Second, we must decide which economic class will provide the foundation for our nation, and then provide a political and economic system that insures the dominance of that class. As I stated above, Karl Marx believed that the proletariat, or working poor, should form the dominant, and after the revolution, only class in his "classless" system. I disagree. Pulling everyone down to the lowest common denominator to make a society "classless" demonstrates a lack of ambition and empathy on Marx's part for the very people he says that he is trying to help. We have also seen the definitions of the classes change in the last two centuries, at least in terms of economic power and stability. Factory and other workers in the Western democracies have enjoyed a level of economic comfort that exceeds Marx's "bourgeois" many times over. No, the answer to the problem of class warfare is the permanent expansion of the middle class to eighty-plus percent of the nation's population.
I put forward Aristotle's idea of a constitutionally limited government, dominated by a large and well-informed middle class in my March 12, 2011 article The Ghost of Ancient Hellas . To quote Aristotle (Politics , Book IV, Chapter 11; translated by Benjamin Jowett ;) "The [middle class dominance--RJG] of [constitutionally limited -- RJG] states is clearly best, for no other is free from faction; and where the middle class is large, there are least likely to be factions and dissensions." We have seen that as the middle class has been declining in America over the last thirty years, strident factionalism in our politics has clearly been on the rise. Our nation must relearn that compromise is not surrender: As conservative godfather Edmund Burke stated in his Speech on Conciliation with America (March 22, 1775), "All government--indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act--is founded on compromise and barter."
Aristotle continues his assessment of a constitutionally limited government, dominated by a vibrant and well-informed middle class:
"Thus it is manifest [readily apparent--RJG] that the best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class, and those states are likely to be well-administered in which the middle class is large, and stronger if possible than both the other classes [poor or rich--RJG], or at any rate than either singly; for the addition of the middle class turns the scale, and prevents either of the extremes from being dominant " The reason [for failure of these states when established--RJG] is that the middle class is seldom numerous in them, and whichever party, whether the rich or the common people [poor], transgresses the mean and predominates, draws the constitution its own way, and thus arises either oligarchy or democracy [mob rule--RJG]." (Aristotle , Politics , Book IV, Chapter 11; translated by Benjamin Jowett.)
So how do we establish and maintain this predominance of the middle class. I believe that we were given most of that answer nearly seventy years ago by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
President Roosevelt spelled out his vision for the future of America on January 11, 1944, in his Annual Message to Congress. It was not a vision of empire, but like George Washington's a vision of honest friendship with all of the nations of the world who were willing to accept it. It was not a vision of plutocrats dominating America, as they had twice in FDR's lifetime, but a vision where his Second Economic Bill of Rights would bring us closer to the realization of Jefferson's pronouncement, "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal..." The essential points of this Second Bill of Rights were to provide:
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useful and remunerative employment, together with the potential to find an avocation and not simply a job;
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wages that provide adequate food, clothing, opportunity for recreation, and decent shelter for themselves and their families;
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adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
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protection from unfair competition and monopolistic practices at home and abroad, for every business in America, large and small;
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