Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson

I'm both fascinated and appalled by the so-called 'Tea Party Patriots' currently dominating the spotlight of American politics.

It's not so much their platform that I'm appalled by – I'm all for reduced government spending, lower taxes, a reduction of the federal budget deficit and an originalist interpretation of the United States Constitution.

It's the fact that this 'Tea Party' claim their title in apparent ignorance of who the 'real' founding patriots were.

This is a point driven home by Walter Isaacson's Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. A biography of the original founding father, Benjamin Franklin, it demonstrates just how different this patriot's views were to those of today's populist 'patriot' movement.

This is significant because Walter Isaacson stresses in no uncertain terms how Benjamin Franklin was perhaps the archetype for American values – the same values the Tea Party claim to represent (many of their groups even use Franklin's famous snake cartoon as a banner.)

America's first political cartoon - published by Benjamin Franklin in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1754 - was turned into the Gadsden Flag during the Revolution, and is today used by many wings of the Tea Party movement as a banner or flag.

Hard work, industry, personal responsibility and frugality were Franklin's watchwords. He rose from humble beginnings on the streets of Boston to become the closest thing America had to aristocracy – but never once abandoned his 'leather apron' identity as part of America's aspirational middle class.

So far, so good – I don't think anybody in the Tea Party would claim to be against those values.

But how about these ones:

Benjamin Franklin invented the progressive tax system – arguing vehemently that the rich should pay a higher percentage than the poor. That flies in the face of those Tea Party libertarians who support the fallacy of a 'flat tax' system.

Franklin actually took this view a step further – claiming that overabundance of wealth was a disgrace and essentially unAmerican. He thought that the very wealthy should pay more than their fair share to create some form of social equality – and Franklin strongly supported a voracious estate tax, too - one that would ensure accumulated wealth didn't create an 'American aristocracy' of idle rich living off the fruits of their deceased parent's labors.

His views on taxation, wealth and inheritance were, even by today's standards, quite shocking for a committed capitalist like Franklin. The Tea Party accuse Obama of wanting to 'redistribute wealth' - but he's got nothing on old Ben!

In the same vein, Benjamin Franklin's commitment to the community would appall the Tea Party Patriots. He advocated socialist programs before the term 'socialist' had even been invented. This was the man who organized tax-payer funded street cleaning, and schools for black children (even at a time when the majority of blacks were considered 'property' in America.)

Some of today's Tea Party call for the abolishment of the Department of Education, whereas Franklin helped found the University of Pennsylvania and the Franklin Institute; arguing that education was the foundation of America's future.

Likewise, the majority of today's Tea Party claim to be Christian, and many have issue with the notion of 'separation of Church and State' (a concept cemented by another founding father, Thomas Jefferson.)

Old Ben Franklin, however, was firmly on Jefferson's side when it came to this issue. When he was editing Thomas Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence, he crossed out where Tom had written that "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" were "sacred" rights and substituted the word "inalienable" - making it quite clear that democracy was not a right granted by religion, or faith, but by human existence itself.

Issacson's book demonstrates numerous times just how different Benjamin Franklin's views on American life were to those of the modern 'Tea Party' who claim to represent him and his compatriots. In many ways, it's quite sad – Franklin was a prophet during an age of enlightenment and reason, and his views remain startlingly progressive compared to those of today's Tea Party.

If there's one aspect of Franklin's character that Isaacson's biography frames perfectly, it's how Franklin was only ever motivated by the practical benefit of an invention or idea; not the partisan idealism or conservative dogma of today's 'patriots.'

Not that Walter Isaacson ever sinks to my level of petty politicizing. His biography is totally agnostic - offering a honest, apolitical peek into the life and beliefs of a man who helped forge the essential American identity.

It's that which is so astonishing. Benjamin Franklin represented so many of the things Americans have always strived to be – he was a self-made man, he defended equality and opportunity (encouraging schooling for women and blacks) and religious tolerance. He was frugal and hard-working, inventing what has become America's punishing work ethic. He represented forward-thinking and innovation, inventing a litany of devices we can't live without today (such as the lightening rod, the Franklin wood-burning stove, the electric battery and many others…)

But more than that – perhaps most 'American' of all of Franklin's values – was his humanity.

