Liberty? Or Justice For All

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

The Constitution is thus preambled. Of particular note is that “establish Justice” is preeminent.

The preamble and the whole of the Constitution might make valuable reading for Jeff Bezos and his obscenely wealthy peers.

This week David Shipley, the long-time opinion editor of Bezos’s Washington Post, resigned when Bezos refocused the Post’s editorial stance on “personal liberties and free markets.” Although I cancelled my subscription in the wake of previous journalistic abominations, this takes the cake. It is no longer a credible newspaper, just a very elaborate newsletter for The Federalist Society.

This particular journalistic abomination is no trivial matter as it reflects a fundamental shift in our republic. The shift is semantically represented in Bezos’s announcement, but more broadly represented in our politics, jurisprudence and common belief.

“Personal liberties” are nearly diametrically opposed to “Justice,” as understood by our founders. Personal liberty is, by definition, a solitary notion. Justice is a collective commitment. Personal liberty should be confined by justice. Justice should not be violated by personal liberty.

A gradual shift from justice to personal liberty began with St. Reagan in 1981 and has accelerated recently to a point where there is so much “liberty” that justice is vanishing. What had been a careful, constantly recalibrated balance between personal liberty and social justice is now a scale rusted in permanent imbalance.

Examples of how far we’ve shifted are plentiful. The most excruciating example is found in the twisted interpretation of the 2nd Amendment. Here, the personal liberty to possess and employ deadly weapons overrides any notion of justice as a collective commitment.

As practiced by Jeff Bezos et al, the personal liberty to amass enormous wealth has been accompanied by well-crafted propaganda characterizing “taxation” as “confiscation.” Whether expressed as trickle down economics or entrepreneurial spirit, the P.T. Barnum “sucker born every minute” aphorism has been increasingly apt.

Another way to express this is the idiom, “Waiting for my ship to come in.” That ship was never likely to arrive, but now all the ships and ports are owned by oligarchs.

The implicit promise is that everyone can be like Jeff! Pie growth is infinite and everyone can have a larger slice!  History shows that regardless of the pie’s size, the heaping platefuls are reserved for the few and the rest of the suckers fight over the crumbs. The chasm between rich and poor has never been greater. Here are a few pie charts to accentuate the point (couldn’t resist).

The second part of the Bezos approach to journalism is the utter nonsense of “free markets.” The irony of Jeff Bezos celebrating free markets is magnificent. He has done more than virtually anyone in the world to decimate free markets by creating a de facto monopoly. Now, at least on the editorial side, he has established the Washington Post as a propaganda instrument in service of his sprawling economic empire.

The concentration of wealth created by the turn to Reaganomics has been further abetted by the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United. Now the wealthiest among us not only have the personal liberty to dominate the economy, but also have the unfettered right to buy the politicians who will secure that liberty for them in perpetuity. It is a protection racket that would make Al Capone proud.

Yes, justice must confine personal liberty. It may seem contradictory, but a free society can only endure through the collective acceptance of constraints.

It is an open question whether ours will endure.

But Jeff Bezos will be just fine.