Freedom is self-correcting

President Coolidge reminded us that the Declaration stood out as a great charter of government not only because it liberated Americans, "but was everywhere to ennoble humanity. It ... was proposed to establish a nation on new principles."

In between his runs for the White House, Adlai Stevenson also explained the importance of individual liberty to the institution of Democracy. "It is the function of the democratic form of government to nurture freedom," the former governor extolled in 1954. "No less does the democratic form of government require freedom as the condition in which it can function at all."

In societies without individual freedom guarantees, democracies fail because such societies tend to degenerate into factions in which the majority legally punishes the minority.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher agreed. The United States, she declared "is the most reliable force for freedom in the world, because the entrenched values of freedom are what make sense of its whole existence."

Judging how our basic principles have served us and affected the world depends on the scale of measure. While other societies are usually evaluated on their progress from whence they began, too often the United States is judged on how far it has to go to attain perfection. But we are a work in progress. We have been ebbing and flowing for over two centuries, and yes, we still haven't found the perfect balance between democracy and liberty.

Others are quick to remind us of this imperfection and blame it on our freedoms. We write and talk about our own failings constantly. But as plenty of great men and women have pointed out through the years, what we have been able to accomplish is beyond great.

We take advantage of a bountiful land by implementing, albeit sometimes imperfectly, the founding principles. These have provided self-confident entrepreneurs the freedom to create an untold number of life-enhancing products and services that have benefited millions around the world. And it has allowed the United States of America to become the most successful and prosperous society.

As President Ronald Reagan repeated often, "America is a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere."

Is a society whose members enjoy the "blessings of liberty" evil and destructive by nature? The quick answer is no. It is because we have the virtue of freedom, that despite any imperfections, we are able to redevelop and improve ourselves constantly. Since it is clear beyond any doubt that liberty is a virtue, the answer is a self-evident truth.

• Gary Watts is a retired history teacher.

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