Now, during the Republican presidential primaries, we hear a lot about liberty. It is a leave-me-alone type of liberty, suggesting the license to do what one may choose in the sacred call of business activity. Much is sought in the name of freedom.
We call this the land of liberty. In the name of business freedom, regulations affecting business practices are staunchly opposed by Republicans. Gov. Mitch Daniels accuses President Barack Obama of a "mindless piling on of expensive new regulations."
In his Republican rebuttal of the president's State of the Union, Daniels' accuses him of "extremism" and a "pro-poverty policy."
Daniels claimed that only Republicans can bring America together with privatized, pro-growth approaches. He dismisses Obama's concerns about the unhealthy schism between the haves and have-nots as a never-happen-here matter. He said Obama has driven us into a "dead end of debt," which was "already unaffordable."
The "already-unaffordable" part was what Obama inherited from Bush. In fact, Daniels was Bush's director of the Office of Management and Budget (from 2001-03). His tenure saw the government devour Clinton's $236 billion surplus, and accumulate another $400 billion of debt. That is freedom from responsibility and taking liberties with the truth.
His claiming and blaming address concludes that "a private economy" is the only solution. "Republicans will speak for those who believe in the dignity and capacity of the individual citizen; we believe that government is meant to serve the people rather than supervise them."
We cannot just ignore that the country has suffered a lot from the shenanigans of unsupervised banks and their financial manipulations, the job-exporting profiteering of corporations, budget reductions for schools, usurious interest rates for student loans, and worse for payday loans, the unchecked power of private health insurance to avoid claims, problems with toxic dumping, pollution and faulty products.
In fact, government power is the only force in the country capable of addressing corporate and wealthy interests in protection of consumers. No wonder that those special interests want government out of their hair, and they try hard to corrupt or discredit the process, in the name of freedom.
What does freedom mean, really? Basically it means the ability to make our own decisions. Such liberty carries the obligation of mutual respect and fairness with others, and is normally imbedded in the terms of community membership.
We are deeply social by nature, with a highly developed capacity for empathy. We very much need to be connected, and thus, we are nearly always dependent in various ways, upon the cohesion within our group, its cooperation and teamwork, and the exigencies of its circumstances and economic environment. This is the alphabet level of the human story.
Total dependence at birth grows into interdependence within community. Individuality is enhanced by mutual dependence and specialization in adult roles.
This leads to differentiation into membership positions of service, influence, contribution, ideally held together in cooperation, negotiation and town-hall process.
Now, our urbanized, technically complicated, highly specialized and international economy puts many, many people into circumstances beyond any individual control. The self-sustaining freestanding individual is largely a myth.
Kings and tyrants arose, and the notion of liberty went revolutionary. But we are losing that freedom. Because while we worked hard to tame and harness government, there have arisen international corporate conglomerates with more power than most governments to control and shape our lives and possibilities.
The insecurity the unemployed feel is flavored with the anger of betrayal, and we hear about the 1 percent and the 99 percent.
The party of the special interests is now the Republican Party, though the corruption of the electoral system has had a mighty impact on both parties. Nonetheless, the president has called strongly for active governmental programs to restore a sense of fairness and opportunity to all citizens.
Paying more for social justice is not going to steal Bill O'Reilly's freedom, as he fears (The Daily Star, Jan 23). It will grow a healthier community with a fair spectrum of well-being, and reduce the exaggerated polarization that mortgages our liberty to the hoarders of wealth.
We need a society and an economy where it is comfortable to socialize with each other, without this being labeled socialism in the economic system. Being dominated by economic power is no less a loss of freedom than control by a king.
Republican defenders of the new economic tyranny are cloaking themselves in the political arguments of 1776. The real freedom fighters today are 99 percent Occupiers. Let Freedom Ring!
William Masters can be reached at wmasters@thedailystar.com. The views expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of The Daily Star and its editorial board.
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Playing Left Field: Meaning of 'liberty' lost in GOP's translation
- Big Chuck D'Imperio
- Cary Brunswick
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Some wisdom is best passed down through books
I was visiting a friend out-of-town recently and the subject of providing a "reading list" to young people came up in conversation. He said years ago he had asked a respected acquaintance in Oneonta to compile such a list for his teenage daughter, to help her be better prepared for life, culture, education, politics and people.
