American Exceptionalism is real. It created the greatest economic engine in history, and on the way it also created a flat society, in which movement from the lowest levels to the highest can happen in the blink of an eye. America has created wealth where once there was none, and no hope for any. America was truly the land of opportunity, for its own citizens and those lucky enough to join this grand experiment from stultified and broken societies across the globe.
But it has on occasion lost its way. Many of us remember the 1970s, during which our political process foundered in partisan politics and feel-good spending, and our social fabric flapped and tore in the winds of the unrest of the 1960s. We were a failing country, and the election of a weak and worthless peanut farmer made matters worse. We were feckless abroad…pushed around by 3rd World countries whose only power came out of the ground, courtesy of our own industrial might.
But in a flash it changed. Ronald Reagan’s unabashed love of country, and his sense that the best was yet to come reignited the fire that seemed to have gone out of the American heart.
The question today is whether the America we remember — and the one that President Trump remembers and attempted to resurrect — still exists. And will it still exist in four years, when we once again have the opportunity (broken voting process notwithstanding) to point the nation in the direction we the people choose.
I don’t know the answer, but I believe in the American people, and I believe in its Exceptionalism.
To The Horde; Have a happy and healthy and peaceful New Year, with the hope and expectation that we will prevail, no matter how long it takes, in the battle for the soul of our country.
Amen.
mac :]