In the 2024 presidential election there are two songs that capture the vibe of the two candidates in the competition for votes.
Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’s walk-on music is Beyone’s "Freedom." Former President Donald Trump makes use of the Lee Greenwood song “God Bless the USA,” which extols that “I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free.”
Both these songs and these campaigns are presenting two very different views on freedom, and they are asking Americans to select which path to take.
Donald Trump and today’s Republican party’s vision of freedom is laid out in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. The book is an instruction manual for an incoming Trump presidential administration that would push a vision of a conservative and right-wing America into dictatorial public policy. And these policies would actively restrict freedoms in America, particularly for women, non-Christians and people of color.
Trump has ties with the people who drafted Project 2025. Many were part of his former administration. But currently, on the campaign trail, he publicly claims he has no knowledge of the presidential transition plan. However, Trump and his nominee for vice president, JD Vance, do support parts of Project 2025, in particular, the sections that would reshape the United States federal government, consolidate/expand executive power and gut what conservatives call “the administrative state” which includes tens of thousands of federal workers.
Critics have characterized Project 2025 as an authoritarian Christian nationalist plan to steer the U.S. toward a dictatorship. Legal experts have said it would undermine the rule of law, separation of power, separation of church and state and civil liberties.
All of this would strip millions of Americans of much of their freedom, while proposing to expand freedom for the acceptable Republican voter who is concerned about keeping their gun collection intact and having the freedom to pay little to no taxes while not being subjected to government regulations.
Kamala Harris’ offer of "freedom" submitted for the voters' approval is summed up in her acceptance speech during the 2024 Democratic National Convention. Harris stormed on to the stage as the chorus of “Freedom,” played with the lyrics of “Freedom! Freedom! Where are you? ’Cause I need freedom, too.”
Harris promised to defend reproductive freedom and warned of the danger posed by a second Trump presidency. “In this election,” she said, “many other fundamental freedoms are at stake.” Among them, safety from gun violence; the ability to love whom you love, “openly and with pride”; to “live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis”; and, finally, “the freedom that unlocks all the others: the freedom to vote.”
Used to be, Republicans had a monopoly on using the words “freedom” and “liberty.” The GOP proposed that limiting government automatically expanded the freedom of an American citizen. Former President George W. Bush used “freedom” twenty-seven times in his second Inaugural Address, calling it “the permanent hope of mankind.”
But historian and author Timothy Snyder says this conservative framework gets freedom wrong. Snyder argues that American conservatives have misconstrued the concept of freedom, transforming it into something narrow and self-serving. In his analysis, Snyder contends that the conservative understanding of freedom has drifted far from its classical roots. Instead of viewing freedom as the foundation of a responsible and inclusive society, many modern conservatives emphasize freedom as an individual right, free from any form of government intervention or collective responsibility.
Snyder highlights how this shift disregards the importance of civic duty and mutual obligations that originally underpinned the idea of freedom in American history. He believes that true freedom cannot exist in a vacuum; it depends on strong institutions, the rule of law, and a functioning democracy. According to Snyder, when conservatives focus only on personal liberty and neglect societal responsibilities, they undermine the very conditions that make freedom possible.
Snyder critiques the notion that unregulated markets and the absence of government oversight foster freedom. He asserts that such approaches often lead to inequality and exploitation, which in turn restrict freedom for the less privileged. For Snyder, real freedom requires a balance between individual rights and collective safeguards that promote equality and protect democracy.
Guest:
Timothy Snyder is a historian and has been called “the leading interpreter of our dark times.” His book “On Tyranny” has inspired millions around the world to fight for freedom. His latest book is “On Freedom.” Snyder is the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. He has written eight books discussing issues in Central and Eastern Europe and co-edited three further texts surrounding similar topics.
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*This interview will be recorded on Wednesday, October 9, 2024.
