It’s about freedom

Back in 2010, then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry was interviewed on NPR’s Morning Edition to tout a new book. Ho hum, you might think, but Perry had a memorable comment that highlights the growing distinction between Democrats and Republicans in the age of Donald Trump.
Perry was asked about the difference between his state and California and, dripping with southern sarcasm, noted that California had gay marriage and legal marijuana, neither of which was allowed in the Lone Star state at the time.
“In Texas,” said Perry, “we still believe in freedom.”
It’s doubtful that Perry recognized the irony in his words. But he, perhaps inadvertently, hit on a theme that has taken hold in the current race for the White House.
At last week’s Democratic convention, the idea of freedom became a central pillar of any number of speeches, but was perhaps best expressed by our own governor, Tim Walz, when he said in Minnesota we respect the personal choices our neighbors make. “And even if we wouldn’t make the same choice ourselves, we’ve got a golden rule, ‘Mind your own damn business.’”
We suspect to most Americans, freedom is about the right to make our own personal choices as we each exercise our constitutional right to pursue happiness, whatever that means for each of us. That means having the right to choose who we love, who we marry, or whether we prefer a beer or a joint at the end of the day. It’s the freedom to read what we want, and to make our own health care decisions. It’s a recognition that what makes each of us happy is different and that when it comes to our personal liberties — essentially our right to be left alone — we should expect that as long as we’re not bothering others, we should be free to do as we please.
It is more complicated than that, of course. There are times when the need for public safety puts limits on our actions. Governments have always been allowed to regulate citizens when they can show a “compelling state interest,” which is the standard long set by the courts.
For years, when Republicans have talked about freedom, they mostly meant deregulation of business. Indeed, that’s exactly what Rick Perry stated in that 2010 interview. The GOP has long represented the most polluting industries in America and the party’s elected officials have fought for years to loosen regulations, such as those that protect air and water quality, consumer and workforce safety, or help victims of corporate greed and excess.
To the GOP, freedom doesn’t apply to “we the people.” It means the right of corporations, or the owners of capital, to do as they please, including paying little or no taxes on the profits they make off the rest of us. Yet Trump and his supporters are going even further, seeking to undermine our personal freedoms by undermining the rule of law. Trump’s promise to politicize the Justice Department, federal agencies, and the federal judiciary itself, would undermine the concept of fair justice, and leave Americans subject to arbitrary government power, largely at the whim of the president.
Trump often talks of using the military to crush political protest and he’s done more than talk about it. Who can forget the deployment of troops near the White House in 2020, to tear-gas peaceful protesters who were cleared out to make way for one of the most bizarre presidential photo ops in American history— Trump, holding up a Bible outside of St. John’s Church.
Trump’s action that day demonstrated, more clearly than anything, his disdain for the freedom of fellow Americans and for his oath to faithfully execute the U.S. Constitution, including our First Amendment right of peaceful assembly. His authoritarian mindset put his desire to play to his Christian fundamentalist base above the rights of others to live as free citizens.
That same disdain for protestors extends to many other citizens who don’t conform to the right’s preferred version of a true American because of race, gender, religion, beliefs, or national origin. When Trump talks of making America great again, he’s talking about returning to an era when true freedom in America was largely reserved for white Christian men. Trump’s MAGA movement is, in part, a backlash to the progress we have made to extend those same freedoms to those who were excluded from America’s promise in the past.
What we saw at last week’s Democratic convention was America’s tremendous diversity on full display, all culminating in the nomination of a Black and Indian woman for an office that would have been inconceivable in the America to which Donald Trump hopes to return us all. For all those who have fought for their own hard-earned inclusion in the promise of America, it’s easy to understand why Democrats say: “We’re not going back.”