The Attack on the Arts and A Fond Recalling of The Second Bill of Rights

The arts blogosphere seems to be lighting up daily with posts about how the arts are under attack again by conservatives: it’s the return of the culture wars.

On the face of it, yes, it’s true: the NEA, NEH, CPB, PBS, etc., are all on a big hit list for zeroing out by any number of conservatives.

But, is it the reemergence of the culture wars? I am not so sure.

If you look at that hit list compiled by the Republican Study Committee, what you see is something much larger than a culture war. Legal Services Corporation? Gone. Amtrak? Gone. Ready to Learn TV program support? Gone. Mohair support? Gone. (Okay, while I love my mohair sweaters, I will give them that one.) Beach Replenishment? Gone.

Gone. Gone. Gone.

Here’s the list.
 
In all fairness to the Study Committee, I don’t think they’re singling out the arts. I think it’s something much more profound, essentially using the current economic crisis, caused to a large degree by unpaid for tax cuts, the two longest wars in US history, a lack of enforced regulations and deregulation of the financial sector, a giant unpaid increase to medicare (prescription drug benefit), and more, as an perfect excuse to roll back The New Deal.

Think of the Hoover era, and there’s the goal. The GOP fought FDR tooth and nail on everything he did, and for anyone who has ever thought that particular battle was ancient history, think again.

Just as the Army was ordered by Hoover to police the Bonus Marchers, and we know how well that worked out, you’ve got the new governor of Wisconsin threatening to call out the Wisconsin National Guard.

It seems to me, that the list is really just a starting point.

The “Second Bill of Rights,” here’s the key excerpt, as proposed in 1944 by a very weary President Franklin Delano Roosevelt:

It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy
for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American
standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content,
no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some
fraction of our people–whether it be one-third or one-fifth or
one-tenth–is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.

This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength,
under the protection of certain inalienable political rights–among them
the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury,
freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to
life and liberty.

As our nation has grown in size and stature, however–as our
industrial economy expanded–these political rights proved inadequate to
assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.

We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual
freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. Necessitous men are not free men. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as
self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights
under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established
for all–regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

• The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
• The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
• The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
• The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an
  atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by
  monopolies at home or abroad;
• The right of every family to a decent home;
• The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
• The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
• The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of
these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

Americas own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon
how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for
all our citizens.

For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.