Conquering the Political Divide – How the Constitution Can Heal Our Polarized Nation has its origins dating back to September 1976 when I entered Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey as a freshman. At that time, I had little understanding of public policy, but my political leanings as a young man were certainly left of center. In fact, later that year when I finally had the opportunity to vote for President, I cast my first vote for Jimmy Carter. I can remember at that time thinking that Republicans were terrible people. Why? Because, I thought, they wouldn’t spend money on the poor. Having come from a working-class family with a father who was a career union laborer, I was not oriented to think about economic matters in terms of markets, capitalism or economic growth, but rather in terms of the haves and have-nots.
My thinking began to change in the fall of 1977 when I signed up at Rutgers to take an introductory course in macro-economics. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this course, but the study of economics would eventually have a profound impact on my understanding of public policy and the world around me. It turns out that I was not alone. I would later learn that Thomas Sowell, the former Marxist turned conservative free-market economist, was famously quoted as saying the study of economics teaches a person how to “think beyond stage one;” In other words economics teaches a person to identify the unintended consequences of public policy. Learning to think about the consequences of policy in a world of limited resources is an essential skill that all responsible citizens should develop. It was my education in economics that provided me with these skills.
After graduating from Rutgers in May 1980, the American economy was in recession, inflation was running rampant, and jobs were scarce. President Carter told us the country was in a “malaise,” and Ronald Reagan was campaigning against him on an economic platform that called for reducing the size of government. Having studied free-market economics in college, I understood how Reagan’s policies would eventually tame inflation and bring America out of recession. Once again, it was my education in economics that helped me cast a smarter vote for President in 1980, this time for Ronald Reagan.
During my first few years out of college I became cognizant of the implications of how poorly crafted economic policy could negatively affect the lives of the average person. As the American economy rebounded under Reagan, I began to see economics in moral terms, something that eventually sparked my interest in political activism. I began to volunteer on local and statewide GOP political campaigns, and this activism inspired my interest in learning more about the Constitution, basic civics, and the application of both in our daily lives.
My civics education began by reading the now classic book by Mortimer J. Adler called We Hold These Truths. Adler’s teaching of the Constitution extended far beyond anything that I learned in my high school civics class. He spoke of “fundamental and inalienable” rights that are not granted by governments, but instead are bestowed on us by our creator (aka, God). By their nature, such inalienable rights apply equally to all human beings and cannot be legislated away, even by any elected majority. Adler distinguished such inalienable rights from “alienable” rights that are bestowed by government and may, or may not, apply equally to all persons. Such alienable rights can be legislated into existence by an elected majority, changed at will, or legislated out of existence by majority rule. My understanding of such basic concepts of civics helped me navigate the sometimes-treacherous waters of public policy debate for many years. More importantly, this understanding helps me determine which politicians truly understand the constitutional legitimacy of the policies they advocate, and which are just pandering for political favor. Such is the benefit to any citizen who understands civics when deciding for whom they should cast their vote.
More recently, my understanding of civics and economics has raised my level of concern for the direction of our nation when Barack Obama was elected President in 2008. His campaign of “hope and change” offered little in the way of concrete policy, and his progressive ideology ran counter to everything I understood about creating prosperity for our nation. Therefore, out of concern for the future of my children and uniting our divided nation, I decided to run for Congress in 2012 in my home district in New Jersey. Although my campaign was unsuccessful, many of my friends and political supporters encouraged me to continue to speak out about the importance of free market economics and stricter adherence to our Constitution when crafting public policy.
Conquering the Political Divide now becomes my primary vehicle for doing just that.
Eric A. Beck
Greenville, South Carolina
January 2019