Freedom is Unique

Somewhere around 2016 we stopped celebrating and supporting freedom.  I find that very disturbing.  Equally disturbing is the anger I sense from those folks who support the winner of the 2016 election.  Why are they so mad?  They won!  Why is it so important to somehow punish Clinton and Obama?  They won!  It feels very much like I would feel if the US Women’s Soccer Team now went after the Netherlands team.  Just seems stupid and petty, but the anti-Democratic rancor is ever present.  And I see the anti-Democratic rancor as un-American and anti-freedom.

I think for many people political perspective and religious beliefs are not discovered or chosen, they are inherited.  People who grew up and remain isolated by race, education and income are constantly reinforced to hold the same beliefs they held as 16 year olds.  Clearly, many have had epiphanies and have changed their outlook on life, but not that many.  We do know that the more diverse the setting in which one lives and the more education a person has the more likely their tolerance increases and their belief in fundamental freedoms increases.  Those in homogeneous settings not so much.  If everyone around you is an evangelical Christian and a right-wing conservative then it is very rare to find a liberal perspective.  In fact, the liberal perspective is seen as evil, foolish, idiotic, etc.  In an effort to counter that attitude I sit to pen a post regarding what freedom really means and why liberals support freedom.

Our nation begins with two critical concepts.  All men (and women) are created equal.  All men and women have rights that cannot be violated.  Freedom occurs where the wealthy and powerful agree to limit themselves for the sake of the freedoms of others.  It is present when the law assures freedoms and all agree to follow the law and law enforcement enforces the law.  That is a set of rare attributes found only in a few nation states.  Is our nation a free nation? 

The way to find out if a nation is free is to see if it is possible to do and say the unpopular.  Is it possible to believe something different than most?  Is it possible to criticize the leadership?  Is it possible to gather with others and protest a position assumed by the majority?  Is it possible to speak out in opposition to the leadership?  If a nation protects the minority point of view and minority belief systems then a nation is likely free.  If a nation punishes, harasses, puts down, insults all those who hold a different perspective from the majority that nation is in no way unique and in no way promotes the freedom of its citizens.  If it is not OK to be a Muslim or an atheist, then the nation is not free.  If it is not OK to kneel in protest to the actions of the government then the nation is not free.  If it is not OK to burn a symbolic cloth, sit during a symbolic anthem, protest the arrest of an identifiable minority group than that nation is not free.  It is by measuring the range of behavior that is protected by the majority that is critical of the majority that we discover how free we are.

There is nothing unusual about a ruler wishing the press would only say nice things about him or her.  There is nothing unusual about the press finding flaws, errors, conspiracies, etc., that are attributes of the leaders.  There is nothing unusual about rulers and leaders attempting to banish, punish, and attack those members of the press who are critical of the ruler.  That happens all over the planet.  What is unique is a nation that says the press is free to criticize, free to expose lies, free to expose conspiracies and the rulers agree to protect that freedom.  Such freedom is unique.  America has had that freedom until very recently when a leader has chosen to attack the press, label the press the enemy of the people, ban the press from important meetings and developed a new idioms for the reports that are critical of the leader:  fake news and alternative facts.  Attacking media that is critical of the leader is not unusual.  Protecting the rights of the media to do so is unique and exists only in a nation that values freedom.

There is nothing unusual about a ruler wishing to avoid limitations to his or her power.  Many nations have some sort of elected group, a parliament, a congress who are designed to check the power of the ruler.  The leader’s ability to ignore those checks is not unique.  That happens in every nation with a strong armed leader.  In some nations the leader can actually dismiss the elected body.  What is unique is a nation that says each branch of the government will respect the functions of the other branches.  The courts serve as check on legislation.  Is a law that has been passed and enforced a constitutional law?  Does it protect the freedoms of everyone?  If not, the law is judged unconstitutional and dismissed.  Is the head of the executive branch running amok?  If so, the legislative branch can investigate and impeach the head of the executive branch.  The executive branch can veto legislation that the executive finds contradictory to his or her goals and the constitution.  Without those checks we are not free.  Without the balance of power established in the three branches we are not free.  America has had that freedom until very recently when an executive has attempted to stop the investigation by the legislature.  We have had that freedom until very recently when an executive decided to ignore requests and subpoenas from the legislature.  We have had that freedom until very recently when an executive took us out of treaties and alliances that were legislatively approved.  We have had that freedom until very recently when an executive has declared that his actions, his wealth, his taxes and his meetings are private and others may not know what he is doing.  We have had that freedom until very recently when the executive has sought ways around rulings of the courts regarding the census, regarding prohibiting Muslim immigrants, regarding moving legislatively approved money for the military to build a wall, etc., etc.

There is nothing unusual about a religious group wishing everyone believed as they believed.  There is nothing unusual about a leader wishing to put his or her own religious beliefs in the law of the land.  All believers believe their belief is the only right way to believe.  Countless nations have an official religion and citizens are subject to penalties, punishment even death if they do not believe as the state wants them to believe.  What is unique is a nation that protects the individual right to believe whatever that individual chooses to believe.  We have had that freedom in America until very recently when our executive announces that he perceives it is an attribute of religious freedom to practice one’s belief to the extent it harms others.  It is OK to discriminate against other citizens based on one set of religious beliefs.  It is OK to ban certain marriages based on one set of religious beliefs.  It is OK to limit a woman’s reproductive freedoms based on one set of religious beliefs.  It is OK to promote prejudice and exclusion based on one set of religious beliefs.  There is nothing unusual about such a stance on this planet.  It is not, however, a characteristic of a free state.

Want to know if you are free?  Stand on the corner and proclaim you are an atheist.  Stand on a corner and proclaim that separating children from their parents is a horrible human rights offense.  Stand on the corner and kneel during the national anthem to protest unarmed members of a race who continue to be shot.  Stand on a corner and claim that all people have rights inclusive of Muslims, all sexual orientations and identities and all races.  Stand on a corner and condemn the position of the right wing Christian churches.  If you are not booed, if you are not fired from your job, if you are not egged, if they do not start plucking chickens and boiling oil then you likely live in a free state.  If the only people who find it safe to stand on the corner and proclaim that they are Christian, they are anti-abortion, they are pro-Russian, Saudi Arabia and North Korea, they are anti NATO and the EU, they believe investigations into the executive are witch hunts, they forgive sexual assault, they forgive obstruction of justice, they forgive attacks on the press, they support Russian interference in our elections, they support holding camps at the border, they support the separation of children from their parents, they believe that unilaterally initiated tariffs are a good thing, they believe all programs and people Democratic are bad, then you do not live in a free state.

I deeply miss our freedoms.   I wish conservatives did too.  A free nation is truly unique.