The Essential America: Our Founders and the Liberal TraditionSimon and Schuster, 2004 M07 26 - 192 páginas Liberalism is the oldest and most enduring American tradition, a philosophy and way of life we inherited from the Founding Fathers. This is the central idea of The Essential America by George McGovern, America's best-known (and most consistent) liberal. Referring us to our moral and spiritual foundations, McGovern not only presents a resounding defense of liberalism as "the most practical and hopeful compass to guide the American ship of state" but offers specific proposals for keeping the tradition vibrant. The Essential America proposes programs for feeding the world's malnourished children. Rather than sending our armies abroad, McGovern spells out policies that confront the causes of terrorism. He proposes cutting our military budget (echoing Dwight D. Eisenhower's powerful warning about the military-industrial complex). He condemns preemptive war, criticizes tax cuts for the rich, and warns against government for the powerful minority. Americans have traditionally stood for progress, generosity, tolerance, and protection of the needy, McGovern states -- as well as for multi- lateralism in foreign policy and "a decent respect for the opinions of mankind." He reminds us that while creative tension between liberalism and conservatism is the genius of American politics, it is the liberals who have been responsible for every forward step in our national history. They built "the Essential America." |
Contenido
| 1 | |
The Spoils of War and the Fruits of Peace | 29 |
The American | 57 |
The Changing Character of the Liberal | 77 |
The Sources of Security and National Greatness | 99 |
Come Home America | 145 |
In Conclusion | 165 |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
The Essential America: Our Founders and the Liberal Tradition George Stanley McGovern Vista previa limitada - 2004 |
The Essential America: Our Founders and the Liberal Tradition George Stanley McGovern Vista de fragmentos - 2004 |
The Essential America: Our Founders and the Liberal Tradition George McGovern Sin vista previa disponible - 2009 |
Términos y frases comunes
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Pasajes populares
Página 52 - In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
Página 95 - The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
Página 51 - A vital element in keeping the peace is our Military Establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.
Página 76 - I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.
Página 81 - In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven, and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law.
Página 36 - Hence likewise they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty; and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.
Página 51 - This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government.
Página 39 - Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be habitable. Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.
Página 37 - Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity.
Página 6 - Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever He had a chosen people, whose breast He has made his peculiar deposit for substantial.