American Liberty: Past, Present and Future

American Liberty

American Liberty can be summed up in a belief in the Bill of Rights, Limited Government, Social Contract and Liassez-faire capitalism. All of these were the cornerstone of Classical liberalism in the United States since its founding. With president Thomas Jefferson liberty was put as the most important part of society, the freedom to and the freedom from.

That was the purpose of the Democratic-Republican Party, maximize liberty and minimize the state. It believed heavily that an Agrarian society with strong moral and cultural values should prevail over a Manufacturing society with corruption and greed. They believed that if the government left the people and communities to govern themselves with little intervention other than the rule of law America would become the world’s most prosperous nation, boasting the highest range of liberties man had ever imagined.

But with every vision there was a counter vision, the Federalist Party believed heavily in the a Centralized and powerful state with centralized banking, a large manufacturing base and protecting the state. But eventually due to isolation and lack of support the Federalist Party collapsed and brought about the Whig Party which suffered to exact same fate. Finally the Republican Party came with their first president Abraham Lincoln, who did his very best to centralize all power within the hands of the Federal government and he succeeded.

During and after Reconstruction the South became known as the 'Solid South' for its unwavering support for Democratic candidates. But the Democrats throughout the 19th century were radically different than today as they kept the message of Jefferson and Jackson alive by supporting Farmers, Workers and Liberty, but unlike today they did not believe the poor needed a hand-out or up, they needed a fair playing field. This led to the Democratic Party being labeled Anti-business for its Liassez-faire capitalism, Classical liberal philosophy and its Populist rhetoric. It gave no special privileges to big business and opposed any government intervention into people’s lives, although it still remained the party of Social Conservatism.

Eventually the two parties became nearly identical during the Progressive era, both endorsing a big government mandate of regulation, centralization and corporatism. Then during the twenties came 3 Republican presidents who were opposed to the aspirations of the Progressive era which led to the income tax almost abolished, regulations slashed, anti-globalization rhetoric and return of civil liberties. But this came to a screeching halt when the Great Depression hit which ushered in the New Deal and a new alliance of politicians and people which became known as 'The Right', they believed in Liassez-faire Capitalism, Classical liberalism and the Bill of Rights. They became allies due to their opposition to the New Deal policies, WW2 and the expansion of the Federal Government.

This alliance of Democrats and Republicans ended when Barry Goldwater won the Republican nomination in 1964. At this time the Neoconservatives who were Democrats were forced out by the more Liberal wing of the party and they started taking over the Republican Party starting with the presidency of Richard Nixon. Then in the 1970's came the Christian Right who transformed the Republican Party into a Neoconservative-Christian Right Party that we see today. The Democrat Party was taken over by the more isolationist branch of Liberals which formed from the '60s and '70s counterculture.

But now as the two party system is taking a massive beating after two failed presidents in a row, a depressed economy, constant state of war, mass corruption, income redistribution, destruction of the Bill of Rights and a major debt & deficit, Americans are beginning to realize that this path is unsustainable and in order to save our Republic from chaos things must be dramatically changed. The ideas of Limited Government, Balanced Budgets, Bill of Rights and Anti-Globalization are beginning to return to mainstream American political thought.

I say it's about time.

So what should we be expecting for the future with the rise of the Tea Party ushering in a possible new era of Conservatism, what can we hope for and expect?

Well the fiscal ideas talked about today not just in the Tea Party movement but also by just ordinary Americans is the ideas of Liassez-faire capitalism, Classical liberalism and Civil liberties, all of which make up the old belief system of what is known as the 'Old Right'. While the 'Old Right' is divided into two camps, on one side are the Paleolibertarian people such as Ron Paul and the other side are the Paleoconservative people such as Pat Buchanan.

What makes these two similar is their belief in Liassez-faire capitalism, Bill of Rights and Non-Interventionism. While they differ on issues such as trade and immigration they agree on almost everything else. The Paleolibertarians are different with some support for Social Conservative issues such as abortion, gay marriage and prayer in school, they still believe that religion and cultural conservatism is important. While Paleoconservatives are hard core with Social Conservative issues and belief in Agrarianism. They disagree with each other on many things but they have been aligned for many decades.

These together make up what is known as the Old Right. It is in my opinion that we are beginning to return to the values and beliefs of the Old Right and I doubt either party or big business or tptb will like that so much.

Life, Liberty and Property, shall be restored.

Liassez-faire
Classical liberalism
Bill of Rights

Very interesting article by Lewrockwell.com from 1980

BUMP

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Liberty with us. Sad to see so many interesting subjects sink into oblivion while others get more attention than they might truly deserve because of the cliquish attitudes here.

Keep up the cool info...it's worth the read...

~holly