Liberal Activism and One-Way Rights (Part I)

I was talking Constitutional law with my brother (a liberal lawyer) and he kept reminding me to remember we “now live in the 21st century”. I knew exactly what he meant by that: The Constitution is to be interpreted differently now than in the past. How is the “modern” Constitution to be interpreted according to liberals? My brother is a typical liberal because he believes the Constitution should provide more rights and preferential treatment to certain groups of people at the expense of others (even though the Constitution makes no mention of gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic status). That is right, the modern liberal interpretation of the Constitution is not much different than the slave owner view of the Constitution prior to the Civil War. Unfortunately, this type of discrimination is exactly what is happening in our society. This is the “Consequentialist” view of the Constitution where economic progress and social welfare are more important than individual freedoms (equal rights for all). In this text I will examine several examples of how liberal activism is used to protect certain groups of people and why it is nothing more than another form of discrimination. This liberal political philosophy of more rights to one victimized group of people, or what I like to call “one-way rights”, fits perfectly into the overall liberal activism agenda or goal: To pit every demographic group against each other (especially against white-men). The “war on women” and race baiting are common themes in liberal politics and it feeds the narrative that women and minorities ought to have more rights than white men, not just equal rights.

Take, for example, the employer / employee relationship. In the 19th century state and federal courts protected both employers and employees from contract breach. In Stark v. Parker (1824) the court held an employee breach of contract did not qualify the employee the right to collect money for work already completed. Conversely, the court held if the employer breached the contract then the employee in that case would be entitled to full restitution of the contract value. In a similar case in 1834 (Britton v. Turner), the court held that the employee was entitled to money for work completed minus damages for the employer to find a replacement. In both of these cases, although decided by vastly different opinions, the courts recognized the value of both the employee and employer relationship by their ability to uphold their end of work contracts. In Stark the employee received no monetary benefit while in Britton the employee received some monetary benefit minus damages for breach of contract. Under no circumstances did employers or employees receive full monetary benefits for breach of contract. By the 20th century the Court viewed the employer and employee relationship much different. That is because most government laws are now written to protect only the employee from discrimination or wrongful termination. But what is to stop an employee from terminating his employment status for discriminatory reasons? For instance, an employee may end his employment because his boss is Jewish, a female, or old. In other words, under modern law the employer / employee relationship is a one-way contract to protect the rights of the employee and not those of employers. Why? Under all circumstances Liberals view corporations as evil and workers must be protected from that evil. This is, of course, a flawed oversimplification view of corporate America. After all, it is the employee, not the employer, who commits acts of atrocity (now known as work place violence). Work place violence makes it sounds as if violence is justifiable in the workplace otherwise it would be called for what it is: murder, assault, robbery, etc. If employers can be sued for their deliberate failure to offer jobs to workers then why can’t workers be sued for their unwillingness to accept job offers? This question merely highlights the fault of one-way discrimination laws.

If employers do wrongfully discriminate against employees than violating companies will be punished via the social norms of society that will force them to lose business and over time go bankrupt if they do not correct their bigoted ways. Besides, discrimination laws achieve one outcome: further discrimination. For instance, protecting employers from wrongfully dismissing workers because of age discrimination merely keeps older white employees on the payrolls at the expense of younger females and diverse candidates. Therefore, age discrimination policies merely discriminate against other persons. Diversity and affirmative action policies discriminate against more qualified candidates. My point is that laws for the purpose of protecting employees may protect some workers while discriminating against others. Hence, it is better for the government to butt out of the business of making discrimination laws and let the employer / employee relationship function as it did in the 19th century (fairly). Let’s examine one modern example. I do not care if NFL owners have colluded to keep Colin Kaepernick out of the NFL. If Kaepernick’s non-work-related antics are costing NFL owners money, then they have every right to blacklist him. This is not discrimination, it is what the Godfather would say “it is not personal, it is just business”. Remember, those who truly discriminate will be punished by society without government intervention, coercion, and discriminatory regulations.

Then there is the manufacturer and customer relationship. In the 19th century the courts viewed both sides of the manufacturer and customer relationship equally. In the 1858 case Smith v. Brady the court held a customer could refuse to pay for services if a builder violated the contract specifications. Conversely, however, the court held had the customer breached the contract in any way the builder would have recouped all payments. However, by the 20th century in Hennigsen v. Bloomfield (1960) and Greenman v. Yuba Power (1962) the Court rejected any contractual defenses in personal injury cases. If persons were injured by products for using them incorrectly then the manufacturer was still responsible for damages under most interpretations of the law. These cases, once again, made the manufacturer the unequal of the customer. Why? Well, once again, liberals hate those evil corporations who are always in the wrong. Consider a simple example of rent control laws which provide preferential tenants rents at a fraction of real estate values at the expense of the landlord. Would rent control be democratically approved if the burden fell on everyone in the district to contribute to the rent control system? And why doesn’t the government subsidize the landlord for the regulation it mandates? The answer to these questions are simple, every landlord is seen as rich and therefore they are all evil and must pay for their greed. The Left creates a narrative of stereotypes to punish certain classes of citizens under one size fits all government regulation. Of course, anyone with a lick of commonsense realizes all landlords are not wealthy, but the state will treat them all as multi-millionaires.