HOW POLICY AFFECTS FREEDOM

There are two philosophical types of freedom: “positive freedom” and “negative freedom,” also referred to as “freedom to” and “freedom from,” respectively. Government policies and programs have a big impact on the freedom we experience. “Freedom to” better aligns with democracy and equal opportunity. However, for 40 years, “freedom from” has dominated U.S. politics and policy making. President Biden and Democrats in Congress are working to change that and promote “freedom to.”

(Note: If you find my posts too long to read on occasion, please just skim the bolded portions. They present the key points I’m making. Thanks for reading my blog! Special Note: The new, more user-friendly website for my blog presents the Latest Posts chronologically here: https://www.policyforthepeople.org/blog. The new home page, where posts are presented by topics, is here: https://www.policyforthepeople.org. Please click on the Subscribe Today button to continue receiving notification of my posts. I plan to retire this site at some point.)

My previous post began an exploration of what freedom means in a democratic society. It provided an overview of the two philosophical types of freedom: “positive freedom” and “negative freedom.” Negative freedom is often referred to as “freedom from” and positive freedom as “freedom to.” “Freedom from” means freedom from constraints of external forces, while “freedom to” means the opportunity to make choices, take advantage of possibilities, pursue happiness, and be safe and secure. “Freedom to” is facilitated by governments’ policies and programs that protect rights, promote equal opportunity, provide a safety net, and invest in public infrastructure, including investments in knowledge and innovation through research. (Note: The terms “freedom” and “liberty” are generally used interchangeably by political and social philosophers.)

Beginning in the 1970s and continuing to today, the “freedom from” philosophy has been ascendant in American policy and politics. As a result, there has been a push to reduce the role of government in our society. Efforts to reduce the size of government have been part of this, including through policies that cut taxes so government has less revenue to fund its activities and programs. Cuts in the safety net of economic supports and assistance have followed, including everything from the minimum wage and overtime pay to unemployment benefits to housing and food assistance. As a result, the economic security and “freedom to” of many middle and low-income people has been undermined.

The push for freedom from government constraints has been applied not only to individuals, but also to businesses. This has led to deregulation of business, which has predominantly benefited large, wealthy corporations and their executives and investors (as has the tax cutting noted above). One piece of this deregulation had been the suspension of enforcement of anti-trust laws. As a result, huge companies have been formed and now almost every sector of the American economy is dominated by a few large companies. These companies have monopolistic power over markets resulting in reduced consumer choice, fewer employment options, and often lower quality in goods and services. They also have the power to manipulate prices, squash market place competition, and exert significant influence over our economic and political systems.

Reduced government regulation of the private sector has resulted in a loss of “freedom to” in many ways. Private companies have reduced the economic security of workers, which reduces their freedom to pursue opportunities and happiness. For example, employers have been allowed to make cuts in employer-provided health and retirement benefits. Companies have also imposed external constraints on workers and consumers. For example, many employers require workers to sign non-compete clauses prohibiting them from going to work for a competitor – a significant loss of job opportunities. Consumers are required to sign mandatory arbitration agreements in many contracts for products or services, which ban consumers from suing companies, including through class action lawsuits. This is just one item in the lengthy contracts consumers are required to sign for many services, particularly in the software and Internet markets.

Reduced regulation of companies as employers, and therefore of the labor market, has led to a dramatic decline in union membership. This has reduced workers’ ability to bargain collectively for economic security through job stability and good pay and benefits. As a result, “freedom to” has been dramatically reduced for many workers. In addition, the exploitation of labor has gone so far as to lead to a push to repeal child labor laws. These protect children from working in unsafe and unhealthy environments and from working long and late hours, which inhibit their ability to learn in school and therefore gain knowledge and skills that will provide them opportunities (i.e., “freedom to”) in the future. [1] [2]

On top of policies that have allowed these huge companies to be formed, U.S. policies have allowed financial speculation, manipulation, and exploitation through private equity firms and vulture capitalism. This, coupled with reduced taxes, has led to extremely wealthy businesspeople and investors who have outsized influence in public (or what should be public) functions and decision making. These very wealthy businesspeople, usually men, have great power not just in the economic system, but also in politics and information dissemination through ownership of social media and of many media outlets (e.g., Fox TV, many other TV and radio stations, and many local and national newspapers). They even can have dramatic effects on international populations and events. The Gates Foundation exerts tremendous influence over education in the U.S. and global health initiatives. Elon Musk, through his ownership of the Starlink satellite Internet service, often controls communication in disaster or war zones. US policies have allowed him to launch over 4,500 satellites (over 50% of all active satellites) and to maintain control over their use. At least twice, he has cut off Ukraine’s use of Starlink communications when they were critical to their efforts to fight Russia. [3]

Basic economics describes capitalism as a system that advances “freedom to” for consumers and workers – freedom to make rational decisions and choices among good alternatives. Free market capitalism is supposed to provide perfect competition among multiple providers of goods and services, while consumers and workers have the full information they need to make good choices that are in their best interests.

