Edwin Lyngar

Growing up in rural, red Nevada, I worshipped the idea of “freedom,” but had only a childlike understanding of it, perhaps as a marketing ploy or an idea that keeps you warm when your electricity gets shut off. Because my parents supported me, I had no understanding that freedom doesn’t exist when you can’t afford a family, have no job protections or make eight dollars an hour. When you can’t scratch out a dignified existence, are you free?

America’s commitment to freedom has always been mixed. Our country was founded on slavery, and even today, America is five percent of the world population but holds 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. It’s also uneven. If you get caught underpaying taxes, you might go to jail, but if you’re a company — say, Wells Fargo — you can defraud customers, steal money and break dozens of laws and never see the inside of a courtroom. Racial minorities are punished disproportionally for the same crime committed by a white person. It’s not free or fair.

The Republican Party has always made a lot of noise about “freedom,” but the election of Donald Trump shows these words are hollow, and it’s obvious. Trump attempted to force the Justice Department to prosecute his political enemies, for example. Trump coddles monstrous dictators and murders, while attacking longstanding democracies. But this isn’t about Trump, who has always been lawless. Some small segment of craven political operatives hijacked the idea of freedom and twisted the word to mean whatever benefits them.

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In Nevada, we see the cynical view of “freedom” from extremist attempts at self-aggrandizement. Ryan Bundy’s run for governor wasn’t about “freedom.” It was about his desire to steal public land to enrich his family. Republicans have long stopped caring about freedom and instead work to benefit favored constituencies, such as radical religious groups, massive business interests, Wall Street, oil companies and any number of the rich and well-connected.

People outside the GOP have often failed to articulate ideals of freedom, and we need to do better. We’ve made tremendous strides toward equality for gay people and taken baby steps to reform the disastrous war on drugs. Most Americans support true liberty, like letting people marry whom they love, pick their own identities and practice any religion they like. A great many independents and Republicans identify as social liberals.

Our political debates often hinge on social issues, like gay marriage, religion, marijuana, abortion and others. Trump and the radical right plays to the shrinking base of moralists and hypocrites who would tell the rest of us how to live and what gods to worship. It’s gained them a shrinking but committed following that will never again be enough to bamboozle most Americans — hence the focus on voter suppression, gerrymandering and other ways to cheat the system.

But economic freedom is just as important. Do we live in a free society when so many live one paycheck from ruin? Americans are suffering because of a loss of economic freedom. We often confuse corporate profits with American progress — a mistake I made in my previous column ("With no excuse for loss, Republicans attack voting," Nov. 18. I said that we’re in a “great” economy without conceding gross inequality and suffering. Despite solid GDP growth, 40 percent of Americans can’t scrape together $400 for an emergency. We have more money than ever, but it’s held by a smaller slice of people. This isn’t freedom; it’s serfdom with a dishonest veneer of crony capitalism.

Wages are down, while profits are up. Shareholder value is the only thing that matters at the expense of wages, workers and the nation’s health. After promising so much to “working-class voters,” Trump has embraced his inner communist, redistributing trillions upward.

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If you currently reside in a sleeping bag next to the Truckee River, congratulations on being the poster child for Republicans' version of freedom. A series of reports just released found that America’s life expectancy dropped for the third year in a row. These aren't the statistics of a healthy, free society. If this is “winning,” losing is really going to fill the morgues.

Americans have deep reverence for freedom, but we’ve allowed hucksters, religious extremists and straight-up kooks to define the word. Most people could care less if gay people get married or their neighbors smoke pot. Most people are horrified that America still has people who go hungry or live on the street. We need to stop allowing a small slice of ever-crazier people define freedom for the rest of us. When we begin to govern our country based on the best outcomes for all Americans, only then will we truly understand what freedom looks like.

Edwin Lyngar is a Reno resident and freelance writer.