Can we just consider that the consensus of the U.S. existing on the center-right needs to be examined more closely? The political mythology makes us easily forget that what passes for U.S. “conservatism” is really the maintenance of one of the U.S.’s darkest foundational principles, which is the idea and culture around a belief that one identity is more deserving of freedom and security than another. Thus, sacrificing another person’s liberty becomes okay and even rationalized.
The Black freedom struggle in the U.S. changed how the nation understood itself and what democracy could be. Women throughout time and U.S. history make similar demands, from temperance organizers confronting alcoholism to settlement-house reformers exposing industrial poverty. They often argued that private wealth should serve the public good, and their efforts helped build a civil society rooted in collective action. Those efforts even evolved across generations to build the language and scholarship to question our understanding and relationship with private wealth as a public good.
This sometimes-too-proud nation struggles to admit that progress in the U.S. has rarely come from protecting the political consensus. It comes from people insisting the country become something it has never been. They are often outside of the myth-perpetuation industry that characterizes much of the incestuous world of Washington, then and now.
The U.S. left may not be the historical outlier we’re often told it is. It actually has helped save the nation from itself more often than not.
Maybe the great U.S. conservative tradition is to resist those changes, especially when they challenge the white supremacy rooted in slavery, class separation, indigenous displacement, and propaganda historically sold to the white working class. But once the changes are unavoidable, they are just repackaged as U.S. values, with the history conveniently forgotten by newsmakers and donor-based civic storytellers.
A moment of joy:
Congrats. Now let’s focus on medical care. Obviously others will deal with Trump. We need reels with stories about medical issues and insurance policies’ payment abuse. Get insurance and for profit hospitals out of the healthcare system
The highest freedom we can possess is the freedom from harm caused by others. Thank you for spreading your understanding.