Edmund Storms wrote:
The power of government always grows.
Except when it shrinks.
That's a rather silly thing to say, Ed. If it always grew then we
would be living in a "1984" dystopia by now.
In fact, the power of government in the US is far smaller than it
used to be, when you take into account both local and national
governments. In the 1840s, local governments in New England compelled
men to shave their beards, and jailed them and beat the crap out of
them when they refused. Governments made all forms of contraceptives
illegal, and of course in the South they made marriage between races
illegal. (Not to mention learning to read, getting paid for work, or
leaving on one's own accord.) From circa 1900 to 1970, Federal and
local governments sterilized thousands of people without their consent.
Savage Jim Crow laws were enforced from the late 19th century well
into the 1960s. (Actually, they are alive today, albeit attenuated.
On Saturday I spoke with a middle-aged black woman whose mother, in
Florida, was turned away from the polls in a recent election because
there was a hyphen in her mailing address not shown on her driver's
license. I guarantee that would never happen to a white voter! The
Obama campaign has a full-time lawyer in Georgia fighting this kind
of thing, but there are thousands of cases.)
During World War I the government persecuted people of German
descent, and during WWII it imprisoned 110,000 Americans of Japanese
descent, robbing them of their houses, businesses and all of their
material goods, while -- in many case -- their sons were serving in
the U.S. Army, in some of the most highly decorated battalions in
U.S. history. After the war, during the McCarthy era, persecution of
dissent was widespread.
There are countless other examples. Up until the 1960s, many First
Amendment rights were a dead letter. Governments routinely invaded
privacy, tapped peoples phones, beat prisoners suspected of crimes,
fired people for expressing opinions or writing letters to the
editor, and on, and on. I have a Life magazine article poking fun at
a government employee who was summarily fired because they found out
he performed in amateur ballet and modern dance on weekends.
Going back to the colonial era, some New England local governments
would invade people's households and check to be sure that parents
have taught their children their ABCs by age 6, and that they were
attending church every week. Children who did not learn were taken
from their parents by force and raised by other families.
People should learn the history of civil rights in the United States.
I recommend I. Glasser, "Visions of Liberty," Arcade, 1991.
There is also far more economic freedom and genuine capitalism in the
US than there used to be. The antitrust laws are called the
Businessman's First Amendment for good reason. Before they were
passed and later enforced, small businessmen did not have a chance
against cartels and large businesses. Read about business practices
before the 1920s and you will see that outrageous violations of
business ethics were common, and the freedom to compete was largely
an illusion.
Compared to the past, we are now living in the golden era of
individual rights and the freedom to do whatever you please.
Right-wing commentators who claim otherwise know nothing about
history, or -- in some cases -- they willfully ignore what happened
to black people, Japanese-Americans, Native Americans, and other
minorities. They pretend that only white people were part of history,
and the others don't count.
- Jed
