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.

The Federalists

                                               James Madison - Federalist No. 10
          It could never be more truly said than of the first remedy, that it was worse than the disease. Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency. The second expedient is as impracticable as the first would be unwise. As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves. The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government. From the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, the possession of different degrees and kinds of property immediately results; and from the influence of these on the sentiments and views of the respective proprietors, ensues a division of the society into different interests and parties.
          Like Hamilton, Madison was a strong proponent of federalism and played a central role in creating the U.S. constitution. The federalists were people that favored a strong central government, feared too much power in the hands of the masses, and strongly supported the U.S. Constitution. In federalist No. 9, Hamilton had written about the destructive role of factions in breaking apart the republic and now Madison continues by answering the question on how to eliminate the negative effects of faction. He defines factions as groups of people who gather together to protect and promote their special economic interests and political opinions but on the other hand infringe on the rights of other citizens and therefore works against the interests of the community.Madison states “The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man” so the cure is to control factions’ effects. He makes an argument on how this is not possible in a pure democracy but possible in a republic. With pure democracy he means a system in which every citizen votes directly for laws, and with republic he intends a society in which citizens vote for an elite of representatives who then vote for laws. He indicates that the voice of the people pronounced by a body of representatives is more conformable to the interest of the community, since again, common people’s decisions are affected by their self-interest.
            James Madison was educated and brilliant. He believed that the Articles of Confederation was in adequate to protect the new republic from foreign attack or domestic turmoil. Although he believed that the people should be able to govern themselves in some way, at the same time if people govern themselves than governments have and will soon be reduced into dictatorships, like Hitler and Kim Jong-il.
         

Thomas paine

                                                                Common Sense - 1776
          "Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil in its worst state an in tolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamities is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer! Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others."
          Thomas Paine made great contributions towards American Independence. He revitalized the colonists natural desire for freedom and liberation.  He hated England and what it stood for so he made a case to support Revolution. Paine believed that in society people needed other people to satisfy their wants and desires, that it is constructive and good when people come together to accomplish this, however, because of this very state of nature people basically do whatever they want and inequality starts to develop, therefore requiring a cohesive force; government.  He said that gavernment is a necessary evil because it has its origns in the evil of man.  Its purpose is to protect us from our own vices by being a kind of referee.  Paine said that the government's purpose, as an instution, is to protect life, liberty and property and that it should be judged on the basis to which it accomplishes this. He also set out to prove that men and women deserve equal rights, that citizens should be granted the ability to choose their governors, that there is more to liberty than what was percieved. He promoted the logic that men were not made to be slaves, that children are undeserving of cruelty, that a government should exist for the people and not against the people.Paine showed throughout his life his lifelong dedication to the liberation of all who are oppressed. Even after the Revolution, when Paine returned to England, he proposed public education, opportunity for the poor, pensions for the aged, public works for the jobless, and other social reforms. He worked for reform, tolerance,acceptance, liberty of conscience and of body.
          I chose this quote because I believe Thomas Paine was a true humanist.  All his writings reflected this.  At a time when inhumanity and mercilessness were on the rise, Thomas Paine stood up for what was naturally good and moral in man. I believe we need to practice his type of doctrine today because the world as it stands now faces tantamount humanitarian issues.

Hamilton

"Hamilton wanted his measures to establish confidence in the new U.S. government at home and abroad. His proposal stipulated that Congress would have to fund the entire debt at par, which meant that the federal government would pay back all borrowed money with interest. Hamilton believed that funding the debt at par would send a signal that the United States was a responsible new member of the international community and a safe environment for speculators to invest their money. He also believed that a sizeable national debt would prevent states from drifting from the central government and thus bind them together.
However, Hamilton’s ideas seemed ludicrous to many. Secretary of State Jefferson, for instance, believed that a large national debt would be a “national curse” that would depress poor farmers and ruin the economy. "

Hamilton believed that the future of the United States depended on industry/ manufacturing. How ironic, now that industry/ manufacturing is being outsourced. He believed in using tariffs to create incentive to buy local, yet now most Americans buy foreign manufactured products way more than we buy local. Also it seems that Hamilton was willing to sacrifice the lower classes in order to build up the upper classes - by taxing the poor more and letting investors run financial schemes..> This is happening in the extreme today where the majority is suffering and the minority is filthy rich... resulting in high rates of unemployment and poverty. As I type now there is a massive protest 29 days old taking place in down town N.Y.? It seems we've come full circle. Hamilton wanted to pay off the nations debts and proposed many ways of doing so including levying new taxes on whiskey and tobacco. Presently our National debt is more that 14 trillion and increasing daily. What are we doing to reduce out debt? far less paying our debts. It’s astounding how much of our debt is owned by foreign governments.

