Liberal tradition in the US is more of a myth than a reality

Liberal tradition in the US is more of a myth than a reality

Historical development of any nation is a systematic step by step development of ideologies and putting these ideologies into action. Notably, in the case of the US, several events have taken place in shaping the current state of governance experienced in the Federal government and the World’s most powerful nation. In the following paper, I would like to argue that the Liberal tradition in the US is more of a myth than a reality.

True liberalism is founded on the notion of being accommodative to different views and accepting that despite the difference in racial, religious, or even political backgrounds, we should still accommodate each other and perceive each person as an equal partner or a sister. However, from annals of American history,  a lot of literature that discloses America in the opposite: that portrays how deficient America has been in terms of upholding true liberalism. Hannah-Jones (2019) reveals that blacks in the US have never had equal rights to their white counterparts even though the first American to die during the American Revolution was black. She adds that he was a fugitive slave who was not free in the first place. In her account, it is clear that the proclamation of liberalism was not being practiced in reality since the whites were not tolerating the blacks, and that is why their rights were curtailed. Furthermore, she has also revealed that the African Americans were deprived of the blacks some of their fundamental rights, thereby justifying that liberalism was a fallacy since the blacks were not being tolerated by the whites. Even in the courts, African Americans did not have any legal right to a better non-partisan hearing. The whites undermined the blacks and looked at them in terms of the property that could be owned and sold as slaves (Wolfe, 2005).

Again in the political space, there was the issue of class that influenced the extent to which someone could have a voice. Barone (2019) argues that the majority of the members of the public did not take an active part in the electoral process because the system did not recognize them. This clearly indicates that the political class and the ordinary people were in two separate worlds apart, and the politicians did not worry at all about the concerns of the ordinary people. As Barone (2019) rightfully puts it, the interests of the voters did not worry the politicians at all.  Further, the author of this article posits that the memorable words by Thomas Jefferson regarding the Declaration of Independence are personal thoughts that he wrote while in his rented house in Philadelphia and did not have any serious meaning to most of the Americans (especially the whites) who looked down upon the blacks and second class generation of people.  To justify this assertion, Barone (2019) points out that at the time Jefferson wrote these powerful and inspirational words, close to 20 percent of the African American population who lived in the colonies were undergoing untold suffering and brutality in the hands of their white masters. He asserts that slavery was not an optional concept but rather a necessary condition based on racial differences.  It is therefore apparent that despite the fact that Jefferson and other founding fathers knew pretty well that Africans were also human beings, they underrated them and came up with restrictive policies that did not give the Negros equal space. Such actions that were advanced to the minority groups clearly indicate that the concept of liberalism was never a fact at all.

Francis, ( 2019) also argues that the American Almanac of politics established lines of voting rights on the basis of social status or economic power, foreign policies, This clearly indicates that the concept of liberalism that was meant to enhance accommodation and tolerance of others irrespective of their status or backgrounds was more of a paperwork than anything substantial to implement any transformation in America (Deller, 2016). He further postulates that the main driving forces influencing American politics for decades have been religious attachments, political ideologies such as liberalism, socialism, or nationalism. This assertion also resonates well with the views of Lipset that the contemporary American politics is based on political ideologies that favor the candidates rather than ideologies that can unite the people of the US. He concludes by mentioning that since America was not founded on liberalism, it is quite challenging for the leaders to acknowledge and accept this concept.

Based on these facts that reveal the true political identity of the US, it is crystal clear that the notion of liberalism is as good as a myth since it has never contributed to shaping up the relationship and ties of the American people. Social scientists and political commentators consider the statement as a paradox that actually means the opposite since it is in the US where racism, nepotism, and social injustices are advanced to the minority groups with a lot of impunity (Bee, 2017).