“As [the founders] saw it, a democratic society couldn’t function without a virtuous citizenry participating in public life, with virtue defined by one’s economic independence. If you owned your land, the founders believed, you had the ability to reason free of self-interest, and thus you possessed virtue. If you were a lowly worker, or dependent on others for your livelihood, you were too compromised to make political choices, and thus you lacked virtue. Of course, it’s no accident that the only people who had republican virtue—white male landowners—were also the people who defined it. They were, in their estimation, the only people to possess the independence, control, and faculties to govern the country and protect it from mob rule. Even though we’ve expanded the Constitution to protect voting rights for women, minorities, and young adults, the idea that some people have virtue and others don’t is still embedded in our political thought.”
- Jamelle Bouie, at Salon and The American Prospect (via thesmithian)
- Jamelle Bouie, at Salon and The American Prospect (via thesmithian)