However, this is not the economy we have, because without government regulation (i.e., with “freedom from”) the private sector has shown itself to be greedy and manipulative, even rapacious. Perhaps the greatest obstacle to economic freedom today is businesses’ monopolistic power over consumers, workers, and even government policies. We need to restore competition to promote innovation, protect workers, keep prices down, provide good choices, and preserve democracy. In other words, competition is needed to provide “freedom to.” Recent estimates have put the cost of the lack of competition at as much as $5,000 a year for a typical U.S. household.

To address the 40-year trajectory of declining economic competition and “freedom to,” President Biden has established a White House Competition Council. It is directing government-wide efforts to promote competition in the private sector. For example, the Federal Trade Commission is reinvigorating enforcement of antitrust laws As Biden recently stated, “Fair competition is why capitalism has been the world’s greatest force for prosperity and growth. … But what we’ve seen over the past few decades is less competition and more concentration that holds our economy back.” [4]

[1] Stancil, K., 7/19/23, “GOP assault on child labor laws under fresh scrutiny after 16-year-old dies at poultry plant,” Common Dreams (https://www.commondreams.org/news/mississippi-poultry-plant-teen-dies)

[2] The Conversation, 6/26/23, “States are weakening their child labor restrictions nearly 8 decades after the US government took kids out of the workforce,” (https://theconversation.com/states-are-weakening-their-child-labor-restrictions-nearly-8-decades-after-the-us-government-took-kids-out-of-the-workforce-205175)

[3] Richardson, H.C., 9/9/23, “Letters from an American blog,” https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-9-2023

[4] Richardson, H.C., 9/26/23, “Letters from an American blog,” (https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-26-2023)

WHAT KIND OF FREEDOM DO YOU WANT?

There are two philosophical types of freedom: “positive freedom” and “negative freedom.” Conflicts occur when one person’s freedom impinges on another person’s freedom. Laws, societal standards, and government attempt to strike a balance in such situations. If a society wants to increase freedom broadly, it must establish policies and institutions that ensure people have positive freedom, which means realistic options in making choices about important opportunities.

My last four posts have been a reflection on the state of our democracy, as well as what we need to do to restore American democracy and belief in it. They are a review of the book by George Packer, Last best hope: America in crisis and renewal.

Just beneath the surface of the discussion of American democracy is the question: What does freedom mean in a democratic society? Packer writes that the greatest obstacle to economic freedom today is businesses’ monopolistic power over consumers, workers, and government. This is one piece of freedom.

There are two philosophical types of freedom: “positive freedom” and “negative freedom.” Negative freedom is characterized by the absence of imposed, explicit external constraints on personal decision making and behavior. Libertarians and Packer’s Free Americans are proponents of this type of freedom. (Note: The terms “freedom” and “liberty” are generally used interchangeably by political and social philosophers.)

Positive freedom is characterized by conditions where individuals are enabled and empowered to realistically pursue any opportunity that interests them. Positive freedom requires the absence of implicit external constraints such as discrimination, a lack of access to or unaffordability of desired goods, services, or opportunities (e.g., jobs, education, and where one would like to live).

In shorthand, negative freedom is referred to as “freedom from” and positive freedom is referred to as “freedom to.” In other words, freedom from constraints of external forces versus freedom to make choices and take advantage of opportunities, to pursue happiness, and to be safe and secure.

Conflicts occur when one person’s freedom impinges on another person’s freedom. These situations are where laws, societal standards, and government attempt to strike a balance between one person’s freedom and another’s.

