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Tag Archives: The Social Contract

Allan J. MacEachen, as I knew him

20 Wednesday Sep 2017

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada, Liberal Party, Social Justice

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Allan J. MacEachen, Canada, sharing, The Medicare Act, the Raccoon, The Social Contract

Allan J. MacEachen, a long-serving Liberal MP and senator from Cape Breton, has died at St. Martha’s Hospital in Antigonish, N.S., on Monday night. (Mike Dembeck/Canadian Press)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/allan-maceachen-former-federal-liberal-cabinet-minister-dies-1.4286949

(Also see the Conclusion.)

My dear friend and former neighbour for 22 years, the Honourable Allan J. MacEachen, died on 12 September 2017, the year Canada celebrated its 150th birthday and the year he turned 96. Mr MacEachen passed away at St Martha’s Hospital in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. He had studied at St Francis Xavier University and returned to StFX to teach Economics. He owned a house across the street from the campus, a few steps from my house. In fact, Allan J.’s backyard ran into mine. I didn’t fully own my backyard. We therefore shared the backyard and a barn.

In other words, this post isn’t about Allan J. MacEachen, a foremost Canadian politician and also a statesman. It is about the extraordinary gentleman who lived next door to me and about a very dear friend. Let us begin with the barn.

The Barn

That barn was quite the building. It could have been used as a garage, but it served as storage space. That is where we kept our gardening tools, a lawn mower, ladders, scaffolding, not to mention picks and shovels and tires. Paul mowed the lawn. To be precise, Paul mowed three adjoining lawns: Mr MacEachen’s, Dr Cecil MacLean’s and mine. Dr Cecil MacLean, a graduate of the Sorbonne, was Chair of the Department of Modern Languages. Initially, he was the Carnegie Chair of French.

The barn was somewhat special. For one thing, it had a hidden room. How else could it be so long a building on the outside, but not very deep inside? I was perplexed and I decided to investigate matters. I found a small door, hidden behind an apple tree and vegetation I had to cut my way through. The door had been left unlocked, so, I climbed in and explored. After it was found, I had a lock installed on the door. It was no longer hidden. The next time he came from Ottawa, Mr MacEachen was introduced to his collection of antiques. He was very interested and had some of these antiques refurbished.

I enjoyed looking after our backyard. In the summer, I filled a white urn with red flowers and put a tall green plant in the middle. I sat the urn close to his back door, which is where he parked the car. Finding the right place for this urn was not easy. I walked back and forth until I found what I believe was the best location. I also loved delineating the driveways, his and mine. I had gardeners put little white stones, crushed marble I believe, on one side of the two adjoining driveways. On the other side, we had a very long hedge which I trimmed so it wouldn’t scratch Mr MacEachen’s car.

The Drive from the Airport: poor Mr MacEachen

Before flying down from Ottawa to Antigonish, Mr MacEachen would phone me, or Pearl did. Pearl Hunter was Mr MacEachen’s secretary and, to a large extent, a colleague.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ottawacitizen/obituary.aspx?pid=186196631

She died on 22 July 2017, which must have saddened Mr MacEachen enormously. We had a marvellous lunch together a few summers ago. There were four of us: Allan J., Pearl, Craig Smith, who was Mr MacEachen’s devoted and constant companion after Mr MacEachen suffered a stroke in 2004, and there was little me. How thoughtful of Mr MacEachen to invite Pearl!

Sometimes, when I knew he was coming to Antigonish, I called in our cleaning ladies: Adèle and her sister. Both lived in Pomquet, a nearby Acadian community. As well, on one occasion, I drove Mr MacEachen’s car to the airport to pick him up. I arrived at the airport safely and on time. However, on our way back to Antigonish, we stopped to eat a doughnut at a Tim Horton‘s and, as we left, Mr MacEachen said that he would drive the rest of the way. Based on this one event, one can tell Mr MacEachen was a born diplomat. He was much too polite to tell me I was a poor driver and I didn’t ask why he wanted to drive.

