A Liberal Manifesto

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A specter is haunting America.  It is the specter of a large majority of intelligent people, unwilling to adopt knee-jerk reactions, unwilling to be persuaded by the hyperbole of lobbyists and the media, by bible-thumping Religionists and flat-earthers, and capitalist wannabes, who set themselves up as the forces that want to create jobs for everyone, but in actual fact just want to keep spending their profits without contributing to the common good, the specter of such right-thinking people finding themselves without a political home.

In a not-so-distant past, the Democratic Party was the party of the common man, the party of workers, and those who valued the contributions of workers, and all those who actually worked for their living, intellectuals, and those who prided themselves on being called liberals.  It used to be that if you were a liberal, you stood for the following things:

All people were created equal.  This meant that everyone had a right to basic things, regardless of whether you were born into a family that was independently wealthy.  This meant that health, education, housing, employment, freedom from discrimination were all yours.  But over the years, this belief was gradually circumscribed, and now these expectations seem to be tainted.  Those who speak for health care for all are looked at with disgust.  Decades of distrust of "career unemployed" has led to reduction of unemployment benefits.  The bogey of "reverse discrimination" has gradually begun to erode the advances of equal rights.  And a number of cultural conditions have resulted in lower achievement in education in proportion to input---the same resources are beginning to yield poorer results---and the immediate suspects are teachers.  This plays into the hands of those who want to privatize education.


As a result, it is easier for conservatives to vilify anyone who stands up as a liberal.  Liberals still feel comfortable in analyzing the initiatives of the conservatives, and seeing the hidden agendas there.  But it is harder to formulate a position as to what you stand for, rather than what you stand against.

Bruce Ackerman and Todd Gitlin have proposed a manifesto for Liberals, which they vigorously defend in their post of 2006.  The pivotal paragraph of their post is as follows:

We reaffirm the great principle of liberalism: that every citizen is entitled by right to the elementary means to a good life.
We believe passionately that societies should afford their citizens equal treatment under the law -- regardless of accidents of birth, race, sex, property, religion, ethnic identification, or sexual disposition.
We want to redirect debate to the central questions of concern to ordinary Americans -- their rights to housing, affordable health care, equal opportunity for employment, and fair wages, as well as physical security and a sustainable environment for ourselves and future generations.

I felt, without any reservation, that these principles were eminently worthy of subscribing to.  Unfortunately, the arguments put forth by anti-liberals are resonating among those who feel threatened by these principles:
"Can we afford these things?"
"Are the common people worthy of these things?"
"Are the people who propose these things secretly working for some enemy, such as Socialism, or European-style welfare"?
"Is it possible to be A Christian and still adopt these principles?"
"Are the people proposing these things Christians, and if not, isn't that a good excuse for opting out of this sort of agenda?"
"Isn't Big Business what made this country great, and since to provide the elementary means of a good life one must raise taxes, and raising taxes hurts Big Business, shouldn't we give up on the whole thing?"

As many writers have pointed out, some of the poorest of the poor are in favor of lowering taxes, even if higher taxes will help fund social programs.  Someone has succeeded in persuading them that some day, they will be wealthy, and it is better to have taxes lowered now, so that when their ship comes in, they will have fewer taxes to pay.  The pathos of this must be clear to everybody.

Unfortunately, one of the roots of the popular distrust of progressive legislation ---even among inexperienced Congressmen and women!!!--- is the rampant immorality and corruption among the members of Congress.  Unfortunately, Republicans have succeeded in persuading everyone that Democrat Congressmen and women are more corrupt than Republican Congressmen and women, despite the fact that the known cases of corruption are just about evenly divided.  (Even during the Clinton era, when Republicans had to work long hours to discredit one of the most effective presidents in history, the personal peccadilloes of the Republicans in Congress more than balanced out those of the Democrats, even if they didn't have as exalted venues in which to carry out their indiscretions!)

I have digressed.  But we have, above, a nucleus of a liberal manifesto, if we're willing not to be distracted with anti-liberal smoke and fog.

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