality of history. They don't work. There are no ideas on the left worth debating.
The left has hunger, greed and grievance. And old warmed-up Marxism - with enough totalitarian bells and whistles to feed hunger, greed and grievance... In short, in spite of all the academics, in spite of control of almost every college and newspaper in the country, liberals are intellectually bankrupt. Sorry Ed Driscoll ...
The fact that they’re mostly God-less and atheistic is the driving force behind their desired destruction of all that is good.