Pt I: Why Liberalism Represents the True Vision of America
On the base of the Statue of Liberty, is a poem by Emma Lazarus, in which the Statue is called the Mother of Exiles. As we close our borders, and declare ourselves what President Bush terms the ownership society, let us never forget that what made us what we are was the "responsibility society", and our ability to open our borders to other nation's tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Yes, we even took the "wretched refuse of your teeming shore," which I am sure would have offended the likes of today's Pat Buchanan and others dreaming of a closed border, and the criminalization of even the children of illegal immigrants who have paid their share of taxes, and done their share of work to build this country.
If our nation was born of the sort of capitalism that the conservative movement breathes today, the tax free, birth-right inheritance sort of society the neo-conservatives dream of, we might have never reached our fullest potential. We understood that even capitalism, the system that would enrich our society, exists because of an unspoken contract. The land rights given by a rejected king were meaningless if he did not have the authority to grant them. We were a new people, of mixed heritage, sitting on a mass of land that had been divided out on a feudal basis. This could easily have continued. It would have been easy to give the wealthy landowners and people in power rights to the territories as we opened them, but instead each step of the way, the poor huddled masses were offered the chance for a "little patch of heaven way out west."
The gold rushes existed as they did because industrious wretched refuse packed up their bags and sought the opportunity for personal wealth. This is not to argue that there were not wealthy lining their pockets with the wealth and work of others, it is just to make the point that at the time, a company or wealthy landowner was not given the exclusive rights to mine the gold being discovered. There was opportunity. Of course, as the classic wild west genre of movies loves to point out, there was serious risk, as well. The battle between lawlessness and the need for social order led to the expanding role of government in our lives. To limit the opportunity of lawless taking, we gave up the risk of having our wealth taken by others.
Today there are many people living on those lands granted by the government in the west, often in what we label today as "Red" states. Their ancestors may have owned the land for years, or they may have bought it from the free market system. The point is, it was in the best interest of the people that the land was given away, rather than being sold to corporations who would have controlled it, or farmed it with hired help. The benefit to society was that the least fortunate were given an opportunity to lift themselves up by the bootstraps and create a living. It was not a promise of wealth, but rather the hope of an economic welfare.
Free land could not exist forever. At least not the kind that was needed by the farmers and ranchers of the 1800's. Society became more industrial and work moved to the cities. A war came, followed by a gay time, when the "gold rush" dreamers of the day margined their money on the booming stock market.
The United States of America that Franklin Delano Roosevelt became President of in 1933 was a United States teeming with huddled masses. The social welfare of the agrarian society could no longer help hold up the bottom of our society. There had to be a new contract: A contract that would allow capitalism to thrive and the poor to survive. Other societies had recently seen the oppressed masses overthrow the rich landowners. Those who say FDR's "New Deal" is communistic or socialistic are in denial. How many more years of the depression would the workers have taken before turning on the wealthy and overtaking our country. The New Deal was a promise that you still had the opportunity to be rich and reason to be entrepreneuristic, but that there was a safety net at the bottom. There was a reason for those who did not succeed to play the game of capitalism. There was going to be a loaf of bread for you, and you would not have to even wait in a line for it, at the end of your years of hard work.
All of the Republicans after FDR understood that (until the Goldwater movement helped push Reagan into the White House). They also understood the fact that you are rich, and that we together use a policeman, and a banking system to protect that wealth, is a social contract that we have entered as a democratic society, which chooses capitalism as its economic system. If your wealth is enormous, we took a portion of it back as part of estate tax. Estate taxes were formed in 1916 because Congress at the time understood that, "a larger portion of our necessary revenues collected from the incomes and inheritances of those deriving the most benefit and protection from the Government." (
http://www.treas.gov/education/faq/taxes/history.shtml).
Liberals should be proud of the history of the New Deal, proud of our record as capitalists. We should be proud of our understanding that government is the glue that allows our social contract to function, and that it is not the poor that should have to pay the bulk for that glue, because it is the rich who are in the long term being helped by the government. In our America (a society that does not save, after all) even the welfare given to the poorest of the poor eventually winds up in the hands of the rich, as profits for the products the poor buy. So the rich have benefited because of the protection to the social fabric those dollars provided, and then have gotten the dollars back. America needs the New Deal today, as much as 70 years ago, and Liberals should be proud to stand up for FDR's legacy.
The New Colossus - by Emma Lazarus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"