Traffic laws and their enforcement are examples of where the balancing of freedom from versus freedom to play out. If traffic laws are lax and/or laxly enforced, freedom from constraints is the priority. However, the safety and enjoyment of other drivers and road users (e.g., pedestrians and bicyclists) is compromised. If freedom to is the emphasis, there are strict traffic laws and enforcement. For example, in Finland, speed limits tend to be lower than in the U.S. (at least in heavily populated areas), speed cameras for enforcement are ubiquitous, and tickets are assessed, not as a fixed fine, but as a percentage of one’s income. As a result, drivers’ behavior is more civilized and roads are safer for drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists. The road death rate is one-third of what it is in the U.S. (Interestingly, late at night in Finland, most traffic lights are turned off!) [1]

Another Finnish example of a focus on freedom to is the way that income and opportunity are spread across the lifespan through taxes and benefit programs. Although taxes are high on income during one’s peak earning years, they are used to support young families and seniors. This effectively evens out income over one’s lifespan and enhances positive freedom in the early years of raising a family and in retirement (i.e., the ability to make choices and take advantage of opportunities, to pursue happiness).

In Finland, the costs of child-raising are significantly subsidized (e.g., through paid parental leave and subsidized child care) when parents are young and their earnings may be low as they’re early in their careers or furthering their education. This allows parents to make relatively unconstrained decisions about when and how many children to have.

In the U.S., the tremendous expense of child raising is the most common reason given by women for seeking an abortion and is a reason many parents have fewer children than they would like. Reproductive freedom isn’t just about birth control, it’s about the ability to choose (and afford) when and how many children to have.

To help with the high costs of child raising, the U.S. enacted an enhanced child tax credit as part of Covid pandemic relief in 2021. It reduced child poverty by 46% (from 9.7% to 5.2%), lifting 3.7 million children and 5.3 million people out of poverty. (Child poverty is basically non-existent in Finland.) It reduced hunger, homelessness, and low birth weight babies, while improving maternal and mental health. It improved the well-being of children and families of color even more dramatically than for white children and families. [2] (For more detail on the benefits of the enhanced child tax credit see this previous post.)

However, when the initial program expired in December 2021, congressional Republicans and a few Democrats refused to extend the program. Apparently, a majority of congressional lawmakers don’t believe in positive freedom, even for families with children. As a result, in January 2022, child poverty increased by 41% and hunger rose 25%. The arguments against continuing the enhanced child tax credit were that families would misuse the money, that they would reduce their workforce participation, and that they didn’t really need the money. However, research showed that families had spent the money on food, housing, and other things that benefited children, like education; and that it didn’t reduce the amount they worked.

Having guaranteed health insurance also contributes to positive freedom. Everyone in Finland has guaranteed health insurance but not in the U.S. This means that in Finland people’s choices aren’t constrained by concern about losing health insurance, such as when quitting jobs, starting a business, or losing a job. Moreover, they don’t have to worry about having to change doctors when they switch jobs, go back to school, or their employer switches insurance plans.

All human societies are complex and people are interdependent in innumerable and often unapparent ways. Negative freedom (freedom from) and individualism only get you so far – to the end of your driveway or to when you have a serious health issue.

If a society wants to increase freedom broadly, it must establish policies and institutions that ensure positive freedom (freedom to) so people have realistic options in making choices about important opportunities throughout their lives. Freedom is NOT maximized when some people are allowed to indulge their every whim, no matter the consequences to others or our planet.

[1] Cooper, R., 9/14/23, “The Nordic way of freedom,” The American Prospect (https://prospect.org/world/2023-09-14-nordic-way-of-freedom/)

[2] Covert, B., & Konczal, M., 9/1/23, “We have the solution to child poverty. Republicans are blocking it.” The Nation (https://www.thenation.com/article/economy/child-tax-credit-poverty/)

CRISIS AND HOPE FOR AMERICAN DEMOCRACY Part 4

George Packer’s book, Last best hope: America in crisis and renewal, offers an analysis of American democracy’s current crisis. He points out that our democracy has gone through similar crises in the past. He identifies key elements of a functioning democracy and four cultural narratives, moral identities, or “tribes” that have emerged in the U.S. They have fractured American politics and society. This post, the last in a 4-part series, discusses his specific recommendations on how we put America back together again.

In Packer’s analysis, America fractured in the 1970s. From two relatively stable cultural narratives or moral identities aligned with the Democratic and Republican parties, four rival narratives emerged. Previous posts summarized the narratives of the Free America and Smart America “tribes” here and of the Real America and Just America “tribes” here.

All four “tribes” emerged due to America’s failure to maintain a middle-class-focused democracy and an economy that lived up to its founding principle of equal opportunity for all. Although this ideal has never been reached and has often been violated, without a commitment to work toward it, American democracy cannot function.

