Question of the Week
How Do Progressives Threaten Our Liberty?
In Week 9 of Constitution 101, we engage the modern political philosophy that seeks to overthrow the Constitution’s ability to maintain a government able to protect the moral principles articulated in the Declaration of Independence: Progressivism
Unlike the advocates of slavery who turned the words of the Constitution upside down to justify denying millions the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the Progressive’s have embarked on a strategy to make the Declaration of Independence and Constitution irrelevant artifacts of a by-gone era, stripping them of their legitimacy and power to protect our liberty against the encroachment of an ever more powerful ruling elite wielding the force of the administrative state.
This week’s lecture is given by Ronald J. Pestritto, the Charles and Lucia Shipley Chair in the American Constitution, Associate Professor of Politics, and Dean of the Graduate School of Statesmanship at Hillsdale College. He is also a senior fellow with the College’s Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship. If you believe it is important to understand your adversary, then this week’s lecture is a must view.
Overview: The Progressive Rejection of the Founding
Progressivism is the belief that America needs to move or “progress” beyond the principles of the American Founding. Organized politically more than a hundred years ago, Progressivism insists upon flexibility in political forms unbound by fixed and universal principles. Progressives hold that human nature is malleable and that society is perfectible. Affirming the inexorable, positive march of history, Progressives see the need for unelected experts who would supervise a vast administration of government.
Progressivism is rooted in the philosophy of European thinkers, most notably the German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel. Progressivism takes its name from a faith in “historical progress.” According to the leading lights of Progressivism, including Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and John Dewey, human nature has evolved beyond the limitations that the Founders identified. Far from fearing man’s capacity for evil, Progressives held that properly enlightened human beings could be entrusted with power and not abuse it.
The Progressive idea of historical progress is tied to the idea of historical contingency, which means that each period of history is guided by different and unique values that change over time. The “self-evident truths” that the Founders upheld in the Declaration of Independence, including natural rights, are no longer applicable. Circumstances, not eternal principles, ultimately dictate justice.
If human nature is improving, and fixed principles do not exist, government must be updated according to the new reality. The Constitution’s arrangement of government, based upon the separation of powers, checks and balances, and federalism, only impeded effective government, according to Progressives. The limited government of the Founding is rejected in favor of a “living Constitution.”
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Please view the lecture, engage in some of the readings, and come prepared to contribute to what should be a lively and important discussion. In order to access the video, you must first sign in or register for Constitution 101 at http://www.hillsdale.edu/constitution/weekly_course_schedule.aspx
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Questions:
1) Is it fair to characterize the Progresive movement as a counter-revolution to the American Revolution? Why or why not?
2) Why have the Progressives been so successful in gaining power over the past 100 years?
3) What is the fundamental promise Progressive’s make to persuade the American people to give them power?
5) What can they teach us about how to pursue our goal of increasing liberty in our community and, over time, in the nation as a whole?
We meet Fridays at 7:30 Am to 9AM at Marie Callendar’s 15363 Culver Drive, Ivrine, CA - Map it
What Does ‘Liberty for All’ Mean?
In his Fragment on the Constitution and the Union, Abraham Lincoln claimed that behind America’s great prosperity was the principle of “’Liberty to all’ – the principle that clears the path for all – gives hope to all – and, by consequence, enterprise, and industry to all.”
This principle of liberty is asserted by the Declaration of Independence which Lincoln deems the document that “brought forth” our nation. The Constitution was written to establish a government that would protect and sustain this morale principle.
In Lincoln’s time, the Constitution and the Bible had been turned against freedom and were being used to justify the enslavement of millions of men and women. John C. Calhoun argued that liberty is a reward given to those who are capable of exercising it. All men are not created equal. Some people are just inferior and need to be governed. We govern them not just for the good of the governors, but for the good of the slaves themselves. It is a positive good that slaves are ruled in this way, for the slave owner, and the slave.
The nation then was divided between these two incompatible beliefs – one that held to the moral principle of liberty for all, the other than believed the power of government should rightly be used to support the massive violation of the liberty of millions of men and women.
Kevin Portteus, assistant professor of politics at Hillsdale College, ends his lecture with an ominous observation that our nation today is divided along the lines of two incompatible beliefs: one that embraces the moral principle of America’s founding and the constitutionalism which flows from it, and the other that is committed to the principles of Progressivism and the modern state. As in 1858, he asks: “Are we not moving in the direction of an all slave nation?” And if so, “what can we do about it?”
Here is the overview of Professor Portteus’s lecture, Week 8 of Constitution 101.
Abraham Lincoln and the Constitution
Abraham Lincoln’s fidelity to the Declaration of Independence is equally a fidelity to the Constitution. The Constitution takes its moral life from the principles of liberty and equality, and was created to serve those principles. We are divided as a nation today, as in Lincoln’s time, because we have severed the connection between these two documents.
Lincoln’s “Fragment on the Constitution and the Union” contains the central theme of Lincoln’s life and work. Drawing upon biblical language, Lincoln describes the Declaration of Independence as an “apple of gold,” and the Constitution as the “frame of silver” around it. We cannot consider the Constitution independently of the purpose which it was designed to serve.
The Constitution acts to guard the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. As the embodiment of the Declaration’s principles, the Constitution created a frame of government with a clear objective. The Constitution is not a collection of compromises, or an empty vessel whose meaning can be redefined to meet the needs of the time; it is the embodiment of an eternal, immutable truth.
Abraham Lincoln defended the Union and sought to defeat the Confederate insurrection because he held that the principles of the Declaration and Constitution were inviolable. In his speeches and in his statecraft, Lincoln wished to demonstrate that self-government is not doomed to either be so strong that it overwhelms the rights of the people or so weak that it is incapable of surviving.
Please view the lecture, engage in some of the readings, and come prepared to contribute to what should be a lively and important discussion. In order to access the video, you must first sign in or register for Constitution 101 at http://www.hillsdale.edu/constitution/weekly_course_schedule.aspx
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Questions:
1. What does “liberty for all” mean?
2. Do you agree with Professor Portteus, that we are a nation divided?
3. Are we moving in the direction of a slave nation? In what sense?
4. What can we – you and I – in practical terms, do about it?
We meet Fridays at 7:30 Am to 9AM at Marie Callendar’s 15363 Culver Drive, Ivrine, CA - Map it
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to inculcate the habits and virtues of living in liberty.
We seek to bring to life the libertarian traditions that are the foundation of the United States as expressed in its Constitution:
- Our members believe in the dignity of the individual and liberty and justice for all;
- Government plays a vital but limited role to protect the life, liberty and property of the people so that each of us may be free to pursue our happiness as we see fit;
- The spontaneous order of the marketplace made possible by the rule of law shall be the central organizing principle of economic life;
- Voluntary organizations – freely joined, freely supported, and self governing – can, over time, displace government as the bulwark by which individuals choose to protect themselves against the vicissitudes of life and to take care of the less fortunate in their community.
The activities of this Community of Liberty will be designed to show why choosing liberty is the best choice we can make for our selves, our families, and our communities. Our shorter-term objectives are appropriately modest. But, our vision is bold: to shift the drift of the great American experiment of a free people ruling themselves in the direction of increasing the liberty of the individual and reducing -- over time -- the power, burden, and intrusion of the State in our lives.