Marcus Raskin founded the Institute for Policy Studies in 1963 after serving on the staff of the National Security Council in President Kennedy’s administration. He is a distinguished fellow at the Institute and professor of policy studies at The George Washington University. The following was written as an open letter to the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and in response to President Bush’s call for Americans “to find a way to thank the men and women defending our freedom” over the July 4th holiday.
July 4th 2005 will surely be known to future generations as a period of terror and insecurity for Americans who wish nothing more than a consecration to a set of purposes and ideals that seem ambiguous and contradictory.
Caught in a war not of the citizenry’s choosing, but that was an outgrowth of government deception, moral and political blindness—and even criminality—the people search for a meaning that will capture the sensibility of our better selves. This feature is there, but increasingly hard to find because of the hubris, war and selfishness that plague certain elements of the nation.
Much of American history, like that of other nations, has been predicated on raw power wrapped in claims of supremacy over other cultures and nations. And it has been sustained in its practices by two elementary ideas. You are either for us or against us. The nation is bound by the unity which sees and organizes threats to itself.
That is to say, the world is divided into good versus evil, we versus they.
Preparation for war and its continuous execution including constant and permanent fighting at the peripheries of empire is thought by “realists” as the primary way to maintain our “way of life,” a phrase that masks from ourselves the profound separations against the common good which define American politics and economics.
In other words the nation is defined as a way of life that externalizes enemies and asserts that its survival—whether economic, social or political—must expand lest the nation contract and die. For some, this “enemy-other” framework of public policy in a nation is highly competitive in daily life, organized around games, business, acquisitiveness and grades. Furthermore, it is most successful where it includes a combination of irrationality and fear of not being Number One in the “natural” order, defined through force and a touch of fraud.
It is hardly surprising that soldiers are praised and veterans’ benefits are eviscerated, or that fire fighters and police officers praised for their bravery at the tragedy of 9/11 saw their benefits and raises disappear like the TV commercials that promise, then take away, and then promise again in an infinite series of lies. From this understanding of the world it is hardly a leap to the next stage.
In the practice of international politics, the myth of racial superiority and the invocation of fear are never far from the surface. A few years ago it was the Japanese. Now commentators fear the Chinese.
There is another side to the United States.
It is the one that we may be justly proud of, for it has stemmed from sentiments of generosity, economic and social justice. It is the welcoming side that holds out a hand to the wretched, the tired, the left-outs of the earth—whether already in the borders of American society, attempting to gain permission to enter or in a condition of indignity elsewhere.
It is a society which makes room for the young and protects the old. It recognizes the rights of all people and it does so through its education and its laws, even for those not accorded citizenship. In short, it’s not a society that is insecure, that seeks to shove the formerly excluded into closets of despair. It is not a careless nation, claiming its military prowess is necessary to destroy other nations in order to save them, or that poor nations should take our waste to survive. It is not a nation that believes its willingness to destroy the world through military science is the apex of rationality or God’s purpose.
This is the world of American aspiration and the inner meaning of America’s social covenant, so fragile in each generation that it must be restated and struggled for by groups that have suffered the lash of indignity and oppression. They have learned a cooperative care for each other and those of other nations. This America holds in respect and awe that which we do not know, whether it be nature or another human being. In a free society, our fears are tempered by moral activism which stems from the collective pride we take in the arts, sciences, crafts, sports and moral inventions. These define the everyday life of a free society.
This free society is not a bully. It is respected for what it builds, not destroys. It is respected for the social hand it extends to others who are accorded economic, legal and social rights through international documents which the free nation does not attempt to subvert.
In other words, members of a free society recognize that personal responsibility is the foundation of the social contract. The nation, therefore, can be seen as the collective expression of this individual responsibility, not individual self-interest. Thus, the nation is a projection of our personal responsibility and respect for other people that manifests the bond between the healthy and the sick, the prosperous and the hungry, the strong and the weak. This responsibility attaches between the healthy and the sick as a bond of that shared humanity.
This is the July 4 covenant of progressive liberals, and of a free people.