American democracy has had near-death experiences before; perhaps, most relevant is the Civil War. Americans have used the same tools of citizenship to recover democracy that we have today: journalism, government, and activism. (See this previous post for an overview of this history and the overall path to recovery.)

We will require a period of detoxification according to Packer’s analysis. It will also be essential to show the American people that government can make, and is making, their lives better. The economy must be governed so that everyone has a chance, not just to survive, but to participate in society with dignity and with a real chance to enjoy life, liberty, and happiness.

Packer states that the first needed step is to repair the safety net for workers and families by building on FDR’s New Deal of the 1930s, including policies such as universal health care and child care, paid family and medical leave, a living wage, solid unemployment insurance, and stronger workplace safety protections. He advocates for improved education for poor and middle-class children, including by moving funding responsibility away from local communities with more state and federal support for local public schools

Second, workers and citizens in the middle and lower-income brackets need to have more economic and political power. A key strategy is to make it easier for workers to organize and form unions, including instituting collective bargaining across whole sectors of the economy, not just with individual employers (e.g., for fast food workers and hospitality workers in hotels). In addition to direct benefits for workers and their families, unions build shared experience, responsibility, and empowerment among diverse groups of workers. Packer also suggests worker representation on corporate boards as is done in Europe.

Third, a new type of activism is needed that builds cohesion and solves real problems. It goes beyond just protesting and embraces working together. The local level, including local government, presents promising opportunities for this. This new activism is emerging and empowers Americans, makes their voices heard, and allows them to act as self-governing citizens.

Fourth, American democracy needs a revitalization that ensures that every citizen’s voice is heard. This means encouraging voter participation and stopping the erection of barriers to voting. Racial and partisan gerrymandering need to be ended. Campaign financing needs to be reformed, including through the use of public funds to make small contributions more impactful.

Packer advocates for significant government investments in key economic sectors, such as clean energy, manufacturing, education, and caregiving to create jobs, stimulate innovation, and raise pay and benefits for workers. A fairer tax system is also necessary to put the brakes on growing inequality. This would require taxing wealth, including an increase in taxes on large estates.

Packer writes that the greatest obstacle to economic freedom today is businesses’ monopolistic power over consumers, workers, and government. He also cites the need for reform of the media which are under financial, technological, and political pressures. The result is an information (and disinformation) stream that is faster, simpler, louder, more partisan, and more divisive. The demise of small news outlets (in large part due to our winner take all economic system) has led to the nationalization of news and politics, polarization of “facts,” and partisanship in everything that is reported. Objectivity is routinely questioned and struggled with in today’s journalism. Fear of hyper-partisan responses and social media firestorms has bred a self-censorship in the media that is more dangerous and less visible than government censorship. All of this leads to less thoughtful journalism and readership. And all of this is exacerbated by the rise of the big tech monopolies in social media.

I encourage you to engage in constructive activism in whatever way works for you. Working on local issues and/or in local government is a great way to work productively with others to address concrete issues that affect people’s everyday lives. Writing letters to the editor of local news outlets is an important way to share information and opinions.

In addition to voting, being informed about and engaging in campaigns for elected offices is, of course, essential to a functioning democracy. Engagement can involve volunteering for campaign work locally or remotely (e.g., through writing postcards to encourage voter registration and turnout). Making contributions to candidates you support of whatever amount you’re comfortable with is also an important way to participate.

I encourage you to contact your elected officials and, if possible, establish a personal relationship with them (and/or members of their staff). This ensures that your voice is heard – even when you don’t get the result you would like. Volunteering for or contributing to candidates’ campaigns helps in getting their attention and building a relationship with them.

Democracy is NOT a spectator sport. If all of us are engaged and act as responsible citizens, in whatever ways we can, large or small, we can revitalize our democracy and its work toward its founding and exemplary principle of equal opportunity for all. This probably won’t happen as quickly or easily as we’d like, and it will happen with fits and starts, but we can make it happen if we all pitch in.

CRISIS AND HOPE FOR AMERICAN DEMOCRACY Part 3

George Packer’s book, Last best hope: America in crisis and renewal, offers an analysis of how American democracy got to its current crisis and how it will, hopefully, renew itself and survive. He points out that American democracy has gone through similar crises in the past. He identifies key elements of a functioning democracy and four cultural narratives, moral identities, or “tribes” that have emerged in the U.S. They have fractured American politics and society. This post, number 3 in a 4-part series, summarizes the decline of democracy in America and outlines the path to recovering it.

