The Fallacy Of "Make America Great Again"

Despite The Current Challenges Facing America, We Are Still A Great Country

Sorry I’m late getting this most recent essay published. I have been dealing with some health issues that knocked me for a loop, but I’m doing better now.

During this current election cycle, voters are hearing a lot from candidates about “Make America Great Again,” “America First,” and “Save America.”

According to politicians running for office at the national, state, and local levels, Americans, especially rural Americans, are losing their freedom and living under systemic tyranny that threatens their “way of life.”

Candidate after candidate presents themselves as “fighters” who will “preserve our conservative values and way of life,” and fight for “freedom over tyranny.”

They will protect us from “radical liberal policies,” and “uphold our values.”

These candidates promise to work to protect “faith, family, and freedom,” with the end goal being “safeguarding our freedom and securing our rights.”

All of this language is taken from the campaign websites and literature of candidates running for state and local office in Pike County, Missouri.

What I find most interesting about all of this is the nebulous nature of the comments. I can understand that a politician might disagree with the other side (“radical liberal policies versus conservative values”). Disagreement and healthy debate are a key indicator of a healthy democracy. It should be encouraged.

What I don’t understand is this: what “way of life” are we losing? How are our “freedoms and rights” being taken away? Where is the “tyranny” in our everyday life? How are “faith, family, and freedom” being attacked?

What universe are these people living in?

To hear the Republican politicians who are running, you would think that the United States was a police state, a country being run by a hoard of “liberals,” “elitists,” and “socialist communists” who are running around trying to turn us into the former Soviet Union.

I ask, who has told people that they have to conform, that everybody has to think alike?

Who has been told what they have to study, what job they have to take, and where they have to live?

Please give one example, just one, of people being hauled out of a church and being arrested for practicing their faith?

Where are children being groomed with respect to sexuality and are being made to feel inferior about their race and subjected to “critical race theory”? I have worked for over two years in the public schools in Pike County, and I have not seen one example of this, not one.

Where is the classic “2:00 AM knock on the door” when people are being pulled out of bed, arrested, and hauled off to prison with no charges or because they disagree with current political leaders?

Who has come to your house and confiscated legally owned weapons? Who has violated your gun rights under the Second Amendment? Who, specifically, by name, has argued for the elimination of the Second Amendment from the Constitution? Who? Give me examples?

Where is the tyranny, the lack of freedom, the oppression?

I could go on and on, but I think I’ve made my point.

None of this, not any of it, is an accurate reflection of life in Pike County, or life in the United States as a whole.

None of it.

It is all political pandering and should be called what it really is,

Bovine scatology (BS).

I’m not suggesting that people don’t struggle financially or culturally. I’m not saying that income and economic disparity aren’t real. I’m not saying crime isn’t a problem in the cities of this country. I think it is a disgrace that kids go to school and go to bed hungry. Our veterans are treated like crap (I’m a veteran and speak from experience), I’m not saying that rural America isn’t in decline, but it has been for decades. I’m aware that traditional institutions (government, schools, churches) are losing influence and declining in importance, but whose fault is that?

And oh, by the way, when was the last time any politician, all of whom are really good at throwing around the rhetorical bovine scatology and talking in convoluted circles, actually proposed specific policy approaches designed to deal with the challenges that the country is facing?

I’m not trying to “pile on” Republicans, but this is the reality where I live. Democrats are guilty of doing the same thing, using rhetoric to paint pictures of false reality, all in the name of winning elections and owning the other side.

I have argued for decades that neither political party is interested in helping the people they represent. All they care about is winning elections and owning the other side.

With respect to policy and problem solving, the Democrats are the party of old ideas and the Republicans are the party of no ideas.

As we head into the midterm elections in November, we have to do better.

The United States, despite its current division and the crazy nature of its politics, is still the greatest nation on earth. We are still the last best hope, the beacon shining on a hill. We still have the highest standard of living on the planet. We have the strongest and most vibrant economy in the world. We still are the world’s preeminent military power, a force dedicated to doing good and protecting freedom. We still have the freedom to say what we want, think what we want, to practice or not practice our faith, to grow up and study what we want, to live where we want to live, to work whatever job we choose, to travel freely “without papers", and the opportunity to improve our lot in life if we so choose.

We don’t need to Make America Great Again. We are already great. We are the ““effin’” United States, the country who led the effort to defeat the Nazis and Japanese in World War II, the country who won the Cold War and brought the Soviet Union to its knees. We put American astronauts on the moon.

We tend to forget that.

It’s time for citizens to retake control of our democracy. Yes, we face some serious challenges, but we have always been a country that came together in times of challenge and we need to do it again.

Right now, I think our greatest challenge is regaining our confidence as a nation. We need to believe in ourselves again. We need to unsubscribe to the grievance, victimhood, relative affluence, narcissism, and cynicism that currently exists in our society and in our politics. It’s time to start defeating politicians who sow this garbage, all in the name of winning and holding personal political power, saying anything to win votes, whether true or not.

Don’t believe what these clowns say. In private conversations I’ve had with politicians, many admit that they just say this stuff, but don’t believe it.

All these clowns want to do is use you to get what they want.

It’s time to take back our country from the professional political class of career politicians, professional political consultants, media “rock stars” who have lost their objectivity and are more interested in selling books and being “insiders” than they are about holding politicians accountable and protecting our democracy, lobbyists, dark money political action committees, and other political grifters and hangers on who don’t have to live with the consequences of their actions.

It is time to end the grievance, victimhood, division, tribalism, and cynicism. Instead of having a “red” America and “blue” America, it’s time to once again come together, embrace our diversity, which is our strength, and work toward common goals that create win-win solutions and raises all boats. Everybody has a right to be at the table and be heard.

It is time to once again be “The United States of America.”

Given our current state, it will be hard. Concessions will have to be made and reconciliation will have to take place. There will be pain along the way, but it will be worth the effort and sacrifice.

We are Americans. We are great. We, are strong. We can do this.