Saving Liberalism: An Appeal to My Progressive Friends
I’ve never liked the words “liberal” or “conservative” to describe people because I’m both liberal and conservative in the historic meaning of the words.
The problem comes when words carry multiple meanings or change over time and end up connotating something far different than when they were first introduced.
Words are sometimes like the proverbial frog boiling in the kettle: slowly and subtlety they can change over the years and need to be either renounced due to distortion or renewed to their original context.
I want to make an appeal to my liberal, progressive friends today. Liberalism has devolved; It is in danger of becoming nothing less than brute force– which is not liberal.
Will you join with me in saving liberalism?
I’ve been thinking about this subject for some time, and this week I read an article by Michael Barone that expressed my hunches better than I could.
Barone is the senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner, and one of the most knowledgeable political pundits in America. He is probably the nation’s leading authority on the political demographics of the United States. Name any county or Congressional District in the nation and Michael Barone can tell you why and how they will vote.
He’s also an independent man who is not an ideologue for either liberal or conservative politics. And he’s spot on regarding the present and extremely dangerous devolution of liberalism.
Here are his recent thoughts after which I will make some suggestions about how liberalism can be saved.
How Obama is Turning Liberalism into an Instrument of Coercion
By Michael Barone
Liberals just aren’t very liberal these days. The word “liberal” comes from the Latin word meaning freedom, and in the 19th century, liberals in this country and abroad stood for free speech, free exercise of religion, free markets, free trade — for minimal state interference in people’s lives.
In the 20th-century, New Dealers revised this definition by arguing that people had a right not only to free speech and freedom of religion but also, as Franklin Roosevelt said in his 1941 Four Freedoms speech, freedom from fear and from want.
Freedom from want meant, for Roosevelt, government provision of jobs, housing, health care and food. And so government would have to be much larger, more expensive and more intrusive than ever before.
That’s what liberalism has come to mean in America and much of the Obama Democrats’ agenda are logical outgrowths — Obamacare, the vast expansion of food stamps, attempted assistance to underwater homeowners.
But in some respects the Obama Democrats want to go further — and are complaining that they’re having a hard time getting there. Their form of liberalism is in danger of standing for something like the very opposite of freedom–for government coercion of those who refuse to behave the way they’d like.
Example one is the constitutional amendment, sponsored by 43 of the 55 Democratic U.S. senators, which would cut back on the First Amendment and authorize Congress and state legislatures to restrict political speech [i.e. fund-raising).
The amendment is poorly drafted and leaves many questions dangerously open, perhaps because its sponsors know it has no significant chance of passage.
It also seems animated by a delusionary paranoia: Democrats profess to be afraid that conservatives will be swamped by a flood of rich people’s money, even though rich Democratic supporters have raised more than the other side in recent years.
Nonetheless the picture is striking. Many conservatives wanted to change the First Amendment in order to prosecute flag burning, not the Founding Fathers’ central concern. Today’s liberals, in contrast, want to change the First Amendment to restrict political speech, which is the core value the Founders sought to protect.
Or consider liberals’ recent attitude toward free exercise of religion, made plain in their reaction to the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision declaring the Obamacare contraception mandate invalid as a violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The RFRA was passed, with three dissenting votes, and signed by Bill Clinton in 1993. It was prompted by a Supreme Court decision upholding the penalization of Oregon Indians for using peyote, which they claimed was a religious rite.
In passing RFRA, liberals and conservatives alike responded as Americans have often done when small groups have claimed laws infringed their religious beliefs: They put a higher priority to a few individuals’ free exercise of religion than they did to widely supported laws of general application.
Thus Congress allowed for conscientious objectors to be exempt from military service in World War II, in which more than 400,000 U.S. service members died. Even in a national emergency, when lives were at stake, Americans were willing to accommodate religious beliefs that a large majority did not share.
Today’s liberals take a different view. They want to make Hobby Lobby’s owners pay for what they regard as the destruction of human life. They spent much time arguing the owners are mistaken (actually, Hobby Lobby had a plausible scientific basis for their belief).
