The Collectivist Convention: The Democrats' Bait-and-Switch Philosophy

This contrast is most striking in Tuesday's keynote speech by Barack Obama, who borrows some of his eloquence from Thomas Jefferson: "Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' That is the true genius of America."

But Obama goes too far—and gives the whole game away. What does it mean to believe that individuals have the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"? It means that each individual has to right to be free from government interference—and free to pursue his own happiness and well-being. The Founders held an implicit ethics of rational self-interest. It was not the alleged self-interest of a brute who lives by plundering his fellow man, but "self-interest properly understood"—to use the phrase popular at the time—which means a system of liberty, property rights, the rule of law, and limited government.

But Obama brushes all of this aside when he gives his recommendation of John Kerry: "Our Party has chosen a man to lead us who embodies the best this country has to offer.... John Kerry understands the ideals of community, faith, and service." How did we get from "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" to "community, faith, and service"? Obama provides no answer—but it is clear, by the end of the speech, which side of that contradiction is winning in his mind:

"Alongside our famous individualism, there’s another ingredient in the American saga. A belief that we’re all connected as one people.... It is that fundamental belief—I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper—that makes this country work…. E pluribus unum. Out of many, one."

The man who made this technique most explicit was Ted Kennedy. Speaking Tuesday night, he freely invoked Boston's Revolutionary War heritage. But what, in his view, is that heritage? "Ideals like freedom and equality and opportunity and fairness and common decency for all—ideals that all Americans yearn to reclaim."

"Equality" had a specific meaning to the Founders: equality of rights. It meant that no class of aristocrats possessed special rights at the expense of other citizens. They never endorsed egalitarianism. But you wouldn't know that by listening to Ted Kennedy. Indeed, he cites, as the noblest period in America's history, the Democrats' crusade for the welfare state. "Time and again in America’s history, we as Democrats have offered new hope—of a stronger, fairer, more prosperous future for all our people—a society that feeds the hungry, shelters the homeless, and cares for the sick—so that none must walk alone."

The Democrats have been told that they must not seem "anti-American" in time of war; that they have to try to capture the patriotic American "heartland"; that they have to be "optimistic" and "Reagan-esque." And so they tried to appeal to American values and ideals—all of which are implicitly based on individualism. But they have to harness those values to their collectivist agenda. Hence the following grotesque paragraph, from a crucial passage in Kennedy's speech:

"It was no accident that Massachusetts was founded as a commonwealth, a place where authority belongs not to a single ruler, but to the people themselves, joined together for the common good. The old system was based on inequality.... The colonists knew they could do better, just as we know we can do better today—but only if we all work together, only if we all reach out together, only if we all come together for the common good.... America is a compact, a bargain, a contract. It says that all of us are connected. Our fates are intertwined.... Our Constitution binds us together."

In fact, the Constitution exists to protect our rights and to limit the power of government. But Kennedy believes it exists to "bind us together" to collect our "common wealth" for the "common good." This is not an appeal to American values, but a total inversion of them.

Robert Tracinski is the editor and publisher of TIA Daily and the Intellectual Activist.

Want to read more articles by Robert Tracinski? He writes several articles each week in TIA Daily. For a FREE 30-day no strings attached trial of TIA Daily, please enter your email address in the box in the top-left corner of this page.

[You may quote upto 300 words from this article if you link back to the entire article on this site. For permission to reprint this article please write to editor@TIADaily.com.]