Political climate is based on national ignorance
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It has been over a year since my last entry on this blog. For the past few months, I have struggled about the direction and the topics I should discuss. One of the things causing problems is our own ignorance of the philosophies behind the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The ignorance has created a hostile political climate nationwide. We’ve entered an era of hyper-partisanship where people are being denied service based on political ideology.1
I’ve taken the last month to do some reflecting about this blog. Right now, there are dozens of new blogs added to the Internet each day which focus on politics. Some do a good job of discussing the current trends in politics. There are others which simply parrot a particular talking point. But what I am finding is many of these blogs do not discuss the history and traditions of the past which do contribute to what we are experiencing today.
The need to explain classical liberalism
My father was career military and we moved every three years. For my four years in high school, I attended three separate schools. My ninth grade through the first half of my senior year, I went to DoDDS schools in Frankfurt and Hanau, Germany. The last half of my senior year, I went to Harrison County High School in Lyman, Mississippi. While in the DoDDS schools, I was taught the reasoning behind the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
But when my father retired and we moved to his hometown in Mississippi, the school did not teach the political theories which led to the American Revolution. Being someone who has always enjoyed discussing politics, I found very few students at that school who were interested in politics. And the few who were didn’t understand how the Enlightenment tied directly into American political philosophy. This is common throughout the United States – our nation’s citizenry doesn’t understand history and political philosophies.
Classical liberalism’s core…
At the core of American political philosophy is an innovative idea for the Eighteenth Century. The United States was founded during a time in world history where personal liberty did not exist. A good definition of what is meant by personal liberty is:
The freedom of the individual to do as he [or she] pleases limited only by the authority of politically organized society to regulate his [or her] action to secure the public health, safety, or morals or of other recognized social interest.2
It was this concept of personal liberty which would become the center of American political theory. It must be understood that the men which formed our nation, at the state and national level, were not perfect men. And they did have their problems, but they would still provide the foundation for the greatest social experiment on Earth. Within this social experiment is an idea that each citizen of the nation had rights which came from God and could not be infringed or restricted by man.
Personal liberty’s challenge
The United States is an imperfect nation founded by imperfect men. The preamble to the Constitution contains the phrase, “We the People… in order to form a more perfect union…” as a tribute and challenge. The challenge is for each generation to continue to perfect the union. Consequently, there is a debate to what the nature of that perfect union should be. There are those who believe a more perfect union would be a democratic-socialist political philosophy. Likewise, there are others who believe the time has come to adopt a more modern form of national government.
But what is missing from the national discussion is the role personal liberty must play within American political theory. Consider gay marriage. Since the Supreme Court has stated constitutional protections exist for gay marriage, the debate has not ended.3 Now the debate has taken the form of must people be required to participate in gay marriage even if it is contrary to their religious or personal views?4 While many claim it is a defeat for gay rights activists and others claim a victory for religious Americans, both sides are missing the point. The decision is a reaffirmation of personal liberty.
A political climate of ignorance
At the heart of the decision by the Supreme Court is the essence of personal liberty. The court did not rule that gays and lesbians do not have the right to marry. They didn’t rule that gays and lesbians can be refused housing. What the court did rule is that no American has the right to cause another citizen to violate their personal convictions and inclinations. Just as a Christian baker cannot be forced to make a wedding cake for a gay wedding, a gay baker cannot be forced to make a cake having an anti-gay message. This decision is a victory for all freedom-loving Americans.
There are those who claim that this decision will bring about a new era of racial discrimination within the nation. This line of thinking is faulty for several reasons – the most obvious is the number of laws which protects racial minorities which were passed as early as the 1870s through the mid 2000s. It is illegal to discriminate based on race, ethnicity, sex, and disability. During the Obama administration, gender identity was added to this list.
Consequently, there’s a demand that religion be considered as hostile to society. Even before the most recent Supreme Court decision, Liberals and Democrats were using personal faith as a litmus test for nominees to the federal court system.5 Their reasoning is a person who has a belief in God would be unable to be objective when making court decisions. This view of people who are religious points to the growing political climate of ignorance in America.
Why personal liberty matters
Personal liberty was important enough to the generations of Americans in 1776 that all social and economic classes agreed independence was worth the fight. The concept of personal liberty was simple. The government did not have the ability to regulate what was appropriate to say, to believe, to take part in until those rights intruded into the rights of another. Should a Christian baker be compelled by law, to make a work of art, for a gay couple? Do we need laws to force atheist painters to paint the inside of a mosque or church? Personal liberty demands that a person’s right to self-determination does not end where the marketplace begins.
Personal liberty is important for the pursuit of “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness…” as Jefferson wrote. Just as in his time, personal liberty is not the same as the rights of the masses. Personal liberty is the cornerstone of the American notion of individualism. It is individualism which allows us to exploit the natural talents and gifts we have, to better ourselves, and to achieve our own measure of success. Individualism and personal liberty are strongly correlated and cannot thrive in any form of Marxist environment.
Future topics & future posts
One of the difficult things for me, besides having the time, has been choosing topics for this blog. There’s so many things I would like to write about but never do. But for the past year, there have been topics, based off conversations with college students, I have felt a need to write about but for whatever reason, didn’t. Today has been no exception. In the parking lot as I was heading to class, a former student asked me why I felt personal liberty was so important. He told me that the nation would be better off if everyone were willing to give up some of their rights for the good of the whole.
With that brief ten-minute conversation, I have felt the need to return to this blog. There are going to be future posts and they will be more frequent. And more than ever, the need for a discussion over the Enlightenment and the philosophies of the era which shaped our nation must be a part of the discussion – at least on this site.
References cited:
Alan Simmons
Alan Simmons is an instructor of history at a community college in Kentucky. He has been involved in education since 1999 and has taught in post-secondary education since 2004.
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Alan Simmons
Alan Simmons is an instructor of history at a community college in Kentucky. He has been involved in education since 1999 and has taught in post-secondary education since 2004.