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How would it feel to be guaranteed, by law, the right to:
- Employment with a living wage
- Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies
- Housing
- Medical Care
- Education
AND Social Security?
A Second Bill of RIghts. Second Bill of Rights you say? That sounds crazy! Unbeknownst to many, a Second Bill of RIghts was actually proposed not too terribly long ago. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), ranked the #1 Greatest Chief Executive by a recent Siena College Poll proposed the idea in his State of the Union address on January 11th, 1944.
Here is an excerpt from the speech he gave advocating for enhanced individual freedom through this Second Bill of Rights.
We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. "Necessitous men are not free men." People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all regardless of station, race, or creed.
I’ll be honest, I don’t have any issue with our current Bill of Rights. They are, what I consider to be, the crux of our democracy today. Without these guaranteed rights, we would not live in the free society that we do in the present day and people would not have nearly as many opportunities for a successful and fulfilling life. However, the prospects of having rights to housing, medical care, and a job with a living wage seem rational and comforting. The original Bill of Rights ensured our political rights as citizens of this country. FDR’s proposed Second Bill of Rights, as he stated in his speech, would bestow upon the citizens of this country the proper Social and Economic rights necessary. . . .
God help us if this idea were proposed and considered today, and the world would no doubt come to an end if Obama was the one to broach the subject. Thousands of screeching cries proclaiming Socialism would be heard echoing through the country before Obama could finish the phrase "Second Bill of Rights." Health care Reform was over a year’s worth of bickering, name-calling, and smear-tactics, and with not much of a bill to show for it at the end of the entire process.
Imagine proposing legislation to have the government guarantee not only health care, but things like housing and employment etc. Republicans and Conservatives alike would go absolutely ape-shit. Sarah Palin would be churning out well over 1,000 tweets per day along with a plethora of Facebook propaganda, John Boehner would resort to crying fits and furiously throwing his creamed carrots while on the House floor, and Glenn Beck would purchase a Kenyan travel visa and broadcast live from Africa as he searches for Obama’s birth certificate. Oh the joys of partisan fringe instigators!
Given the current economic and health care situation in this country, the aforementioned ideas of FDR seem less than feasible. Combine that with the perspectives of the people who attend Glenn Beck’s "Restoring Honor" rally and the idea is as closer to impossible than Rush Limbaugh worshipping Jimmy Carter.
I’d love to be guaranteed good health care, a decent paying job, and a roof over my head. If only it were a possibility in this United States of America…
Maybe one day it will be.
5 Comments
The Bill of Rights covers a set of actions that the government cannot take. It cannot make you testify against yourself, it cannot stop you from speaking out, or gathering together, or impose religion on you.
This is a list of things that society must give you. It is a whole different concept. While all of these things are important, I do not know how we guarantee them, or how we allocate all of these “rights”.
Guaranteed, or your money back, some conditions apply, not applicable in all states, subject to review, and not legally binding. Now, who’s your daddy? /s
The Constitution’s purpose is not to define and establish rights but to establish a government that protects our basic human rights. Our rights our inherent. They don’t come from the Constitution. The government didn’t give them to us. We were born with them. This is best expressed for Americans, and for anyone really, in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The Bill of Rights was included to emphasize that the government should not remove the rights listed therein and it is not inclusive (obviously) of all our human rights. For example, Chief Justice Roberts has said that the right to abortion is not in the Constitution, and he’s correct.
So any listing of rights to employment, housing etc. in the Constitution would be inappropriate.
If I was guaranteed housing, healthcare and a monthly check from the government, I would never work a day in my life.
Oh, like rich people never work a day in their life? Sign me up!