America at 250

A few thoughts about the last major anniversary I'll probably see.

I’ve always liked this photo, so I’m reusing it. I took it at a 2009 TEA Party rally in Washington, D.C.

In case you have been under a rock or played Rip Van Winkle for awhile, today is America’s 250th birthday. As someone who was around for the 200th as a kid, I can say that the vibe is a lot different this time. (I’m going to republish my Monday memory of the Bicentennial this coming Monday, but with revised and extended remarks.)

At the risk of stealing a bit of that thunder, let me say that most - but not all - of us are still in the mood to celebrate this great nation and that which it still has the potential to be as we perfect the union. Yet we all know it sits at a crossroads, with the next few years determining not only whether it remains great, but its very survival as a republic. Simply put, we’ve placed ourselves in a position we haven’t seen since this nation began boiling over slavery in the 1850s, culminating with the deeply divisive election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and the subsequent decision by southern states to form their own rump Confederate nation. That scar of four years of war took decades to heal.

In this present-day instance, we have divided ourselves into two camps which are roughly reflected in our political allegiances. And I would argue that the feelgood “politics stops at the water’s edge” sort of attitude began disintegrating not long after the Bicentennial with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. While a lot of Democrats became “Reagan Democrats", the ivory tower types couldn’t stand Reagan and didn’t have a whole lot of love for George H.W. Bush, either. But the liberals’ love for Bill Clinton was countered by those who believed Clinton was sullying the Oval Office because he had the morals of an alley cat, and that reached fever pitch at 9/11 thanks to the perception that Clinton was soft on terrorism, allowing radical Islam to spread unchecked. But because conservatives liked George W. Bush, that gave liberals the permission structure to loathe him, sort of like how Clinton loathed the military.

Since then, we’ve had the smugness of Barack Obama, the polarizing narcissism of Donald Trump, and the nastiness of Joe Biden, all of whom continued to wedge us into opposing sides. (And let’s not forget two major Middle East wars and a scamdemic where government used those excuses to further curtail our liberty.) Everything is about red or blue now, although in many respects that doesn’t matter because government retreats further and further away from its Constitutional restraints regardless of who is President.

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Ours is a nation conceived in rebellion, and it spent several of its troubled teen years debating how to avoid descending back into the situation we fought to leave. As a young nation just about to turn 36, we had to once again fight off those oppressors but managed that victory, maintaining good feelings until we fought ourselves in our 80s over an issue that couldn’t be resolved at the start and festered for all those decades as one section of our nation condemned the other for having an economic system that depended on bondage.

But after that scar healed and we celebrated our first century under the man who led the Union to victory, Ulysses S. Grant, we began to further perfect our union over the subsequent decades, becoming a world leader in the process thanks to victory in the Great War and celebrating our first 150 years in the midst of a prosperity heretofore unseen, with breathtaking personal and technological advances that allowed us the freedom to convey ourselves to distant places while also employing instant communication and dissemination of information. Fortunately, we also had the perfect low-key President at the time in Calvin Coolidge.

Not long after that, though, our nation faced difficult days of depression and war but lived up to our E Pluribus Unum motto to come out better than ever. Once on the other side, one could argue we were in the strongest position for people to achieve the American Dream, as evidenced by the Baby Boom and rise of consumerism. At last, Dad could be the breadwinner, Mom could take care of the kids, and the family could enjoy their own house and yard in suburbia. Their kids would go to a good modern school, and Mom and Dad could rest assured that they were making a better world for their children.

While the Bicentennial was nice, we were then in the early stages of losing what made America strong, as I explained above. (As evidence: the accidental presidency at the Bicentennial of Gerald R. Ford, who only achieved the position because of corruption and scandal.)

After thinking about that history that I was a part of during the last sixty-plus years, what I want to know is how we screwed that postwar prosperity up? We were once a moral, decent nation but now we’re in a situation where liberals will have nothing to do with conservatives. Where is the reset button for this one?

If there’s anything we should do for our 250th anniversary, I believe we should go back to first principles. At our Constitutional Convention in 1787, an aged Benjamin Franklin (by then he was in his eighties, just about the same age as Donald Trump, as a matter of fact) noted:

All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the Ground without his Notice, is it probable that an Empire can rise without his Aid?"

The question I would ask is whether we can continue to exist without His aid, but I would prefer we not find out.

On this day, pray for America and her people. Pray they return to worshiping Almighty God, thanking Him for the blessing of living in a nation where we can freely worship. Pray for peace and understanding among the people, and that we live up to the motto of out of many, one nation.

Happy birthday, America. May you remain strong and free.

In the meantime, though, you can Buy Me a Coffee, since I have a page there.