In America, Who is a Person?

This question is at the heart of our very being. Although it seems so simple that a four year old could answer (“I am a person, you are a person, that tree and that car are not people”), the answer has been nuanced since recorded history began and continues to this day. Sometimes the answer is “ Well, you are a person, but not a total person.”

The Founders grappled with this very question. Although Jefferson penned the immortal words, “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal….” their true ethos is revealed in Article 1 of the Constitution (which discounts native Americans and counts slaves as only 3/5 a person).

In my lifetime I have witnessed this chimera of person-hood. The Sixties were fraught with the fight over who deserved the full rights afforded by the Constitution; were People of Color worthy? I have seen the struggle of women as they try to break through the glass ceiling. I have witnessed the prejudice of the upper class against the middle class and the middle class against the poor. Those who endure physical, intellectual, or emotional insecurity are often viewed as “less than”, a status preferable to the homeless, who are often invisible. LGBTQ+ are not offered protection against workplace discrimination in my state.

That is not to say that there has been no attempts at correction. The Civil Rights Act, the ERA, Title IX, economic safety nets, and IDEA, are but a few of the sweeping changes enacted to attempt to address this “less than person” status that some endure.

The answer to this question basically lies in the mind of the individual as they answer a different question, “Who deserves the Blessings of Liberty?” The Conservative mindset wishes to sprinkle those Blessings cautiously; the Liberal wishes to pour the Blessings on every head. The Conservative reads the Constitution through the lens of 1787 America and the Liberal though that of 2020.

Today we see the rise of the Populist mindset. This mindset rejects the Liberal notion and so contorts the Conservative notion that it is not recognizable. The Populist expoists support for the Blessings for everyone who is like them; lifting tribalism and nationalism above all else. The Populist speaks about Democracy but supports Oligarchy.

As for me, I am a liberal. I fall into the “We the People” camp of Jefferson rather than in the “EGO” camp of Ayn Rand. I believe that all people should be afforded the Blessings of Liberty and that this is best accomplished by a social contract and not rugged individuals.

This series of essays is inspired by Howard Fineman’s Thirteen American Arguments.