Happy 250th birthday America, you don’t look a day over 100. That’s not a compliment. In 1876, the economy was taking a beating, a scandal ridden president triggered a constitutional crisis and already disenfranchised citizens (women and minorities) were having their limited civil rights further reduced in Southern states. To borrow a line from William Loren Katz, “we celebrated our founding document while undermining its principles in the centennial year of 1876.”
If you haven’t already decided I need to be hanged from one of those gallows erected outside the Capital on January 6th, I encourage you to keep reading. Actually, I’m not one of those folks who only sees our national sins and turns a blind eye to our progress. There are a very great many things that make the U.S.A. a great place to live and celebrate proudly. I am happy more than I am not, and I am grateful far more than I am not, largely because I am blessed far beyond what I have earned. That should be celebrated, not just around the 4th of July, but everyday. For around a decade we have been urged to make America great again, and though I regularly and strongly disagree with the methods and meaning of that phrase — and question the specifics surrounding “again” — it is a sentiment I can support and contribute to in my own ways, which I fully intend to do through my actions and words.
Perhaps we had better start from the beginning:
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
250 years ago our ancestors penned these words and sent them to the King of England, along with a list of the crimes he had committed prompting this “Declaration of Independence”.
- He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
- He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
- He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
- He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
- He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
- He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
- He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
- He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
- He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation…For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world…For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences…He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us.
Those declarations, though 250 years old, could have been taken from recent headlines. History truly does repeat itself, and those who do not learn from it really are doomed to repeat it. How do we make America great again? By “renewing our vows” so to speak, and what better time to do that than on our 250th anniversary?
For many years, I kept a framed photograph of me and Honey on our wedding day on my bedside dresser. Imprinted on that photograph was a copy of the vows we made to one another on December 31, 1994. The purpose of that picture was to remind us first thing every morning when we woke up of what we had solemnly sworn to do and who we promised to be. Have we always lived up to those vows perfectly? No. But neither have we ever abandoned them. There is a big difference between failing to live up to a promise and abandoning the intent to keep the promise. Truth is, most days we got it right, and on the days we didn’t, those vows drew us back to our common ground so that we could move forward despite our failures and shortcomings as human beings. I think we — collectively as citizens of these United States — need to do just that. We need a reminder of who we vowed to be in this nation. So, what did we promise one another?
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
This was our proposal in 1776, and then, eleven years later in 1787 — kind of a long engagement I realize, but hey, you really need to be sure about these things before you tie the knot — we took the plunge together and signed our Constitution by proclaiming:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Notice that “more perfect Union” part. We didn’t vow to be a perfect Union, but we were committed to striving together to make it more perfect, as in more perfect than it was before and more perfect than it is now. For the most part, we’ve done that -- ever so gradually and reluctantly -- but we are not done. To borrow from Robert Frost,
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
We will never achieve a perfect Union, and we’ve got miles to go before we can rest on our laurels, but it is more perfect. None of us will ever get everything we want, but the nature of a union is that we find common ground, compromise, and make things more perfect, even if it is just a tiny little bit better. The least bit better is always greater than the least bit worse, but right now, that part is in jeopardy because of the efforts of a few that are in opposition to the will of the many.
We really aren’t as divided as we are told we are, and if we are, we aren’t more divided than we’ve ever really been in our history. “We” have never agreed on much of anything, except these truths which we hold to be self evident…
It is our elected officials who are irreconcilably divided, or better yet, divisive. The parties they belong to are hopelessly divided, but most of us live, work, serve, play, and worship with one another every day without much incident. We largely get along and mostly enjoy one another’s company.
I started thinking about all of this a few months ago while sitting on a bench just inside the front doors of the Golden Buffet Chinese Restaurant in my hometown. It was a Sunday afternoon and I was picking up beef lo mein takeout on my way home from church. My hometown is the typical Southern, rural, small town — predominantly white, blue collar conservative. Like anything else, this distinction comes with its share of strengths and weaknesses. On this particular day I was noticing our strengths. I — a conservative Christian, white man — was sitting in a restaurant owned and operated by Chinese immigrants, alongside a dozen Hispanic construction workers on their lunch break. Sitting on that bench, I heard English, Chinese, and Spanish being spoken around me, and I saw dragons, Buddha’s, crosses, and Virgin Mary’s on jewelry, clothes, and statues. Within a ten foot radius there was so much difference, and yet, we all had one singular purpose: a good meal. How we got here and where we went next was irrelevant. We are far more alike than we are different. By and large, most all of us just want to live our lives in peace, enjoying the little things with the people we love, doing something that gives us purpose and provides us with a degree of stability.
It is long past time for us to “dissolve the political bands” which have ceased to connect us and have come to confine us and strangle us. This revolution doesn’t require a war, but the opposite — a willingness to lay down our arms. We may have a right to bear them, but that doesn’t mean we have a requirement. We can, as the prophet of old dreamed, turn our swords into plowshares and go up to the house of the God of Jacob and let Him teach us of His ways and learn to walk in His paths and learn war no more.
The two party system as we know it today did not exist until the country was 55 years old. Perhaps it is the product of our national midlife crisis, and it’s time to grow up and act like an adult country. To quote our forefathers, “it is necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another.”
These United States are the only first world nation to operate on a strictly two party political ruling system and we are long overdue for an overhaul. Despite the fact that a two party system is our default setting in the 20th century, it wasn’t always this way, and it was never intended to be. In his farewell address, our first President, George Washington, cautioned that political parties would “distract the government, agitate the community with ill-founded jealousies, and open the door to foreign influence and corruption”. Further, he argued that “party loyalty would cause politicians to prioritize partisan victories over the common good, ultimately leading to despotism and the subversion of the power of the people”. He firmly believed that a democratic republic could only survive if citizens and leaders remained united, functioning without the divisive "spirit of party”.
