Some folks recently challenged me as to how I could think myself fit to criticize such media personalities like Glenn Beck or Ann Coulter, given how big an audience they have, how much money they make. Well, the thing is, I take this document at its word, I take it seriouly.
I do not look at Glenn Beck or Ann Coulter, or anybody else, for that matter, and see somebody that it is beyond my right to hold accountable if they wrong me. I do not see the rich or the powerful as anymore than just regular human beings, no better, no smarter, no gentler of birth than me or anybody else, in the broad outlines.
Whenever somebody tries to put me in my place, I have only to reach back to that promise and affirm it to myself to have the courage to speak up, and speak for myself and say that I do not agree, that I do not think their arguments or their ideas are good.
In the England and the Colonies of earlier times than the declaration, patriotism was supposed to be unquestioning devotion to the nation, and to its king or queen. But given that room, that pass on accountability, the crowned head got a little too big for its own good.
The Declaration of Independence, which for some only seems to exist for some in the part that talks of a creator, is really a laundry list of complaints following a rather crucial set of statements on what good government is supposed to be. The patriots weren't simply trading one unquestioned monarch for another, they were declaring that King George could not govern against the best interests of his subjects, and expect them to remain his subjects. Kingship wasn't granted from above, but suffered from below as long as the King did right by the people.
It wasn't simply big government or small government that the Patriots were after. They wanted to build a nation that worked.
That, I think is the best expression of one's patriotism. It's not enough to be proud of your country, you must take pride IN your country. There have to be situations and concerns you will not let fester into bigger problems. There have to be practical necessities you should be willing to sacrifice your agenda for. The real world often presents us with situations that test the weakness in our knowledge of it, that expose the shortcomings in our ideas of the world. The test of our political wisdom is how much and how well we're willing to let that world out there teach us what is right, what works, as opposed to trying to insist on a position, despite its failures.
It takes courage to chance being shown as wrong, to take the slings and arrows that come with taking an attitude where your mistakes can't merely be covered over with bluster. But such is accountability, and accountability is at the heart of good government. In a Democracy, its for the best if not only the rulers, but the citizens themselves recognize that they can be wrong, and adopt the education and the mental disciplines necessary to improve their quality as leaders of this nation's destiny.
I don't believe equality requires us to hide our abilities or ambitions, just not to set some false distinctions between ourselves and others. Just because you have attained power, wealth, fame, or other covetable things, doesn't mean that they are yours thanks to some inherent superiority on your part. You have no right to shut the door behind you, to think of yourself as being a higher breed of human being. Rich or poor, public school student or private, there is somebody out there who, given the chance, can be just as productive, just as inventive, just as masterful in whatever skill you've got as you are. A nation that lets the opportunities for its citizens to succeed pass it by is poorer for it.
People came to our country by the millions because of a simple fact about the countries they came from: in their countries, the poor and the lower class were often condemned to stay put, to be poor and lower class indefinitely. It says something that despite the prejudice they faced at first, many of those whose ancestors came over to this country from a life of subservience now are spread throughout the classes of our society.
We should not be sending a message to our children, much less taking it to heart ourselves, that when faced by the people who run a big corporation, or a politician running a war, or any of that other garbage that we should just bow our heads, and accept the place we are given by another. If more Americans have the strength, the courage, to speak truth to power, we stand a better chance of improving things. Too many look at the big busineses, or their politicians, and just feel too small to do anything about it. They see others losing heart, and get even more intimidated. It's a vicious cycle, and while it offers short-term relief from taking the trouble to do something about it, it doesn't cure us of the problems that hurt our interests.
I believe in government by the consent of the governed, that the role of government is not to take the side of the few and the powerful all the time, saying no to the interests of the many, the middle classed and the poor all the time. I believe government owes it to the people to make their lives better, so far as government is capable of doing that. I believe in Government not limited by some arbitrary number or principle, but by the balancing of interests against one another, by the forcing of compromise, by the well-interpreted limits of the Constitution. The question is not how big or small, but how well. I don't believe that the framers were of one mind as to how this country should be governed, and I don't believe they expected their heirs to be any more uncontentious.
This isn't a system to elevate one side or another, and give them everlasting control. This was a system meant to resolve differences. This wasn't a system meant to simply grant the wishes of the winning party, like some parliaments do, the majority simply dictating policy. This was a system meant to pit different factions of American political life against one another until they broke down and made a deal with one another.
This is a system deliberately designed to cast down the proud, the arrogant, and the incompetent, and its been my observation that folks have to go through a ridiculous amount of trouble to justify not being held accountable, to justify trying to get your way, even as you have to shove everybody else out of the way on your path to getting what you want.
This is a system deliberately designed to get people to think about consensus-building, about the general interests of the nation, not just their particular pet interests. This is a system deliberately designed to break the chains that bind people to bad government that doesn't fit their needs, designed both in response to King George's autocratic misrule, and the Article of Confederation's more democratic version of failed government.
When folks say the corporations rule, or despair of bad elected officials being held to account, I counsel patience, persistence, and the stubborn unwillingness to concede to power that is not gained through the consent of the governed. So I don't despair, because I know that in despair, I would only concede something I was looking to protect in the first place. I hold my citizenship, and the rights I hold in common with millions of Americans dearly, and believe they should do so, too. Our forebears trusted us to be able to govern ourselves, to hold our government to account. They did not leave the rule of our country to a few gently born nobles.
They certainly didn't fight and die for these rights, only to have somebody like me yield up my right to speak my mind, especially on political matters to some fear or some feeling of inferiority to some famed media personality. They fought and died so that a person like me could stand as an equal to one of them, to one of the elites, and demand that they answer for what they say and do.
That belief in my inherent equality to each and every other America, hell, each and every human being on the planet, is what sustains me through long and bitter arguments with those who make their contempt for me obvious. Everytime somebody tries to stick me in that pigeonhole, I stand strong in the belief that they have no right to force me to stay put where they shove me, and that my place in this world is my decision. I stand confident that somebody putting an 'R' besides their name doesn't make their arguments instantly more credible than mine, that in the end, the merits of the argument are what decide things best, and in the most lasting way.
I know for some of you, these last few years have been difficult, and you feel beat up. I can understand. The question is whether you stay feeling beat up, whether you stay defeated in your heart. Votes can be lost, elections can be lost, precious time and opportunities can be lost. All that said, the framers, whose legacy we celebrate, gave us the means to restore good government, and the rights necessary to stand up for the steps we would need to take to achieve that. They gave us the pathway towards these improvements. All we need to do is find the strength within ourselves to stand up for what we believe in, to stand up for what we believe to be right.
And then we just need the wisdom and the patience, the smarts and the eloquence to work out the differences between us, and everybody else who has seen fit to exercise their rights. It only works though, if you recognize that the person who is in your face has no more and no less of a right to be there in that public forum expressing their belief, petitioning for their causes and everything.
Cross-posted at Watchblog