A LIBERAL MANDATE: Reflections on our Founding Vision and Rants on how we have Failed to Achieve it

                                                                   

Fellow liberals and anyone else who dares to read and think:

I have written a small volume with big ideas, hence the need for the long title that appears above. Liberals of America unite, you have nothing to lose but a small amount of walking around money.

A Liberal Mandate is available from amazon.com.( http://amzn.to/LiberalMandate ) and is now on Kindle for only $2.99. The paperback lists for $10.95. The Amazon price is $9.65.

Just in case you can't wait for your very own copy, here is the Preface and a Chapter I snippet. If you are still not convinced that this book belongs in your library, I have added the two most recent reviews extolling its virtues. Three other reviews are also included. The Liberal Mandate page on Amazon contains 14 reviews, all five-star (the highest rating possible). 

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PREFACE

I suppose this book falls under the category of “contemporary political commentary.” But it is much more than that. It is personal, born out of sadness and anger, hope and despair, empathy and disgust, pride and embarrassment. Yet, despite or perhaps because of these emotions, I have tried to keep it as analytical as possible. If it is a polemic, diatribe, or rant, I like to think it is one with an I.Q.

Why is it that whenever we are at war, as in now, our commitment is to “whatever it takes” to win, but when the battle is to provide everyone with a basic human right, e.g., health care, we ask if we can afford it? By the end of the book you will know the answer to this question. I wish. What I try to do, though, is raise the issue of why our nation cannot seemingly even come close to finding, as American philosopher William James put it, “the moral equivalent of war.”

As the title descriptively if not succinctly indicates, A Liberal Mandate: Reflections on our Founding Vision and Rants on how we have Failed to Achieve it argues that the vision handed down to us by our founding fathers through the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution mandates a liberal approach to governance as we have understood it since the New Deal.

For the most part, I consider myself to be a cynic, but when it comes to the grandeur of this vision of community, equality, human rights, and justice, I am a true believer. We are often told we are a good people living in the greatest, wealthiest, and most powerful nation on the face of the earth. I suppose as countries go our record isn’t that bad, but with all we have had to work with, surely we could have, should have done better.

My methodology is straightforward. Each chapter reflects on a word or phrase from our founding documents and examines, with a generous amount of ranting, how we have failed to live up to that particular promise as a nation. The book is intended to be uncompromisingly left-wing, supported by a number of what I hope are relevant personal anecdotes.

Why write this now? We only recently emerged from enduring 28 years of near ruinous conservative rule from Reagan in 1980 through Bush in 2008, only slightly mitigated by Clinton’s 8 year centrist Democratic interlude. Now, we have an opportunity to once again follow our founding vision, but we must seize this occasion, or it may be lost for another quarter of a century. I don’t think we will be given an unlimited number of chances.

Why me? Well, I don’t see anyone else doing it. Besides, I have lived in Washington for 40 years. I hate the weather and the traffic, but I stay here, in addition to a few economic reasons, because I consider politics to be life’s greatest spectator sport. From time to time I have even become a player.

My rather eclectic career includes government service, domestic and foreign; the ministry, with a stint on Capitol Hill attempting to speak truth to power; and education, including writing and teaching graduate courses on political and social ethics.

One of the problems liberals have had for quite some time is a perceived patriotism deficit disorder (PPDD for short). How can anything be more patriotic than a book that urges Americans to follow the mandates laid out in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution? Wearing a lapel flag pin perhaps? A Liberal Mandate does not so much spell out specific programs, although there is some of that, as it “blesses” the liberal agenda with this nation’s own secular “scripture.”

The idea of writing something nonreligious with a somewhat scriptural approach intrigued me because of my career journeys between the secular and religious worlds. Based on these experiences, I believe this book may have a niche of its own and a contribution to make. There are obviously an almost unlimited number of commentaries by politicians, academicians, and pundits outlining specific political programs from both the right and the left, but I have not seen any that delves into what the first Bush called “the vision thing.”

