United We Stand

On this Fourth of July, as we celebrate the birth of the United States, it is wise I think to discuss why we are here.

Why is the United States in existence, rather than still being 50 colonies, or provinces of Great Britain (or France for that matter)?

The thirteen colonies became economically viable in about two hundred years or so.

Starting from a handful of mostly religious exiles, the colonies grew in white population by quite frankly relocating or killing the Native American inhabitants.

To jump start the economy so it could compete with Europe, slavery was introduced with indentured servitude. Many of our ancestors were either slaves, or indentured servants. The slaves could not gain their freedom, the servants could.

This, in a sense, was the birth of the American Dream, a person could advance past his station through hard work, which excluded slavery in some cases. For a time, slaves could also work their way to freedom; this ended with the cotton gin.

Of course, the American Nightmare, was the development of one of the most brutal slave systems in human history. Fully two million slaves were imported into the colonies over about 150 years, with many dying along the way.

We still struggle with that.

But the colonies persisted, and quickly clashed with Great Britain economically and politically. Great Britain was locked in mortal combat with perennial rival France, culminating in what we call the French and Indian War. The aftermath of this, was that the colonies enjoyed increased status with the British, having assisted the King in his spat with France, and were able to push the Native Americans back further as a result of the war. Victory in the French and Indian War was good for the colonies, bad for the Native Americans.

The Cherokee Nation, the strongest and most formidable opposition to colonial expansion, suffered the most from this development. My ancestors backed the wrong side.

To win the Revolutionary War, or War for Independence, the thirteen colonies had to unify. This was difficult, because over 2/3 of the the colonists did not want to separate from England.

Improbably, the war was won, because the Continental Congress and George Washington somehow figured how to beg borrow, and yes steal, enough money from a reluctant citizenry, to beat the most powerful Army on earth at time. Native Americans helped colonists as well, hoping to redeem themselves for backing the wrong side with the French. It didn't work.

After the War, a loose, confederation of colonies (states) was established to rule the colonies. It was fashioned along many of the principles, that our Tea Party friends harp on today. States rights, free market, weak central government, were main ingredients. And, it failed miserably. In fact, it was so bad, that may Tories (those who still wanted to be part of Britain), openly asked England to come back.

The true American Revolution then occurred, when somehow, against all political odds, the Constitution was barely adopted in 1789. Note, this is several years AFTER the Declaration of Independence.

The Constitution was a series of compromises, with the late addition of the Bill of Rights (the first 10 Amendments).

The colonists, not even a majority at the time (it's lucky they didn't have polls then) realized that they needed central government to deal with the myriad of issues facing the fledgling nation; not withstanding the need to have a unified force to steal more Native American land to the west.

Big problems needed government to address. Divided we were destined to fall, united we could prevail.

Today, on another anniversary of that realization, incredibly we are faced with the same dilemma. The Republican Party has been taken over by Tea Party Patriot zealots, who argue that the Union is wrong, that private interests are more important than public interest, and are intent on destroying the Union.

The latest reaction to the Constitutional Ruling on the Affordable Care Act proves this Tea Party zealotry. The Act was passed without a single Republican vote, and now they vow to repeal it at all costs. Republican governors vow to not accept federal funds to expand health care for the working poor.

The Republican Party, the party of the "great emancipator and union hero" seek to tear the union apart!

The Constitution provided for judicial review. It is an integral part of the social compact embodied in the Constitution.

Radical right wingers, and even some moderates, have been politically indoctrinated to hate every centralized government solution (except the military), engaging in a life and death struggle with the rest of us, to basically stop government solutions for a whole host of national problems; including energy, education, health, infrastructure, crime; etc.

All problems must be addressed by states or even individuals; remembering that corporations are people "my friend". Private interests are in fact, the public interest according to this point of view.

This reminds any American History teacher, of the Articles of Confederation, one of the most wrong headed governmental solutions in history.

In fact, when I was getting my Masters in Government, we studied the Articles, and the Civil War era's Confederate Constitution, as examples of democracy producing extremely unworkable and fatal governmental structures.

Nations fail because their governments fail Nations are their government. That is why the Constitution begins with "We The People". When democracies lapse into fits of selfish individualism, forget that organization and unified law means security, peace and ultimately protects individual freedoms, all hell breaks loose.

