America The Incredible
Creating “a more perfect union” is the stated purpose of the US Constitution. This warning salvo fired across the bow of tyranny and illiberalism has at least two implications; 1) As a nation, we were moving away from something that was less perfect, which was a tyranny of an unrestrained, abusive monarchy; and 2) The process is continual, ongoing, ever moving toward, even if never reaching, perfection.
In the eighteenth-century, the very notion that “We the People” were the ones in power was unthinkable. Even the king in the musical Hamilton, pondering George Washington’s willingly stepping away so John Adams could take over as President, sang “I wasn’t aware that was something a person could do.” The very idea of America and the covenantal relationship articulated in our constitution had never been tried. It has been called “The Great Experiment.”
And our great experiment has created great results.
To be fair, we still have a lot of work to do as we move toward a more perfect union. The repercussions of slavery continue to echo through our culture. There is more work to do on gender equality in the workplace. Healthcare is too expensive and inaccessible for too many Americans. The violence that plagues our cities, growing out of the hopelessness of a godless life narrative, poverty and the breakdown of families, must be addressed in a healthy, sustainable way.
Yet for all our imperfections, these United States of America, sixth in the world in terms of GDP, continue to be among the top three percent of the most prosperous, healthy, free nations, with western-style republican democracy, modeled by the U.S., overwhelmingly representing the top ten nations by the same measures in the history of civilization. For this, men and women have served and fought and died. Never forget.
We will not move toward an even more perfect union by dismantling constitutional law, as some foolishly advocate, or by force-feeding politically acceptable speech and beliefs into our culture’s ever-increasingly-vacuous crania. We move toward a more perfect union by embracing what has worked, and improving, through all the constitutionally-defined processes available to us, what has not worked.
For all our nation’s imperfections, the other systems of government simply pale in comparison.
I sign off with one of my favorite quotes from Sir Winston Churchill:
“Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…”
-Winston S Churchill, 11 November 1947
Happy Memorial Day