My hope is that the approach I have taken combines the best of both worlds, that it has the moral passion of a true-believer along with the ideas and analysis necessary to help move a political agenda.

This nation only recently emerged from enduring a near ruinous full-scale conservative assault on America’s founding vision. With President Obama we have an opportunity to once again return to our roots, but we must seize this occasion, or it may be lost for decades to come.

A Liberal Mandate argues that the vision handed down to us by our founding fathers through the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution mandates a liberal approach to governance. In the first two sentences of the Declaration along with the Preamble, the framers eloquently and profoundly describe what we could and should become.

 “Without a vision the people perish.” No country in history has had a more inspiring vision, but we have been ignoring it, and the American Dream has turned into a nightmare for far too many of us. A Liberal Mandate is also personal, born out of sadness and anger, hope and despair, pride and embarrassment.

“In order to form a more perfect Union.” We will never fully realize the vision set out for us, but each generation has a moral obligation to “more” closely approximate it. This polemic, diatribe, rant is an attempt to make a contribution to that obligation.

CHAPTER I

CHECKPOINT CHARLIE

It was probably a foolish thing to do. No, it definitely was. I can’t say I didn’t know any better. After all, I had just graduated from college. I guess I was still in the immortal phase of my life.

So, the day following President Kennedy’s speech officially triggering the Cuban Missile Crisis, I crossed Checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin. . . .

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A Rational View of Liberal Thought in America, September 29, 2011

By Howard W. Greenup

In “A Liberal Mandate”, Keith Martin has written an important book that resonates on two levels. First, “A Liberal Mandate” presents a strong case for a liberal approach to governance in America. Second, it offers us a worthy example of a regular American, not a professional pundit or a self-serving politician, taking the time to reflect on what sort of political policy is most likely to provide for the common good of the American people and the continuing progress of our nation. Why is that important? Well, as he says, “I don’t see anyone else doing it”. Maybe more of us should.

“A Liberal Mandate” is not a heavy, preachy tract. Its message is leavened with humor and good common sense. Dr. Martin presents a cogent and compelling argument that the vision our founding fathers had for America was based more upon liberal than conservative principles. He bases his argument not on instinct, but on the concrete language of our founding documents: the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution. “Our founding vision”, he points out, “begins with community”. Community is and should remain the foundation upon which the prized concepts of equality, human rights, and justice are based. He reminds us (and we probably need reminding) that the first sentence of the Declaration of Independence refers to the ‘Thirteen United States of America’ as ‘one people’ and that “nowhere in the Declaration is there even a hint of individualism”. Most of us have forgotten and many more never knew that “e pluribus unum” (out of many, one) was our original national motto and remained so for 180 years until it was replaced by “In God We Trust” in 1956.

Keith Martin is an unabashed liberal. He also is a proud American who treasures his national heritage. As both an unabashed liberal and a proud American, he explores those issues he believes define what it means to be a liberal American: among them, equality, liberty, personal rights, and justice. He shares his concerns about the all-out assault by conservatives on taxes, regulations, and government itself. And these are legitimate concerns. Witness, for example, the recent debt-limit debacle which severely tested our faith in democratic (with a small d) governance and was a major factor in Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade America’s credit rating for the first time in history.

As I said at the outset, this is an important book. I don’t understand why Keith Martin has not been invited to be a guest on the Rachel Maddow or Ed Schultz shows. I suspect they haven’t read his book, but I urge you to read it. Whether you are a liberal, an independent, or a conservative with an open mind, I encourage you to read “A Liberal Mandate”. I will be very surprised if you don’t feel your spine stiffening, along with your resolve to help achieve America’s “founding vision”.

