The constitution of the United States was created by a group of great liberal men like James Madison with the aim of constructing a nation state that would primarily reject tyranny; that would be based on individual freedoms and rights, and equality of men. This was the first Liberal state in the world that was born arguably purely out of liberalism, without having to fight for the ideal or undergo a revolution- “With freedom thus a matter of birthright and not of conquest” (Schlesinger, 1962) America is hence an extraordinary modern Liberal state. The average “American assumes liberalism as one of the presuppositions of life”. (Schlesinger, 1962) The most significant of modern liberal ideas that influence the way that Americans think about politics are arguably Liberty and individual rights; equality of opportunity and democracy. It is these three ideas that this essay will in brief describe and critique in the modern context.
The first part of this essay will attempt to describe in simple terms and evaluate the idea of liberty and individual rights. Firstly I would like to justify the reason why this essay chooses to talk about liberty as one of its significant ideas that influence the way that Americans think about politics. The main reason is that the United States constitution commences with the statement that: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union (…) secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”.(U.S Constitution) Early liberty in the United States was described as: one is truly free when one is free to do what one wants without intervention- however Thomas Jefferson another founding father added that “If I do not hurt anyone else, I should be free to pursue my own will”(Brooks, 2008). Jefferson also believed that a wise government is one that only interferes by preventing men from hurting one another (Brooks,2008). Even though the idea of liberty has changed since then, two thirds of American citizens “define freedom in terms of doing what they want, being able to make their own choices, or having liberty in speech and religion”(Brooks,2008). The American nation stands as a big symbol for freedom- however turns of events in the last nine years has begged the question- to what degree has freedom and individual rights influenced American politics in recent years?
There have been major discussions about how the American state has undermined civil liberties since the war on terror began. Various episodes such as ; a couple getting arrested on the grounds of having an American flag hung upside down on their porch to show dislike of the Iraq war (News ABC 13, 2007) have shown the weakening of individual rights- for this couple was arrested purely in demonstrating opinion with no aggression. Also tightening of security and increased state control has also arguably decreased the freedom of people to some degree. However, one of the major topics which lead this critique on this American ideal is the legalization of torture as an interrogation technique brought forward by the Bush Administration. This can possibly be the first time in which an American government has “agreed to set aside the provisions of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights” (World Socialist Website, 2006). Alongside the validation of torture, some laws were released which permit the president to appoint any one as an “unlawful enemy combatant,”(World Socialist Website,2006) who can be imprisoned for an indefinite period without any legal choice. Because of the flexible understanding of the Bush administration as to “what constitutes ‘hostilities’, this definition has the potential to erase any legal distinction between an actual Al Qaeda terrorist, an Arab immigrant who makes a charitable donation to Lebanese relief, and an American college student who clashes with police during a protest demonstration against the Iraq war.”(World Socialist Website,2006) This may sound farfetched; however the war on terror has resulted to some degree on the American government in bringing forth methods which have been conventionally used in Police states. To the same effect the American Civil Liberties Union has held that “this wave of anti- terrorist activity, all in the name of national security, also launched one of the most serious civil liberties crises our nation has ever seen”(Delsch, 2008). However, it is important to keep in mind that American Illiberality cannot be blamed solely on the war on terror because the government has undermined domestic liberties before: predominately in inter-state wars.
When critiquing the Ideal of Liberty, I am of the opinion that it all comes down to how one perceives liberty- if you are a positive librettist and think that by further state control your liberties will be enhanced or whether you think the state power should be minimized to only keeping national order. This would explain that by the state in maximizing control- and reducing civil liberties with the war on terror- it could hypothetically be increasing your liberties – however if you take the negative liberty stance- then you will think that your liberties are being minimized with so much state control. Another small example for why this philosophical critique is important is by looking at the right to bear arms. If you are a negative librettist- you would be more likely to think that one should be allowed to bear arms- and if you were a positive librettist you would be more likely to disagree on the rights to bear arms.
So as I have criticized how the land stamped with the great symbol of liberty has Undermined civil liberties and rights, I have also explained that this coin is two sided- and the critique on this matter will depend on the individual criticizer itself- i.e. if I were a positive librettist I wouldn’t criticize America to such a great degree on increasing state control for the countries security.
Now moving on to the second part of this essay, where Equality of Opportunity, another highly disputed idea which influences American political thought will be briefly illustrated and analyzed. The concept of Equality has always been fundamental since the formation of the United States. In 1776 it was written in the American Declaration of Independence that “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” (MacKenzie, 2005) Even though the concept of equality has changed greatly in the last centuries- there is a common shared thought about the importance of equality in providing justice. The concept of equality that the American nation (as well as most western democracies (Mackenzie, 2005)) lives by is the idea of equality of opportunity. This requires that “all persons in a society have an equal chance or prospect of securing the important social and political goods” (Mackenzie, 2005) such as education and the right to vote. Equality of opportunity also entails that everyone should be able to reach high positions of social and political prestige, “authority and great financial reward” (Mackenzie, 2005) without discrimination when it comes to race, social background and sex. America is known in theory, but not in practice for carrying the big name of the Land of Opportunities and the conception of the American Dream.