He was a charming, affable, lovable rogue who was painfully human; and knew it. He was prone to arrogance and pride, especially in his dealings with the British court and his political rivals in Philadelphia. He was lusty and unfaithful, shacking up with a married woman, fathering his son out of wedlock with another lady, and fostering inappropriate relationships with pretty young things in three countries. He started his life vegetarian and teetotal, and ended it fat and idle, scoffing down meat and potatoes with barrels of his favorite beer.

His vices and his virtues combine despite their contradiction – and the result is astonishing. Here is a man whose achievements would barely have fit within several people's lifetimes. His lust for life and his passion for productivity was an affirmation of existence itself. Isaacson's title for the biography – An American Life – is perfect because that's exactly what Benjamin Franklin lived; and no American since has ever quite lived up to it.

Part of the reason Benjamin Franklin: An American Life is so compelling has to be down to the subject material itself – you'd be hard-pressed to find a more fascinating biographical subject than Doctor Franklin. However, Isaacson's book is also beautiful readable, and lays Ben's life bare for us to pick through and take from it what we want (as I've done above, comparing this 'Tea Party Patriot' to those who lay claim to the title today.)

It's certainly one of the most engrossing biographies I've ever read; and one that has shaped my views and opinions on what it means to be an American (the irony is not lost on me that I finished reading this tremendous book while waiting for the Oath Ceremony that made me a citizen of the nation Ben helped found.)

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson is available from Amazon for $18.95

John Stewart: "F*ck All Y'All!"

“We believe that the best of America is not all in Washington, D.C. or New York City.”

Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin explained this belief of hers during a campaign rally in Northern Carolina last week.

"We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit… …what I call the real America… …hard working very patriotic, pro-American areas of this great nation.”

For the crowd in NC, that was the cue for uproarious applause. Not so further north, where New York city resident and host of the satirical Daily Show responded with two words for Sarah Palin (on behalf of all of New York City.)

“Fuck you!”

New Yorkers were gratified that somebody was sticking up for their city – the de facto capital of the United States and as pro-American a place as anywhere in America. But some critics attacked John Stewart’s profanity, forcing him to clarify:

“…it's not really fair, and it makes it seem like I'm just addressing Governor Palin about this, and I'm not. Just this whole entire theme that there are more American areas of the country, or some people love the country, some people don't.”

To sum up: “What I meant to say is, 'Fuck all y'all.'”

Although John Stewart’s comments are pretty polarizing, he managed to hit the nail right on the head when it comes to the thrust of the Republican campaign for the presidency – following the model which won them the election in 2000 and 2004.

Basically, by spreading the lie that conservatives and evangelicals in the red states (the ones who vote Republican) are somehow ‘better Americans’ than the egg heads, intellectuals and liberals in the blue states (the ones that tend to vote Democrat.)

I’m with John Stewart on this strategy. It’s divisive bullshit and it stinks.

The fact is, you can be anti-gun, pro-choice, pro-gay marriage and a life-long Democrat and still be a damn site better American than a tobacco-chewing, gun-loving Southern Baptist who has an American flag painted on his truck.

This whole idea of ‘if y’ain’t with us, yer against us’ and the insistence that ‘votin’ Republican is votin’ Patriotic’ is just offensive doublespeak intended to split the country in half and make dumb people vote on their gut instinct rather than on the issues.

This rancid attitude is everywhere. On SIRIUS radio, the right-wing talk radio station is called ‘SIRIUS Patriot’ (whereas the left-wing one has the limp title ‘SIRIUS Left.’) On TV and the radio, the right-wing pundits pound each other on the back and praise their rabid right-wing callers with ‘you’re a great American, sir.’

Somehow, lapel-pins, bumper stickers, American flags and ‘support the troops’ stickers have become the currency for patriotism, whereas the truth is the complete opposite of that.

