FREE DOWNLOAD: Introduction to the "Call to Liberty" AudioBook

The following excerpt is from the Introduction to "Call to Liberty"

Polarization” is the new cliché in American political discourse: Red states/Blue states, Republicans/Democrats, liberals/conservatives. Many people lament the polarization, even though it seems to define contemporary political experience. Many Americans experience it in name-calling, shouting, and arguing at family gatherings. Tired of the ruckus, some families make deals: “Our family doesn’t discuss politics. We prefer to keep the peace.” Perhaps noble from the standpoint of the family, such decisions made in large numbers become damaging to the political culture of the nation. Such silence is interpreted as acceptance, even when it is not acceptance. One purpose of this book is to open the paths of dialogue and end the silence.

Americans have come to think of themselves as evenly and closely divided between liberals and conservatives. Partly as a result of two recent national elections, the dominant portrait of the American electorate looks like this:

We have accepted this divide because it is depicted everywhere—TV news, magazines, talk radio, family debates, water cooler conversation. Polarized positions make for good confrontational media coverage. But what if we are not as divided as some would have us believe? What if that image of ourselves is untrue, a false perception that impairs our ability to self-govern?

It is possible that the line dividing Americans can be drawn another way: horizontally. In this version, the people above the line remain dedicated to an American narrative that is widely shared and clearly understood, one that is defined by principles, one that is threatened today. Both sides—right and left—have their own extremists. Communists and eco-terrorists are examples of leftist extremists, while theocrats and fascists are right-wing extremists. Right-wing extremists have been in ascendance recently. Although one or another group of extremists may be dominant for a period, all Americans share a common story and a common heritage: those principles that make us uniquely American. This book has three main purposes: identify that heritage and those principles; clarify challenges to those principles and the forces of erosion in the body politic; and suggest tools for citizens to use in reclaiming American liberal democracy.

The great American story is the unfolding, the development, and the fulfillment of Liberty’s promise. Since the founding fathers created the original documents which organized our government and declared our principles, America has slowly but surely moved to fulfill the promise of those principles. No doubt we have had our failures, set-backs, and embarrassments, and committed our share of outrages—against African Americans, Native Americans, Mexicans, and South Americans, among others. But we have struggled to right those wrongs, and to expand liberty in religion, politics, and economics throughout our history. Until now.

Now we are a nation dominated by our own divisiveness. Families agree not to discuss politics because they prefer to maintain civility. Vitriolic rhetoric from writers like Ann Coulter is treated as newsworthy and given extensive coverage on media networks, while the reasonable voices in opposition are not heard. Shrill right-wing elites attack leaders of the Democratic Party,[1] while an ineffective left-wing casts accusations of conspiracy against leaders of the Republican Party.[2]

Pulpits in our houses of worship are being debased by hate, self-righteousness, and calls to assassinate world leaders. Fundamentalist Christian ministers seek to create a “Christian” nation and eliminate what one commentator called the “five most dangerous words in the English language: ‘separation of church and state.’” Many men and women of honest and earnest faith are confused by the cognitive dissonance between their faith, their God, their principles, and their ministers.

The deep division in the country is compounded by government policies that make little sense. A small group based in Afghanistan attacks America, so we invade Iraq. Meanwhile, five years after 9/11 our borders remain unsecured. In the name of “fiscal responsibility” we cut taxes for the extremely wealthy and borrow money to pay for the shortfall, thereby turning a budget surplus into an all-time record deficit. Our dependence on oil makes us extremely vulnerable, so we give enormous, no-strings-attached subsidies to oil companies, who are making record profits.

These discontinuities and incongruities are confusing. Being of generous heart, many Americans implicitly trust our leaders. Others are more skeptical. The debate thus becomes polarized and personal, couched in the notion of a liberal-conservative split where “liberals” are demonized and true conservatives are increasingly disenfranchised. A growing part of the American population is falling silent. Many of us look at so-called liberals and so-called conservatives and mutter: “I’m not one of those.”