I was born and raised — to borrow from the late Todd Snider — a “conservative Christian, right wing Republican, straight, white American male.” In my formative years I listened to conservative talk radio daily (Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage), watched Fox News nightly, and read everything written by conservative leaders religiously. I was a registered Republican who only voted Republican in all elections, straight down the ticket. Were this a movie, this would be the scene where the record scratches to a stop, the scene freezes, and the narrator says, “Not anymore.”
To explain, I feel I need to share an old joke about a married couple riding down the road in their now antique pick up truck. Riding along in silence, him driving, her looking out the passenger side window, the wife turns to her husband and says, “Fifty years ago when we were riding in this truck we were hip to hip and you couldn’t slide a piece of paper in between us, but look at us now. You’re all the way over there and I’m all the way over here.” Her husband, never taking his eyes off the road, simply said, “Who moved?”
My values have not changed since I was a young man. Some of my positions have changed in an attempt to align more consistently with my values, but I still believe what I always believed: Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. I didn’t change, but the party I believed to be the best expression of my values changed quite radically over the last decade. At least on a national scale, love God became more about using God as a political prop to be wielded during campaign seasons and promptly put away after the election. Love neighbor became love neighbors who are like me and hate, slander, and deport neighbors who aren’t. “When I was young I admired intelligent people. When I was old I admired kind people.” (Abraham Joshua Heschel)
So, does that mean I’m now a Democrat? In a word….uh, no, and for the same reasons. Neither of these two parties represent my values and I don’t believe they represent the values of the majority of Americans either. I’m not talking about topics, policies, or positions, I’m talking about VALUES. In the words of Washington, I think they both serve to agitate the community with ill-founded jealousies, and open the door to foreign influence and corruption and cause politicians to prioritize partisan victories over the common good, ultimately leading to despotism and the subversion of the power of the people. Well said, Mr. President. Each party is being steered by their most extreme elements and with every passing year it seems the litmus test for loyalty becomes more and more extreme if not downright cult like. Meanwhile, most of us are situated in the middle with only two choices who refuse to work together and compromise for the greater good. Politics has become a zero sum game where “our” victory requires “your” defeat.
I’m fed up with the fact that our political party parents can’t get along and I think we should take a page out of the playbook of young Casey Brodsky (Drew Barrymore) from “Irreconcilable Differences” and divorce our partisan parents. A lot of this division is manufactured to begin with. There are a great many people benefitting richly from stoking our division. Sadly, “Politics are presently dominated by the dark triad: Narcissistic Machiavellian Psychopathy. Narcissistic (I’m only concerned about me). Machiavellian (I’m willing to hurt you to get it). Psychopathy (I have no remorse for it).” Arthur Brooks
Stop focusing on the letters beside the names of candidates and start paying attention to the ridiculous accusations and misrepresentations in slanderous political ads by shadowy Super PACS. If you are a person who uses your faith as your North Star then use your faith to sniff out the wolves in sheep's clothing. A bad tree produces bad fruit, and if their words and deeds are not the fruit of the Spirit, well, by their fruits you shall know them. "The things which proceed out of the mouth come forth out of the heart; and they defile the man." Jesus of Nazareth.
A great many folks online have been moved by a recent quote from a German tourist visiting our country for the World Cup. In his observation, “If you want to hate America watch the news. If you want to love America drive through it.” The next time you are being prodded to view those with whom you disagree with disdain, try out this advise from Thomas Merton, “Do not be too quick to assume your enemy is a savage just because he is your enemy. Perhaps he is your enemy because he thinks you are a savage. And perhaps if he believed you were capable of loving him he would no longer be your enemy.” The French theologian and poet Francois Fenelon once said, "All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers."
I have no qualms against patriotism or even politics, so long as we keep them firmly defined and well rooted in our shared values. As it pertains to politics, the definition I can go along with is, “the process by which groups of people make collective decisions, resolve conflicts, and distribute power and resources within a society or organization. It is commonly summarized as the art and science of who gets what, when, and how". In a nation of hundreds of millions, there are a lot of questions to answer and problems to solve and there are a lot of opinions about how best to do that. Our foundational framework — the guardrails if you will — are things like: justice, general welfare, liberty and that all men are created equal and with an equal right to life and the pursuit of happiness.
As for patriotism, I’ve grown to appreciate the perspective shared by Brian Zahnd on the subject. “If by patriotism we mean a benign pride of place that encourages civic duty and responsible citizenship, then patriotism poses no conflict…But if by patriotism we mean religious devotion” or “an uncritical support of political policies without regard to their justice” then so called patriotism is actually averse to our foundational creed as a nation.
Our ancestors declared their independence from the British crown, but then they used that newly won freedom to create a United States of America. There has never been a golden age where we agreed on everything, but the commitment was for us to be united in a common good and a common goal, namely, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We get to decide if that is present or past tense.
We either believe that all men are created equal or we don’t, and if we don’t, we do not believe in America either.
We either believe that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights or we don’t, and if we don’t, we do not believe in America either.
We either believer all men have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness or we don’t, and if we don’t, we do not believe in America either.
We either believe that all men have the right to the freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly or we don’t, and if we don’t we do not believe in America either.
We either believe that all men have the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury, the right to legal counsel, and the right to confront witnesses in criminal cases, or we don’t, and if we don’t, we do not believe in America either.
If you want to wear a flag, wave the flag, hang one from your house, put "We the people..." decals on your car and "1776" hats on your head to proclaim your patriotism, have at it. But if you want to deny anyone the fundamental rights declared at the birth of this nation, well, you're just 'Whistlin' Dixie".
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