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Language Wars: Reclaiming, Embracing Our Liberal Founding

By Paul Crist, ADA Today, Summer 2011

In his new book, “A Liberal Mandate,” Keith Martin reflects on the fundamental vision and the specific language handed down in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. He convincingly argues that our founding documents call for a “big L” Liberal approach to governance.

In recent decades, conservatives have largely set the terms of debate. They demand that “strict constructionists” (by conservatives’ own interpretation) be appointed to our justice system. They call into question the constitutionality of U.S. programs, policies, and laws affecting nearly everything – health care, social equality, education, security of food and shelter, and more. Martin effectively beats back the right-wing argument on government and community, explaining in clear and simple terms how our founding documents set forth an indispensable social contract that binds us as a people and as a nation, establishing justice and promoting the general welfare.

None of us is entirely, or even remotely, “self-made.” The hyper-individualism championed by the Right ignores the profound influence that our social and political constructs have on our ability to succeed and to pursue “life, liberty, and happiness.” The word “individual” doesn’t appear in the Preamble to the Constitution. It says “We the People… in Order to form a more perfect Union.” The Founding Fathers understood that the Union was not perfect, but they called on future generations to constantly strive toward that unattainable goal. Their moral vision was one of community, not of a loose association of coldly rational self-interested economic actors, with special privileges forever reserved to favored individuals or groups.

In engaging and easily-understood language, Martin calls on liberals to retake the moral high ground in the debate about the meaning and intent of our founding documents. His focus is rarely on specific policy proposals, but instead on “the vision thing.” His book is a guide to reframing the debate and leading us to a more just, more equal, freer, and more communal America. It’s a must-read for policymakers and those who hope to influence the kind of America we must become in order to regain and maintain our greatness.

(Americans for Democratic Action Board member Paul Crist is an economist, political commentator, and business owner.)

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Public Policy and Morality, February 25, 2010

By Chester Fielder

Keith Martin's "A Liberal Mandate" compiles many of the ironies and condemns the defeat of liberal public policy aspirations over the past generation. Identifying the Johnson Administration as the last productive period for the liberal agenda, he criticizes the robustness and increasing selfishness of reactionary public policies as, flatly, immoral. He is persuasive. He takes as the "due north" of the national moral compass -- a compass now badly misdirected -- the language and meaning of the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution -- e.g., "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" and "the blessings of liberty." He shows how the values inherent in the promises conjured by such language are persistently and perversely inverted by anti-liberal political actors and their culture. By sprinkling his extended essay with personal asides, and asserting as "ironic" much in public policy for which "outrageous" would be a completely appropriate characterization, Martin keeps the tone light. Much in our tax code, for example, that is perniciously and penuriously regressive is questioned on moral grounds, but not bludgeoned, as it might fairly be. Were he not successful in keeping it light, I am not sure that a committed liberal -- I am one -- could bear to read all that he has compiled to demonstrate the inherent immorality in the costs, counted in human misery, of our failure to live up to the moral imperative our founding principles. Martin makes many shrewd observations, on point but not necessarily claimed as original. E.g., if the public option in the health reform bill had been labeled "Medicare Part E," might it have had a better reception? Alas, as Martin also observes, the labeling and characterization of policy positions to best argumentative effect, is not a skill that liberals have mastered. If your opinions are to the right of center, and you have high blood pressure, you might consider obtaining a medical opinion before reading this book. On the other hand, if you care about the morality of our public policy, even for you, reading this book might be worth the risk.

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Local Author’s Journey Through Liberal Thought, June 25, 2010

By Adam Sirgany

Warning: If you are a “Tea Party patriot” with high blood pressure, do not buy “A Liberal Mandate.” Keith D. Martin would love to change your mind on past, current and future political issues, but he would rather not be responsible for your heart attack. The medical bills would cost too much, he might say.

On the other hand, if you are left leaning and want a conversational overview of the United States’ most significant political debates of the past 50 years, this read may be worth your time. It certainly won’t take long to get through, but it will undoubtedly take a while to process.