(Note: If you find my posts too long to read on occasion, please just skim the bolded portions. They present the key points I’m making. Special Note: The new, more user-friendly website for my blog presents the Latest Posts chronologically here: https://www.policyforthepeople.org/blog. The new home page, where posts are presented by topics, is here: https://www.policyforthepeople.org. Please click on the Subscribe Today button to continue receiving notification of my posts. I plan to retire the old site at some point. Thank you for reading my blog!)

In Packer’s analysis, America fractured in the 1970s. From two relatively stable cultural narratives or moral identities aligned with the Democratic and Republican parties, four rival narratives emerged. Packer names and describes these four new “tribes.” Previous posts summarized the narratives of the Free America and Smart America tribes here and of the Real America and Just America tribes here.

All four tribes emerged due to America’s failure to maintain a middle-class-focused democracy and an economy that lived up to its founding principle of equal opportunity for all. Forty years of increasing economic inequality and declining social mobility have turned America into a stratified society where wealth and status are now strongly linked to heredity.

The vision of a democracy based on equality for all has been badly damaged, although it is still clung to as central to American identity. Disillusionment has grown as progress toward the ideal of equality seems to have stalled or reversed. Although this ideal has never been reached and has often been violated, without a commitment to work toward it, American democracy cannot function.

Each of the four tribes is a response to real problems and espouses values that are essential for American democracy. They shape each other, as alliances among and membership of them are in constant flux. However, their tendency is to divide us, which tends to push each tribe to its extremes.

Elections in America force a choice between two alternatives. In 2020 and 2016, the choice fractured the country and forced a strained and temporary alignment of Smart and Just America on the Democratic side and Free and Real America on the Republican side. As the national sense of a common purpose shattered, our ability to engage in self-governing democracy suffered. Individualists, even if they were all equal, feel little obligation to those outside their small, inner circles and grow indifferent to, and even distrustful of, the common good. The pursuit of happiness becomes an individual endeavor and is increasingly defined as accumulating wealth.

The vehemence of the political divide, the desire of those with political and economic power to retain it, the leaning of the American system of government in favor of the minority party (e.g., the apportionment and operation of the U.S. Senate), and the powerful role that wealth plays in our politics and economy have led the Republican Party to embrace the retention of power by undemocratic means.

American democracy has had near-death experiences before: the Gilded Age of the late 1800s, the Great Depression of the 1930s, the 1960s, and, perhaps most relevant, the Civil War. Packer states that “These years we’re living through feel like the 1850s.” (page 167)

The desire for equality, despite its link to individualism and the pursuit of wealth, is a core piece of American identity. So are the love of democracy and innovation, as well as suspicion of authority, intellect, and elitism. The way forward must embrace all of these and revive the progress toward equality for all where each person is free and able to pursue their individual dreams while having a voice in shaping our shared destiny. Packer notes that historically, Americans have used the same tools of citizenship to recover democracy that we have today: journalism, government, and activism.

As examples of people who have used these tools in the past, Packard writes about Horace Greeley, Frances Perkins, and Bayard Rustin. Greeley was “an extraordinary man who never stopped identifying with ordinary people; a journalist whose vocation was to be a citizen.” (page 172) Perkins, FDR’s Secretary of Labor and the first woman in a presidential cabinet, was “able to move between the worlds of the elites and the masses in a way that seems unthinkable today.” (page 178) She was driven by a “patriotism based on the love of the men and women who were fellow citizens.” (page 175) Packer notes that in the 1930s to be woke was apparently patriotic.

Rustin started his fight against injustice and racism well before the 1960s. In 1949, Rustin was arrested for sitting in a white seat on a bus, long before the Freedom Riders of the early 1960s. He was instrumental in organizing the 1963 March on Washington and was on the Lincoln Memorial next to Martin Luther King as King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. Rustin was committed to justice for all, not just black Americans.

Packer summarizes the current situation this way: “Inequality destroys the sense of shared citizenship, and with it self-government.” (page 187) Democracy is not a spectator sport and, by being complacent, Americans have demonstrated how fragile it is. To rebuild America and our democracy we will “have to create the conditions of equality and [re]acquire the art of self-government.” (page 190) Packer quotes from Walter Lippman’s 1914 progressive vision in his book Drift and Mastery: “You can’t expect civic virtue from a disenfranchised class … The first item in the program of self-government is to drag the whole population well above the misery line.” (page 191)

My next post will complete my review of Packer’s book. It will discuss his specific recommendations on how we put America back together again.