Reflection paper / Early Radicals

Sam Adams
      “Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life; second, to liberty; third, to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can.” He went on to say that all men had a right to remain in a state of nature as long as they pleased. But, in the event of intolerable oppression, from either civil or religious authorities or a mix of the two, they had the right to leave that society and seek out and join another.
       Sam Adams was an American statesman, political philosopher, and one of the Founding fathers of the United States.  He was proud of his Puritan heritage, and emphasized Puritan values, especially virtue in his political career.   Adams highlighted what he perceived to be the dangers of taxation without representation.    

Reflection Paper / Roger Williams

     "But from this grant I infer (as before hath been touched) that the sovereign, original, and foundation of civil power lies in the people (whom they must needs mean by the civil power distinct from the government set up). And, if so, that a people may erect and establish what form of government seems to them most meet for their civil condition; it is evident that such governments as are by them erected and established have no more power, nor for no longer time, than the civil power or people consenting and agreeing shall betrust them with. This is clear not only in reason but in the experience of all commonweals, where the people are not deprived of their natural freedom by the power of tyrants."

     Roger Williams, founder of the colony of Rhode Island in America and pioneer of religious liberty, was known for his peacemaking between the neighboring colonists and the Indians. In religion Williams ws saying that everyman had the right to his own conscience guided by his inner faith. However, in secular matters he must submit to the will of the majority, determined through institutions shorn of any religious content.   He obtained a charter from the king that made the principle of religious freedom explict.   It read, "No person within the said colony at anytime hereafter shall be in any wise molested, punished, disquieted or called in question for any difference in opinion in matters of religion and who do not actually disturb the civil peace of our said colony; but that all...may from time to time and at all times thereafter freely and fully have and enjoy his and their own judgements and consciences in matters of religious concernments."

     Williams believed that in order for civil society to exist there had to be absolute separation between church and state.   This refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state.  Today there is still much debate in regards to this discussion.  I believe Williams makes a great case in showing why church and state should be separated. 

Reflection paper/The Puritans- John Winthrop

     "For the other point concerning liberty, I observe a great mistake in the country about that. There is a twofold liberty, natural (I mean as our nature is now corrupt) and civil or federal. The first is common to man with beasts and other creatures. By this, man, as he stands in relation to man simply, hath liberty to do what he lists; it is a liberty to evil as well as to good. This liberty is incompatible and inconsistent with authority and cannot endure the least restraint of the most just authority. The exercise and maintaining of this liberty makes men grow more evil and in time to be worse than brute beasts: omnes sumus licentia deteriores. This is that great enemy of truth and peace, that wild beast, which all of the ordinances of God are bent against, to restrain and subdue it. The other kind of liberty I call civil or federal; it may also be termed moral, in reference to the covenant between God and man, in the moral law, and the politic covenants and constitutions amongst men themselves. This liberty is the proper end and object of authority and cannot subsist without it; and it is a liberty to that only which is good, just, and honest. This liberty you are to stand for, with the hazard (not only of your goods, but) of your lives, if need be..."

     Within Winthrop's famous "little speech", he outlines and defends much of his thought and views on naural liberty and civil liberty.  Natural lioberty he says is common to man with beasts as each has the liberty to do as he chooses, weather for good or for evil; just do whatever without considering the consequences.  Moral or civic liberty, however, exists between man and god. Winthrop states that, "This liberty is the proper end and object of authority and cannot subsist without it; and it is a liberty to that only which is good, just and honest." He compares this kind of liberty as wherewith Christ hath made us free. His view is that people should regard this type of liberty as the freedom to obey the authorities that have been instutited by god to govern according to his moral law. For him liberty meant submission to the governing authority.
     I can certainly see Winthrop's view on liberty being twofold. His insistance that moral liberty is necessary to keep order was very insightful.  Even today, left to his own devices man is capable of committing untinkable atrocities.  Without civil, moral, federal authority i believe man would be self destructive and society would run amock.

"What is America?"

"The American Constitution does resemble the Spanish Inquisition in this:that it is founded on a creed. America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence....It enunciates that all men are equal in their claim to justice, that governments exist to give them that justice, and that their authority is for that reason just....The point is that there is a creed, if not about divine, at least about human things."

I believe what Chesterton is saying here is that the natural human rights, liberty and equality is preserved in America by law. The American constitution upholds the founding principles of the Declaration of Independence in that the inherent right of self Government are not only applicable to Americans but to people everywhere. Comparing the American Constution to the Spanish Inquisition relates to the fact that America invites all men to become citizens in order to enjoy these basic rights. However, as Chesterton later explained this approach is essential to securing the liberty of all citizens and the many who come to America seeking the same.
   I chose this quote because as an immigrant it so simply explains why myself and so many others sought to come to this land.  Least it be forgotten or taken for granted after many years - as is so often the case - we need to be grounded in the pricciples of human liberty and in its sense of justice.