You can have all the bumper stickers in the world, but it doesn’t make you a good American.

Patriotism is not falling into line with the rest of the pack. It’s not blind obedience to a government. It’s not the belief that your religion somehow makes you morally superior and worthy of dictating how others can live their life.

In fact, it’s fighting against all of the above. As famous historian Howard Zinn once wrote: "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."

It’s time the liberals retook the term ‘patriot.’ Because what’s more patriotic than what they do?

• Thousands of Americans are dying in a bloody war overseas. Is it more ‘American’ to send more troops to that meat-grinder? Or angrily protest the war and attempt to ensure that as few brave American soldiers as possible end their lives, alone, on foreign sand?
  
• What’s more ‘American?’ To enforce your religious beliefs in schools and dictate to your offspring what they can and can’t believe? Or to fight to keep religion out of the classroom and stand up for parents to take responsibility for their children’s spiritual growth - in the privacy of their own homes or churches?
  
• What’s more patriotic? To bitterly attack other American’s inalienable rights to pursue ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’ because it upsets your religious sensibilities, or to fight to give other Americans the same rights and protections that all citizens should enjoy, under the ethos that ‘all men are created equal.’
  
• Why is it unpatriotic to question the 2nd Amendment, because the Constitution is sacred, yet ‘patriotic’ for people like Sarah Palin to support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage? How can patriots fight to support one freedom at the same time they fight to deny another? Why is the constitution sacred one moment, yet open to changes the next?
  

The American Nation was forged in the fires of rebellion and dissent – by brave men who refused to knuckle under the tyranny of an oppressive government. Contrary to popular belief, that rebellion continues to this day and it’s not the right-wing who represent the ‘patriots.’

The right-wing have come to represent the oppressive, religiously-driven regime that fights to dictate the scope of free men’s rights.

That’s not very American at all.

Don't get me wrong, the liberals can be just as bad. Gun control, redistribution of wealth... Many Democratic policies (especially the fiscal ones) are are repressive as the conservative ones.

So to help liberally minded people keep fighting the good fight - and to ensure they don't follow the right-wing down the dark path - here is my 'Patriot's Manifesto.'

The Patriot's Manifesto:

1. A true patriot never supports any move to repress freedom, and attacks any move to censor, repress, ban, control or outlaw any existing freedom (from gun-control to hard-core pornography.) Repression is slavery.


2. A true patriot constantly questions his government's decisions on the local, state and federal level, from tax rates and tariffs right up to military action overseas. Blind obedience is slavery.


3. A true patriot never allows religion, ideology or dogma to enter into any part of government - from religion in school to socialism in government. Dogma is slavery.


4. That being said, a true patriot never infringes the rights of an American to believe what they want in the privacy of their own homes, temples, churches or mosques. It's freedom 'of' religion, not freedom 'from' religion.


5. A true patriot never infringes the rights of another American if they don't infringe on their own - from gay marriage to what color your neighbour paints his house.


6. A true patriot questions all established theories - but from a position of logic, rationality and fact. It's fine to question Global Warming or Evolution - but not if your only source of information is The Bible or what you heard on The Bill O'Reilly Show (see Rule #8)


7. A true patriot supports independence in all things - from personally freeing yourself from credit-card and bank debt, to making America totally energy independent. Reliance is slavery.


8. A true patriot worships knowledge, rationality and fact - and strives to learn and teach as much as possible. Knowledge isn't just power. It's freedom. Parents have a duty to make sure that their children know more than they do - and things like 'non-explicit' sex education and teaching religious doctrine instead of scientific fact in school go against that. Ignorance is slavery.

I will admit, I'm no perfect patriot. I walk a fine line on some of the issues I've mentioned above (especially when they concern religion.) But overall, I think the philosophies above are the foundation of true patriotism and you'll find as much of that in New York and Boston as you will in a million Podunk towns across the Midwest.

Sarah Palin? Newsflash. Patriotism isn't dictated by geography OR politics.