In recent years, the idea of freedom has been defined by libertarians and conservatives as freedom from government. The idea is that somehow we as individuals should have as little interference in our lives from government as possible, especially in the form of taxes. (Our bedrooms, however, seem to be everybody's business.) Government, said Ronald Reagan, is not the solution, it is the problem. Somehow, we are told, the private sector can perform most government functions better than government. Since then we have privatized more and more - prisons, military services, military provisions are some of the most extreme instances of this.
I hold that this is a misinterpretation of freedom at best, and at worst, it is a sleight of hand that focuses our attention elsewhere while our resources are plundered. Jefferson's Declaration of Independence defines the role of government as securing and protecting the people's rights.
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,
Instead of freedom from government, let us consider Roosevelt's conception of the four freedoms. Here is his speech to Congress delineating these freedoms. It is a remarkably short speech.
The "Four Freedoms"
Franklin D. Roosevelt's Address to Congress January 6, 1941
Chapter 36
In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want -- which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear -- which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor-- anywhere in the world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.
To that new order we oppose the greater conception -- the moral order. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.
Since the beginning of our American history, we have been engaged in change -- in a perpetual peaceful revolution -- a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions -- without the concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch. The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.
This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose.
To that high concept there can be no end save victory.
What if we were to judge our government by how well it secured these freedoms for us? Just think for a minute. I especially want to consider freedom from want and from fear. It is the government's purpose to secure and defend these freedoms for us.
Our government has been negligent. It's policies have led us into this current financial crisis, where more and more Americans are suffering want and even more fear for their future. On a world basis, the want and fear are even worse. Imagine if we had a president who had given this speech to us after 9/11!
In this crisis, the stimulus bill in its original form was an attempt to secure these freedoms for us once again. This is the purpose of government. We must take back the idea of freedom, and let the nay-sayers fall where they may. The government is not the enemy of freedom unless we allow it to be. The government has the task ahead of it of securing freedom from want and fear for us once again, and we can reframe the argument for passage of strong stimulus legislation in terms of freedom and our basic rights.