Equality of opportunity is a respected and arguably an active concept, that had a woman, Hillary Clinton and afro-Americans run for president from both sides of the political spectrum this last election, and had Barack Obama win the election as president on the 4rth of November 2008. Even though African-American men gained the right to vote in 1870 and women in general later in 1918, it was after the 60’s that major changes towards equality of opportunity were seen: gender barriers have broken since then with women “now able to pursue most of the same economic and political opportunities as men” (Jacobs, et al, 2004) and “racial segregation and exclusion were no longer legal or socially accepted” (Jacobs, et al, 2004). However, it can be argued that even though the American nation has become more integrative, and equality has spread within society to different races, sex and ethnicity; there is a growing gap in income and wealth. There isn’t just a gap between the so called rich and poor, “but also between privileged professionals, managers, and business owners on the one hand, and the middle strata (...) on the other hand” (Jacobs, et al, 2004). The rich one and two percent have generally become even richer and the people in the middle class are struggling to keep their middle class position with two working parents. According to the American Political Science association the middle class families that struggle even more are the families which are head by a woman, African Americans and Latinos (Jacobs, et al, 2004). This leads us to the next point which shows that there are still racial, ethnic and gender cleavages. Statistics hold that the average “white household earned 62 percent more income and possessed twelvefold more wealth than a median black household” (Piketty, et al, 2003). Even though African- Americans and other races were emancipated by the Civil Rights era, there is still a huge gap between them and the white America. (Jacobs, et al, 2004)
Undeniably women, Afro-Americans and other minorities like Latinos have gained equality for they can now vote, everyone can engage in education for its widespread and integrative. Today you also have women and afro-Americans working in all sectors. Nevertheless, women still get paid up to 25,000 dollars less (Vanderbilt University, 2007) for the same job of a man, and Afro-Americans have it even worse in most cases. As I perceive this, there is definitely not the same chance for a white male and the rest of the population to succeed. So should the American nation hold the beacon of Land of opportunities or advertise the idea of the American dream which can be a reality for white American men, but that remains a dream to the majority of the nation? Is equality of opportunity then a central idea that influences American political thought in practice?
The third and last part of this essay will move onto describing and assessing the concept that Americans have proudly attempted to spread onto other nations. This is the notion of Democracy. This concept originated in Ancient Greece. The word Democracy comes from ‘Kratos’ meaning power or rule and the word ‘demos’ meaning people- hence democracy at its simplest means ‘rule by the people’ (Heywood, 2007). Democracy has developed to a significant degree through time- for instance from classical democracy, to developmental democracy. However, to understand the common understanding of democracy in America, one only needs to look at Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg speech in 1864. Lincoln “extolled the virtues of what he called ‘government of the people, by the people and for the people’” (Heywood, 2007). However various modern political thinkers such as Noam Chomsky have found themselves suggesting that America is not a government, ‘of’, ‘by’ and ‘for’ the general public , but a government ‘of’, ‘by’ and ‘for’ a specific group of people: the rich elite.
Americans, according to opinion polls “accept considerable disparities of income and wealth” (Jacobs, et al, 2004) however, Americans in general celebrate that in theory everyone has “equal voice in representative government” (Jacobs, et al, 2004) because it is a right that belongs with everyone in spite of social and ethnic background and sex. However, 90% of those who earn over 75,000 dollars per year claimed they have voted in elections, while just half of those who earn less than 15,000 dollars per year claimed to vote (Jacobs, et al, 2004). Interestingly up to 66% of those who didn’t vote said that “public officials don’t care about what people think” (Jacobs, et al, 2004) as their reasons for not voting. What is more interesting is that there is some truth to what these 66% of the people are suggesting: there is undemocratic action going on at every level in governments, and parties. Such actions include laws which prohibit current and former prisoners to vote, and more importantly, (What I shall concentrate on), how political parties and campaigns “focus their resources on citizens who are affluent and are already active politically.” (Jacobs, et al, 2004). The reason why this happens is primarily because of donations. More affluent people are in the positions to make donations to their parties of choice when in power and when campaigning; in fact 95% of the people giving donations are generally from the richest households of the nation (Jacobs, et al, 2004). In return for the donations the donators get a chance to express their opinions in a way that the average American cannot. This undemocratic phenomenon happens primarily because both the major parties (Democrats and the Republicans) are extremely reliant on “campaign contributors and activists, and have gotten used to competing for just over a half of a shrinking universe of voters” (Jacobs, et al, 2004). Also, because the less affluent are much less likely to vote, the parties concentrate their campaigns, and to some degree policies, on the better off in society because, they will be more likely to vote for them. Because of these pressures on the parties :
“Citizens with lower or moderate incomes speak with a whisper that is lost on the ears of inattentive government officials, while the advantaged roar with a clarity and consistency that policymakers readily hear and routinely follow” (Jacobs, et al, 2004).
I think to some degree the poor and the worse off are in fault for this phenomenon- it is true that they must get unmotivated because (as mentioned before) they feel like they aren’t listened too- however only 3% (Jacobs, et al, 2004) of the worse off take part in non expense marches and demonstrations- this means that the badly off are in fault to some degree as well, since they don’t take initiative.
As a non-American Citizen, after analyzing briefly the concept of democracy as the Americans see it and the current reality of the situation of democracy- this is how it appears to myself- there seems to be a vicious circle, where the worst off aren’t voting, which is “the most obvious means for Americans to exercise their rights of citizenship”(Jacobs, et al, 2004). Because they are not voting, the parties don’t bother to focus on the constituency, and hence the parties don’t provide attention to the worst off, and in turn the electorate doesn’t feel they want to vote. If something doesn’t happen to break this cycle, it may, and will probably spiral into bigger divides. America is prematurely attempting to Spread the ideal they so believe in, since they haven’t mastered the concept themselves.
In summary, Americans are driven by these liberal ideals of Liberty, equality of opportunity and democracy, that as we have seen, in practice, they are flawed. It is fair to say that they do influence the way that Americans think about politics, however because of the flaws, they only influence to a certain extent. The nation must be applauded for attempting to live by these ideals, however I am of the opinion that the US, should not carry big names like the ‘Land of Opportunity’, or the ‘American Dream’ and even more so, it should not attempt to spread democracy to other states like to the Iraq, when they themselves don’t live in a active democracy.
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