According to McGovern, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were liberals. He thinks that Republicans Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt were liberals. Here is what McGovern tells us about Lincoln:
"Lincoln's liberalism also went beyond the leanings of many of today's alleged liberals. He believed, for example, that laboring people were the backbone of the economy - more important than the capitalists on top."
Although McGovern has many conservative friends, he contrasts liberals from conservatives in this way:
"If there is any one overall defining difference between liberalism and conservatism throughout our history, it has been the effort of liberals to utilize the powers of government to serve the well being of rank-and-file Americans, as compared to the conservative preference for government with a special concern for maintaining the stability and prosperity of the business and commercial interests of the nation."
Right on. This is why I am a liberal.
McGovern goes further and states that Bush and the other Republicans in power today are not conservative. Accumulating a huge budget deficit, working in secret, wantonly invading a sovereign nation and jeopardizing the Bill of Rights are not acts of conservatives.
McGovern praises Republican President Eisenhower for his words warning us of the growing strength of the military-industrial complex. The current adminstration is making this complex stronger. We are now a very militaristic society.
The author is upset by this. He lists the many sources of security that America possesses, but we depend primarily on our military strength. Why, he asks, did we not do this in Iraq:
"Suppose that instead of invading Iraq, the U.S. had persuaded the UN to join us in providing a good, nutritious school lunch every day to every schoolchild in Iraq."
I cannot imagine Bush ever thinking this way.
With their "us vs. them" philosophy, Republicans have placed much of the country under morbid paralysis. We have the ridiculously-big and disjointed Homeland Security Department, the Patriot Act that challenges the Bill of Rights, and chaos in all airports. I take a lot of pleasure in quoting McGovern about airport "security":
"We of course need to take some precautions at our airports, perhaps arming the pilot and copilot on commercial airplanes with grapeshot guns and putting a similarly armed martial on each flight. But the army of inspectors, searchers, police officials, and soldiers who now clutter up our airports, requiring passengers to empty their pockets, take off their shoes and belts, and wait in line while their baggage is searched - all of this is dubious. When I walk into an airport, I don't fear a terrorist attack - I fear the delay and frustration of trying to survive all the barriers before I finally fall into my seat, flustered and exhausted, or sometimes even missing my flight."
Read this book and find out what liberals are like. They are open, positive, believe in progress and sincerely want the government to help ordinary Americans.