But the point about freedom of religion isn’t that everyone has to agree. On the contrary: Almost no one agreed with the Oregon Indians’ beliefs about peyote. They just thought the larger society should not use compulsion to bar them from practicing their religion.
Today’s liberals seem comfortable with using the force of law to prevent people from doing so.
Or consider the Supreme Court decision in Harris v. Quinn, ruling that care givers for disabled relatives paid with Medicaid funds are not state employees and thus cannot be forced into a public employee union.
Today’s liberals did this in President Obama’s Illinois to channel public money away from low-income care givers and toward public employee unions that do so much to fund and support the Democratic Party. They seem unembarrassed by this crass political motive and indifferent to the plight of the needy.
Today’s liberals seem bent on pushing people around, preventing them from speaking their minds and practicing their beliefs. It’s not just the language that’s changed.
Barone is right. American liberalism has dangerously altered course in the past century–and even in the past six years.
Noah Webster’s original 1830 dictionary summarizes the classical view of liberalism:
1. To be liberal is to be free to be generous–to give or bestow blessings.
2. To be liberal is to not be self-centered, but have an enlarged mind regarding others and their needs.
3. To be liberal is the embrace literature and sciences (as in a liberal arts education).
4. To be liberal is to desire to liberate or make people free. The word itself comes from the Latin liber or “free.”
I’m a liberal according to that definition. I wholeheartedly agree with all the meanings.
British jurist John Locke is widely recognized as father of liberalism. In his “Two Treatises of Government” which were first published in 1690, Locke taught that men had God-given rights to “life, liberty and estate (property)”–i.e. people were meant to be free–something no king, religion, or cultural tradition could usurp.
His ideas found Christian expression in the birth of America and the Declaration of Independence, and a fascist form in the French Revolution where two million people died–400,000 of them by execution. Both revolutions were based on the concept of “freedom”–but one was brought about by virtue and principle and the other by bloodthirsty force.
The founders of the American Revolution were all classical liberals, not fascists. Jonah Goldberg in his book Liberal Fascism says this was due to American exceptionalism. “American culture supersedes our legal and constitutional framework. It is our greatest bulwark against fascism.”
Goldberg says that today’s “conservatives are the more authentic classical liberals.” In fact, Goldberg points out that in the past fifty years, it was been conservative leaders that have really carried on the legacy of Lockian liberalism:
“Conservatives were launching an extensive project to restore the proper place of the Constitution in American life [during the latter 20th century]. No leading conservative scholar or intellectual celebrated fascist themes or ideas. No leading conservative denigrated the inherent classical liberalism of the United States political system. To the contray, Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, William F. Buckley and other conservatives dedicated themselves to restoring the classical liberal vision of the founders.”
Yet, as Michael Barone laments, today’s liberals are turning their backs on their heritage and are beginning to behave like totalitarian fascists, not true liberals–forcing their ideas and morality down the throats of the American people.
I appeal to my progressive friends to wake up and see that your liberalism is being hijacked by a spirit of force and control.
This is not liberalism. It is coercion or bondage (non-freedom).
It’s the same spirit behind fascism, communism, militant Islam, and ISIS who recently forced all Christians in Mosul, Iraq to either convert to Islam or be killed.
We’re not that extreme yet. Our culture (exceptional Christian heritage) still prevents it. But we’re on our way, and the devolution of liberalism into force or coercion has picked up steam during the Obama years.
Let’s be true liberals through a renewal of faith, freedom, generosity–and true conservatives by preserving our culture through the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution.
This means anchoring ourselves to the Bible–the source of liberal ideals (freedom) as well as conservative ones (wisdom).
The ABCs of the Immigration Crisis and What We Can Do About It
We all learned during childhood that to form words and give them real meaning, it was necessary to learn our ABCs.
At the present time we have an illegal immigration crisis on our southern boundary. Nearly 50,000 people a month, twenty percent of them unaccompanied minors, are crossing over and overwhelming the officials that are supposed to protect us.
Most of the illegals are from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
What are the ABCs of the crisis and what do we do about it?
