Toward Our Brave, New World

Today Is the Day America Decides:

Do We Continue to Hide out in the Cold, Leaky Cave of the past fearful years?

Or Do We Strike Out as our forebears did?

America Is a Nation of Immigrants, as MSNBC pundit Chris Matthews recently described it. While others stayed put, stayed behind where they might have been miserable, but safe, our ancestors have in common that they took the risk, believing that they would find a better place.

Those Left Behind Remained Europeans, or Asians, or Africans.

But We Are the Americans. We take the big risks. We find better worlds. We make our world a better place.

We Do What Has to Be Done. When times get hard, we knuckle down and get to work. We fight the big fights. We win the big wars. We are the defenders and the saviors of the world. We giver real form to the big ideas. We share the wealth of capitalism and democracy. We go first, showing the rest of the world the way.

This Is Who the “Real Americans” Are.

This Is What Americans Always Do: We set out today—now—voting to reach our brave, new world.

BUT Some May Say:

“What Do We Really Know about Barack Obama?”

“Is He Safe?”

“Can We Trust Him?”

“What Do You Think Might Happen?”

AND We Respond, Saying:

“We Are the Americans.”

And We Pull the Lever Anyway.....

This Is What Americans Always Do:

We Set Out Now, voting to reach our brave, new world.

Bridging the American Divide (Part II)

How We Got Here This Time

Back in the Late 1970s, the generally liberal thrust of government from FDR through LBJ to Jimmy Carter had essentially kept us on the move—as if looking for the new “cave” that would solve society’s ills—for too long. After the tumult of the Sixties, the majority of Americans were ready to settle down in one spot, in one “cave.” Ready to get the spending and the taxing under control. Ready to let the constant changes to our morality or immorality settle down.

Thus, Ronald Reagan Was Elected President, and the Nation began its twenty-eight-year tilt to the Right.

Now, Though, We Seem to Have Reached the Limits of the Conservative view. The overall argument of small government and lower taxes has somehow, inexplicably, led us to where we are. Essentially, we sit in a cave that is too small for us. The roof is caving in. It is time for us to move in a different direction. Find a new “cave.”

Back in the 1980s, Liberals insisted that the things that we’d been trying just hadn’t been given enough of a chance, and that we had more things to try.

“We Stop Here,” said Conservatives under Ronald Reagan. That old “Liberal agenda” didn't matter any more. The majority of the nation were fed up. Ronald Reagan cut programs and cut taxes. Then he outspent the Soviet Union to get those "wolves" from the door.

It All Seemed to Work Well-Enough for a While (though there were always many people unhappy—and there always will be). But then, over the past eight years, so many things went wrong. Enron, and September 11, and Katrina, and Iraq, and Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, and more hurricanes, and the price of oil skyrocketing, and the collapse of the housing market, and—

“We Have to Move Now.” Suddenly the weight of the Conservative/Liberal argument seems to have switched to the other side of the scales. (Sure, there are plenty of people who still prefer the arguments of lowering taxes and cutting regulations—and there always will be). But the recent rescues, from Iraq and Katrina, all the way through to the current bailouts, make the arguments for lowering taxes look unrealistic.

STILL AHEAD: The Tide Will Turn Yet Again and How We Can Actually Work Together

Bridging the American Divide (Part I)

The Parable of the American “Cave”

The Choice We Humans Always Face concerns whether to spend the harsh winter in the small, leaky cave that we know—or to strike out before winter reaches us, to seek a new, dry cave, large-enough to hold the whole clan.

If We Get Caught out in the Cold During the Winter, we will starve or be eaten by wolves. That’s a powerful argument for Staying Where We Are.

If We Stay in the Familiar Cave While the Roof Is about to Cave in on Us, and while our enemies march toward us to lay siege, we will be crushed by the rock or starved to death by the siege. That’s a powerful argument for Looking For a New Place Now.

This, in a Nutshell, Describes the Difference between the Conservative and the Liberal view. Either “We need to stay put!” or “Let’s move!”

Neither Side Represents “Evil” nor “Good.” Neither Liberal nor Conservative is inherently better or worse than the other. But both provide different value under different circumstances.

STILL AHEAD: How We Got Here This Time and The Tide Will Turn Yet Again