Postwar Liberalism, Neoconservatism and Beyond

          "But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America - to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.
The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American." -- Barack Obama

          Barack Obama gave a major that responds to the controversial comments made by his church’s longtime pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr, but also highlighted the incredible challenge of race relations in this country today. From Obama's perspective, it's much better to have this discussion now. In fact, the debate about race was inevitable at some point. Rather than put race behind him, he put it more at the center of the campaign.He is trying to take an actual position, rather than just distance himself from Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Obama argues that “we the people” need to put the legacy of that era behind us “if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union” promised by the U.S. Constitution. We will address the implications of this in the next installment of this response.

The Interventionist State and the New Deal

         

          "It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure." -Franklin D. Roosevelt

          According to Roosevelt, “In our days these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all — regardless of station, race or creed.” Among the economic rights that FDR discussed were the right to protection from fear of old age, sickness, accident and unemployment; the right to adequate medical care; the right to a good education; the right of every family to a decent home; and the right to a “useful and remunerative job.” With the coming of the Obama administration, it’s time for the nation to make this second Bill of Rights a reality.

Black Consciousness and the Continuing Fight for Inclusion

          "Thus did the United States government definitely assume charge of the emancipated Negro as the ward of the nation. It was a tremendous undertaking. Here at a stroke of the pen was erected a government of millions of men,—and not ordinary men either, but black men emasculated by a peculiarly complete system of slavery, centuries old; and now, suddenly, violently, they come into a new birthright, at a time of war and passion, in the midst of the stricken and embittered population of their former masters. Any man might well have hesitated to assume charge of such a work, with vast responsibilities, indefinite powers, and limited resources. Probably no one but a soldier would have answered such a call promptly; and, indeed, no one but a soldier could be called, for Congress had appropriated no money for salaries and expenses."  -  W.E.B. DuBois
         
         
          Amidst the civil war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This statement decreed that “all slaves would be declared free in those states still in rebellion against the US on January 1, 1863.” The 13th amendment had originally declared in the first section that, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” However, this amendment was later ratified by Lincoln in 1865 so that this would apply to all states; even those in the South. Slavery was finally abolished, thus ending the civil war.
Although the Civil War itself had ended, hatred and bitter thoughts of revenge remained between the white and black peoples of America for centuries. Bigamy and racism divided our land, and caused the first ever fight within a nation. Though the rip that this hatred caused was mended, the stitches and scars remain to this day. The institution of slavery not only shaped the outcome of the civil war through people, documents, and prior revolutions, but it shaped the very nature of out nation today.

Social Darwinism and Class Politics

William Graham Sumner, What social Classes Owe to Each Other (1884).
          "Undoubtedly there are, in connection with each of these things, cases of fraud, swindling, and other financial crimes; that is to say, the greed and selfishness of men are perpetual. They put on new phases, they adjust themselves to new forms of business, and constantly devise new methods of fraud and robbery, just as burglars devise new artifices to circumvent every new precaution of the lock-makers. The criminal law needs to be improved to meet new forms of crime, but to denounce financial devices which are useful and legitimate because use is made of them for fraud, is ridiculous and unworthy of the age in which we live. Fifty years ago good old English Tories used to denounce all joint-stock companies in the same way, and for similar reasons."
          I believe what Sumner is saying is that what the state owes people is peace and order, and the guarantees of rights including to guard against violations of the law. He believes that given the passion and vices of human nature, there will be some men who are "smart" enough to not be poor but lazy enough to never be rich. There people because of their greed and selfishness will always find ways to live off the rich. Sumner believes that instead od denouncing these financial devies the state should improve criminal laws to prevent this sort of crime.
          I think that Sumner's Social Darwinism doctrine at the time, too strongly opposed social welfare at a time when there was aan emergence of new classes. Inequality was becoming prevalent and people were becoming aware of the vast gulf between rich and poor. The bias of economic concentration and the limitation of competition undercuts his stress that an individuals attributes and actions as causes of their social condition.    In todays society however i believe that Sumners call for laws to prevent fraud, swindling and financial crimes is very relevant.   Social and economic inequality, high unemployment, greed, as well as corruption, and the undue influence of corporations—particularly from the finincial sector on government is wht the Occupy Wall Street public is protesting.   Corporate greed has taken over and the wealthy few sure has devised "legitimate" ways to line their pockets. The Occupy Wall Street protest is the latest public outcry against inequality, unemployment and government bailout of those corporations that brought on the recession. I am one of the 99% who has been severely affected. After twenty years of working and saving i am now unemployed and there seems no hope in sight.

Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln
         
          "It appears extraordinary that Judge Douglas should make such a statement. He knows that, by the law, no one can vote who has not been registered; and he knows that the free State men place their refusal to vote on the ground that but few of them have been registered. It is possible this is not true, but Judge Douglas knows it is asserted to be true in letters, newspapers and public speeches, and borne by every mail, and blown by every breeze to the eyes and ears of the world. He knows it is boldly declared that the people of many whole counties, and many whole neighborhoods in others, are left unregistered; yet, he does not venture to contradict the declaration, nor to point out how they can vote without being registered; but he just slips along, not seeming to know there is any such question of fact, and complacently declares: "There is every reason to hope and believe that the law will be fairly and impartially executed, so as to insure to every bona fide inhabitant the free and quiet exercise of the
elective franchise."
          Lincoln reasoned that the Dred Scott decision had identified slaves as property. Since federal and state governments could not deprive a citizen of property without due process, the slavery question fell beyond the jurisdiction of all legislatures.The people have the lawful means to introduce it or exclude it as they please, for the reason that slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere, unless it is supported by local police regulations established by the local legislature."

Civil Disobedience and the Fight for Inclusion

Frederick Douglass
         
          "For seventeen years, Mr. Chairman, the Abolitionists of the United States have been encountering obloquy, scorn, and opposition of the most furious character, for uttering,—what? Their conviction that a man is a man,—that every man belongs to himself and to no one else. In propagating this idea, this simple proposition, we have met with all sorts of opposition, and with all sorts of arguments drawn from the Bible, from the Constitution, and from philosophy, till at length many have arrived at the sage conclusion that a man is something else than a man, and that he has not the rights of a man."
          This part of Frederick Douglass's speech is addressing the fact that after so many years of fighting for freedom from slavery, his people are still labouring in bondage. The church is full of so called pious men that are corrupt and defends slavery by using the bible.  They fellowship with slaveholders and call them christians.  Douglass is concerned with showing the discrepancy between the fact that slaves are human beings and the fact that slave owners treat them as property. Douglass shows how slaves frequently are passed between owners, regardless of where the slaves’ families are. Slave owners value slaves only to the extent that they can perform productive labor; they often treat slaves like livestock, mere animals, without reason. Douglass pre-sents this treatment of humans as objects or animals as cruel and absurd.

The Anti-Federalists

                                Richard Henry Lee's - Letters From The Federal Farmer
          The essential parts of a free and good government are a full and equal representation of the people in the legislature, and the jury trial of the vicinage in the administration of justice--a full and equal representation, is that which possesses the same interests, feelings, opinions, and views the people themselves would were they all assembled--a fair representation, therefore, should be so regulated, that every order of men in the community, according to the common course of elections, can have a share in it--in order to allow professional men, merchants, traders, farmers, mechanics, &c. to bring a just proportion of their best informed men respectively into the legislature, the representation must be considerably numerous--We have about 200 state senators in the United States, and a less number than that of federal representatives cannot, clearly, be a full representation of this people, in the affairs of internal taxation and police, were there but one legislature for the whole union. The representation cannot be equal, or the situation of the people proper for one government only--if the extreme parts of the society cannot be represented as fully as the central--It is apparently impracticable that this should be the case in this extensive country--it would be impossible to collect a representation of the parts of the country five, six, and seven hundred miles from the seat of government.
          The Antifederalists opposed the ratifying of the US Constitution. Richard Henry Lee worried  that the Constitution lacked a bill of rightsalso, that it was a consolidated, rather than a federal, government and therefore opened the way to despotism, and that the lower house was not sufficiently democratic. He insisted upon amendments before adoption. They feared that it would create an tyranic central government.  The Constitution's proponents promised that this would not happen. The Antifederalists warned that the cost Americans would bear in both liberty and resources for the government that would evolve under the Constitution would rise sharply. That is why their objections led to the Bill of Rights. They also objected to the very notion that a republican form of government can work well over such a vast territory.  Also never in history had therebeen a court with such power and with so few checks upon it, giving the Supreme Court "immense powers" that were not only unprecedented, but perilous for a nation founded on the principle of consent of the governed.
          I chose this writing because i believe that Richard Henry Lee and the rest of the Federalists had every reason to oppose the constution without a Bill of Rights.   The immense benefits and protection afforded to all Americans because of the Anti-Federalist's foresight and determination in preserving liberty and human rights is durable and revelant today.  Even with the constraints of the Bill of Rights, the government still has expansive federal powers to tax, spend and regulate.