Freedom
I can’t move
Freedom, cut me loose
Singin’, freedom! Freedom! Where are you?
‘Cause I need freedom, too
I break chains all by myself
Won’t let my freedom rot in hell.
–Beyonce, “Freedom”
To Beyonce’s soundtrack, Vice President Kamala Harris announced her campaign in an ad that used the word “freedom” four times. She framed her messages about the economy, gun violence, and abortion as “the freedom not just to get by, but get ahead:” “the freedom to be safe from gun violence;” and “the freedom to make decisions about your body.” At her Delaware campaign headquarters, she talked about the “sacred freedom to vote.” “Our fight for the future,” she added, “is also a fight for freedom.”
For half a century, that word “freedom” has been mostly absent from the vocabulary of Democratic campaigns. The word and the concept, as well as its cognate, liberty, have been coopted by Republicans since Ronald Reagan was a candidate for president. (“Freedom,” Reagan said, “is never more than one generation away from extinction.”) But Republicans did not just commandeer the word, they also changed the concept. They altered our sense of its meaning from a vision of equality (which Beyonce calls on), to a more limited, “negative freedom” — freedom from state power, from regulation, freedom from any obstacle put in the way of free enterprise. Harris is remaking the sense of freedom from the negative freedom of overcoming constraints to the positive freedom of self-realization and achievement.
It was the philosopher Isaiah Berlin who first made the distinction between positive freedom—freedom to—versus negative freedom, freedom from. Positive freedom is the ability to exercise choice, to act on one’s free will. Negative freedom is the freedom from constraint imposed by others or the state, a limit that restricts one’s goals or potential. In their traditional belief in small government, modern Republicans embraced the idea of negative freedom, freedom from the power of the state. Berlin noted the age-old tension between freedom and equality, and that the pursuit of absolute freedom, especially freedom from any restrictions, can often undermine equality and promote authoritarianism.
The Framers mostly emphasized positive freedoms, the freedom to worship, and freedom of speech and expression. They believed their creation of a constitutional republic was the best means of protecting individual freedoms. It was Lincoln who first coupled the notion of freedom with the idea of equality. He saw the infringement of freedom for some as undermining freedom for all, and viewed emancipation as expanding freedom for all Americans, not just formerly enslaved Americans. The Progressives in the early 20th century continued this idea, and saw government’s role as freeing people from economic exploitation while creating more economic opportunity.
It was Republican Herbert Hoover, by popularizing “rugged individualism,” who portrayed freedom as liberty from an overweening government. Franklin Roosevelt went in the opposite direction and saw the prospect of our freedoms being crushed by global Fascism.