Let’s use the English alphabet to describe the players, terms, and concepts that we must understand to solve our current immigration nightmare. Problems can be solved when you 1) Define the players, 2) Design a solution, and 3) Have the will to implement it.
Some of the alphabet will have one name or concept, and others will have multiple entries. At the end, I will give my proposal to end the crisis that is vexing our nation.
A – Z
A. Aliens. A biblical term to describe “foreigners” that come to live in another country. Put together with another word, illegal alien is a person who unlawfully enters another sovereign nation. It is a better term than “undocumented worker” since some do not work, and we don’t call people who break into our places of residence “undocumented visitors.”
Amnesty. The bad idea of treating those of break the law the same as those who keep it. Ronald Reagan, considered the best president since WWII, believed that the amnesty law of 1986 (that didn’t seal the border) was one of his worst mistakes.
B – Borders. Nations have borders for the same reason that houses have walls and fences. They are there to protect the rightful owners or inhabitants from those who would unlawfully abuse them.
C – Compassion. God’s command for his people to care for those who encounter unfortunate circumstances in their lives, including strangers. To be compassionate means to “suffer with” someone else in their adversity. Individuals and churches do best at showing God’s compassion on earth.
Chamber of Commerce. The American business group that is pushing amnesty for millions of illegal aliens for the cheap labor they provide.
D – Democrats. The party in power in the White House and US Senate who are responsible for the current crisis. Their push for “comprehensive immigration,” lax security and lack of deportations is for the primary purpose of gaining votes from future entitlement-dependent foreign immigrants.
Dreamers. The children of illegal aliens who are not responsible for the wrong choices of their parents, grew up in America, and should be provided a path to citizenship.
Deportation. Sending illegal aliens back home. For years the Obama administration reported they were deporting more illegals than George W. Bush and other past presidents. However, we now know that they changed the definition to “cook the books” which helped create the crisis. President Obama is currently asking for more money to process and deport the masses crossing the border. But that is not realistic since 90% of illegals don’t show up for their deportation hearings.
E – E-Verify. A national computer system to certify citizenship that will screen out illegals from working in the United States. It’s never been fully implemented because of the resistance of the Democratic Party and Chamber of Commerce. A person should not be able to work in a nation if they are not a citizen or have a legal work permit.
Elections. What the American people need to use in 2014 and 2016 to get rid of either wimpy or bad leaders who have brought the illegal immigration problem upon us.
F – Fence. The building of a wall to protect private property or national sovereignty. Critics say that our 2000 mile southern border is impossible to fence. However, this is the first step we should take in solving the immigration problem–and where any new monies from the federal government should be spent. When your basement is flooding, you don’t waste your time and money buying buckets. You stop the leak first.
Freedom. Freedom in an individual or nation is always in direct proportion to self control (boundaries). Right now neither illegal immigrants nor the American people are “free” to pursue their dreams and livelihoods because of the out-of-control situation which drains jobs and resources and raises taxes.
G – Government. Its primary function is to protect its citizens. The refusal to defend and guard the southern border by our federal government is a total abdication of its constitutional responsibilities and is the main driver of the rising anger in the nation.
H – Homeland Security. A monstrous federal bureaucracy that is failing the people of the border states.
I – Illegal. See “Alien” above. No matter if the motive for crossing a border is food, provision, or a better life, it is wrong to break the law. The end does not justify the means. People in desperate circumstances must look to God for deliverance, not to criminal acts that hurt others.
Impeachment. What Sarah Palin suggested for President Obama’s dereliction of duty over immigration. I don’t disagree that he is committing impeachable offenses, but I would wait until after the November elections to not distract from the tepid economy, the noose of Obamacare, and numerous other scandals engulfing this administration.
J – Jobs. in the midst of the weakest recovery in seventy years, the illegal immigration invasion is hurting low income Americans who must compete in many industries. It is a myth that Americans will not do the work.
Justice. What is NOT being done on the southern border or in the towns where the feds are dropping off new illegal entrants into the country.
