Today is the 238th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence (we celebrate on the 4th because that is when the signing was announced), so it seems appropriate to consider just where this great country is heading at the moment. As usual, there is all sorts of "noise" that colors the daily discourse of the republic, but there are two key points that are of major significance to our future. These are the points on which we need to focus.
1. The national consensus of who we are and what we stand for is being destroyed. Fifty years ago or even twenty years ago, there were all sorts of major political disagreements, but today there are disagreements as to what America is and what it stands for. The idea that we could be debating American exceptionalism and we could find the president downplaying it is something so alien to the previous consensus that it portends a tectonic shift in the future of this country. When I was growing up, I was taught that America stood for freedom and liberty for its people and, within limits, the people of the world. This was perhaps best stated by John F. Kennedy in his inaugural address when he announced:
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
That message was clear. America knew what it stood for and so did our president. But that is no longer true. Our leaders seem to have no idea where they want to take the country. We no longer support those around the globe who seek liberty -- just look at the reaction from the White House when hundreds of peaceful protesters were shot down in the streets of Damascus and when thousands marched for freedom in Teheran. President Obama was silent. It was not just that we sent no military assistance to these people; no, the response was silence. Our most vocal of presidents could not bring himself to talk about people being shot and beaten in Syria and Iran because they just sought freedom. A statement of support which would have been the most American of responses just a few years earlier was not forthcoming.
2. The understanding of just how our economy works has been destroyed. I realize that not everyone has a degree in economics. Nevertheless, it does not take a genius or a college education to understand that in the American economy success should be thought of as a good thing. If your neighbor starts a business and is wildly successful, that is great. His success is also the success of many others: his employees, his suppliers, and his customers. More and more success stories mean a better life for more and more Americans. In other words, it is a good thing for the country if more people succeed and even become wealthy. Everyone's life is improved when the economy improves. Let me put it this way: there is a reason why poor people in the USA have televisions, phones, cars and all the other paraphernalia of modern life, and that reason is that our society is a rich one. We have seen what happens when a society values economic equality over individual success. That was the model of the Soviet Union and its allies. That was the creator of massive industrial poverty across nearly a third of the world. That was the system that collapsed of its own internal contradictions just a quarter of a century ago. But now we have a major portion of our own society that is falling prey to the siren song of the failed system. We have an educational system that for the most part teaches the socialist system as if it works, when it clearly does not. We need to bring economic reality back to the forefront so that the public understands this.
Happy Birthday America.
1. The national consensus of who we are and what we stand for is being destroyed. Fifty years ago or even twenty years ago, there were all sorts of major political disagreements, but today there are disagreements as to what America is and what it stands for. The idea that we could be debating American exceptionalism and we could find the president downplaying it is something so alien to the previous consensus that it portends a tectonic shift in the future of this country. When I was growing up, I was taught that America stood for freedom and liberty for its people and, within limits, the people of the world. This was perhaps best stated by John F. Kennedy in his inaugural address when he announced:
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
That message was clear. America knew what it stood for and so did our president. But that is no longer true. Our leaders seem to have no idea where they want to take the country. We no longer support those around the globe who seek liberty -- just look at the reaction from the White House when hundreds of peaceful protesters were shot down in the streets of Damascus and when thousands marched for freedom in Teheran. President Obama was silent. It was not just that we sent no military assistance to these people; no, the response was silence. Our most vocal of presidents could not bring himself to talk about people being shot and beaten in Syria and Iran because they just sought freedom. A statement of support which would have been the most American of responses just a few years earlier was not forthcoming.
2. The understanding of just how our economy works has been destroyed. I realize that not everyone has a degree in economics. Nevertheless, it does not take a genius or a college education to understand that in the American economy success should be thought of as a good thing. If your neighbor starts a business and is wildly successful, that is great. His success is also the success of many others: his employees, his suppliers, and his customers. More and more success stories mean a better life for more and more Americans. In other words, it is a good thing for the country if more people succeed and even become wealthy. Everyone's life is improved when the economy improves. Let me put it this way: there is a reason why poor people in the USA have televisions, phones, cars and all the other paraphernalia of modern life, and that reason is that our society is a rich one. We have seen what happens when a society values economic equality over individual success. That was the model of the Soviet Union and its allies. That was the creator of massive industrial poverty across nearly a third of the world. That was the system that collapsed of its own internal contradictions just a quarter of a century ago. But now we have a major portion of our own society that is falling prey to the siren song of the failed system. We have an educational system that for the most part teaches the socialist system as if it works, when it clearly does not. We need to bring economic reality back to the forefront so that the public understands this.
Happy Birthday America.
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