We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. – The Declaration of Independence
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure. – Thomas Jefferson
The founding theories and documents of The United States were highly idealistic and liberal. The idea of rule by the people is actually quite a radical, progressive concept. How this ideal of “democracy” has played out in practice is an entirely different thing.
As civilizations have existed, there have been competing theories of how to organize or govern society. Right wing, authoritarian philosophies usually hold that the government or elite’s role is to control and dictate to the people.
Where liberals usually view human beings as inherently good and capable of thinking for themselves and being moral, conservatives often see humans as selfish, immoral creatures that should be controlled or even programmed.
While America may have been nominally founded upon liberal principles and “democracy,” there is no doubt that our country has not lived up to these ideals. What we have now is no more than a shell or veneer of a democracy.
Deconstructed, the American promise of “freedom” is more of a freedom FROM thought rather than OF thought. Americans are conditioned from an early age NOT to question or doubt any of the fundamentals—our government, our economic or social system, ourselves. This is the antithesis of what our country is supposed to stand for.
The basic American message is, “Don’t bother being informed or trying to govern yourself. It’s already taken care of: we’re the best, most open, free society in the world.” This is the American Myth and it is tantalizing because it offers to relieve us of the very grueling processes of self-doubt and self-determination: “Kick back and be an American, we’ll take care of everything else.”
But TruthMove is not an anti-American site. We see another side to America—one in which such ideals as freedom, democracy, justice are not just empty doublespeak.
This is the America imagined by many of the founding fathers and by the great civil rights leaders in our history. It is also the America that the people want; a truly democratic, open, and enlightened republic.