A phrase at the end of a recent (2/15/08) David Brooks op-ed in the NYT (Fresh Start Conservatism; LTEs) caught my eye, but I couldn't think of its source.
The agenda could go on, but the point is this: Democrats believe in fine-tuning the economy. They believe in intervening in a thousand little ways to address problems. Republicans believe these thousands of little Band-Aids hinder movement and distort productivity. But Republicans do believe, or at least should, that positive government can help prepare people for the rigors of competition, so they can have an open field and fair chance.
A bit of googling revealed that it is from Abraham Lincoln.
It comes from a speech to an Ohio Regiment late in the war:
Elsewhere, the ellipsis is at least partially filled in:
I am a living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my father's child has. It is in order that each of you may have through this free government which we have enjoyed, an open field and a fair chance for your industry, enterprise, and intelligence; that you may all have equal privileges in the race of life, with all its desirable human aspirations. It is for this the struggle should be maintained, that we may not lose our birthight.
The same googling that provided these two quotes yielded a few other references.
One is another David Brooks article, this one from the WSJ about 5 years ago. He shifts from speaking of government to "institutions":
Lincoln often used the phrase "the race of life," emphasizing that success is gained through competitive effort. The glory of America, Lincoln argued in August 1864 (as Mr. Cullen notes), is that its institutions afford citizens "an open field and a fair chance for your industry, enterprise and intelligence." It is this competitive arena, he concluded, that makes the U.S. an inestimable jewel.
Another is from an article in the WSJ dated May, 2001, with a note saying that it had originally appeared in 1997, written by William Kristol and David Brooks. Oddly, it misquotes Lincoln, substituting "understanding" for "industry."
If American nationalism differs from its European counterpart, so does the American view of greatness. We don't seek our greatness in the inheritances of throne or altar, their origins shrouded in the mists of time. American greatness is not reactionary. It is the greatness achieved by free citizens striving, as Lincoln put it, "in the race of life, with all its desirable human aspirations."
This American understanding of greatness is friendly to private property, prosperity and progress. And it isn't unfriendly to government, properly understood. After all, as Lincoln reminds us, it is "through this free government which we have enjoyed" that Americans have secured "an open field and a fair chance" for our "understanding, enterprise, and intelligence." Free government--limited but energetic--is not the enemy. It can be used, in the spirit of Henry Clay and Teddy Roosevelt, to enhance competition and opportunity.
It seems to me that the subject of Progress and Poverty is how we might go about creating a society and an economy to make real Lincoln's phrase:
It is in order that each of you may have through this free government which we have enjoyed, an open field and a fair chance for your industry, enterprise, and intelligence; that you may all have equal privileges in the race of life, with all its desirable human aspirations. It is for this the struggle should be maintained, that we may not lose our birthight.
The wealthandwant website has individual pages that speak to a number of these themes. Here are a few: birthright, privilege, equality, equal opportunity, natural opportunities, private property, laissez faire, fences and small bandages. A fair field and no favor!
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