K – Krauthammer. As in Charles, a syndicated columnist, who recently quipped when critics said a fence would never work: “If fences don’t work, then why is there one around the White House?”
Katrina. The hurricane that flooded New Orleans in 2006 that was poorly managed by the Bush Administration. Some Democrats are now saying that the current crisis at the border could be “President Obama’s Katrina.”
L – La Raza. A pro-Hispanic extremist group that is pushing for Open Borders and helping to fuel the illegal alien invasion. They have strong influence in the Democratic Party.
M- Mexico. Our southern neighbor who has strict laws regarding its own border security and national sovereignty, but is encouraging and aiding the mass exodus of Central American illegals across the border. We should threaten to cut off all aid to Mexico until they stop supporting the pipeline.
Murrieta, CA. A town in southwestern Riverside County, California that has made the news recently when their citizens resisted the efforts of the federal government to ship illegal aliens their way. They are akin to Lexington and Concord during the Revolutionary War when patriots rose up to stop the unlawful British invasion.
N – National Guard. The name suggests they should be sent immediately to the southern border to help stop the flood. They are back from deployments in Irag and Afghanistan. Rotate them into the 2000 mile border for training and security purposes. At this moment, could there be any wiser use of the US National Guard?
O – Obama. From Reagan onward, no president has dealt well with the problems at the southern border. But Barack Obama has exacerbated the situation by lax federal enforcement and deportations, denying states the rights to protect their people, breaking the law with executive orders, and possibly using the current crisis as a distraction from his other domestic and foreign policy failings.
Open Borders. The ridiculous and anarchic idea that nations should just do away with borders and let anybody come in. I’d like the Open Borders crowd to model their philosophy for us in their own homes. Remove all locks and doors and invite anybody who wants to come in, use the fridge, electricity, spend the night etc. and to do so at will. Hint: If it doesn’t work at home it won’t work in the nation.
P – Pelosi. Probably the strangest leader in American history who said yesterday she would like to take all the children that are coming here illegally in the name of compassion. Memo to Homeland Security: Send all the buses of illegals to Nancy Pelosi’s homes in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. That will solve the problem.
Q – Quickly. It is way past time to solve America’s vexing illegal immigration disaster. The people need to continue to speak out and our leaders need to act swiftly.
R – Republicans. Have been guilty of squishiness and duplicity on this issue. We need to vote for leaders with both compassion and spine.
S – Secure. The main purpose of government: “To secure these rights, governments are instituted among men…” (Declaration of Independence). Our government is failing in its basic responsibility.
T – Terrible. The idea that we should now throw 3.7 billion more taxpayer dollars at the problem created by our fickle politicians.
U – Undocumented. A way to make illegal sound okay.
V – Visas. Ninety percent of the illegal immigration problem in this nation is people coming legally to America and then staying beyond their visas. This must be stopped and prosecuted.
W – Welfare. The welfare/entitlement state is a main driver of illegal immigration. If these things were not offered, then people wouldn’t come. We should not be giving entitlements to non-citizens.
X – Exceptional. What America used to be when it came to justice and mercy. No longer. We are looking more like a banana republic everyday.
Y – You. We need to care about this issue and elect people who will do something about it.
Z – Zombies. We must vote out our “zombie” politicians and elect people who will honor and defend the Constitution and principles of the United States.
Here’s my plan:
1. Mobilize the National Guard to the southern border and have half of them protect it and the other half build the fence (that’s where we spend any new taxpayer money).
2. Require E-verify in all fifty states.
3. After completing the fence, require all remaining illegals to register with the government within 60 days, pay a fine, and go to the back of the line in terms of applying for a work permit, green card, or citizenship.
4. Police and patrol our borders in accord with the US Constitution.
5. Continue to lead the world in inviting legal immigrants to our nation to experience the blessings and responsibilities of liberty.
How do you spell that solution?
F – R – E – E – D – O – M.
Why Our Government Doesn’t Work Anymore
Have you noticed that the United States government doesn’t work anymore?
Our deficits are out of control, nearing 18 trillion and counting. Nobody seems able or willing to take on the debt or do anything about changing the tax code. At the same time, the economy is stuck in the doldrums with a jobless recovery.
