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Redeeming Democracy in America

Author: Wilson Carey McWilliams

Publisher: University Press of Kansas

Published: 2011-05-24

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 070061785X

Wherever we turn in America today, we see angry citizens disparaging government, distrusting each other, avoiding civic life, and professing a hatred of politics and politicians of all stripes. Is our situation hopeless? Wilson Carey McWilliams wouldn't think so. McWilliams, one of the preeminent political theorists of the twentieth century, was closely identified with an ambitious intellectual enterprise to reclaim and restore democracy as a source of national veneration, inspiration, and salvation. Better than most of his contemporaries, he understood and illuminated the major sources of the political malaise that afflicts our nation's citizens. For him, the key to reinvigorating our republic depends on our ability to reclaim the "second voice" of American politics-the one that emanates from our literature, churches, families, and schools and speaks out on behalf of community and civic responsibility. The writings gathered here cohere into McWilliams's most mature and most developed philosophical statement-the distillation of a distinguished career of thinking about the American experiment. From insights into "The Framers and the Constitution" to reflections on "America as Technological Republic," he shares a love for an older tradition of democracy, one based upon the active self-rule of self-governing citizens. "Protestant Prudence and Natural Rights" and "On Equality as the Moral Foundation for Community" may force readers to adjust their understandings of American politics, while "Democracy and the Citizen" and "Political Parties as Civic Associations" will resound for observers of the current political scene, regardless of party. Carey McWilliams not only offers a prescient analysis of the current crisis in American citizenship and governance but also shows us what sources within the American tradition might exist to save us from our worst selves. His broad and iconoclastic approach to American politics should appeal to both conservatives and liberals-to anyone, in fact, who cares about the state of democracy in America.

Redeeming American Democracy

Author: Marshall L. DeRosa

Publisher: Pelican Publishing

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781589804722

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How to bring the power back to the people be decentralization. The warring ideas of centralization and decentralization are at the core of modern political debates about the national economy, U.S. foreign policy, and citizens' cultural values-just as they were among our Founding Fathers. With the election of Abraham Lincoln, the concept and practice of centralization in U.S. government gained power. In contrast, the Confederate constitution carried decentralization even further than the original Constitution and added a number of features that could stand us in good stead in this time of big government and excessive rules.

Come Home, America

Author: William Greider

Publisher: Rodale

Published: 2009-03-17

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 1594868166

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Asserts that America is straying from its democratic ideals and faltering in a rapidly globalized world community, and challenges policies that are based on a priority of making America "number one" in the world while examining the economic and politicalforces that have brought about contemporary problems.

Redeeming American Political Thought

Author: Judith N. Shklar

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1998-02-03

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 9780226753478

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A collection of thirteen essays on American political thought.

Our Secret Constitution

Author: George P. Fletcher

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2003-01-16

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9780198032434

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Americans hate and distrust their government. At the same time, Americans love and trust their government. These contradictory attitudes are resolved by Fletcher's novel interpretation of constitutional history. He argues that we have two constitutions--still living side by side--one that caters to freedom and fear, the other that satisfied our needs for security and social justice. The first constitution came into force in 1789. It stresses freedom, voluntary association, and republican elitism. The second constitution begins with the Gettysburg Address and emphasizes equality, organic nationhood, and popular democracy. These radical differences between our two constitutions explain our ambivalence and self-contradictory attitudes toward government. With September 11 the second constitution--which Fletcher calls the Secret Constitution--has become ascendant. When America is under threat, the nation cultivates its solidarity. It overcomes its fear and looks to government for protection and the pursuit of social justice. Lincoln's messages of a strong government and a nation that must "long endure" have never been more relevant to American politics. "Fletcher's argument has intriguing implications beyond the sweeping subject of this profoundly thought-provoking book."--The Denver Post

To Redeem the Soul of America

Author: Adam Fairclough

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 540

ISBN-13: 9780820323466

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To Redeem the Soul of America looks beyond the towering figure of Martin Luther King, Jr., to disclose the full workings of the organization that supported him. As Adam Fairclough reveals the dynamics within the Southern Christian Leadership Conference he shows how Julian Bond, Jesse Jackson, Wyatt Walker, Andrew Young, and others also played a hand in the triumphs of Selma and Birmingham and the frustrations of Albany and Chicago. Joining a charismatic leader with an inspired group of activists, the SCLC built a bridge from the black proletariat to the white liberal elite and then, finally, to the halls of Congress and the White House.

