America, now with an expiration date!

Some months ago I was engaged in a spontaneous discussion with an educated liberal I know. The subject wandered from small government to free market to punitive income tax rates over the course of an hour or longer bus ride. The details have blurred through the passage of time but one comment stands out in my mind clearly. I made an argument for lower taxes by citing economic growth, and warned that if the government did not start to back away from the market we would find ourselves overtaken on the world stage. My friend laughed derisively and exclaimed “America will isn’t going to fall like that. Just look at us! We can’t go bankrupt. It's not going to happen!”

While I can appreciate optimism and belief in country, this is not what he was saying. His opinion had less to do with faith in America’s spirit and more to do with the idea that America has been the major player for nearly a century, and thus will always continue to be. This voluntary ignorance of reality is both dangerous and insidious. On the surface you might be fooled into thinking this is simply good healthy patriotism. After all, what red blooded American would want America to fall?

The fallacy lies in two parts: A woeful lack of understanding (or possibly acceptance) of historical fact and the difference in motivations and reasoning between the blind man and the patriot.

I refer to an excellent article by Mark Steyn, referenced to me through Hotair.com. While it is a bit lengthy at four pages it is well worth taking the time to read. Titled “Tattered Liberty”, its message is simple: Even the mightiest nation can shrivel and die if it ceases to work at being mighty.

I understand that this is hard to conceive for anyone born in the 20th century. What is a world without America? Mark Steyn eloquently reminds us that:

” …to a five-year-old boy waving his flag as Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee procession marched down the Mall in 1897, it would have been inconceivable that by the time of his 80th birthday the greatest empire the world had ever known would have shriveled to an economically moribund strike-bound socialist slough of despond, one in which (stop me if this sounds familiar) the government ran the hospitals, the automobile industry, and much of the housing stock, and, partly as a consequence thereof, had permanent high unemployment and confiscatory tax rates that drove its best talents to seek refuge abroad.”

I am certain there were many Romans in the 1st century B.C. who labored under the delusion that mighty Rome, which conquered all it laid its eyes upon and could project its force throughout the known world, would last forever.

It was not ultimately external forces that precipitated its demise. Before you get in a tizzy I readily concede that Rome had many enemies who dealt the nation grievous damage. Most famously the numberless hordes of barbaric Germania and Asia made a good show of looting and pillaging the crumbling empire. The death of Rome, however, did not come by sword or spear. Rome died through a cycle of corruption, appeasement, and a host of internal problems long before the first invader ever crossed the Rhine.

So what is the difference between the patriot who proclaims that America the Beautiful will live free forever and the fool who claims that America cannot fall? While their conclusion may appear to be the same, why they reach it is dramatically different.

The patriot sees in America the things that made it great, things that are very similar to what the British Empire prided itself on before its fall into the broom closet of history, as Mark Steyn points out.

“…independence and self-reliance, individual initiative and local responsibility, the successful reliance on voluntary activity, noninterference with one’s neighbor and tolerance of the different and queer, respect for custom and tradition, and a healthy suspicion of power and authority.”

The patriot believes that America still has these things in its heart of hearts, and that it is still possible for her people to return to these values and continue to thrive. In short, he believes that America still has enough God, Guts, and Guns to see her through for another century of dominance. At the same time, he accepts that she will fall if she does not have these things, and deservedly so!

On the other side you have the mentality that American success is inevitable and requires no effort to achieve. This mindset places success and growth as constants, and feeling secure in these constants, sees no reason to sacrifice or change in order to achieve them.

Therein lies the rub. This mindset is seductive because it allows you to be free of the responsibility to be successful while still allowing you to enjoy all the (perceived) benefits of success. Symptoms of this problem include the growing welfare state and an ever increasing regulation by a behemoth Federal government. It is this section of the population that the left appeals to when they proclaim the massive healthcare bill is a good budgetary measure because it decreases the deficit by $100 billion over the first few years. This attitude of entitlement stops the citizen from asking how much better the budget would be if they did not spend the $900 billion in the first place! Instead, safe in the knowledge that no matter what course America takes it will always be strong, successful, and powerful, they simply take the course that provides them the most perceived benefits with as little work as possible regardless of cost.

People have gotten JFK's famous quote mixed up. Many now ask what their country can do for them, while making sure that the cost is paid by others.

In order to succeed, we should take these words to heart. Perhaps it would be easiest to understand if we changed one word: “Ask not what your government can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” If we as a people can take this phrase to heart and remember that the United States of America is NOT embodied by her government, but by her people; If we can remember that it is our responsibility to provide for ourselves, to invent solutions to common problems, not that of our elected officials; If we can remember that America did not become great without hard work and sacrifice, and that it certainly will not remain great without more of the same, then I know that we will rise into ever greater heights and remain the world’s one true beacon of Hope and Freedom, at least for a little while longer.

If we can’t…Well, I just hope that broom closet of History that Britain, France, Germany, Spain, etc. occupy has room for one more.