The DebCo Manifesto
I am a liberal. I prefer the term progressive for lots of reasons, but liberal is a perfectly fine word and it ought to get more use than as a casually flung pejorative. Unlike a lot of people who say, yeah, I’m a social liberal but I’m economically conservative, I gotta say, I’m an economic and a social liberal, perhaps more economic than social when all is said and done.
I believe in individual responsibility. I believe we have too many laws and that many of them are excessively stupid. I believe we must treat people fairly and with dignity. I don’t believe in class warfare and I wish the rich guys who harp on the poor all the time and push for punishing, restrictive legislation would cut it out. I believe that everyone has certain unalienable rights that cannot be abridged.
Everyone. I believe that this not only trumps ‘majority rules’ but that democracy in this country has been and has the potential to be far greater than just a bunch of people who get to vote. I believe that the law is not there to tell everyone to live like me. Or like you. Or like all of us together living all the same forever. I believe in individual choice, personal freedom, and privacy. I believe that mistakes are made, that people make foolish decisions, that sometimes bad things happen. I believe we can learn from these things.
I believe we need more space for people to come together that is restricted by neither government or business. I believe the world of business works best when fairness and ethics and the true costs of things are important. I believe that if it’s not possible to make money off something and to act ethically and honestly at the same time then one ought not to make money off that thing. I believe that there is such a thing as having too much money. I also believe that there is such a thing as having too little.
I believe that discrimination exists, that diversity is important, and that there are certain principles of behavior, ethics, and responsibility that ought to be universal.
I believe that it’s possible to hold two contradictory thoughts in my head at the same time. I believe that the subject of individual freedoms is a complex one that is not well served with sound bites and sensationalism. On the subject of individual freedoms, I choose to come down on the side of more, not less. I believe in the Constitution of the United States of America. I believe that we better oughta make choices that are to the benefit of our community (whatever that is) as well as ourselves. I believe that the decisions I make as part of a greater whole can be different than those I make as an individual and that the difference between the two is one of the places that government matters.