Like some Washingtonians, Martin has fixed political opinions and is anxious to share them. Covering the role of political partisanship, illegal immigration, health care, sexism, “going green,” gay rights, globalization and affordable housing and homelessness, Martin analyzes the United States’ failings in a book that takes less time to read than it would to argue any one of these topics with a stranger on the Metro.

According to its cover, Martin’s book is about current affairs, politics and U.S. history. It certainly fits securely into all of these categories, but it is also a captivating look at the way an individual is shaped and re-shaped by the growth and change of his fatherland.

Part op-ed, part open letter to President Obama and all bound by themes underscored in the Declaration of Independence and the preamble to the Constitution, the book is witty, forward and at times, extremely funny. It cannot truly be called a postmodern work, but “A Liberal Mandate” is certainly a book written for this specific time and place.

Dotted with pieces of Americana that will pique the minds and memories of baby boomers and the children of Generation X, the work is accessible to anyone who was even remotely keyed into United States’ news from 1940 onward. To Martin’s great credit, neither his overwhelming amount of subject matter nor his tongue-in-cheek humor take away from the fact that “A Liberal Mandate” deals with sensitive, and sometimes upsetting, human problems. . . .

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Book Review: "A Liberal Mandate," February 15, 2011

By "Those Crazy Liberals...and Conservatives"

"We have simply failed to live up to our founding vision," Keith D. Martin writes in "A Liberal Mandate," his first monograph. "A Liberal Mandate" lives up to its name as it challenges the liberal vision within the American psyche to remember its necessary voice. This voice, however, is not found through abstract thought, but in the founding principles of the United States of America. From ministry, to politics, and education, Martin's intelligence and life experience combine in this powder-keg for liberals. Anyone looking for finely tuned policies or scrupulously analyzed ideas must not look for those within Martin's writing. His interest remains passionately with breathing new life into dreaming, and envision practical, human, and societal change "for the people, by the people."

Martin engages ideas that rest in the soul of America's founding documents, America's founding vision. These are the words of equality, community, rights, justice, government. They are words that Martin contends ought center us back onto living up to the promise. His strikingly frank and honest dialogue are fresh and challenging for our current political discourse that looks for buzzwords, not engaging conversation. Speaking of being provided health care after a traffic accident while in England, Martin says, "That was England, this is America, the most moral righteous, generous, and decent of all countries, as our political leaders are fond of telling us (by the way, how do they know this? It's kind of like a corner store saying it has the world's coldest beer or a deli advertising the world's best hamburger. How can such determinations possibly be made?)." Martin holds nothing back, and is unapologetic about utilizing experience to inform ideas.

Martin is a must read for any liberal or progressive. It stands as a challenge, not only to conservatives, but to liberals or progressives who have become jaded with the American experiment. His challenge to all is one of return back to the founding documents. Simply put, we have taken for granted what we hold so dear, or purport to hold so dear. Martin’s words stare us in the face and challenge us to go back, read for ourselves, and ask what “We the People” actually means. Martin closes the mandate by opening up the vision. “As liberals we are called upon to make this “whatever it takes” commitment to achieve the reality of community, equality, human rights, and justice that our founding fathers have mandated.”

In the end, however, Martin’s vision is of a United States of America where every citizen can be healthy enough to read the founding documents, and if they aren’t, that they can receive adequate, affordable healthcare. In the end, his vision is of a United States of America where every citizen can literally read the founding documents, where education succeeds and rallies around the community, not a slogan. In the end, his vision is of a United States of America that understands the responsibilities that its populace demands. These are not dreams, they are visions with remarkable potential.

In the end, “A Liberal Mandate” is a book one must read if you are interested in the future of the United States of America, if you want to envision a “vision,” or even if you are a conservative. If you can read this book, first count your lucky stars you can read. If you can read this book and not be provoked to dream and act, read it again, for you must not have actually read, “A Liberal Mandate.”