Some recent debates on liberty?
Answers
In recent years, the debate over liberty in American life has become more and more prominent with increasing concerns over the exercise of state power from government surveillance programs to tax, argues that ahead of the 2016 presidential election, debates over liberty need to reach across a much wider variety of issues.
The long-running debate about how Americans define “Liberty” is emerging as a central focus on our next round of electoral politics.
The Tea Party and the hard right have made it too easy to dismiss their side of the debate. It’s often hard to see through the birthers, the Obama-as-socialist crowd, and the “legitimate rape” folks. That would be a mistake. We’re in the midst of a real debate about personal freedom and national well-being, and there’s a point of view over there that needs to be thought about.
Since the days of Hamilton and Jefferson, there have been two contending versions of American Liberty. The Tea Party asserts, as did Jefferson, that our liberty, prosperity and way of life are threatened primarily by government. The Constitution reflects a good deal of this. For example, our freedom of speech is constitutionally protected only when government threatens it. Private censorship is not recognized as a constitutional concern, even when the threat of Google and corporate power seems most potent.
The other side of this, first proposed by Hamilton and perfected by Teddie Roosevelt, is that government is the agency by which we improve our condition and serves as an expression of our values and hopes, and the guardian of both political and economic liberties. For Hamilton it meant a government strong enough to control the currency and build infrastructure. For Roosevelt it meant a government strong enough to undo the power and influence of the wealthy few, to protect the citizenry against corporations and “the malefactors of great wealth.” It took a Depression and the New Deal to put teeth into this concept, but the American people have repeatedly ratified this model of liberty.