Matthew Spalding, Ph.D., is director of the Kenneth B. Simon Center for American Studies at The Heritage Foundation. His previous books include "The Heritage Guide to the Constitution," for which he was executive editor; "Patriot Sage: George Washington and the American Political Tradition"; and "The Founders' Almanac: A Practical Guide to the Notable Events, Greatest Leaders & Most Eloquent Words of the American Founding."
1. In your book, "We Still Hold These Truths," you attempt to answer a question that is on the minds of many – how did we get so far off track?
America's core principles came under direct assault at the start of the last century, when so-called progressive thinkers sought to refound America according to ideas alien to those of the Founders. The "progressives" repudiated the Founders' principles, holding that there are no self-evident truths — in the Declaration of Independence or elsewhere — but only relative values. They contended there are no permanent rights with which man is endowed by his Creator, but only changing rights held at the indulgence of government. In the progressive view, we must be governed by a "living" Constitution that endlessly evolves and grows with the times.
Today, this view dominates the academy, the media, intellectual elites and significant portions of the leadership in both major political parties. The Progressive Movement, first under a Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt, and then a Democratic president, Woodrow Wilson, set forth the political platform for modern liberalism. "Progress" means a new form of government able to engineer a better society. This system would assure equal outcomes and redistribute wealth through a distant, patronizing welfare state that regulates more and more of the economy, politics and society. President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society were grand steps to achieve this platform. We are at the beginning of a more aggressive move in this direction — but the ideas behind it are more than a century old.
2. A new Gallup Poll shows the nation growing more conservative by the day. What's at the root of this shift?
I believe it has something to do with the core beliefs Americans still hold about their country. At its birth, this nation justified its independence by asserting truths said to be self-evident, according to "the Laws of Nature and Nature's God." Working from the great principle of human equality, the revolutionaries who launched this experiment in popular government claimed a new basis of political legitimacy: the consent of those governed.
Through a carefully written Constitution, the Founders created an enduring framework of limited government based on the rule of law. With this structure, they sought to establish true religious liberty, provide for economic opportunity, secure national independence and maintain a flourishing society of republican self-government — all in the name of a simple but radical idea of human liberty. These principles — proclaimed by the Founders in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Constitution — still define us as a nation.
Despite constant criticism and scorn by academic elites, political leaders and the popular media, most Americans still believe in the Founders' principles. Long-term polling shows this is still a center-right nation, largely defined by these core characteristics. Today, America's core principles — limited government, free markets, religious liberty, self-government — are under assault in the name of liberalism. Americans are deeply concerned — witness recent town-hall meetings and expanding "tea parties" — about turning away from these core principles. To the extent that conservatism means conserving these principles and an America that continues to uphold these principles, Americans will continue to shift that way.
3. The House has introduced its health-care plan that is full of government mandates and taxes, things Americans have made it clear they don't want. Why aren't elected officials listening?
According to the Founders' view, the purpose of government is to secure fundamental, God-given natural rights within a rule-of-law framework of constitutional government. Legitimate government arose from the consent of the governed, stemming from the fundamental sovereignty of the American people. In the new view, government must always evolve and expand to do more things, and be ever more actively involved in day-to-day American life.
The progressives say they want more democracy, but they want the real decisions and details of governing to be handled by "experts," administrators and bureaucrats, who are separated and immune from the influence of public opinion and partisan politics. They would be in charge of running a bureaucracy designed to keep up with government's expanding ends.
The theory is that "objective" and "neutral" experts who "know better" than the average citizen would act above popular opinion and petty partisanship. They would responsibly serve the long-term objectives of the nation's social programs. The result is that many of the decisions of lawmaking and public policy —decisions previously the constitutional responsibility of elected legislators subject to popular opinion — are delegated to unaccountable bureaucrats.
Today, when Congress writes legislation, it uses broad language that essentially turns legislative power over to government agencies. Those agencies are given the authority of executing and adjudicating violations of their regulations. Government-run health care would do this in spades, by determining legitimate needs and rationing medical services through government mandates. In sum, while seemingly advocating more democracy, in practice, progressive liberalism wants the opposite: more centralized government authority.
4. How do we combat mainstream media that marginalize Americans and their attempts to exercise their free-speech rights through tea parties and town-hall meetings?
Under the Constitution, the Founders limited government in order to maintain and protect a wide realm of liberty. They established a framework for exercising rights and practicing the habits of self-government (such as free speech), protecting a thriving and decentralized system of states, local communities and civil society in which churches and other traditional institutions would help shape the lives and characters of free citizens.
The objective of the new thinking, and a major cultural component of modern-day liberalism, is to transform America from a decentralized, self-governing society based on a framework of limited government, free markets and traditional cultural institutions into a great progressive society. This new society would be built around a homogeneous national community focused on national ideals and the achievement of social justice. To bring about social progress and reform, the progressives argue, the influence of popular opinion and the institutions of civil society that emphasized moral character and religious conviction — indeed, the very idea of popular self-government — had to be weakened and overcome, replaced by government-created and government-directed national community.
So convinced are they of the correctness of their policies and the appeal of more government control – how could any reasonable person disagree? – progressives conclude that public opposition to their agenda must be orchestrated by special interests and motivated by mob-like passions. Whether a tea party or Fox News commentator, it is simply not a legitimate opinion worthy of their respect. The way for concerned Americans to push back, of course, is to redouble our efforts to make our opinions known — including advancing the principle that our opinions, in the end, matter more than those of government bureaucrats.
5. What can we do to regain our strength as a nation?
What we don't need is to remake America, or discover new and untested principles. The change we need is a great renewal of the foundational principles and limited, constitutional government that are the true roots of America's greatness. In a world of moral confusion, of arbitrary and unlimited government, the American founding is our best access to permanent truths. It's our best ground from which to launch a radical questioning of the whole progressive project.
We need a new American revolution. Not an overthrow of the government, not a great social upheaval, but a radical re-application of America's core principles to the great questions of our day. First, we must rediscover these principles as a people, teach these principles in our schools and give voice to these principles in our politics and public square. Second, we must recover a popular understanding of constitutional government. We must develop new leaders who understand these terms and will abide by the Constitution. In the end, America's principles must become again, as Jefferson said, "an expression of the American mind."
This isn't just about new policy prescriptions. Our purpose must be to conserve the principles of liberty and make them the central idea of our politics once again.
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