The Frozen Pipes

One day, when Mr MacEachen arrived home, his heating system had failed and the radiators had burst. I was in Sherbrooke, Quebec, visiting with my family. As for Mr MacEachen’s tenant, Joe, he was also absent. Poor Allan J. could not sleep in his house. He went to see Cecil who considered sending him to my house. But what about the stuffed rabbit lying on my bed: a Steiff rabbit. Mr MacEachen went elsewhere. When his tenant left, I started visiting the house every day. Yet, there was another incident, which is my main story. It is about the intrusion of a raccoon.

The Raccoon

That event is an event to recall. The fellow–I called him Stokely in memory of another raccoon, found his way down the chimney to the bottom of the fireplace. The fireplace was in a beautiful room which the raccoon damaged extensively. The door to that room was closed, so I did not open it during my daily visit. As a result, Allan J. was the first to see the damage. In fact, the raccoon was still in the chimney. We blocked it from the room, but Stokely lived there. I said to Mr MacEachen that I would look after everything with the help of good friends.

Claude said that we would have to smoke Stokely out. Smoke him out? Wouldn’t that hurt him? No, he said. We used Cuban cigars, perhaps a gift from Fidel Castro himself. I protested. Imagine, history going up in flames so a raccoon would leave his comfortable nest in a chimney! But Claude insisted. We only needed a few cigars. Claude had made a grid that would block the chimney. I believe Richard was with us, waiting to see the raccoon emerge and leave. When Stokely came out, he looked in every direction and ran to safety. Richard told Claude to drop the grid.

I had to throw several cushions away and called in professional cleaners. I also had to replace one of the curtains. It had to be custom-made and Mr MacEachen always ran the risk of paying what I called the senatorial fee–by then Mr MacEachen was a senator. The curtain was sown shabbily and I have always regretted not making it myself. 

There were other backyard adventures. For instance, the alarm system Mr MacEachen had installed was sensitive and would go off if a curtain moved. The Company would then phone me and I’d run to the house and inspect, sometimes fighting my way through heavy snow. But all was always well.

A Kind Gentleman

Mr MacEachen was very considerate. After Dr Cecil MacLean died–Cecil and I were always together, he told me he would protect me. I did not learn until much later that I needed protection. He knew that I lived alone and went to bed early so that fatigue would not prevent me from teaching the next day. At Christmas, he asked if I had a place to go and brought me a gift. He also made sure I was not left alone on my birthday.

One July, the week of our birthdays, I drove to Lake Ainslie, Cape Breton, where Mr MacEachen had a house. He had invited members of the Robichaud family and a relative of his, a priest. It turned out the Robichaud family knew one of my father’s best friends. As for the priest, he had been in Rome when my mother’s cousin taught theology at what was then called the Angelicum. 

Mr MacEachen also toured my house. I had told him that my bedroom was the smallest room in the house. Why was I depriving myself of larger quarters?  I led him from room to room. As he looked, he seemed reassured. The house was small but it was a jewel, the smallest room in particular. I had a beautiful blue house, covered with cedar shingles. Many of you know that this is the house I sold during the Summer of 2002. I had fallen ill because my workload had become too heavy.

Mr MacEachen tried to prevent me from selling the house, but I thought it was too late to cancel. Two years later, my disability benefits were terminated. So, once again, Mr MacEachen tried to help me resume my career, but the Vice-President did not listen to him. I wanted to return to my office and it was available. However, I was being sent elsewhere. No, I had never been remiss in my duties despite chronic fatigue syndrome. 

They didn’t know me, but Mr MacEachen did.

Conclusion

I knew a more private Mr MacEachen, but I agree with Justin Trudeau. Mr MacEachen (6 July 1921 – 12 September 2017), “made this country.”

Allan MacEachen remembered as ‘peerless’ parliamentarian by Justin Trudeau

(two videos: scroll down to hear Prime Minister Justin Trudeau)

He is Canada’s “father of medicare.” The Medicare Care Act was passed in 1966, fifty-one years ago.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/1482569-meek-our-father-of-medicare-a-jewel-of-confederation#.WVeWA5bLrXo.facebook

The man who said to me: “I will protect you,” protected all of us Canadians. He knew about the social contract and lived it. Citizens pay their taxes and their government makes sure they are safe. Mr MacEachen made sure Canadians were safe.

The Government of Nova Scotia celebrated Mr MacEachen’s life on Sunday 17 September 2017, at the Keating Centre, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish. His funeral took place at Stella Maris Catholic Church in Inverness, Cape Breton and he was buried in the parish cemetery.

