Freedom

Over the past few months, I've come across several articles on how progressives do not get the real appeal of consevative rhetoric.  We sit and wonder how anyone not well off could vote Republican when doing so is clearly against their best economic interests. A good part of the answer is in how conservatives have coopted the issue of freedom.. Over the course of the past 30 or so years, they have defined freedom as the freedom of the market.  They have convinced a significant number of people that the freedom to make and keep money is what essentially defines freedom.  Add to that a few misunderstandings about freedom of religion and the right of well-regulated militias to bear arms and, voila, Republicans become the party of freedom.  What can be more American than the freedom of the market and what can be more detrimental to personal freedom than a government that tries to regulate markets to even the playing field. 

In spite of all the evidence to the contrary, people continue to believe the free market propaganda.  The unregulated market is not reasonable and does not foster the well being or freedom of the majority.

There is still a chance to get this message out and then to recapture the high ground on this one.  I mean whatever happened to freedom of speech, of assembly, against unreasonable search and seizure, and FDR's "added" freedoms from fear and from want.  These are freedoms too and we should be proud of the role that progressive policies have in ensuring them. 
For government has a clear role in protecting the freedom of its citizens.  A primary function of a democratic government is to protect the less powerful from the more powerful, the minority from the tyranny of the majority.  No one needs to be coerced into working in unsafe conditions, paying exorbitant prices, breathing unsafe air, drinking unsafe water, or prevented from living in a good neighborhood. No one should live in fear or want. 

We may not be able to get the message out in time for the 2012 elections but we should start changing the conversation.  Otherwise we may be looking at another 30 years of failed conservative policies and our continuing devolution into a plutocracy.