American Democracy

Author: National Museum of American History

Publisher: Smithsonian Institution

Published: 2017-05-23

Total Pages: 181

ISBN-13: 1588345319

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American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith is the companion volume to an exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History that celebrates the bold and radical experiment to test a wholly new form of government. Democracy is still a work in progress, but it is at the core of our nation's political, economic, and social life. This lavishly illustrated book explores democracy from the Revolution to the present using objects from the museum's collection, such as the portable writing box that Thomas Jefferson used while composing the Declaration of Independence, the inkstand with which Abraham Lincoln drafted the Emancipation Proclamation, Susan B. Anthony's iconic red shawl, and many more. Not only famous voices are presented: like democracy itself, the book and the exhibition preserve the voice of the people by showcasing campaign materials, protest signs, and a host of other items from everyday life that reflect the promises and challenges of American democracy throughout the nation's history.

Constitutional Redemption

Author: J. M. Balkin

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2011-05-09

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0674058747

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Political constitutions are compromises with injustice. What makes the U.S. Constitution legitimate is Americans’ faith that the constitutional system can be made “a more perfect union.” Balkin argues that the American constitutional project is based in hope and a narrative of shared redemption, and its destiny is still over the horizon.

American Democracy: 21 Historic Answers to 5 Urgent Questions

Author: Nicholas Lemann

Publisher: Library of America

Published: 2020-10-06

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 159853663X

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From The Federalist to Citizens United, a bestselling historian presents key writings on five crucial questions confronting American democracy today Amid the frenzied overload of 24-hour cable news and incessant social media, at a time when many of us fear for the future of our democracy, it is becoming harder and harder to think clearly about politics. American Democracy: 21 Historic Answers to 5 Urgent Questions provides an alternative for those who want to step back and look to the past for inspiration and guidance. Edited with perceptive and provocative commentary by bestselling historian and journalist Nicholas Lemann (The Promised Land, Transaction Man), the book presents key writings from the American past that speak to five contemporary flashpoints in our political landscape: race, gender, immigration, and citizenship; opportunity and inequality; the purpose and powers of the federal government; money, special privilege, and corruption; and protest and civil disobedience. Some of the selections are well-known—George Washington’s letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport, Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave is the 4th of July,” Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter from Birmingham Jail—while others will be new to many readers—Horace Mann’s argument for public schools as a means of fighting inequality, Jane Addams’s perceptive analysis of gender and social class in charity work, Randolph Bourne envisioning a “Trans-National America.” American Democracy presents a remarkable range of insightful and eloquent American political writing, while serving as an invaluable resource for concerned citizens who wish to become better-informed participants in the ongoing drama of our democracy.

Faithful Presence

Author: Bill Haslam

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Published: 2021-05-25

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1400224438

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Two-term governor of Tennessee Bill Haslam reveals how faith--too often divisive and contentious--can be a redemptive and unifying presence in the public square. As a former mayor and governor, Bill Haslam has long been at the center of politics and policy on local, state, and federal levels. And he has consistently been guided by his faith, which influenced his actions on issues ranging from capital punishment to pardons, health care to abortion, welfare to free college tuition. Yet the place of faith in public life has been hotly debated since our nation's founding, and the relationship of church and state remains contentious to this day--and for good reason. Too often, Bill Haslam argues, Christians end up shaping their faith to fit their politics rather than forming their politics to their faith. They seem to forget their calling is to be used by God in service of others rather than to use God to reach their own desires and ends. Faithful Presence calls for a different way. Drawing upon his years of public service, Haslam casts a remarkable vision for the redemptive role of faith in politics while examining some of the most complex issues of our time, including: partisanship in our divided era; the most essential character trait for a public servant; how we cannot escape "legislating morality"; the answer to perpetual outrage; and how to think about the separation of church and state. For Christians ready to be salt and light, as well as for those of a different faith or no faith at all, Faithful Presence argues that faith can be a redemptive, healing presence in the public square--as it must be, if our nation is to flourish.