May you rest in peace, Mr MacEachen. You have built a country and will always be remembered.

RELATED ARTICLES

  • Canada’s Honourable Allan J. MacEachen: Nationhood and Leadership (3 July 2017)
  • Canada’s Honourable Allan J. MacEachen; Nationhood and Leadership (12 August 2011)

Sources and Resources:

  • the Nova Scotia Archives

Dear Readers,

I have moved to my new apartment, but it was a difficult and lengthy move, longer than I anticipated. My challenge was downsizing. The apartment I have bought is spacious, ±1056 sq ft (±98.1 sq meters), but it has fewer rooms than my former apartment. I had to give furniture, books and clothes, but I still have everything I need.

Given my age, this building is a safer environment than the building I left. It has elevators and it is situated within walking distance of a small market place and a café.

The time has come to return to my weblog. I have missed you. I still have boxes containing books to unpack. Some of these books will be given, but I am having bookcases built to house the ones I am keeping.

Love to everyone ♥

Sissel Kyrkjebø sings Ave Maris Stella
The creation of this Marian hymn is attributed to Saint Venantius Fortunatus

Ave_maris_stella_(1380)

Ave Maris Stella in a 14th-century antiphonary

© Micheline Walker
20 September 2017
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A Breech of Protocol

05 Saturday Nov 2016

Posted by michelinewalker in Election 2012, United States

≈ 21 Comments

Tags

"a new age of darkness", "National Disgrace", Colin Powell, Donald Trump, FBI's James Comey, Obamacare, Pascal's Wager, The Ku Klux Klan, The Protocol, The Social Contract

In this depraved campaign season, it’s unclear whether Trump’s support from white supremacists will have a positive or negative effect on his campaign.“In this depraved campaign season, it’s unclear whether Trump’s support from white supremacists will have a positive or negative effect on his campaign.”

PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID J. PHILLIP / AP (The New Yorker)

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/donald-trump-and-the-ku-klux-klan-a-history

A Possible Rape

Just as we were expecting Mrs Clinton to lose her bid for the presidency of the United States, rumours are circulating that Mr Trump may have raped a 13-year-old and then threatened to kill her if she told.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-threatened-to-kill-rape-accuser-if-she-reported-him-a7394846.html

Such matters have to be investigated. One is innocent until proven guilty and to this rule there can be no exception, but rape, however, is a criminal offence. I suspect, moreover, that the Federal Bureau of Investigation will have to investigate allegations of connivance between Mr Trump and the Kremlin. There is considerable fear outside the United States that Mr Trump will be elected into the office of President of the United States. The Ku Klux Klan, no less, has endorsed his candidacy.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/donald-trump-and-the-ku-klux-klan-a-history

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/the-ku-klux-klan-officially-endorses-donald-trump-for-president-a7392801.html

s-l1000

Protocol

http://us.blastingnews.com/news/2016/10/fbi-probe-of-clinton-s-emails-violates-justice-department-protocol-001220349.html

President Obama criticized Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey for re-opening the investigation into Mrs Clinton’s emails. Mrs Clinton used her personal computer to send emails in her professional capacity as United States’ Secretary of State. It is not a secure way of sending emails. Mrs Clinton has stated that she was not directed not to use her personal computer, but that she is accepting full responsibility for her actions. Moreover, Hillary Clinton’s emails were investigated and she was cleared.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/03/fbi-leaks-hillary-clinton-james-comey-donald-trump

Consequently, when FBI Director James Comey announced he was re-opening the investigation into Mrs Clinton’s email, the earth shook. He had put Mrs Clinton at a disadvantage in an election where voters do not have a choice. The alternative is Mr Trump, which is the unthinkable. By re-opening the investigation, Mr Comey broke a protocol. It was too late. I saw a figure, but could not trace my way back to the source. However, if my memory serves me well, the figure was 60 days and I had read the New York Times and The New Yorker.

The protocol applies to governmental agencies, such as the FBI, and it is used to protect the candidates, the electorate and, ultimately, democracy. Consider, for instance, that a voter may be persuaded not to vote for the candidate of his or her choice, only to learn that the candidate of his or her choice was the better candidate. It is easy to poison the mind of voters. Mr Comey failed to protect Americans.

