America is an idea, an idea that is based on the general principle of liberty. It is this idea that has made America the land of opportunity where millions of people have fled their homeland, risking everything just for the chance to taste freedom. The freedom to raise their children how they see fit. The freedom to pursue their dreams unhindered by government. The freedom to live where they want and to do what they desire with limited intervention from government authority.
People flock from all over the world, risking their very life to get a taste of the American idea, to a place that Reagan called “a shining city on a hill”. Reagan went on to say of America in that speech;
“she’s still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the Pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through darkness, toward home.”
America is still that home of freedom loving people, but we are close to losing that. We have taken for granted the idea that has been passed to us, we are trading freedom for safety. We are trading protection from the almighty hand of government at the price of our liberty.
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AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM
American Exceptionalism is a term used to show that America is different, the difference boils down to our acceptance of liberty as our guiding light. Some will argue that all countries are unique and have their pros and cons, that to view America as exceptional is arrogant, that to say America is exceptional is to look down on the rest of the world.
I will gladly say that because of liberty we are better than the rest of the countries in the world that do not afford that to their citizens. If they want to afford their citizens with the same freedoms that are granted to Americans than I will gladly say that they are setting themselves apart from the rest of the world and are indeed exceptional.
One of the often-used attacks against the idea of America is the sins of those that came before us. They use those sins to paint the idea that has made America great as tainted, in their minds it was not only the people that were the oppressor but America itself. Because of this in their view the idea of America is flawed. While I would never diminish the atrocities committed against people of color, these atrocities were counter to the idea of America.
We all have sins and America is no different; it seems like in today’s cancel culture those sins can never be forgiven. Any bad thing that you have done in your past can be dredged up years later to cause you to be cancelled. This is sad to see not only because people’s lives are being ruined for past mistakes, but it is also sad because we have arrived at a point where we are lacking in the empathy needed for forgiveness.
I am at the age now where there was no Twitter or Facebook as I grew up. I look back to my immature thinking at that time and wonder if I would be cancelled for things that I believed when I was 16. Would the beliefs that I held back then that have been changed by maturity and life experience got me cancelled 25 years later?
I am a different man now, as are those that we are seeing lose their jobs because of things that they wrote when they were in their immature teenage years. Even though I have gained maturity and experience in my life I still make mistakes, am I not entitled to forgiveness? Are we at a point in our culture where we cannot realize that we are all flawed and make mistakes and deserve empathy?
The mistakes of my past do not make me a bad person, flawed? Yes, bad? No. Than why do we accept people using that same logic when discussing the idea of America? Is America perfect? No. Has America committed unbelievable atrocities? Yes. But does that make America bad at its core? Does that make the principle of liberty any less valuable? The idea of America is great, this idea has made America exceptional and to think otherwise is to reject empathy and forgiveness for past sins.
TRIBALISM
The differing viewpoints over the greatness of the idea of America has sadly made us revert to tribalism. There was a time where the sides had differing viewpoints on the policies that were necessary to get us to the goal of the American idea. Today, we are in a place where we disagree on the idea itself. One side embraces the idea of liberty, while the other sees the sins of our past as evidence that the idea is flawed. The question becomes how do we come together when we cannot fully agree on the idea of what America should represent?
Sadly, I do not think we do. You cannot have one side that embraces liberty and the other that embraces ideas such as Marxism and socialism with its coercive and authoritarian tactics. These two viewpoints naturally clash and lead us to different places. Where once the American political left was a place that represented civil liberties, today they are a place of government dependence and economic control.
The summer of 2020 was a prime example of the tribes that we have all been separated into. When the George Floyd incident occurred, everyone came together and was appalled at what happened. What should have been a time where we all came together and sought change, we reverted to the tribes they put us in, and the fighting ensued. One side said Black Lives Matter, the other said we agree they do but also All Lives Matter, we were called racists and bigots.
Many on the left embraced the Black Lives Matter movement at the expense of the rest of us who think there is a value in everyone’s life. They did this to continue the division, they do not want to see unity because it is harder to stoke anger which translates into votes when citizens are united.
In the example that I used above it was the left that was using division to win elections. However, they are not unique, politicians need division, it is easier to mobilize voters when fear is stoked, and citizens can be played off each other with an us versus them narrative. The right is just as guilty of using the us versus them narrative to divide us into tribes.
Tribes are natural, it is natural for us to gravitate towards people that are like us and tribes are fine to an extent. Tribes become an issue when we cannot come together on common principles and common goals. People are always going to disagree on how and what policies the government should enact to get us closer to fulfilling the American idea. Until both sides of the political aisle come together on the American idea of liberty, we will continue to see division with no hope for unity in the future.
CURRENT STATUS
We are not living up to the idea of America. 2020 and the Covid pandemic have shown us that far too many people value their personal safety over liberty and freedom. We saw the government use coercion and authoritarian tactics to institute draconian policies to “flatten the curve”. Sadly, the Constitution became only words on paper.
Instead of our reliance on the protections that we as citizens are afforded in the Constitution, the pandemic was an excuse to overlook these rights and do whatever the government deemed necessary. Instead of using the Constitution as a guide on what the government could do to stem the pandemic, they crushed small business. Instead of allowing freedom to reign and people to make decisions that were best for themselves, they locked people down.
The current status of America is a constant state of fear, fear of the virus, fear of our fellow citizens and sadly fear of what the government might do next. Americans have been scared into acceptance of whatever policies the government feels are necessary. We have seen a potion of America’s population willing to go along with whatever dictate the government feels is necessary at the cost of our rights.
Along with this trampling on our rights, the reliance on government checks has become normalized. There was a time when there was a stigma attached to a government check, when it was a sign of failure to take assistance from the government, now it is expected. With every stimulus check that rolls off the printing presses we as citizens become more and more reliant on “assistance” to get through the pandemic.
Many argue that the checks are necessary because it was government that shut us down in the first place. They make the claim that because the government shut down their business or place of work that they are responsible for their loss of income and they must be made whole. While that argument is valid, there are far too few questions on if the government had the right to shut down businesses and institute lockdowns in the first place.
THE AMERICA THAT I SEE FOR MY SON
The America that I see for my son is not an America defined by her past sins, but an America defined by liberty. Liberty created a system of equality for all which gives us the right to pursue the American dream. America is about what is possible not about what is guaranteed and that is the America that I want to hand down to my son.
People often ask me why I served in the military, why I put my life on hold to go fight in a war half a world away? I am sure the answer sounds corny to some, but the reality is that I made the sacrifice for the idea of America. The idea of America is truly an extension of me as a person, and that part of me is the America that I want to see for my son.
Another Reagan quote perfectly sums up the situation we are currently in:
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
We are at that point today, we are that generation, we are either those people Reagan talked about that will fight and protect freedom, or it will be gone forever, and we can bitterly tell our grandchildren that we were the ones that let freedom slip away.