The immigration system is broken–with “children,” mind you–crossing the border and overwhelming the border patrol.
Our foreign policy is in shambles with Iraq falling to jihadist butchers while America’s strength and credibility are being questioned everywhere.
All the while, our national leaders seem weak, paralyzed, grid-locked, with no Franklin Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan in sight.
Why doesn’t the US government, once the envy of the world, seem to work anymore?
We must begin by admitting that, with all the faults of the present time, our government it is still far better than most forms that have existed in history. For most of the past five thousand years, nations were been ruled by tyrants who were chieftains, war-lords, dictators or egotistical kings.
In the ancient past, and even as recent as the Middle Ages, freedom, human rights or hope for the common person didn’t exist for living a “middle class life.” In fact, most societies (city-states and tribes) were vulnerable daily to another warring group entering their territory and annihilating them.
What’s going on in Iraq this week is really the norm of human history for thousands of years.
Then the development of human society in Europe gave us the Magma Carta, civil and human rights of the individual, self-government, Lex Rex (the Law is King), and eventually democratic republics that were based on the biblical worldview of man and the freedoms of the Gospel.
The birth of the United States of America–what one author calls the “5,000 year Leap”–brought many of these biblical ideas of government and individual rights into one nation that became the envy of the world for its work ethic, system of government, generosity, family stability and national security.
The United States of America and its government is a unique model in the long and barbaric history of human civil polity. That model was exemplified by a “Statue of Liberty” which begged the huddled and depressed masses of the world to come to the New World to experience the blessings of liberty as promoted and protected by a benign civil government.
What was the secret to this society and its government that produced more freedom, prosperity and security than the world had every known?
It can be found in two wise sentences from our second president, John Adams:
“Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
(Letter to Zabdiel Adams dated June 21, 1776).
One of the greatest lessons of history is that morality is essential to liberty and religious faith is the surest source of morals.
It was Christianity, with the power of Christ unleashed in every born again life, that produced highly moral people who controlled their own behavior enough to live under free and limited governments.
Here’s the genius of John Adam’s insight: When people control themselves according to Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule, their faith-filled morality decreases the need for civil government (jails and punishments) and increases the freedom of the individual.
But Adams knew correctly that when the people lose their faith and morality, this freedom-producing form of government will not work.
Read the quote again: “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
In other words, our constitution of government cannot work for an irreligious and immoral people.
Today, America has many evidences of this sad truth. Here are some examples.
The Democrats
They control two-thirds of the US government and the increasingly powerful office of the presidency. Barack Obama professes to be a Christian, but shows little faith in his policy positions which are mostly secular (irreligious) in nature. The Democrats are a primary reason for a failed economy and staggering national debt through their tax and spend policies. They spend tax payer money in the name of compassion, while destroying our financial solvency (intentions don’t count in economics).
At the same time, the D’s are killing the nation’s children through abortion, destroying the family through same sex marriage, and generally undermining nearly every aspect of biblical morality that once made America great. Their refusal to guard our shores to gain cheap labor and Democratic votes has created the nightmare on the Mexican border. President Obama’s incompetence and inability to promote peace through strength in the world has Russia and China on the rise while the Middle East burns.
Many Democrats, including our president, consciously or sub-consciously fight faith and morals at every turn.
This is a major reason our government doesn’t work anymore.
The Republicans
The party of Lincoln has a stronger recent heritage of biblical faith and morality. That is why in the social areas, Republicans generally are pro-life, support traditional marriage, and morality and want to preserve America’s biblical heritage like the Ten Commandments in public places, student-initiated prayer in the schools, and chaplains in the military.
Economically, Republicans say they favor less regulations, more free enterprise, and a lower tax burden on all groups of people. As to national security, they, more-often-than-not, believe in a vigious military force to protect American interests and help police the world against global evil.
But some Republicans have been going the direction of the Dems the past few years. As America secularizes, the Republicans, wanting to win elections and gain power, have become “Democratic-lite” on the social issues and tepid on economic policy. This shows itself in the media-trumpeted battle between the “Tea Party” and the “Establishment.”
