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American Footings Last edited October 21, 2003, Last Reviewed September 2007 Footings, for those not conversant in building terms,
are the foundation for a building or structure. They are the underpinnings
that go deep enough into virgin ground to support the weight of the structure
and to resist the damaging forces of nature such as frost heave, flooding, and
uplift from wind. The footings of America are probably not clearly understood today
by the average citizen. It isn't surprising, for there is a panoply of
explanations of our American footings available to swallow today. Some
claim we are a Christian nation founded on Judeo-Christian values. No, say
others, we are a nation founded by white Anglo men and infused with their
racist, bigoted gender-specific values or their enlightened values, depending on
who is doing the talking. Most folks will answer that we are a democracy
or that we are a free country. In truth, all of these and other similar
descriptions are either false, politically motivated, or oversimplified.
In truth, the racial, cultural, gender or religious backgrounds of our Founders
are completely irrelevant to the footings of America. That is not to say
that such biases did not affect the structure above the footings, with slavery
being an obvious example. The sound underpinnings, though, are what we are
here to examine. The American footings are based on some simple and very
powerful ideas. The phrases contained in the Declaration of Independence, such as
"created equal" "self-evident truths", "unalienable
rights", "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness",
"consent of the governed", and "laws of nature and of nature's
God" are all referring to an understanding of human nature common to
the Founders at the time. Today, we have heard these phrases so many times
that perhaps they have lost meaning or perhaps we never had a good grasp of them
to start. The American footings were dug deep into virgin ground, however,
and these phrases and ideas were startling to some at the time. Here was a document
proclaiming a break from a tyrannical government and the start of an untested
idea. The idea was a kind of government formed not by force, not by
bloodline, not by manipulation or trickery, not by anything except the agreement
by the individuals being governed to participate in the experiment. The
new idea was born of an understanding of human nature that culminated then and
there after bouncing around in fits and starts since the time of Aristotle.
The understanding was that humans use reason as their primary means of
survival, they possess freewill in nature, and therefore a proper
government must allow individual humans to make their own decisions and
pursue their own goals. In nature, all humans are equal in this
regard. If a government is necessary in order to insure that these natural
rights are not lost to the physical coercion of other human beings, then the
government must be formed by the consent of those that would be governed.
As strange as those words probably sound to most modern ears, that is the apt
description of the American footings. Why, then, do so many declare otherwise
today? A look at their potential motivation might be instructive. Perhaps the most popular descriptions of our American
footings, our basic American principles, heard today revolve around the
assertion that we are a Christian nation, or a nation founded by Christians, or
a nation founded on Christian values. For proof, we are pointed to
references to God or to the Creator in various American documents, and we are
saturated with stories of the pious religious men who worked at the creation of
our government. Made most often by the so-called "religious
right" faction of our citizenry, this argument is simply bait for fools and
talking heads. None of our Founders were Southern Baptists, and a large
number were either atheists or deists who believed that a God created the
universe than abandoned it and allowed the laws of nature to work without
intervention. Many of our Founders wrote voluminous letters, essays and
books specifically condemning organized religion and poking great fun at the
bible. Thomas Paine and John Adams are two good examples. It makes
no difference anyway. If every person remotely connected to our founding
were proven to be Christians devout to the manner of worship endorsed by those
who would make this argument, what was written in the Declaration, in the
Constitution, in the Federalist papers, and in many other supporting documents
would still be there. There is no glossing over what was actually written. Now,
some would mistakenly focus on certain words for their arguments instead of the
entire document. For example, in the phrase "endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable Rights" some focus on the word
"Creator" in order to argue that the main idea contained in the text
of the Declaration was that the rights of man are given by a God. However,
the Founders were actually making a statement about the nature of man and
not about the origin of man. The word "Creator" could
just as easily be replaced with "Mother" or "Nature" or
"Green Martians" without changing the meaning of the document.
The point is: the nature of man, or the way man is and the way he must act
in order to realize his capacity as a human being requires a recognition
of certain rights and a government that protects those rights. It is not
important if that state of being for man was bestowed from a God, distilled from
thousands of years of evolution, or radiated from a black monolith hidden on the
moon. It is also not important whether an idea originated from Aristotle,
from Locke, from Adam Smith, or from some religious source. We are what we
are and a just government must recognize our state of being. Regardless of
the source of our humanness, the fact stands that our American footings
are built with the ideas of rational humans possessing freewill, natural rights,
and the consent of the governed being the basis for a just government. Is there a motivation, then, for making these claims of a
religious basis in the American footings? Of course. The modern day
political power of the religious right is undeniable. Fortunately our
Founders foresaw such passions and factional muscle and built in checks and
balances to curtail the influence. Still, even with sound footings, we
must be wary of the structure of our government so that the constant drip-drip
of water on our roof does not cause rot inside. The claim of religious
influence in our founding does not change anything on the surface, but if the
idea is allowed to continue without challenge, then new arguments will appear.
If we are a "Christian nation", then what is wrong with a little
Christian prayer at government events or a plaque of the Ten Commandments in a
courthouse? It is with these little drip-drips that the religious right
faction hopes to change (read: rot) the structure of our government to better
suit their beliefs. If that new structure should happen to fall and crush
the liberties of an Islamic Fundamentalist, a Jew or an atheist, then what of
it? We are, after all, a Christian nation, right? In other popular arguments, the cultural backgrounds or the
gender of the Founders are invoked either to show that the American footings are
not valid for all citizens or that the cultural or racial descendants of the
Founders are somehow superior. Both views are based on hatred and
ignorance. As discussed above, the background of the Founders is
irrelevant insofar as what was written. It is true that mistakes were made
and some continue to be made in the structure of our government. The
vestiges of slavery continue to play out to this day in swirling eddies of
ignorance and bad laws. The legal rights of women are another excellent
example. Still, the footings of the American government are sound.
Namely, the principles of natural rights, of individual choice, of equality
under the law, and of the consent of the governed still ring true. If
those principles were not or are not fully realized in the structure above the
footings, then let us correct the structure but leave the foundation alone.
As for those who would claim superiority on the basis of some cultural or racial
connection to the Founders, they will wither on their own inaction. Being
lucky enough to have your father born before you is usually only good for one
generation at best. If our footings are left alone, then each man or woman
will reap the rewards or punishment for their own individual actions whatever
their ancestors may or may not have accomplished. Is it wrong to describe us as a democratic nation, a free
nation or a nation of equals? Not wrong, perhaps, but too simple.
Democracy is but one tool used by our Founders to create a self-sustaining
republic. To describe our nation as a democracy is to leave out the
principles most critical to our continuation. Yes, our government is
elected through democratic means, but our existence as a nation is allowed by
the strength of our footings that recognize the meaning of human nature and the
natural rights of man. Democracy is possible only after these footings are
built. A free nation? Yes, but freedom has a connotation today of
"anything goes", or of a moral relativism. The freedom we have
is the freedom to take advantage of our nature as rational beings with
unalienable rights. Our government frees us to the extent possible to make
individual decisions without worry of physical coercion from others.
Freedom does not mean "easy", or "I'm not responsible", or
"I don't want to be judged". Are we a nation of equals?
We are equal under the law, but not equal in the outcomes of our individual
decisions or the starting or ending points in our lives. We are equal in
our ability to make our own individual decisions, no more and no less. *** Copyright 2003, rationalamerican.com *** To cite this article: Painter, John. American Footings. (October 2003). Retrieved month x, 2xxx, from <http://rationalamerican.com/defined> |
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