Making Us Better

RACISM IN AMERICA is a core value, because it emerged early as a justification for one of America's founding institutions and principles, slavery. The abolitionist movement was never strong enough to transform American society, and the government was in the hands of self serving slave owners. Legalized slavery was finally replaced with de facto slavery, segregation, and racism. Ever since, the only forces that have mitigated racism in America have been sustained protest movements by small percentages of minorities, and modern government. Although America remains a racist nation, whatever progress had been made in racism's mitigation has been forced down the throats of the mainstream American culture by the federal government, through agitation, legislation, regulation, and social engineering. This has been acconplished through a sustained, albeit precarious and painful effort. The fundamental characteristic of traditional conservatism is its belief in small government, its adherence to the doctrine that society should be allowed to evolve naturally, without government interference. This is seen as freedom from tyranny, and freedom to hold unpopular or undesirable opinions and beliefs. The incoming President and Attorney General are people who believe that laws prohibiting racist actions are examples of government overreach, alarmingly. It took the American government a long time to start trying to force racial equality down the American throat, because racism enjoyed its status as a core value. Without government intervention, as it became obvious that American society, left to its own devices, was never going to evolve into a racially egalitarian culture; it was only going to enshrine racism and inequality ever more securely. The persistence of racism in America is a testament to the limits of government action. The progress in eliminating the most egregious racist institutions in the United State is a testament to the effectiveness and desirability of using the power of the federal government to assist American society towards desirable evolutionary directions it would never follow otherwise. We want the freedom to behave badly, but only to a point. We need government in America, because, whether we like to admit it or not, government can make us better people.