But there is an antidote. There is a cure. The founding fathers laid out a vision and a set of principles, which year after year, decade after decade, era after era, call the American people toward the increased realization of liberty. Those principles and the Constitution stand as a beacon, drawing us from all corners of the country and challenging us to live up to them. Americans come to the Constitution and American principles from our businesses and jobs, homes and neighborhoods, churches and schools with all the knowledge of our communities and, despite our differences, we stand up for these enduring principles. This beacon, this common feeling and common commitment to freedom and liberty, is the bridge between liberals and conservatives. We are not liberals and conservatives first; we are Americans called to liberty. It is our vocation, our duty and our responsibility to answer the call.

The American answer has always been liberalism, whether practiced by Dwight Eisenhower, Franklin Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, or Thomas Jefferson. It is a philosophy based on centuries-old principles that were in their time radical departures from the past, but which now constitute basic assumptions: private property, the Rule of Law and the sovereignty of the individual are three basic principles. Liberalism is not the caricatured, hackneyed picture Americans have been led to in the last 40-50 years. Rather, it is a philosophy of principles. American liberalism, and the liberal democracy we enjoy, are built on those enduring, objective principles. They are not values, nor are they individual assessments of importance that change with societal winds, one’s stage of life, or the opinions of a preacher. They are the principles that stand outside our individual assessment of their value, like the foundation pillars of American society. To oppose liberalism is to oppose those pillars.

This book is a crucible of thought meant to re-activate liberal American principles in the hearts and minds of the people. It mixes ideas across disciplines to create a tonic for the healing of the body politic. It starts by recalling the principles of liberal democracy, where they came from, and their comprehensive impact on society. Then, it addresses how those same principles are being challenged or eroded. There are internal political challenges, external enemies, and corporate economic structures which challenge and erode those principles, and which must be answered. Finally, I point a direction toward a notion of the citizen that we can all use, shape, and engage to help improve the political culture of the country.

The central theme is that thriving liberal democracy requires three essential modalities to be active and balanced: progressive, moderate, and conservative.[3] All three must be active, healthy, and legitimate. The progressive modality pushes for change and carefully defends social justice and equality of opportunity. The moderate favors compromise, gradual change, and tolerance. The conservative understands that we possess wealth in natural resources which must be conserved, demands rigorous financial disciplines, and always asks what achievements from the past are worth preserving as we address the needs of the future. For these reasons liberalism is not the opponent of conservatism, but the beneficiary of conservatism. What is today being called “conservative” is in actuality a radical, right-wing agenda opposing the traditions, opportunities, principles, and liberties of the American story. The false but familiar notion of a liberal-conservative split in the nation serves only to cover the radical nature of that right-wing agenda.

The roots of this liberalism, which I have traced back to 16th Century Europe, include a new differentiation between the political, economic and religious spheres of life and thought. Pre-modern thought fused these spheres philosophically and practically. Commit heresy against the church, and you could be tried for the religious crime of heresy as well as the political crime of treason.[4] Liberalism separates these philosophically and American liberalism separates them practically as well. The constitutional separation of church and state is an obvious example. Less obvious is the way in which the corporate structure separates the economic from church and state. Our three great institutions are church, state, and business in America.[5] Separation and differentiation are essential to preserving liberty. When business, church, and state are all mixed up as one, totalitarianism is the likely result.

Conditions in America have arisen lately that are favorable for the rise of totalitarianism. Lies and deceits by leaders have confused the public dialogue in ways that make it nearly impossible to communicate among citizens because we cannot even agree on what the facts are. Ruthless treatment of dissent in the Republican Party, in the Armed Forces, and in governmental leadership, together with willful mistreatment and incompetent management of detainees which leads to torture, have created fear and deep mistrust. The ongoing drumbeat claiming we are in a state of war when few people experience the hardships of war create a cognitive dissonance in the people. Fiscal policies are making middle class Americans increasingly desperate for their economic well-being. The result is a deep confusion; a powder-keg of discontent across the country. All these are necessary conditions for fascism to overtake any society. It is nearly impossible to imagine that they are present in America, but they are.

