The Faltering American Version of Democratic Liberty

I want to continue yesterday’s thought about liberty.

The American example is the most easily accessible and America is much farther down the path than most countries of living out its dream of a democracy based on individual rights and liberty, with a government kept in check by keeping it small and making it answerable to the people at all times.

The American Declaration of Independence, written in 1776, begins with: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,....That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.”

And, when the US Constitution was written in 1789, a Bill of Rights was added as its first ten amendments. The First Amendment in the Bill of Rights says. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

In the ensuing 225 years, America has changed drastically but its Constitution has endured. Some would like to modernize it, make it snappier and cool. But, there it is, challenging the consciences of Americans and the world as the struggle continues to make it fit a 21^st century democracy, or rather to make a 21^st century democracy fit its principles.

Thomas Jefferson asked : “Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction.” Jefferson’s question is still relevant.

He gave his own partial answer : “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”

Edmund Burke, the great British political philosopher who was writing when the American Revolution was getting underway, took the idea of liberty in smaller bites. He said, “The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.” And, “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.”

That brings us to the problem in America today. Everyone wants everything and nobody wants to pay. Those who see the dangers in the path America is taking do nothing because they feel helpless to change the overall trend.

Tax and healthcare reform, stabilizing Social Security funding, increasing the government debt ceiling to safeguard the country’s financial position, reducing the federal debt - all these are major items on an agenda that is increasingly being held hostage by both Republicans and Democrats who have become so rigid in their social-political premises that compromise is no longer possible.

Robert Kennedy, the most thoughtful and articulate of the Kennedy brothers, said : “At the heart of western freedom and democracy is the belief that the individual man... is the touchstone of value, and all society, groups, the state, exist for his benefit. Therefore the enlargement of liberty for individual human beings must be the supreme goal and abiding practice of any western society.”

Somehow, America must begin again to adhere to its founding principles, to make liberty its cornerstone and to hold accountable those officeholders who do not follow those principles. Hold them accountable not by tossing out the other party or by shouting in the streets but by serious discussion and compromise concerning the best path forward - the path that will gain the most liberty for all without damaging the rights of any.

Winston Churchill was right : “…if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”

This is as true of economic survival today as it was of winning a war in Churchill’s time.

Archibald McLeish, the great 20^th century poet and playwright reminded America of its promise : “There are those who will say that the liberation of humanity, the freedom of man and mind, is nothing but a dream. They are right. It is the American Dream.”

America needs to wake up before its Dream becomes just another failed experiment in democracy and individual liberty.