Last week I read that Newt Gingrich, in an exchange with a young black man, told him that all young people should be angry about the high unemployment rate amongst young African Americans because all young people deserve to be able to “pursue happiness.” And it’s the last part that peaked my interest. It is one of our most sacred compacts- “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.” And we’ve heard both sides of the political debate use that creed to argue that their basic principles are fundamental to that pursuit. But what Speaker Gingrich hinted at in that conversation, and repeated in a debate that followed, was not in isolation.
If you listen to Republican leaders, whether they be in congress or the candidates for president, you might think the pursuit of happiness means just one thing- a job and hopefully a ticket to wealth. And after years of high unemployment and a struggling economy that has made it harder for every American to pursue their individual happiness, it’s easy to think that the bottom line is that simple. But the attitude that pursuing happiness is almost solely about work and wealth may signal a more fundamental divide between our two parties.
The Democratic Party has long made its name fighting for a broader definition of happiness- one that focuses not just on work, but quality of life. The forty-hour work week, vacation time, health care, worker pensions, Social Security…programs that ensure that you have the time and economic security to pursue what I think most Americans would consider their real happiness- not their work alone but their family, friends, passions, and interests. They’ve also fought for, though not always as strongly as they should have, cleaner air for us all to breathe, and an environment not just free of toxic chemicals but the toxins of discrimination and hatred.
All along the way the Republican Party has fought against all of that almost exclusively in an effort to protect big business by arguing that being free of regulations like having to pollute less would allow them to make more money and thus hire more workers. I think that their sincere belief is that happiness stems from or “trickles down” from corporate stability and growth and that if those things are sound, the rest will follow suit. But this ignores the fundamental truth- that our happiness relies more on having that clean air, the parks and the libraries our government pays for and protects, and the knowledge that if we do work hard through the week that the nights and weekends American unions fought so hard to ensure for us will be our time, the time to pursue our happiness. I love my work, and we want everyone to have a job that is as fulfilling as it is well-paying. But that doesn’t mean it’s everything I, or any other American, lives for. I also don’t think it’s what the Republican voters who elect their wealth obsessed representatives have in mind either.
Both parties have also sold us short by focusing the national conversation during the last years on one quality of life factor- jobs. And it was no surprise when President Obama decided to spend early political capital on health care, that the political chattering class went right along with promoting the fiction that solving the health care crisis was somehow a distraction from taking care of what ailed our country, and not a critical part of the solution. But remember that even using more liberal definitions of unemployment, at least 85 % of Americans have had a job (at worst) through the worst recession since our Great Depression. And this largely media and political elite driven narrative that implies that so long as the unemployed have a job, any job at all, the president is fulfilling his duties, and that “the three issues in this election are jobs, jobs, and jobs”, is shallow at best.
While our leaders must make jobs a priority, that sole focus runs counter to that most sacred creed- that we are entitled to the pursuit of happiness. Not life, liberty, and work…but happiness. So I think we should renew a commitment in this campaign toward a broader discussion about the issues that affect all of our lives. We shouldn’t let another election go by in which candidates, left or right, get by without addressing their responsibility to every American, to ensure our right to pursue fulfillment and our fullest form of happiness.
