EDMUND BURKEHow we talk about issues – the words we choose, the metaphors we select – reveal our deepest ideological perspectives.
Let me be clear upfront: By no means am I suggesting that there is something wrong about having an ideological perspective. Ideologies are inevitable. We all have them, whether or not we are aware of them, whether or not we acknowledge them. We cannot make sense of the world of politics, governance, and public policy without them. They are our north stars. They are about values – about what we believe a good life entails and how society can help or hinder our pursuing good lives. Both thoughtful and unthoughtful people are guided by their ideologies. The most thoughtful people have ideological self-insight; they are aware of their ideological perspectives and consciously examine the assumptions that underlie them and the values they reflect.
This is a windup to commenting on something John Boehner said on last Thursday that seized my attention. In making his point that under no circumstances would Republicans in the House of Representatives agree to a way out of the sequestration that involves new revenue, Boehner said the issue was “how much more money do we want to steal from the American people.”
In other words, taxes are thefts from the people.
Contrast Boehner’s comment with Oliver Wendell Holmes’ statement: “I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization.”
Is it too much to say that what undergirds Boehner’s view is an animosity for democracy? After all, in a democracy the people – through their elected representatives – decide what taxes they will pay, and what they will buy with those taxes. The people cannot steal from themselves.
But Boehner – and I daresay most of the modern conservative movement and Republican Party – draw a distinction between the people and the government. The government seems just as alien to them as it would be if – rather than being the people’s government – it were a foreign government, imposed by afar. It is as if they never heard of the American Revolution and still think our taxes are set by a Parliament in which we have no representation. (I’ll just make a quick nod here to the argument that citizens in the District of Columbia should be represented in Congress.)
Oh yes, democracy is messy and frustrating. The people are always deciding to do things that we, as individuals, don’t like. That’s because “the people” are not a unified group who all see things the same way. America is not a village of Stepford wives. We are a big, diverse society. We disagree about many things, often passionately. We tussle over what we want our government to do through the political process. But if the ongoing experiment in self-government that we call America is going to succeed, we need to appreciate the word “we” in the last three sentences.
It is so obvious that that an inability to compromise is making American dysfunctional that saying it is cliché. This is relatively new, at least in my lifetime. Leaders did not always stamp their feet like children, demand on having their way – all of their way, and believe that doing so was righteous. We are frustrated when our fellow citizens don’t see things our way; but when we become so petulant that we consider decisions with which we disagree to somehow be illegitimate, we weaken the Republic.
I lay much of blame at the feet of libertarianism, which is at the core of the modern conservative movement and the Republican Party. Libertarianism worships individualism and rejects community. It is an ideology that makes understanding “we” difficult. It is a point of view that sees the government not as something that belongs to the people but as an alien entity. It is a philosophy that, from Ayn Rand on, has seen taxation as theft.
If you believe that I am arguing that taxation is good and more taxation is better, you have missed my point (and you have a stereotypical view of liberals that is just flatly wrong). I do not pretend to be the man that Oliver Wendell Holmes was; I don’t really enjoy writing checks to the I.R.S. or my state or local government. There are, moreover, many things that our governments spend tax dollars on that I do not favor. But I do recognize that taxation is a choice – the people’s choice.
There is a world of difference between arguing that taxes are too high and saying that taxation is theft. The former is carrying on discussion and debate through the democratic process. The latter subtly and perniciously rejects democracy itself.