10/30/2007: "Which truths are still self-evident?"
There used to be general agreement in America about what our country stood for: there were certain verities that allowed us to take pride in ourselves as Americans and in our government for upholding these truths. The first one, of course, concerned equality. As our Declaration of Independence stated, “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, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Proud and glorious words indeed.
On the issue of equality, Americans in practice have never meant equality of outcome, but we did mean equality of opportunity. However, we are losing that inspiring lodestar. There is mounting evidence that income inequality in America is approaching crisis proportions. Of course, we can console ourselves that our democracy is old and strong, and has enough economic opportunities, as well as political channels and outlets, to defuse even the most intense anger. But we Americans need to be doing more to address the galloping inequality in our country.
How bad is income inequality in America? In a new book, Princeton economist Paul Krugman notes that the wealthiest 0.01% of Americans are seven times richer than they were three decades ago, while the inflation-adjusted income of most American households has barely budged. In the 1970s, CEOs typically earned 30 times more than their average employee; now they take home 300 times as much.
Voters have been telling pollsters in recent months that they fear for their economic security. A plurality has indicated that they believe that “life for the next generation of Americans will be worse than it is today.’ This lack of optimism about their future, and about the fairness of the American system, is a wake-up call. As the former head of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said, “it’s not the actual getting ahead in America that’s so important—it’s been Americans’ deep belief that they have the opportunity to get ahead. And if you lose that, there’s damage to our society.”
A second truth that we used to hold self-evident was that our government would safeguard for us our liberty. But in recent years, since 9/11 in particular, our government, at every crossroads, has chosen to go with national security rather than with our civil liberties. Our Bill of Rights, the precious first ten amendments to the Constitution, are more and more undermined by political leaders who choose power and security over our civil liberties, and by Americans, young and old, who choose not even to learn what these precious liberties are, much less to remain vigilant to see that they are maintained. A 2006 survey by the McCormick Tribune Foundation found that, while 52% of Americans can name at least two characters of the Simpsons’ TV cartoon family, only 28% can name more than one of these five fundamental freedoms guaranteed to them by the First Amendment, which covers freedom of religion, speech, the press, the right to assemble, and to petition the government for redress of grievances. Another poll indicated that if asked today, Americans would not vote to approve the Bill of Rights!
Finally, our Constitution prohibits the use of torture in the Eighth Amendment, part of our Bill of Rights, an amendment which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. I remember growing up feeling proud that while Communist China, or Soviet Russia or Pol Pot’s Cambodia might torture its prisoners, we in the United States did not. However, this week’s excruciatingly tortuous parsing of the question, ‘what is torture,” by Michael Mukasey, President Bush’s nominee for Attorney General, was frightening and undermined the very Constitution he would be sworn to uphold. On the one hand, he noted that torture, even of terrorism suspects, is illegal under both US and international law. However, he would not even say whether he considered such harsh interrogation techniques as waterboarding, which creates the feeling of drowning, to constitute torture or to be illegal when used against terrorism suspects. If he can’t define as torture waterboarding , described by one Senator as “the practice of putting somebody in a reclining position, strapping them down, putting cloth over their faces and pouring water over the cloth to stimulate the feeling of drowning, “ what will he define as torture? He also denied knowing what current Justice Dept policy is on torture, but airily promised to read the relevant memos after he’s confirmed.
I consider myself a patriot and a proud American. On basic American values such as equality, respect for civil liberties, and prohibition of torture, I want to see our Constitution and our Declaration of Independence strictly observed. I’m glad that I have a chance in 2008, as the Declaration of Independence strongly stated, to vote against continuing the values of an administration which has become so destructive of the securing of our inalienable rights. We did it against King George III in 1775; we need to do it against the imperial presidency of George Bush in 2008.
We also need to do more to ensure that our schools are teaching our children about the glories of our Constitution, and that we are teaching our children and grandchildren at home. We would all do well to remember the words of John Quincy Adams, who wrote in 1837, on the 50th anniversary of the Constitution, paraphrasing from the instruction to the Israelites in Deuteronomy, “Teach the [Constitution’s] principles, teach them to your children, speak of them when sitting in your home, speak of them when walking by the way, when lying down and when rising up, write them upon the doorplate of your home and upon your gates.” We Americans need to get back to these basic responsibilities—as well as the rights-- of living in the United States.