Usually this manifests itself in Civil War and violence, read the Confederate Constitution. The Confederacy, that traitorously attacked the Constitution of the United States, invented a government that led them right down the path to defeat.

One critical aspect, was the predictable lack of effective taxing power, there was no reliable way to raise funds for the government, and the army. States could contribute money if they wanted. This decentralized system led to widespread starvation in the rebel army, slaughter at the hands of the blue coats, and ignoble defeat.

Recently, the Supreme Court Chief Justice, holding his nose in approving the Affordable Care Act, once again reaffirmed the principle that the ability to tax is what holds the country together. Without it, the nation is in peril; it cannot "insure domestic tranquility"...or provide "Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness".

The inability to tax, to act as a unified country (each rebel state had its own Army) led to defeat for the treasonous Rebels.

As an aside, you may wonder why I bring up treasonous Rebels. I have taken the Constitutional Oath over 10 times in my life being a public school teacher and administrator. I also raised my right hand when I entered the United States Army. Those words, it was rather directly taught to me, mean something. Traitors, and treason, are the only capital crime identified in the Constitution. I do not take that oath, embodied in the Constitution lightly. Every time I see the rebel flag, I get mad, because it represent treachery, and treason. It also represents the most undemocratic political thinking. It also represents how our country may one day fall; to mindless disunity.

Many of these same errors in governmental structuring, we see in the Tea Party Patriots today. No surprise here, because predictably the core of the Tea Party Patriot movement lies in the South; as in the "the South will rise again".

Finally, the unyielding attacks on the "centralization of power" that is allegedly in the Affordable Care Act is reminiscent of the Confederacy's and the Article of Confederation's fundamental errors.

What both wayward approaches share, is the critical error placing parochial, individual, and yes, free market interests ahead of national ones. As I have said many times on this blog before, there is a definable public interest. It evolves through democratic debate, and ultimately some kind of agreement MUST be reached, for democratic government to function.

This is our problem today. We have about a third of our country, who has decided to not compromise in the debate defining the public interest. This has meant the Democratic Party has done this pretty much alone.

This is bad politics, and leads to stalemate and inaction, since the Constitution is based on compromise. There is great danger here.

Hence, the Affordable Care Act, is remarkably still under attack, even after passing through the Supreme Court.

Much of the Act, is experimental, several commissions and study groups are in it (no they are not "death panels") in an effort to somehow modify the costly and inefficient health care system. It is not a perfect bill, most are not. It is meant to be evolving, most bills are. It has many provisions in it to allow states to experiment. It also is meant to be tweaked along the way.

After all, the New Deal was hundreds of laws, that grew as time went on, or died, or were declared unconstitutional; in an attempt to bring a semblance of economic stability to a depression torn nation.

And, ultimately, it worked, contrary to the inevitable revisionist conservative history. The New Deal, that demonized experiment in Constitutional central government leadership, worked to lessen the Great Depression, preserve the capitalist system, and most importantly, prepare the nation for World War II.

I shudder to think, what would have happened, if our industrial might would have been mothballed in 1941, like it would have been without the New Deal. Conservatives don't like to talk about that!

We need the power and stability of the United States government, to deal with complex problems that individuals and states have failed to solve. There is a balance to this, too much centralization is not necessarily good. But centralized government, the Union if you will, is essential to our national survival. It was in 1989, it was in 1861, 1917, 1941 and 2012!

That used to be the great debate of the public interest, how much centralized government, between progressives and conservatives; now progressives essential debate themselves, conservatives have all signed "no tax pledges" and it is "my way or the highway"; compromise is seen as weakness, an impure thought.

Chief Justice Roberts is saying that compromise is NOT weakness in his decision....and the conservatives hate him for it. He is saying that it IS a function of the United States government, through the Constitution, to wrestle with the issues embodied in health care.

In short, health care is a large problem, a big issue, that the central government is suited for, as is intended for under the Constitution (the Supreme Court, in a 5/4 split with the Chief Justice affirming just agreed).

In the past, after some gnashing of teeth, the country was forced to identify the public interest and moved forward. People saw the way forward, that the Chief Justice just showed us, and compromised.

I only hope that sane minds prevail, and we do so again. But the right is who has to move, their intractability is causing this democratic crisis.

Otherwise, we are looking down the bore of Civil War.