Here’s the translation: Tea Party = principled conservatives who still believe in faith, morality and freedom. Establishment = we need to become more like the Democrats to win elections in an increasingly post-Christian world.
This is a huge dilemma for the Rs because both sides are right. Vote like Ds and they might win because the electorate has changed. But don’t vote like historic Republicans, and lose the nation (economic depression and national insecurity).
Republican timidity and double-mindedness are another reason why our government doesn’t work anymore.
The Media
It’s been well-documented that the mainstream media (ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, most big-city newspapers, and the Associated Press) are liberal-progressive and make no bones about cheering for and promoting anti-faith, anti-morality positions in the political arena. They’re in bed with the Democratic Party.
This means that in most elections, the conservative, biblically-based candidate is facing two opponents: the anti-faith, anti-biblical morality Democratic politician and his media allies.
It’s 2 against 1.
Ever since the Clinton election of 1992, this has been a major problem and led to the unfair demonization of politicians like Dan Quayle, George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, and Mitt Romney.
Today’s mainstream media is a major contributor to the loss of faith and morals in the US and thus the dysfunction of the American government.
The People
The greatest blame lies here as, in free societies, governments and their leaders are simply reflections of the people.
Over the past few generations, the American people have lost faith in God (“not religious” has doubled during this time and atheists have become far more militant), and have given in to many forms of immorality and loose living. We, the people have voted for leaders that kill babies and change the meaning of marriage because, we, too, are confused and have moved away from our biblical anchors.
As we’ve abandoned faith and biblical character, we have more and more embraced the welfare state and vote for politicians who will give us “stuff.” Even principled leaders face our fickleness. They may want to do the right thing (e.g. lower taxes), but the people want all the hand-outs which fuel deficit spending (free health care). So the modern politician dishes out the candy against his own conscience–or be voted out of office.
The peoples’ greeds stop their leaders from voting for their true needs.
Then there are ungodly and unprincipled leaders like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. Why is there such a leadership vacuum in Washington, D.C. today? Because a faithless and moral-less public votes them into office year after year to bring them the goodies.
I am stunned each time I watch “interviews on the street” with average Americans who know nothing about their history, can’t name their leaders, can name all the raunchiest TV and movie celebrities, and have little understanding about the faith and morality that is required for freedom.
Our government doesn’t work because of the immorality, gross ignorance and apathy of a large portion of the American electorate.
We get what we are.
Recently, I’ve been wondering if it would be better to have a Parliamentary system of government where we could have a vote of no confidence and more quickly dispose of bad leaders.
But the problem is not really the leaders–it is the people. And in our increasingly faithless and immoral state, it is almost impossible to impeach a president (as it should be) and we must wait two-and-a-half years until another presidential election cycle.
So our system doesn’t work because of us. Time only makes things worse.
The Church
But the greatest blame for our government dysfunction lies at the feet of God’s people who are also not as strong in faith and morality as in past generations. We’ve been caught up in the secular pipe dream of personal gratification, self-help, live for today, and have failed to be the salt of society we once were (Matthew 5:13-16).
The American Church is no longer a light on a hill, disbursing the encroaching darkness through our prayers and tireless activities on behalf of righteousness. We are content to lurk in the shadows, wring our hands, or not even be in the game.
Why was Barack Obama, re-elected in 2012? Because half of the Church in America didn’t even bother to vote. When the Church does not light up the voting booths–let alone the neighborhoods with God’s grace and truth–the nation defaults to evil in all its forms and consequences.
Our government doesn’t work in 2014 because it was made for a religious and moral people.
We are neither as we used to be.
There are two choices before us: 1) Watch our government turn to tyranny in a variety of forms as has been the case of most nations in history, or 2) Pray for a spiritual awakening that impacts the nation to cast off its present chains of unbelief and sin.
I believe that both choices will be offered through trials and tribulations in the coming years.
If the Church wakes up and the people see the “light,” then our special form of government can be renewed and revived.
But if we do not, our government will never work for us again.