Rep. Cori Bush and Individual Freedom
Does Congresswoman Cori Bush believe in Individual Freedom? From her comments on Israel, it’s not entirely clear she does.
It’s a strange question to be asking in the United States of America. Our government is based on one core belief: that all people are created equal. Not equal in their skills or talents, or character or intelligence. Instead, equal in their ability to know what is best for themselves, to decide the course of their lives. We believe that all individuals have, and should have, the freedom to determine their own lives.
The Progressive wing of the Democratic Party seems to have stepped back from this belief. Progressives increasingly see peoples’ actions and outlooks not as a result of individual freedom, but instead a reflection of the segments of society one is born into. People are defined by their race, or their economic situation or class, or their ethnicity. Their rights and obligations are derived from being part of a group, not because they are individuals.
For many Progressives, this group perspective defines their view of Israel. Because the Israeli Jews are seen as colonizing white Europeans that stole their country from the Palestinians, they question Israel’s right to exist. Rep. Bush has repeatedly echoed this language, even suggesting the Gaza conflict was actually about “White Supremacy”, white Europeans somehow taking something that wasn’t theirs.
Israel wasn’t colonized in the traditional meaning of the word; European Jews didn’t invade the Middle East. Instead beginning in the late 1800s Jewish people began immigrating to Palestine, for the most part legally. They didn’t steal Palestinian land, they bought it. This immigration increased substantially in the 1930s and again after World War II. By 1948 a significant majority of the population of the region was Jewish. This Jewish majority exercised its right of self-determination to form the nation of Israel.
Migration happens all the time. Most countries, at different points in history, were controlled by different ethnic groups. Here in the United States, Florida was once solidly Democratic, and California was conservative. Internal migration changed both states. We don’t tell new residents of Florida or California they can’t vote. But apparently the Progressive movement, and yes, Rep. Bush, seem to believe that Jewish residents of the Middle East should be denied their right of self-determination. Even though Jewish residents are the majority of the population, they should be denied their right to choose their own government.
Needless to say, history is full of groups that were mistreated because other groups didn’t value them. For thousands of years, a person’s group was used to decide who was worthy, or not, who was extended opportunities. And yes, often who was allowed to live or die. Throughout history, enslavement, and pretty much every other kind of horror visited on humans by other humans, has been justified by claiming different groups deserved to be treated differently.
This is what’s so head scratching about the Progressive movement. Surely one of the greatest philosophic advances in human history is the recognition that all individuals are equal in their ability to choose their lives, and thus all individuals deserve the same right of self-determination. This one idea is the foundation of the liberty and freedom that we enjoy. Now the Progressive movement seems to be rejecting the belief in individual freedom, and instead is again suggesting that we should look to groups to decide how to treat people.
This is also why the Progressive movement, in some ways, is dangerous for our country. The freedom we enjoy isn’t guaranteed. For most of history, unfortunately groups have mattered more than the individual, and suppressing individual rights for the betterment of one group or another was the norm. The Progressive movement is seemingly again placing the group above the individual.
Life is complex, and undoubtedly a person’s group does affect their perspective and often their opportunities. However, placing the group above the individual cannot help but undermine our belief in individual freedom. It’s a slippery slope. If we question the right of individual Jewish Israelis to determine their own government, where does it end? What’s the next group to be judged unworthy of the freedoms we believe all individuals deserve?