Conventional Wisdom IX

Just a short follow-up on yesterday’s post:

As I noted last time, the Democrats have been moving closer to an embrace of the capacious meaning of freedom advanced by Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Second World War.

In his famous formulation of “The Four Freedoms,” FDR championed “freedom of speech” and “freedom of worship” alongside calls for “freedom from want” and “freedom from fear.” While the first two freedoms he articulated seem familiar to us today, demands for individual rights to do as we please without the intervention of the federal government, the second two come from a strand of freedom that the Democrats have lost track of in recent decades, a claim that certain aspects of our freedom can only be guaranteed by the intervention, attention and protection of the federal government.

This was abundantly clear in one of the most powerful segments of the night, when Representative Lucy McBath — whose son was killed in a shooting — led a segment with other relatives of gun violence victims that was pointedly titled “Freedom to Live Without Fear of Gun Violence.”

Maya Harris, meanwhile, pushed the theme of freedom as the key to understanding her sister’s biography. “We may all have different histories, different struggles or different perspectives, but what binds us together is the fervent desire to be free to fulfill our god-given potential,” she said. “Kamala’s entire life has been about fighting for each of us to have that freedom.”

In her own acceptance speech, Harris made the full embrace of a capacious definition of freedom complete. Just like FDR, who paired positive and negative visions of freedom (freedom to and freedom from), this year’s Democratic presidential nominee braided together a similar pattern:

In this election, many other fundamental freedoms are at stake.

The freedom to live safe from gun violence—in our schools, communities, and places of worship. The freedom to love who you love openly and with pride. The freedom to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis. And the freedom that unlocks all the others. The freedom to vote.

After decades of effectively ceding the topic of “freedom” to the Republicans, Democrats have finally found a way to reclaim it not just for themselves but for all Americans.

While it’s not as elegant as Harris’s acceptance speech, her running mate Tim Walz has a formulation he’s been using on the stump that encapsulates this new sense of freedom perfectly: “Mind your own damn business!”

That’s effectively the balance they’re proposing to provide — individuals can focus on their own business, their own concerns, their own rights, without the meddling of government, but if they (or their elected officials) stray over the line and start poking in someone else’s business, well, that crosses a line.

It’s early, but I think it’ll play well with voters.