Newspapers can disclose news, which is how I learned about the possible rape of a 13-year old. In this matter, timing is again an issue. Mr Trump’s victim, if indeed he raped a 13-year old, should have spoken earlier, but she reported that Mr Trump told her he would kill her if she talked. The word “killing” may have been used metaphorically, but to the victim, it was a genuine threat and the ultimate form of intimidation. Besides, it is a known fact that Mr Trump is a sexual predator.

https://fr.scribd.com/doc/316341058/Donald-Trump-Jeffrey-Epstein-Rape-Lawsuit-and-Affidavits

It is also a known fact that Mr Trump is a liar, but would he lie to a young woman who could ruin his reputation and career? I doubt it. If he is elected to the presidency the United States, Americans will have a liar as president and commander-in-chief and Mr Trump may have lied his way out of a conviction: rape. He can afford the very best lawyers.

borowitz-comeysaysfbiinvestigatinghillarystiestobillclinton-1200-1Hillary and Bill Clinton, PHOTOGRAPH BY JUSTIN SULLIVAN / GETTY

Two Investigations

The plot thickens. I was under the impression that the FBI investigation was about Mrs Clinton’s emails, which it may be at the moment. However, the FBI is also investigating the Clinton’s, or “so-called ties” between Hillary and Bill Clinton. Specifically, they are investigating the Clinton Foundation. Yet we are told that emails are being investigated.

“Dropping a bombshell less than a week before the Presidential election, the F. B. I. Director James Comey revealed on Wednesday that the Bureau was investigating Hillary Clinton’s ties to Bill Clinton.”

I should tell why the FBI could not investigate the new cache of emails earlier than it did. There was a formality the FBI could not skip. What is it, precisely, that the FBI could not investigate before 8 November 2016, the day of the election? It seems a witch hunt the purpose of which would be to eliminate Mrs Clinton and elevate Donald Trump to the presidency as he wishes, without an election.

“To say that they are investigating so-called ties between Hillary and Bill Clinton while offering no specifics about what those ties might be is unconscionable this close to an election,” Podesta told CNN. John Podesta is Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman.

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/comey-says-f-b-i-investigating-hillarys-ties-to-bill-clinton

“A New Age of Endarkenment”

In my last post, I asked Who (and how) had put the FBI up to such shenanigans as re-opening an investigation days before an election and possibly sabotaging the better candidate’s campaign thus empowering an ignoramus and a man who cannot contain himself. If a man feels free to assault women, he will feel free to assault the world. Whoever put the FBI up to re-opening an investigation into Mrs Clinton’s emails is an unconscionable individual.

From my perspective, Americans are currently being denied the right to elect their president and Mr Trump, who will take them to a “new age of endarkenment” is being foisted on them. We know the “how,” a breech of protocol, but the saboteur has not been identified.

Jonathan Freedland of The Guardian (UK) writes that

If Donald Trump wins, it’ll be a new age of darkness.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/04/if-donald-trump-wins-new-age-endarkenment

Mrs Clinton used the wrong computer, but as I wrote in my last post, she has devoted a life time to the well-being and the security of all Americans. Once he is in office, Mr Trump will do away with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Obamacare. This is very wrong. Citizens pay taxes and, in return, their government ensures their security. No one is omitted. Leaders negotiate a Social Contract with the citizens of a country, which is not happening in this particular election. This election isn’t an election.

gopnik-trump-nixon-933
Donald Trump behaves exactly how you would expect an American fascist to act. PHOTOGRAPH BY MANDEL NGAN / AFP / GETTY

I wrote that he did not have a platform, a program, but he does. He has a platform and a program, but it is of a bitter savour.

His platform is resentment and his program is revenge, and that is an ideology with many faces and one name. This is fascism with an American face.