Continued ... - Let pragmatism, not politics, determine birth control debate
- As Center Street Elementary goes, so goes Center City
- U.S. intervention in Syria's uprising would be a gamble
- Santorum, Obama both got it wrong on Honduras
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- Chuck Pinkey
- Guest Column
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If we don’t develop a sustainable system, who will?
In Otsego County’s local elections last fall, a number of candidates — most of them on the independent Sustainable Otsego line — ran on an anti-fracking, pro-sustainability platform. They recognized that our current way of life — dependent on increasingly scarce, costly and polluting fossil fuels — cannot continue.
Continued ... - Time to get off the bus and on the computer
- Cuomo's Machiavellian maneuvers are a danger
- Home rule laws aren't a radical idea
- Sustainable shouldn't be a dirty word
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If we don’t develop a sustainable system, who will?
- Lisa Miller
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Being a parent is a constant learning process
I am sitting cross-legged on the floor in the dressing room, waiting for Allie's dance number to be called. The cave girl costume has been donned, the jazz shoes double-tied, the hair pulled back, the requisite dab of lipstick applied.
Continued ... - Healthy doesn't have to mean expensive
- A family era ends with close of Potter series
- Independent stores make up for loss of Borders
- Untethered from the cable box
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Being a parent is a constant learning process
- Mark Simonson
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Perfect attendance by Saturday’s Bread for 20 years in Oneonta
Oneonta became a settlement and has been a place to do one's "trading," whether it was the 18th century, or 2012, because of the five valleys that converge here. Only the places of doing the "trading" have changed a bit over the last 100 years, and Oneonta remains a place that attracts visitors and has always been a decent place to live and work.
Continued ...
100 Years Ago - Recalling the Hindenburg, John D. Rockefeller in May 1937
- Oneonta residents had diversions aplenty in the spring of 1952
- Damaschke essential to ensuring Oneonta baseball in 1927
- Area tunes to WONT in November 1972
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Perfect attendance by Saturday’s Bread for 20 years in Oneonta
- Rick Brockway
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Climbing is one thing, but skydiving?
OUTDOORS COLUMN BY RICK BROCKWAY ... Last week, my friend George and I returned to the Gunks for another rock-climbing adventure. After last week's column, I asked about the rattlesnakes and was told not to worry. Rattlers are usually quite timid and will avoid people as much as possible. It's the copperheads that'll give you trouble. They're aggressive and will stand their ground to defend it. Oh great!!
- Rattlesnakes may be closer than you think, so pay attention
- Spring is here, so fishing should pick up soon
- Sneaky fox may be the next animal looking to horse around
- Pass down the rush of turkey hunting to your kids this weekend
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Climbing is one thing, but skydiving?
- Sam Pollak
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I'm happy with our kids to a certain degree
It was several years ago, and I was in the kitchen, telling my eldest daughter and my then-teenaged son about the person who was taking over as publisher at The Daily Star.
Continued ... - I get by with a little help from my 'friends'
- It’s not easy for a politics junkie to get off the stuff
- The Encyclopaedia Britannica in print, unmourned by me
- Angelo Dundee was always a good man to have in your corner
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- William Masters
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Time for lawmakers who put needs of society first
Richard Lugar, after six terms as a Republican senator -- known for his middle of the road rationality and his foreign policy finesse -- has been ousted by a Tea Party extremist backed by outside right-wing funding.
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War not worth gambling with lives of soldiers
Are you not tired of our war in Afghanistan? It had a point, once, after 9/11. Bush couldn't distinguish his myopic personal agendas from the nation's needs and let Osama escape, dropping the ball entirely, causing many deaths.
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Titanic was a microcosm of U.S. economic disparity
Haunting reminders of the Titanic tragedy have wafted over us with the centenary of its sinking. The maiden voyage of an impressive, state of the art vessel, was a little like that of the Challenger space shuttle, at the cutting edge of developing technology. But the shuttle carried our pride in science and space exploration, not hundreds and hundreds of people.
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William Masters: Nation stands divided between 'us' and 'them'
In February, Trayvon Martin was shot dead as "suspicious" by a volunteer neighborhood watch man. The case has aroused community reaction in Sanford, Fla., and is still echoing across the country.
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A quarterback can't win the game alone
What is the relationship between democracy and wealth? Democracy is a political system, while wealth relates to economics. We have equal political rights, but we don't all have money. Extreme differences destroy the continuity of community solidarity.
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Time for lawmakers who put needs of society first
