Who Are We?

On the eve of our 250^th anniversary, as a nation conceived in freedom, who are we? With the division we see all around us, can we really say that we are a nation that’s united in purpose and outlook? Which narrative do most people support these days? Was the United States conceived by the blood, sweat, and tears of a uniquely gifted group of freedom fighters determined to remove the nascent country from the shackles of a despotic king? Or a bunch of slave-owning elites who were simply carrying on a mission of voraciously taking “stolen land” from 1619 onward?

Even on an overwhelmingly favorable issue (about 85/15), requiring valid photo identification to vote, somehow it’s made controversial enough by the Democrats and their lapdog media to prevent passage of a law that would mandate such requirements. The lesson here is clear: get enough “squishy” Republicans on the other side because of some technicality that puts fear and trembling into them, and you can block almost anything Trump and his party try to do.

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has become a momentary hero of the left for his part in the majority decision striking down President Trump’s tariffs. Of course, Gorsuch would insist that his opinion simply follows the Constitution, which states that except for emergency situations, only Congress has the authority to pass laws imposing tariffs on imports. Perhaps Trump needed to do a better job convincing the public, as well as the justices, that we had a genuine emergency situation on our hands (which, after four years of Joe Biden’s “handling” of the economy, shouldn’t have been difficult). However, the numbers are not strong enough to back up his strategy – at least for now. Tariff collections approaching $200 billion, while impressive, will barely put a dent in the annual deficit let alone the massive national debt. And there’s no evidence so far that the tariffs have helped alleviate trade deficits between the U.S. and its major trading partners, and free traders continue to claim that trade deficits are not a big deal anyway.

In the meantime, Democrats are holding a large piece of the federal budget (Homeland Security) hostage because of their antipathy toward the Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. As with the numerous blue state and city calls to “defund the police” in 2020 after the George Floyd incident, ICE is being punished for two incidents that occurred in Minneapolis, resulting in the deaths of U.S. citizen protesters who were impeding ICE agents carrying out their duties. In the military of my day, such draconian responses to isolated incidents were considered to be “hasty generalizations” that can lead to disastrous consequences. But in the Democrats’ world, government-by-emotion means stoking the fires of division on this and every major issue by using the worst sort of inductive reasoning to generalize a local problem into a national one. 

The recent death of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson provides another illustration of how divided we are. Jackson was not the type of public figure one can easily feel neutral about; he was either loved by those who believed he was taking on a systemically racist power structure in the U.S., or vilified by those who saw him as a self-promoting race hustler. One thing I’ll always remember him for is his characterization of New York City as “Hymietown,” in what was supposed to be an off-the-record conversation, an obvious slur toward the large Jewish population that resides there. The lesson here is to always pay attention to what socialists are saying, because occasionally they allow their masks to slip and state their true beliefs. When this happens, it makes crystal clear their intent to cause division and strife rather than unity, in the name of consolidating their political power. In looking upon Jackson’s life and what he was passionate about, the title “reverend” should be applied with an abundance of caution.

We are living in an era where, thanks to the general deceit prophesied in Scripture and false narratives that abound, the search for real truth may seem futile. Add to that the advent of artificial intelligence and its ability to blur elements of fiction into reality, and the problem gets even worse. No politician, Trump included, is immune from the bondage of lying to make themselves look better at their opponents’ expense. We are looked upon as merely the sheep whose only value is in our voting for them. Implicitly, we must accept the constant lying as part of the political game, nothing more. However, we are also looked upon as sheep of great value by the Good Shepherd, Jesus, who is the only real Truth. To the extent that we still have religious freedom in this country, that alone is worth celebrating a national milestone anniversary.