Our peculiar form of American democracy has always grounded its concept of freedom in the protection of property rights. Legal and political systems were designed to secure ownership and commerce, with true human rights only emerging later, after generational movements forced the nation to reconcile economic priorities with the moral ones also outlined in the Constitution. Thethese generational struggles, took the lives of many people as well as the personal, professional, and financial sacrifice of many others. At various moments, human rights have gained temporary primacy, but the institutional framework continues to favor property as the more stable and legally protected form of “freedom”.
This is the space where powerful corporate interests and other elites with narrow, self-serving agendas can assert their wealth to capture regulatory and legal mechanisms, cementing and entrenching their position. It is also the space where social movements can rise to confront the harms of that capture and press for change.
If this pattern is structural rather than accidental, the next struggle may be to pass laws that blunt the power of capture itself and better defend against exploitation of this space. A coherent package of legal reforms such as truly progressive taxation, campaign finance and court reform, universal health care, and a robustly funded public education system, including universal pre-K and free university and trade-school options, in addition to higher wages for teachers would not only strengthen society and raise living standards but also weaken the mechanisms of capture…hopefully.
Thanks for all this insight and elaboration. To think about the period where economic and property rights had literal and conspicuous supremacy--the justification for slavery--is very helpful. Remembering to see our lives today through the lens of that origin, it's easy to see that the slavery paradigm to protect the economic advancement of the elite class never went away. As the citizenry fought and won certain human rights, They only changed the manner in which they would enslave the nation to continue their wealth and power grabs. Oh, the strides they've made when the population could no longer easily see with their eyes the oppression and enslavement!
I do think their pattern is willful and structural and I believe it can be undone, I just don't know if the will of the people can rally to it. IMHO, campaign finance reform is the killshot. Our system can't progress toward much else until we have decision-makers who actually represent the concerns of their constituents instead of Big Business and the rich.
Our peculiar form of American democracy has always grounded its concept of freedom in the protection of property rights. Legal and political systems were designed to secure ownership and commerce, with true human rights only emerging later, after generational movements forced the nation to reconcile economic priorities with the moral ones also outlined in the Constitution. Thethese generational struggles, took the lives of many people as well as the personal, professional, and financial sacrifice of many others. At various moments, human rights have gained temporary primacy, but the institutional framework continues to favor property as the more stable and legally protected form of “freedom”.
This is the space where powerful corporate interests and other elites with narrow, self-serving agendas can assert their wealth to capture regulatory and legal mechanisms, cementing and entrenching their position. It is also the space where social movements can rise to confront the harms of that capture and press for change.
If this pattern is structural rather than accidental, the next struggle may be to pass laws that blunt the power of capture itself and better defend against exploitation of this space. A coherent package of legal reforms such as truly progressive taxation, campaign finance and court reform, universal health care, and a robustly funded public education system, including universal pre-K and free university and trade-school options, in addition to higher wages for teachers would not only strengthen society and raise living standards but also weaken the mechanisms of capture…hopefully.
Thanks for all this insight and elaboration. To think about the period where economic and property rights had literal and conspicuous supremacy--the justification for slavery--is very helpful. Remembering to see our lives today through the lens of that origin, it's easy to see that the slavery paradigm to protect the economic advancement of the elite class never went away. As the citizenry fought and won certain human rights, They only changed the manner in which they would enslave the nation to continue their wealth and power grabs. Oh, the strides they've made when the population could no longer easily see with their eyes the oppression and enslavement!
I do think their pattern is willful and structural and I believe it can be undone, I just don't know if the will of the people can rally to it. IMHO, campaign finance reform is the killshot. Our system can't progress toward much else until we have decision-makers who actually represent the concerns of their constituents instead of Big Business and the rich.
Appreciate the dialog, Howard!