Social Contract
Blue in a Red State
Started reading Coming up Short: A Memoir of My America by Robert B. Reich. A paragraph on page 62 hit hard.
“Americans sharply disagree about what we want for our country or the world, but we must agree on basic principles- such as how we deal with our disagreements. Our obligations to a democratic form of government, toward the law, and to the Constitution are essential if we are to participate in the same society. These obligations connect us.”
While our history with social contracts has flaws, our search for common protections and connections has continued. The first social contract was ”The Mayflower Compact.” The compact reads:
“…[B]y these present [we]solemnlyand mutually,in the presence ofGod and one another, covenant and combine ourself together into a civil body politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and the ends afore said…do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time totime, as shall bethought most meet and conveient for the general Good of the Colony…”
The Mayflower Compact established both a community and a recognized government. Actions were agreed upon for the protection and care of the community.
Yes, I know, the colonists mistreated indeginous people in the name of protection and care. I know the enslaved people, brought here against their wills, were seen as property not humans. The mistreatment of people who are not white plagues our country to this day.
But, the ideas first proposed by the Mayflower Compact and later by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, are the corner stones of what we want to build. We want to build a country, a government, a community based on common good, common values, rules and laws that protect us all - especially those in deepest needs.
The Constitution of the United States begins:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
The framers did not say the Union would be perfect. They said the Constitution was to form a more perfect union than the one they had. That introduction is by itself a social contract. The remainder fills in the responsibilities of sections of government. Is it a perfect document? No. However, the Constitution provides the framework from which to build a more perfect union.
We are the ones who are to keep this somewhat imperfect Union from disappearing. We are the ones who are to work for a more perfect, a more committed contract with each other.
Chicago showed its support of the common good and common welfare when thousands of people protested Trump’s proposed invastion of Chicago.
In my state, the federal representatives and senators are strong supporters of Donald Trump. Contacting them feels like losing. We are not on the same page. We’re not even reading the same book.
The Civil Rights Movement seemed to be just about voting rights. But it was and is more than that. It is about recognizing our communities; reconizing the different languages; recognizing the concerns; recognizing the “us v them” economic disparities.
Recognizing what is being done in our name (the American people) leads us back to that promise:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Perhaps it brings us to see:
Missing and murdered indeginous women and girls.
Students struggling to pay tuition, repay student loans, have food and transportation.
Parents working two or three minimum wage jobs.
Billionairs
Preference for the wealthy over the needs of the people.
Kidnapping of brown skinned and Asian workers without reason (except for skin color) and “deporting” them to countries in Africa.
The attempt to paint over the difficult history of our country and to draw a white history.