4A
FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2019
The Observer
On the Fence
What does a ‘fair and just’ society look like?
Universal political, civil, social An ‘equal opportunity’ nation
and economic rights are key
creates a fair and just society
E
veryone wants to live in a fair and just
society. Key documents of the Ameri-
can experiment in democracy refl ect our
struggles for fairness and justice.
The Preamble to the United States
Constitution states, “We, the People of
the United State, in order to form a more
perfect Union, establish Justice, insure do-
mestic Tranquility, provide for the common
defense, promote the general Welfare, and
secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves
and our Posterity, do ordain and establish
this Constitution for the United States of
America.”
Amendments to the Constitution docu-
ment our journey toward achieving a fair
and just society. The fi rst 10 amendments
— our Bill of Rights — include politi-
cal and civil rights including freedom of
speech and the press; freedom of religion;
our right to assemble peacefully and to
petition the government for a redress of
grievances; the right to fair, speedy and
public trial by jury; due process of law; and
protection against unreasonable search
and seizures, double jeopardy and self-
incrimination.
The Bill of Rights, however, left many
gaps — rights later guaranteed through
further amendments to the Constitution.
After the Civil War, slavery was abolished.
Black men could vote. Senators were
elected directly by voters. After a long
struggle, women too could vote. Presidents
were limited to two terms. Poll taxes were
outlawed. Eighteen-year-olds could vote.
Political and civil rights were strength-
ened.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
advocated a “Second Bill of Rights” — as
next steps toward a fair and just society.
We have made far less progress on these
social and economic rights. Updated
to current circumstances this would
mean that every citizen would have the
right to a good education; to adequate
protection in the event of extreme need
stemming from illness, accident, old
age or unemployment; to have access to
adequate food, shelter and health care; to
employment that pays a living wage; and
to freedom from unfair competition and
domination by monopolies at home or
abroad. In a fair and just society, Con-
gress and state governments would take
P
BILL WHITAKER
UNION COUNTY
PROGRESSIVES/DEMOCRATS
reasonable legislative and other mea-
sures to achieve the universal realization
of these rights.
We will have a fair and just society in
the United States when we achieve for
everyone both the political and civil rights
guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution as
amended and the social and economic
rights proposed in the Second Bill of
Rights, when every person is guaranteed
the rights to equity and life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness, when all Americans
have equal protection under laws fairly
enforced, and, if those rights and liberties
are not fully realized, we commit to ensure
that everyone within our borders achieves
or regains them.
We will have a fair and just society
when each of us recognizes our rights and
responsibilities as citizens of our local
communities, our state, our nation and the
global community. We must stand fi rmly
opposed to any attempt to compromise
those rights and liberties and assert that,
as citizens, we are the government and
promise to uphold the protections granted
to us by our state and national constitu-
tions.
We will have a just and fair society
only when we understand, admit to and,
through our government, atone for the
genocide that decimated the indigenous
nations of North America and for the
enslavement of Africans who built our na-
tion’s Capitol and generated much of our
nation’s wealth. We will have a fair and
just society only when control of govern-
ment is reclaimed from corporate interests,
representative democracy prevails, each of
our votes is equal, and fair taxation funds
the public programs that benefi t all of us
— education, transportation, public safety,
health care, retirement security, parks and
safety nets.
Through people’s struggles and social
movements, the United States has made,
by fi ts and starts, considerable progress
toward achieving a fair and just society.
As Democrats and progressives we are
committed to continuing the struggles
to realize all the ideals of a fair and just
erhaps it would be good to outline what
a fair and just society should not look
like, before we proclaim what it should be. A
fair and just society should not exalt sexual
freedom and expression over the right to
life of millions of children that are alive and
well in their mothers’ wombs, before they are
brutally killed through abortion. This same
society should not exalt individual autonomy,
especially with respect to gender identity and
homosexuality, over the rights of millions
of Americans to respectfully disagree with
these lifestyle choices. It should not infringe
on any freedom of speech in the religious,
political or any other realm, allowing both
non-violent disagreement and persuasion to
occur, without censure or fear of physical or
fi nancial retribution. It should not infringe
on freedom of conscience, allowing any
American who provides a creative service to
refuse these same creative services to those
who would insist that the provider violate
his or her personal beliefs (e.g., Masterpiece
Cake Shop vs. The State of Colorado). A fair
and just society should not practice identity
politics, such as carving up the American
people into various subgroups, in order to
intensify feelings of mistrust, victimization
and envy.
Lastly, it should not try to force equality of
outcomes in the workplace or in economics.
We are an “equal opportunity” nation, not
an “equality of outcomes” nation. It follows
that any “affi rmative action,” while initially
well intended, should be seen by all for what
it is, a racist policy that increases racial ten-
sions and does not serve to elevate the very
subgroup it aims to help. Similarly, trying to
force quotas in the workplace, based on gen-
der, skin shade or national heritage doesn’t
necessarily lead to excellence in that par-
ticular fi eld. Merit-based promotion is what
the market demands and is what makes
America, or any other nation, great.
So what does a fair and just society look
like? Briefl y I answer: freedom of religion,
freedom of speech, freedom to assemble,
freedom of the press, and freedom to redress
the government for grievances, all enshrined
in the First Amendment. I would also add:
the right to life, the right to persuade without
violence, and the right to protect one’s family
and community from tyrannical government
(all certainly implied by the U.S. Constitution).
As for economics, worldview matters. The
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UNION COUNTY REPUBLICANS
conservative/classical liberal position, which
I believe to be the only rational position to
take regarding economics, holds fi rmly to the
idea that “men are created equal.” Milton
Friedman proffers three categories for hu-
man equality: equality before God, equality
of opportunity and equality of outcomes.
The founders, of course, did not consider
equality before God literally. They did not re-
gard “men” (or, as we say today, “persons”) as
equal in physical characteristics, emotional
reactions, mechanical and intellectual abili-
ties. I, for example, could not, even with years
of intense training and practice, play soccer
like Lionel Messi, or even stay with our local
high school players. Rather, the founders’
ideas of equality before God have us all cre-
ated by God, who created us with intrinsic
value, which we speak of in the terms of
“rights” language. There are, therefore, given
“unalienable rights” with which we are all
“endowed by our Creator,” in Thomas Jef-
ferson’s own words.
Equality of opportunity simply describes
equality before the law and is “an essential
component of liberty,” to use Friedman’s
words. That is, someone cannot be denied a
job (for which he or she is qualifi ed) based on
ethnic background, skin color or religion.
Equality of outcomes is the equality among
“persons” — that is the most problematic
view.
The desire for so-called equity bleeds over
into Big Business and many other fi elds,
where quotas are forced or at least desired.
In my own fi eld of surgery, there are actually
ridiculous conversations regarding the lack of
women trauma surgeons. It is funny that the
same fake moral outrage is never over a lack
of male nurses, where females represent 97%.
Conservative/classic liberals agree whole-
heartedly with equality before God and
equality of opportunity. They have, in David
Marrota’s words, “a tragic view of the world.”
They understand the fact that man is not ba-
sically good, has innate selfi shness and needs
incentives. Today’s “liberals “or “progressives”
have a utopian view of the world and believe
that government can be used to coerce equal-
ity of outcomes in economics by ever increas-
ing taxation.
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