F ormer Sen. John Edwards wants to make us One America. He lost in his first bid for president, so the dream is on hold. Gov. Martin O?Malley wants to make us One Maryland, according to his inauguration speech. With four years in front of him and Democrats in control of state government, he has the wherewithal to make it happen.
It sounds great. How can working “to advance common good” be wrong? And who wouldn?t want to be “united in our understanding that there is a unity to spirit and matter”?
The problem is defining the common good and what spirit and matter look like conjoined. With one party dominating, One Maryland could come to mean one way of thinking or one way of doing business.
That should strike fear, not emit warm fuzzies, into the hearts of citizens.
So should the class warfare rhetoric sprinkling the speech, including “I take responsibility for restoring the regulatory framework so that your government can stand up to the powerful, wealthy special interests when they try to profiteer on the back of the working people of our state.”
That does not sound like a leader committed to fairness for all, does it? The genius of the idea underlying these United States in large part springs from the notion of equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome. We are no more equal to one another than macaroni and cheese is to lobster.
Pretending that is not the case leads to disaster in school, in work, in the development of ideas. In everything. But equality of opportunity allows people to become who they choose to be, choosing by their behavior and the harvesting of their talents and education and experience.
That?s why the Founders, who fled governmental and religious tyranny, enshrined so many freedoms “to” and not freedoms “from” in the Constitution.
You can?t have freedom from worry or pain or poverty unless you take away in large part the freedom to pursue happiness.
Our only claim to equality is before the law.
O?Malley did not ignore the role of personal responsibility in his speech.
As governor, he asked citizens to hold him accountable for “doing all that I can to make your government open, transparent and accountable.”
And he urged every Marylander to take responsibility for their lives by working to make neighborhoods safer and schools better.
But we can only “move forward together” when our leaders themselves reach out to and consider a multitude of opinions, factions and interests.
If our new governor wants to ensure a safe and prosperous future for One Maryland, he must first commit to ensuring maximum freedom for each “one” of us.