CRISIS AND HOPE FOR AMERICAN DEMOCRACY Part 2

George Packer’s book, Last best hope: America in crisis and renewal, offers an analysis of how American democracy got to its current crisis and how it will, hopefully, renew itself and survive. He points out that American democracy has gone through similar crises in the past. He identifies key elements of a functioning democracy and four cultural narratives, moral identities, or “tribes” that have emerged in the U.S. They have fractured American politics and society.

In Packer’s analysis, America fractured in the 1970s from two relatively stable cultural narratives or moral identities aligned with the Democratic and Republican parties into four rival narratives. Democrats traditionally stood for workers, social solidarity, and ensuring fairness for all. Republicans stood for business, individual enterprise, and getting ahead. In the late 1960s, both parties were undemocratic, corrupt, and often bigoted. Some of the organized constituencies that had traditionally been aligned with each party began to question their affiliation. The post-World War II, middle-class-focused, bipartisan America was being transformed.

Packer names and describes four new, rival cultural narratives, moral identities, or “tribes” that emerged from this transformation. My previous post briefly summarized the Free America and Smart America tribes. This post provides a summary of the other two: Real America and Just America.

Real America: The members of the Real America tribe typically live in small towns and are hardworking, patriotic, generally Christian, predominantly white, members of the working class. They are suspicious of both a shiftless underclass and a parasitic upper class. They blame multinational corporations and big government for their declining socioeconomic status. Internationally, they are isolationists.

Real Americans typically support the Republican Party, which has cultivated their loyalty with its culture war politics of racist, xenophobic, anti-abortion, and anti-LGBTQ positions. They turn a blind eye to the Republicans’ support of big business and the wealthy, despite its undermining of their economic security. As their economic security and opportunities have declined, they have rightly felt that neither party was listening to them and that they had no voice and no way of participating meaningfully in American democracy.

Therefore, despair and anger have grown in Real America. Donald Trump’s rhetoric gave voice to their despair and anger. They turned a blind eye to his (and the Republican Party’s) support for big business and the wealthy (again). His apparent empathy with their feelings and raw emotions about blacks, immigrants, cultural changes, and their decline in social status were all they needed to hear to become ardent supporters. His identity politics was classic demagoguery, connecting with their sense of grievance and unfairness, their fear of the “other” (e.g., blacks, immigrants, non-heterosexuals, and non-evangelical Christians), and their desire for power to push back against their perceived enemies, including economic and political elites.

Just America: Members of the Just America tribe tend to be young (born in the late 1990s or after) and to have a jaundiced view of the progress of America towards its aspirational principle of equal opportunity for all. They are skeptical of capitalism and democracy, as well as of business and political elites. They see an accumulation of failures by these elites including on civil rights, criminal justice, economic inequality, and climate change.

Many of them entered the workforce with crushing college debt only to find employment opportunities limited by the Great Recession, a skewed economy, and then the pandemic. With the election of Donald Trump, police killings of unarmed blacks, rampant gun violence, active undermining of democracy by Republicans, unaddressed climate change, and re-emergent racism and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and policies, Just Americans see little of value in America’s historical path and traditions.

They espouse a new, more differentiated identity politics, a politics focused on identity groups and not individuals. They expand identity politics from a focus on just race, ethnicity, religion, and gender, to a more differentiated version based on sexuality (i.e., LGBTQ+), on differentiated types of disabilities, and on the intersections among the old identity categories as well as the new ones.

Events that have paralleled the rise of Just America include the multiple and continuing killings of often unarmed blacks, particularly young males, by white police officers and others. These are now often caught on video by cellphone cameras, such as that of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in the summer of 2014 and of George Floyd in Minnesota in 2020.

The publication of The 1619 Project: A new origin story in the summer of 2019, with its re-examination of the history of slavery, furthered Just Americans’ call for action to address the persistent effects of slavery and racial discrimination. Their perception is that America has a persistent, caste-like, racial hierarchy. But Just Americans aren’t only focused on race, they also support economic justice, addressing gender issues, justice for the LGBTQ+ community, and tackling climate change and environmental concerns.

New language based on Just America’s principles has become pervasive in our society, including, for example, systemic racism, white privilege, marginalized communities, toxic masculinity, intersectionality, nonbinary, and BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color). Just America has changed the way Americans think, talk, and act, but has not yet significantly changed most people’s lived experiences.

Just American’s strong commitment to social justice has, at times, made them hostile to open debate and compromise.

My next post will discuss the interactions among Packer’s four American tribes and his analysis of where we go from here, including how we put America back together and back on track.