Freedom has been a central ideal of the American experiment since 1776. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are embedded in our national identity. But in recent presidential elections, liberty has found itself with fewer friends than Harvey Weinstein. So it’s a welcome surprise to see Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party embrace it like a long-lost sibling.
At the Democratic National Convention in August, delegates waved signs that said “Freedom.” A song by Beyonce bearing that title blares from loudspeakers at Harris rallies. The vice president pledged to uphold not just “reproductive freedom” but also “the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride. The freedom to breathe clean air, and drink clean water and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis. And the freedom that unlocks all the others: the freedom to vote.”
Her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, echoes that theme in his own way. In Minnesota, he said: “We’ve got a golden rule: Mind your own damn business.”
Republicans may resent the appropriation of personal liberty by their opponents. Conservatives have long scorned Democrats as overbearing busybodies who want to take away your freedoms to make money, own guns, operate a business and cook with gas. Republican President Ronald Reagan said that “the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism.” Allied with the GOP are groups with names such as Moms for Liberty and the Alliance Defending Freedom.
But Reagan would have trouble recognizing his party. In the grip of Trumpism, it shows little respect for freedom of religion, except as it applies to Christians. In 2015, Donald Trump called for a “total and complete” shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.
The Republican Party doesn’t cherish freedom of the press: Trump vowed to strip ABC of its right to broadcast because he didn’t like its debate moderators. “It is frankly disgusting the press is able to write whatever it wants to write,” he has said.
He also has no use for free speech. Rolling Stone reported that Trump has told aides he wants to punish late-night comedians for making fun of him — something other presidents bore stoically. Freedom of assembly? Angry at 2020 protests in Washington, he confronted Defense Secretary Mark Esper: “Can’t you just shoot them?”
Given Trump’s many attacks on basic liberties, all Democrats have to do to look good is not agree with him. But Harris has a positive agenda reflecting her pro-freedom rhetoric — at the center of which is the right of women to make their own choices on reproduction.
The anti-abortion rights movement, which aligns with the Republican Party, thinks the welfare of fetuses takes total priority over the physical autonomy of women. It’s hard to imagine another case in which we would commandeer the very body of a person to serve the needs of someone else. A father whose infant needed a kidney could not be forced to provide one — and no one thinks he should be.
This absolutist stance leads many Republican states to ban abortion even in cases of rape and incest. The Democratic convention heard from Hadley Duvall, who at age 12 was raped and impregnated by her stepfather. “What is so beautiful about a child having to carry her parent’s child?” she asked. The Texas abortion ban has deterred doctors from performing abortions even when the mother’s life is at grave risk.
The COVID-19 emergency was an opportunity for conservatives to claim support of personal freedom by rejecting mask requirements and vaccination mandates — minimal intrusions compared with forced pregnancy and childbirth. The pandemic measures served to protect people from the spread of a dangerous contagion, but many conservatives jeered at the notion that they should have to accommodate the interests of their fellow Americans.
With her price-gouging ban, harsh record as a prosecutor and general affinity for Washington-led solutions, Harris is hardly a champion of limited government and maximal liberty. But abortion is just one of the issues that causes the vice president to hoist her “don’t tread on me” flag.
On the rights of gay and transgender Americans, she is firmly on the side of freedom. She has endorsed the full legalization of marijuana. Her affordable housing plan would strengthen property rights by easing “restrictive and costly land use and zoning rules” — a contrast with Trump, who thinks such barriers are critical to preserving the suburbs as privileged enclaves.
More fundamental is that Harris, unlike Trump, is not obsessed with using presidential power to persecute critics, overturn elections, stamp out peaceful dissent, replace legions of civil servants with rabid loyalists or act as a dictator on Day One. Trump is an unabashed authoritarian, and authoritarianism is anathema to liberty.
Harris falls short of being a libertarian dream candidate. But for anyone who cherishes freedom, Trump is a full-on nightmare.
Steve Chapman was a member of the Tribune Editorial Board from 1981 to 2021. His columns, exclusive to the Tribune, now appear the first Wednesday of every month. He can be reached at stephenjchapman@icloud.com.
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