Preamble

American Democratic Capitalism is a home for the American Spirit, built on a foundation of Revolutionary Democracy and sustained by Fair-market Capitalism.

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The conditions that aligned to provide the fertile field on which the American Revolution was conceived
and gestated had been many decades in coming. Early settlers in this new world had arrived on the rocky
shores of the East Coast escaping religious persecution, personal challenges and stagnation in the old
world of frozen, English social classes. For some it was a grand adventure. For many, economic
opportunism. They summoned roses from the rocks, enduring the hardships of a challenging
environment, growing upon the land by fits and starts.

In the six generations before the ignition of the Revolution, a swirl of change embraced these first settlers
and colonists with undercurrents that would produce the Great Experiment we experience today.
 

The Enlightenment spanned nearly one hundred years before and during the decisive conflict with
Britain. This intellectual movement played largely in the English-speaking, western world and greatly
influenced many of the Founders and original patriots. The Enlightenment advanced reason blended with
sensibility; liberty partnered with progress; desire, properly channeled, as a gateway to happiness. It was
an historic transition from Church orthodoxy and God-centered beliefs to self-determination and truth-
based spirituality. The balance of faith and reason gave rise to a more subdued belief in a benign,
detached deity that was adopted by a number of the Founders, including Jefferson, Franklin and the
economist, Adam Smith. The Great Transition in religion and spirituality was well underway and
continues to this day.

There was a lingering shadow to the bright social personality that was emerging from the old, unhappy
order. Even the most liberal voices of the enlightened class carried a residual racism and misogyny into
this new sphere. These handicaps would not make substantial progress to correction for some time after
the first struggles for colonial self-determination. The collateral beauty of this legacy of injustice is the
continuing and compounding of inclusion and self-reflection that are defining characteristics of the
American Spirit. What may appear as Yankee hubris to some, is actually the self-respect and confidence
that comes from knowing that American exceptionalism derives in substantial measure from the
willingness to reform and seek redemption. To be true to the foundational ideals of Equality and the
common Pursuit of Happiness requires nothing less.

Against this background, the emerging spirit of the new Americans began to chafe against the yoke of
oppression from the British monarchy. The confluence of evolving religious freedom, self-sufficiency, and
political awareness proved rich tinder for the bonfire of Liberty.

The Protestant work ethic that served the early settlers well, and bolstered them against tall odds on the
frontier, developed into personal initiative and self-improvement. Though the blinders of orthodox
religion were falling away, the engrained embrace of hard work and determination that were instilled by
those imprint beliefs provided the grist for the mill of Capitalism. Our economic thought process reflects
the optimism that grew from this period of moral and idealistic progress on the religious front. The
beneficial effects of individual initiative were available to any that put forth the effort, regardless of station
or pedigree. The common trust in competitive markets that was encouraged by Adam Smith, concurrent
with the declaration of our political independence, would harness the economic energy of the individual
for the greater good of all Americans, past, present and future.