THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY

How Liberalism, Conservatism, and Capitalism Converged to Create the Greatest Nation

America was founded about 250 years ago by men who believed above all in the notion of Liberty. The Founding Fathers wrote in the Declaration of Independence in 1776:

“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, and that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”

The United States of America represented a huge leap in a feudal world dominated by absolute Monarchies. The radical notion that the state was subordinate to the individual, further writing in that seminal document:

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”

This notion of the preeminence of man vis-à-vis the state is the basis of liberalism or classical liberalism and the underpinning of American Democracy. This philosophy was advanced by Paine and Locke and adopted by the founders.

The notion of tradition and the rule of law, and the necessity of a systematic government not a reactionary “Mob Rule,” represents the Conservatism that lead to our Founder’s caution in ceding power to a central government. The notion of Burke and others of a Representative Democracy with limited powers, a strong Constitution, and a Federal system lead to the American Republic.

America is firmly rooted in Capitalism, with early settlements and land grants based upon trade. In addition to freedom – both political and religious, early settlers came to this nation to find their fortunes. Free from the ancestral class structures and limited economic and social mobility, the New World provided an opportunity for all to seek a better life.

While America has its dark moments (as all nations do) in terms of treatment of indigenous peoples, the slave trade, and other abuses, no country in history has done more to advance the cause of Liberty and the individual more than the United States of America. America remains a beacon of Freedom in the world.

This philosophical convergence of Liberalism, Conservatism, and Capitalism that formed the foundation of the United States is the American Philosophy. I shall refer to in the future as “Americanism.”

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