Was Jefferson a Communist?

Basic Rights

I’m not a Communist.  I’m not even a socialist, really.  I believe that America can be a caring nation, one based on a foundation of basic rights:  life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  The Declaration of Independence is not the sole possession of one political party or the other. The American people own it.  

The definition of life is simple:  the right to live and be healthy.  This is particularly relevant in our current COVID era.  In our modern society, it means that every person in America needs to have access to health care.  It shouldn’t be based on how much that person earns, or can afford.  Health care is a basic human right, one that we need to guarantee.  

And from a practical standpoint, we do guarantee some level of health care to everyone.  But we do it in the most expensive way possible, pushing the impoverished to use Emergency Departments for routine health maintenance.  And don’t think that those costs “go away”.  Nothing is “free”. The high price of all of our medical care includes the cost of caring for those who cannot pay.

National Health

A national policy that provides for everyone to have access to health care would reduce costs for everyone.  That’s not the same as “free” health care.  We all realize that someone has to pay. Whatever you want to call it, from universal health care to Medicaid to an expanded Affordable Care Act:  any of these will make health care LESS expensive, and fulfill America’s responsibility to care for everyone.  Everyone includes undocumented immigrants:  we can’t let them die in the streets either.  And, regardless of Republican talking points, we don’t let that happen now.  

That isn’t communism or socialism.  It’s the mandate that our Founding Fathers gave us. It’s what every industrialized nation in the world does now, except the US.  And it’s what we should do as decent human beings.

Liberty

Liberty means that we can do what we want, within the limits of not hurting others.  A national health care mandate would grant us that liberty, instead of the outdated and ridiculous concept of tying health care to employment.  American capitalism should include the freedom to take a chance on a new business, without giving up basic health care protections.  No one should be locked into a job just to keep health care.

Liberty and the “American Dream” means that people should be able to advance based on, as Dr. King said (and Senator Tim Scott quoted), “the content of their character”.  But that isn’t happening right now.  For black men and women it is as basic as being treated fairly by a common symbol of our government, the police.  It doesn’t take much digging to see that “black lives don’t matter” in far too many cases.  We are being asked by some to pretend that this isn’t an issue, that the “Dream” is available to all.  That’s simply not true.

This isn’t communism or socialism.  It’s basic fairness, rooted in the Declaration and the Bill of Rights.  

Happiness

Thomas Jefferson was a careful author.  He used language like an artist, describing his thoughts with precision.  John Locke was one of Jefferson’s philosophical predecessors and described the “natural rights of man” as life, liberty and property.  Jefferson adapted those terms to his own thinking. He added a “Creator” (…endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights) and changing the term property to happiness.  It wasn’t an abstract error, nor was it just a euphemism to avoid discussing slavery.

Jefferson saw beyond just having enumerated possessions as the key to “happiness”.  He looked to his own life, where he followed his passions, in science, in government, and in agriculture among others.  What made Jefferson happy was inquiry, and he saw the pursuit of knowledge as an inalienable right.  

In our world, financial well being and established position in society does make some happy.  But the Declaration of Independence, unlike Locke’s Natural Rights of Man, does not circumscribe happiness as only ownership.  In a nation where everyone has the right to find happiness, then obvious differences like race or gender shouldn’t restrict that quest.  Neither should the incredibly wide financial inequity of our nation, where the few own most, and the many own little.

If that sounds socialist or communist, then blame Jefferson.  He was a member of the landed class, and yet he saw that there was more to achieve than just possessions.  And so should we.

Education

In a nation where we are dedicated to human equality, and making sure everyone has the basis for life, then it is incumbent on the government to provide and protect for that equality and basis.  As part of the process of making “A more perfect union”, we have historically included more groups into our “circle” of equality.  It is time to recognize that there are still some “outside” the circle, and take definitive action to bring them in.  

Education has always been a key to the American dream.  Yet the financing of our public schools is often based on the wealth of those living in the school’s district.  So, in education, as in some many other facets of our nation, the rich get the best education that “money can buy”, while the poor are denied the resources. 

Here in Ohio twenty years ago, we came to the precipice of leveling the field and providing equal funding for education regardless of the financial status of the district.  In the DeRolph Case, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled for financial equity.  But the pressure brought to bear by the wealthy soon caused the Court to step back from its own decision, and the inequity drags on.  The rich continue to get richer and the poor are left to suffer.   Instead of solving the problem, some offer a solution:  let the poor buy a private education, with some government help.  They call it “school choice”, but it sounds suspiciously like “let them eat cake”.

Expand the Dream

It we are truly a nation defined by our Founding Fathers, then we must move past the old arguments of the 1950’s.  No political party is offering Communism or even Socialism as a choice in the 2020 election.  One party is offering a way to expand the American Dream to include more of our citizens.  And one is saying, “stay the course”, and let the chasm in wealth grow wider.  

It’s clear what Jefferson would want.