{"id":5675,"date":"2017-03-18T06:07:58","date_gmt":"2017-03-18T06:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2017\/03\/18\/liberal-bias\/"},"modified":"2017-03-18T06:07:58","modified_gmt":"2017-03-18T06:07:58","slug":"liberal-bias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2017\/03\/18\/liberal-bias\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberal Bias and the Political Problem of the One and the Many"},"content":{"rendered":"

A March 15 WAPO piece<\/a> begins like this: "States\u2019 rights is making a comeback, but this time it\u2019s progressives, not slaveholders or white supremacists, raising the cry."<\/span><\/p>\n

This implies that those who for years have been speaking out for federalism and Tenth Amendment rights are either slave holders or white supremacists.<\/span><\/p>\n

I'd call that left-wing bias, wouldn't you?<\/span><\/p>\n

The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution reads: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to it by the States, are reserved to the States respectively or to the people."<\/span><\/p>\n

What is Federalism?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Federalism<\/em>, roughly, is (i) a form of political organization in which governmental power is divided among a central government and various constituent governing entities such as states, counties, and cities; (ii) subject to the proviso that both the central and the constituent governments retain their separate identities and assigned duties. A government that is not a federation would allow for the central government to create and reorganize constituent governments at will and meddle in their affairs.  Federalism is implied by the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to it by the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." <\/span><\/p>\n

Federalism would make for less contention, because people who support high taxes and liberal schemes could head for states like Massachusetts or California, while the  conservatively inclined who support gun rights and capital punishment could gravitate toward states like Texas. <\/span><\/p>\n

We see the world differently.  Worldview differences in turn reflect differences  in values.  Now values are not like tastes.  Tastes cannot be reasonably discussed and disputed  while values can.  (De gustibus non est disputandum<\/em>.) But value differences, though they can be fruitfully discussed,  cannot be objectively resolved because any attempted resolution will end up relying on higher-order value judgments.  There is no exit from the axiological circle.  We can articulate and defend our values and clarify our value differences.  What we cannot do is resolve our value differences to the satisfaction of all sincere, intelligent, and informed discussants. <\/span><\/p>\n

A return to federalism, I suggest, is the sanest and best way to overcome this difficulty.  If we are lucky we will be able to bring unity and diversity together in a dialectical unity thereby avoiding the extremes of totalitarianism and secessionism.  <\/span><\/p>\n

It is the ancient problem of the One and the Many in one of its political forms. E pluribus unum<\/em>: out of many, one. But a One worth wanting is a One not suppressive of, but respectful of, the many in their manifold  modes of manyness.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A March 15 WAPO piece begins like this: "States\u2019 rights is making a comeback, but this time it\u2019s progressives, not slaveholders or white supremacists, raising the cry." This implies that those who for years have been speaking out for federalism and Tenth Amendment rights are either slave holders or white supremacists. I'd call that left-wing … Continue reading “Liberal Bias and the Political Problem of the One and the Many”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-matters","category-social-and-political-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}