Larry Schweikart: Bush Has Shifted the National Debate from Equality to Liberty

Larry Schweikart, at freerepublic.com (Sept. 3, 2004):

It took a while to sink in, I have to admit. I didn't like the speech much---the content was fine, but Bush came across as flat compared to the Zell Milller/Arnold Schwartzenegger stemwiders.

But something gnawed at me. Bush's theme---one that he has allueded to in many contexts---emerged with momentous clarity. Hold on to your hats: Bush has reversed 70 years' worth of American political discourse. This is something even the Gipper didn't quite do, and, to be fair, he had to play Gen. John Buford to Bush's Gen. George Meade, holding the line until the reserves came up.

Still, what we witnessed last night (and forget the delivery for a moment) constituted a conceptual roll-back of the New Deal. I know. Some of you are thinking,"Huh? He spoke of expanding school programs and funding rural medical clinics." I know. But those were filler lines demanded by the realities of American life in the 21st century. It was like Lincoln throwing in a few comments about temperance before getting to the hthick meat of anti-slavery.

What made this speech a watershed was that Bush used the words"liberty,""freedom,""free," or"liberate" more than 25 times!!. (In contrast, in one of Bill Clinton's memorable 1992 speeches, he used a phrase like"family values" 11 times---but did not say the word"liberty" once!).

Those obsessed with next year's budget deficit or with the foolish Medicare prescription drug expansion are looking at the wrong thing. In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that America was based on two principles, liberty and equality, but that the former had to remain preeminiment for the latter to succeed. Ever since the New Deal, the political theme in the United States, through Republican and Democratic administrations alike, has been that of equality. This was the essence of debates over busing, the Equal Rights Amendment, affirmative action, and, most recently,"gay marriage." Every one of these focused solely on equality, and ignored liberty.

As Inspector Clouseau said after smashing a piano and being told,"That was a priceless Steinway,"

. . ."Not any more."

Bush's transformation of political discourse, beginning first with discussions of spreading liberty abroad by citing Iraq, Afghanistan, and more broadly the entire Middle East, was tied to the"ownership society." It is so remarkable a change that I guarantee you many pundits simply won't see it for years. This is partly true because to many of them, the word"liberty" has little meaning.

How dramatic was Bush's shift? Consider: in his 2000 acceptance speech, Al Gore mentioned the"environment" at least four times, and used the words"equal" or"equality." But liberty was a no-show."Free,""freedom,""liberate," and"liberty" together were mentioned fewer times than"Global Warming," which is to say, they were not mentioned once.

This is significant, and reflects a massive shift in the thinking of Americans. The New Deal is dead, finally. Tocqueville's dictum that a society that elevates liberty ahead of equality with have a great deal of both is again a governing principle in the United States.

There is one more conceptual shift yet to make, and it's too much to expect Bush to pull this off. Notice how no speaker on the Republican platform referred to"United States." Instead, it is always"America." This, too, is significant, because it reflects an ignorance of the principles of federalism that undergird our nation. But I believe we'll get to the point that even that changes. As the President said, the forces of liberty are on the march.