These conditions have recently intensified. Part II of this book provides insight into the rise of the radical right-wing, the so-called war on terror, and the rise and conflation of corporate economic power with increasing corporate political power. The radical right wing movement is now in power in Congress, the White House, and the judiciary, as well as in the institutions of business and American houses of worship. Our collective fear and ignorance of contemporary Arab culture and peoples has allowed our fears to be used against us, just as ignorance and economic insecurity are used to win our acquiescence to corporate priorities that do not align with our own individual interests, nor those of the nation.

For example, al Qaeda has declared war on America, including every American citizen, and has demonstrated an ability to attack us with devastating results. Al Qaeda comes out of an Islamic fundamentalism which deplores the notion of separation of church and state. It, too, developed decades ago. We may misunderstand al Qaeda when we believe its core issue is the Israeli-Palestinian problem, just as we may misunderstood it when we believed al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein were on the same side. Al Qaeda is not made up of disaffected, impoverished people, but is an educated, westernized, radicalized group at the forefront of Islam’s clash with modernity. Their agenda, according to them, is to control nations and resources, impose totalitarian rule such as the Taliban in Afghanistan, restore the Caliphate as the leader of Islam, and drive the “infidels” from “Muslim” lands—what might be called “religious cleansing.” If we can understand the intricacies of al Qaeda and its goals, we can prevent colossal American errors such as invading the wrong country, allowing insurgencies to flourish, or failing to act because the problem is too intransigent.

Right wing extremism, terrorism, corporate domination. Contemplating these threats to liberty can lead to despair. But we need not despair. We need to be careful, we need to learn, we need to understand, and we need to act. Fascism can be fended off with the reassertion of liberal principle. A good first step is my proposal for a Free and Fair Elections Amendment to the Constitution that ensures auditable, verifiable, accurate voting and vote counting in every state, local, and national election. The liberal principles of the Rule of Law, checks and balances, and legislative oversight must be asserted against the arbitrary exercise and expansion of presidential power. In foreign policy, we can defeat al Qaeda only if we eliminate weak concepts like “war on terror” and replace them with solid, growing, and ongoing understanding. The ridiculous notion of a “war on terror” has resulted in unclear goals and poor efforts to define and defeat our enemy.

These important policy issues need to be addressed, but there is nothing partisan in this. In his book God’s Politics, Jim Wallis recounts the adage that if your politician is making decisions by holding his finger in the air to determine the political winds, it does not matter if he is a Democrat, Republican, Green, or Independent. Nor does it matter if you replace him with someone from another party who also holds his finger to the wind. If you want change, you don’t need to change your representative; you need to change the wind.[6]

Hence, the most important response to these challenges lies not in changing policy and structure, but in who we are as a nation and a people. It lies in our embrace of and engagement in liberalism—the philosophy of liberty—and in the engagement of our obligations and opportunities as citizens. Liberal principles are enlivened through exercise, engagement, and education. In the act of worshipping freely, we exercise religious freedom; in entrepreneurial endeavors or the organization of labor, we exercise economic freedom; in speaking, writing, reading, and thinking, we exercise political freedom. One need not carry signs and march in the streets, but it is our duty as American citizens to exercise liberty. Remember the old saying: Use it, or lose it.

The last section of the book points toward a new vision. As individuals we need to act. We need to overcome passive acceptance of a dangerous situation as if it were a mere “swing of the pendulum” and challenge ourselves to understand our situation; we need to overcome our fears in order to find reasonable positions; and we must educate ourselves. We need to use sharper tools of thought and analysis to clarify the dynamics of political discourse, both public and private. Most Americans do not know what the Bill of Rights says, and so memorizing the Bill of Rights can become a profound act of patriotism. Organizing to make decisions in the public commons creates enlivened citizenship. Learning the skills of talking with those with whom you vigorously disagree is essential. Recognizing that the maintenance of liberty is at least one common purpose we share can provide the ground on which we come together.

American liberalism is the philosophy of the American spirit. We must revive American liberalism to prevent America from falling into the alternatives to liberalism such as despotism, fascism, totalitarianism, and communism. In order to accomplish that revival we must recall what liberalism is, identify and repel its opponents, and renew our collective commitment to its principles. We see ourselves as a beacon of hope and freedom. We see ourselves as a great liberal democracy. We see ourselves as a great nation of liberty. It is time for us to live up to that dream, and do the work required of a free people.