WHY TRUMP IS DIFFERENT —AND MUST BE REPELLED

By Adam Gopnik
NOVEMBER 3, 2016
The New Yorker

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/why-trump-is-different-and-must-be-repelled

“The truth is that Trump’s “positions” on specific issues are more or less a matter of chance and whim and impulse (Of course women should be punished for having abortions! Ten minutes later: no, they shouldn’t) while his actual ideology, the song he sings every day, the one those listeners and followers gleefully vibrate to, is one anthem, and it is the sound of the authoritarian and anti-democratic impulses Americans have rejected since the founding of this country. Call them what you will—populist authoritarianism or extreme-right-wing ethno-nationalism—the active agents within a Trump speech and energizing a Trump rally are always the same: the worship of power in its most brutal and authoritarian forms (thus his admiration for Vladimir Putin and for the Chinese Communists who assaulted the protesters at Tiananmen Square); the reduction of all relations to dominance contests; the contempt for rational argument; the perpetual unashamed storm of lies; the appeal to hysterically exaggerated fears of outsiders; and, above all, the relentless sense of ethnic grievance that can be remedied only by acts of annihilating revenge. His is the ideology not of democratic patriotism but of a narrow nationalism alone—the glorification of the nation, and the exaggeration of its humiliations, with violence promised to its enemies, at home and abroad; and a promise of vengeance for those who feel themselves disempowered by history. He will “level the playing field” with the terrorist spectre of isis by forcing soldiers to commit war crimes; he will not merely kill our enemies but annihilate their families. His platform is resentment and his program is revenge, and that is an ideology with many faces and one name. This is fascism with an American face.”

Conclusion

The protocol should not have been violated. Sowing the seeds of doubt about a nominee as a campaign is drawing to a close is paramount to endorsing the nominee’s opponent. Mr Comey’s last-minute revelation is an assault on democracy, words I have already used. In this election one should vote for the nominee whose devotion and dedication to the United States is an established fact. That privilege is being trampled on.

Retired General and former Secretary of State Colin Powell is not an admirer of Hillary Clinton and he has called Donald Trump a “national disgrace” and “international pariah.”

http://www.wsj.com/articles/leaked-colin-powell-emails-lambaste-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-1473862328

http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37364189

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/14/politics/colin-powell-dcleaks/

Yet, he has stated that he would vote for Mrs Clinton because she is an experienced politician. She is, by leaps and bounds, the better and safer choice. In such a case, a rational individual has to take Blaise Pascal‘s wager.

“In Pensées, Pascal surveys several philosophical paradoxes: infinity and nothing, faith and reason, soul and matter, death and life, meaning and vanity – seemingly arriving at no definitive conclusions besides humility, ignorance, and grace. Rolling these into one he develops Pascal’s Wager.” (See Pascal, Wikipedia.)

According to Pascal’s Wager, if one elects Mr Trump one has every thing to lose and nothing to gain.

I tried to finish this article earlier, but a migraine stood in my way and the pain will not abate.

Love to everyone. ♥

RELATED ARTICLES

  • This is Nonsense (2 November 2016)
  • The Campaign: a Nightmare (1 November 2016)
  • A Democracy. A Right to Vote (30 October 2016)
  • DECODING THE DONALD PHENOMENON – Call it what you want. There is an explanation for his behavior: twoifbycharmwordpress.wordpress.com
  • November 8, mere days from now (27 October 2016)
  • Mr Trump & “trumpisms” (22 October 2016)
  • Mr Trump as President? It’s still no! (15 October 2016)

—ooo—

  • Pascal & Leibniz: Details (19 November 2015) (Le Pari fatal)
  • Taxes: the “freedom we surrender” (15 October 2012)
  • The Social Contract: Hobbes, Locke & Rousseau (12 October 2012)
olifant-216x300

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© Micheline Walker
5 November 2016
(Revised 5 November 2016)
WordPress

michelinewalker.com

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November 8, mere days from now

27 Thursday Oct 2016

Posted by michelinewalker in Election, The United States

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Andrew Wyeth, Donald Trump, Gerrald F. Seib, Hillary Clinton, The Social Contract, trumpism

andrew-wyeth-independence-day

Independence Day by Andrew Wyeth (Google images)

A Strange Campaign

The current presidential campaign in the United States differs from previous campaigns, such as the 2008 campaign. In 2008, issues were discussed, which has not been the case in this campaign. Mrs Clinton is a veteran politician, so voters know, to a large extent, what they will be dealing with, if she is elected to the presidency. But Mr Trump is not a politician and is not familiar with the numerous issues. He therefore avoids discussing issues.

