THE SECOND PART OF Glenn Beck's 9/12 Project, after the nine principles we've worked our way through in recent posts, is a list of 12 liberal values.
Here's Beck's list:
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Honesty
Beck reminds us that true honesty is both outward (not telling lies to get your way) and inward (not kidding yourself about the facts).
On a national level, it involves holding the government accountable to not lie to the American people, and holding one branch of government responsible to tell the truth to the other branches. -
Reverence
Beck endorses Americans' reverence for the democratic process, for the point of view of others and for their needs, for the planet, for other species, for our interdependence on each other, and on nature.
Reverence is the root of environmental concerns, human rights concerns, and our respect for the moral views of others.
On a national level, it involves a reverence for the human spirit, and a commitment to non-interference by government in the lives of individuals. -
Hope
Beck endorses the fundamental principle of the Obama campaign.
Hope is essential if we are to guard human rights, equality, and freedom.
Hope is the motivation that allows us to move past authoritarian structures and work together to create a world where everyone has an equal chance from birth.
On a national level, it's our responsibility, if we really value hope, to make hope possible for every American. -
Thrift
Beck urges thrift on a personal level: the willingness not to live beyond our means, to use our resources wisely to provide for ourselves and those we love.
And, on a national level, he reminds us that thrift is the willingness to use our resources for the good of our citizens, not squandering them on a bloated military, or tax cuts for those who are already wealthy, or corporate give-aways. -
Humility
Beck stands for the ability to admit that my world view isn't the only one, that I don't have a final lock on truth, and to work for a society in which a diversity of cultures and ideas can exist, so that the views of others can be exercised and protected as well.
He reminds us that humility is the simple recognition that I could be wrong, even on issues I think are very important: -
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My religion doesn't have a monopoly on truth.
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My moral views are not the only legitimate ones.
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My gender orientation may not be everyone's.
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U.S. interests aren't the only ones in the world.
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Charity
Beck points out that charity is a form of love, the ability to value others, particularly those who are different from ourselves, and to care about them and their needs.
On a personal level, charity means not being too quick to sit in judgment on an individual, or offering a helping hand when it's needed.
On a national level charity means providing resources for the poor and the sick and the aged, making sure all American children have equal opportunities, decent nutrition, a safe place to live, a good education, and making sure our national policies don't inflict suffering on the poor, sick, old, or children in other countries. -
Sincerity
Beck endorses sincerity: simple forthrightness, saying what you mean and not something else. Sincerity is not using your words and actions just to manipulate others, but thinking first about the truth of what you are saying.
It's not copping out, by assuming that phrases like "I'm really convinced that..." get you off the hook of actually checking your facts.
In the political realm, sincerity includes things like not using code-words to telegraph a racist or classist subtext to your base while sounding innocent to those who aren't clued in. -
Moderation
Moderation, Beck reminds us, is the fine art of not going to extremes.
It involves not insisting that government either take over an area, or that government stay completely out of it.
It involves not calling the President of the United States of America a racist, or spreading stories about how he hates white people.
Moderation includes a willingness to compromise, to not constantly stonewall just to make the other side look bad. -
Hard Work
To value hard work means being willing to roll up your sleeves, earn your keep, build something real, make a difference.
But Beck reminds us that it also means being willing to create a society that rewards hard work: where a person who labors eight hours a day to earn a living, and then moonlights because eight hours won't support his or her family, will have decent health care, and a living wage, and an infrastructure that allows his or her family hope for a decent future. -
Courage
Physical courage is important, but moral courage is even more important. Glenn Beck endorses standing up against those who would promote racism, or keep the poor poor.
He endorses fighting those who try to turn our democracy into an empire or a theocracy or a plutonomy.
Courage is saying "No." to those who attempt to erode our basic freedoms by instituting laws based on their personal religious traditions or intolerance of people different from themselves. -
Personal Responsibility
Beck urges the value of personal responsibility: taking responsibility for my life and my contribution to society.
I am responsible for my own values, not the government: It's my personal responsibility to live by those values, not the government's responsibility to force me, or everyone else, to. Other people may have other values, and it's their personal responsibility to live by those.
On the national level, it's the responsibility of government to create an economy in which personal responsibility pays off—an economy where those who take responsibility, work hard, and play by the rules, aren't forced into poverty and bankruptcy in spite of their hard work.
It's also the responsibility of government to see to it that the personal moral and religious responsibility of one person is not overrun by the moral and religious views of another. Government should not be making laws which usurp individual moral responsibility, or allow government representatives to usurp individual responsibility for religious decisions. -
Gratitude
Finally, Beck lists gratitude: the recognition of our status as a human community, and the interdependence that implies.
We are not here alone. We depend on each other, on those who have gone before, and on the honesty, reverence, hope, thrift, humility, charity, sincerity, moderation, hard work, courage, and personal responsibility of all.
Gratitude is recognizing this fundamental fact, and not living under the illusion that we are, or could be, self-made—the illusion that we can ignore the needs of others as though we had none of our own.
In selecting these values, Glenn Beck betrays a fundamentally liberal stance, and for that he is to be congratulated.
If we all could live up to these twelve values and nine principles, in their full, radically liberal, sense, America would, indeed, fulfill its promise.
At least, that's what I think today.
