Whose Freedom?

Freedom's Not Just Another Word

Words are powerful, particularly a word such as "freedom," whose strong emotional and ideological connotations can motivate people to act. A battle over the definition of this word is now taking place between two political ideologies in the U.S. The progressives embrace a concept of freedom that has roots in the early days of the republic, but that takes into account the way society, and thus the idea of freedom itself, has evolved over time. The conservatives wish to pull the definition of freedom back to one they believe the framers of the Constitution - a document they interpret quite literally - would recognize.

Throughout U.S. history, forward-thinking activists and politicians have worked to insure that people at every level of society have access to basic needs such as employment, education and health care. Such progressives find an ideological and legal basis for their program in the Constitution - interpreted flexibly.

Conservatives have recently begun to push back against the progressives' expansion of freedom in areas such as voting rights, public education, media, public health and workers' rights. They are shaping ...