I have written about his “trumpisms,” which is a dismissive discourse. My best example of a “trumpism” is the failed discussion on gun control. It ended when Mr Trump said “take her [Mrs Clinton’s] guards away from her and watch,” or something to that effect. Mr Trump managed not to address gun control by straying not only from the general to the particular, which could be relevant, but from the general to the personal, quite a gap. The personal is not irrelevant in choosing a president, but in a debate, it is seldom mentioned.

Well, a day or so ago, Mr Trump was threatening to sue the women who confirmed he was a sexual predator. That is another “trumpism.” While Mr Trump threatens these women loudly, real issues are not being discussed, which tells the story of Mr Trump’s campaign. However, should Mr Trump be elected to the presidency and sue the women he assaulted, their testimonial could damn him. He could be impeached. It would be in Mr Trump’s best interest not to carry this discussion an inch further.

He won’t. But issues are not on his mind. Having threatened to sue the women who confirmed he was a sexual predator, Mr Trump is now attacking his Party, the GOP or Republican Party.

As a result, Mrs Clinton is inviting endorsements from Republicans. The colleagues who nominated Mr Trump are distancing themselves. For example, Colin Powell has said he would vote for Mrs Clinton.

Mrs Clinton is familiar with every dossier the President of the United States will have to deal with, and she can tell right from wrong. Mr Powell “spoke about his [Mr Trump’s] inexperience, he spoke about the messages that he’s sending out every day to his supporters, which really paints our country in a negative light across the globe with all our allies.” (The New York Times)

As I was meditating on this drôle de campagne, this strange campaign, a campaign during which few issues have been addressed, I was reminded of French encyclopédiste Denis Diderot‘s (1713 – 1784) Paradoxe sur le comédien, The Paradox of the Actor. In Le Paradoxe sur le comédien, written between 1773 and 1777, Denis Diderot suggests that a good actor does not feel the emotions he displays. He is in full possession of himself, which allows him to play the same role convincingly day after day. (See The Paradox of the Actor, Wikipedia.)

Nominees do play a role. In fact, we all play roles and even “dress” the part: the office, lunch with a dear friend, an evening at the opera, relaxing, etc. As for nominees to the role of President of the United States, their role is to tell the people—it’s all about the people—what they intend to do for them. They are in fact negotiating a social contract: taxation, employment, education, immigration, the Middle East, gun control, the environment, health care and other social programmes, etc. Good leaders build the future and, as the saying goes, the road to the future is always under construction.

If Mr Trump intends to slash into the Affordable Health Care Act, now is the time, or the campaign was the time, to discuss it. Health care must be affordable.

The polls surprised me. I didn’t think Mr Trump would be able to gather as much support among the United States’ electorate as he did. He was a newcomer to Washington and therefore a mostly unknown quantity whose education had not prepared for the position of President of the United States. But he had supporters. Mr Seid, quoted below (italics), may have the answer “populist… .” Could the medium be the message? (See The Medium is the message, Wikipedia.) Truth be told, if the polls now place Mrs Clinton ahead of Mr Trump, it has not been, until now, because of a sneaky conspiracy or ruinous revelations from the best of hackers. So far, Mr Trump is the one who has built himself and undone himself, and he may not be able to walk back a bad performance.

Trumpism

I should note that the Wall Street Journal‘s Gerald F. Seib also used the term “Trumpism” in an article published on 8 August 2016 entitled “Separating Donald Trump From Trumpism.” No, I did not borrow the term “trumpism” from Mr Seib. I borrowed it from my mother tongue, French. “Se tromper” means to make a mistake, to be mistaken, and “tromper” means to deceive, to be unfaithful to, to fool. Moreover, an elephant has a trompe.

I have given “trumpism” a meaning that is not consistent, or not entirely consistent, with Mr Seib’s who writes that there is Mr Trump and

[t]hen there is Trumpism—the mixture of attitudes and positions that catapulted its namesake to the Republican nomination in the first place. Trumpism is a populist mix of anger at the status quo, skepticism about the virtues of free trade and immigration, doubts about the need for U.S. intervention abroad, fondness for law and order and a dose of nationalism. “Americanization, not globalization, will be our new credo,” Mr. Trump put it in a speech in Detroit on Monday.
“Separating Donald Trump From Trumpism.”

