Tea-Party Values, Many are Fine

Economist her Gintis recently reviewed a favorite Tea-Party tract, Williard Skousen’s The Five Thousand Year Leap: Twenty-Eight Great Ideas That Are Changing the World. Gintis concludes:

I was prepared to dislike this book, but was pleasantly surprised at how ecumenical a message Skousen has to offer. Moreover, the book is easy to read and hence will be accessible to the common citizen and voter who may, if lucky, get to read one or two books a year such deep subjects as the nature of American society.

Here’s some of those 28 great ideas:

(2) A Free People Cannot Survive Under a Republican Constitution Unless They Remain Virtuous and Morally Strong;
(6) All Men Are Created Equal;
(11) The Majority of the People may Alter or Abolish a Government Which has Become Tyrannical;
(14) Life and Liberty are Secure Only so Long as the Right to Property is Secure;
(16) The Government Should be Separated into Three Branches–Legislative, Executive, and Judicial;
(17) A System of Checks and Balances Should be Adopted to Prevent the Abuse of Power;
(19) Only Limited and Carefully Defined Powers Should be Delegated to Government, All Other Being Retained in the People;
(20) Government [should] Operate According to the Will of the Majority, but … Must Protect the Rights of the Minority;
(21) Strong Local Government is the Keystone to Preserving Human Freedom;
(22) A Free People Should be Governed by Law and not by the Whim of Men;
(23) A Free Society Cannot Survive as a Republic Without a Broad Program of General Education; The Core Unit Which Determines the Strength of Any Society is the Family. Therefore, the Government Should Foster and Protect its Integrity;
(28) The United States Has a Manifest Destiny to be an Example … to the Entire Human Race.

As Gintis observes: “I believe these principles are true and incontestably important. . . . Who, after all, in the United States today, doesn’t believe in these principles? Certainly they are routinely violated in Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and a dozen other countries, but they are not in question here in America.” He goes on to observe that “the most distinctive aspect of Skousen’s political philosophy is his instance on grounding liberal democratic political philosophy in religion, while at the same time denying a central position to any particular religion, and therefore promoting vigorous religious diversity.”

That’s an interesting move, grounded in religion, but no religion in particular. Room for dialog, though, and that is good.