We are days away from the American election. Everything could change. But I doubt it will.

Love to everyone. ♥

024

Big Room by Andrew Wyeth, 1988 (Google images)

Andrew Wyeth “I paint my life”
music:  “Cavatina” by Pat Halling

andrew-wyeth-german-shepherd

German Shepherd by Andrew Wyeth (Google images)

© Micheline Walker
27 October 2016
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Taxes: the “freedom we surrender”

15 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in United States

≈ Comments Off on Taxes: the “freedom we surrender”

Tags

Barack Obama, Hobbes, Mitt Romney, Obama, President of the United States, The Social Contract, Thomas Hobbes, United States

VP's Top Economic Advisor Discusses Links Betw...

VP’s Top Economic Advisor Discusses Links Between The Great Recession And The Social Contract (Photo credit: Talk Radio News Service)

“I transfer my right of governing myself to X (the sovereign) if you do too.” (Thomas Hobbes)

The Social Contract: “equal imposition of taxes”

Examining the social contract has helped me understand why electing Mr Romney to the Presidency of the United States could be a mistake.  The problem has to do with anti-tax extremism and individualism run amuck.  What he has expressed throughout his campaign is a wish not to “burden” the rich with taxes: tax cuts for the rich while the middle-class and the poor have difficulty making ends meet.  In a civil society, the society described by the three political philosophers whose theories we have glimpsed, paying one’s taxes is the  “freedom we surrender” as individuals to make sure collective needs are attended to and that we live in safety.

“Hobbes believed that equal justice includes the equal imposition of taxes. The equality of taxes doesn’t depend on equality of wealth, but on the equality of the debt that every man owes to the commonwealth for his defence and the maintenance of the rule of law.” (Leviathan, Wikipedia) 

Human Rights: the Right to a Job

Our human rights now include affordable health care, affordable medication, employment insurance, benefits to the disabled, veterans, and seniors, affordable education and affordable housing, and I do not mean shacks, not to mention the right to a job.

“Hobbes also supported public support for those unable to maintain themselves by labour, which would presumably be funded by taxation. He advocated public encouragement of works of Navigation etc. to usefully employ the poor who could work.” (Leviathan, Wikipedia)

So Hobbes raises the subject of unemployment.  Please consider that the unemployed cannot contribute taxes to the government. This means that they do not have any “freedom to surrender,”  which weakens the social contract in that there cannot be enough money to ensure the safety of the “whole.”

Individual and Collective Needs

And, as mentioned earlier, the rich will not enter into the above-named social contract by paying their fair share of taxes which, in their case, would be a substantial amount.  If the rich will not pay taxes, they have failed to understand that in a society there are individual as well as collective needs.

So the constant demand for tax-cuts on the part of the rich can only lead to a dysfunctional society.  It is a myopic view of nationhood and if Americans’s basic human rights, such as health care, are not attended to, those who will not pay taxes are displaying a rather distorted view of nationhood, one that expresses a profound lack of compassion.

For instance, if Mr Romney does abolish the health-care reforms introduced by President Obama and privatizes health insurance, a possible scenario, he may create a situation where having paid their premiums persons who are diagnosed with cancer, or diabetes, or some other disease, are refused the support they have paid for.  That would be a severe encroachment on a social contract and people could die and die in pain, which in my opinion is criminal.

The US is not poor: the budget and taxes, again

Despite its debt, the US is not poor, but I believe it may be allocating too much money to the Defense Department.  The enemy is an enemy within: greed and ill-conceived nationhood.  It may therefore be wise to direct some of the money allocated the Military to a program that would boost a now fragile economy by creating jobs and thereby produce tax-payers.

In short, it is imperative that the rich start looking upon themselves as part of a society, or collectivity, and pay their fair share of taxes, i.e. their dues.  They would thereby act in their own best interest and in the best interest of the United States.  They have to enter into a social contract which means surrendering some  freedom, if it is freedom, by paying their fair share of taxes.

We are our brother’s keeper.

Related article
  • The Social Contract: Hobbes, Locke & Rousseau (michelinewalker.com)
© Micheline Walker
15 October 2012
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