250 Years and Counting

The mere mention of making American great again evokes a wide range of responses, many of them negative, based on a media driven ignorance. There can be little doubt that America is now, and has been for 250 years, the greatest country in our solar system. And in large part our greatness is a reflection of the greatness of the American people. We need to remind our citizens of the greatness of the American people and help them appreciate how fortunate we all are to live in America in 2026.

The founding of our country was the result of an amazing confluence of historical, intellectual and human interactions.

The Age of Enlightenment

The Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement that dominated the 17th and 18th centuries. Here are some of the great minds that had a profound influence on the United States:

Adam Smith: Author of The Wealth of Nations which was published in 1776. Smith, a proponent of Liberalism and free enterprise, said: “As soon as government management begins it upsets the natural equilibrium of industrial relations, and each interference only requires further bureaucratic control until the end is the tyranny of the totalitarian state.”

John Locke: Author of the Second Treatise of Government, published in 1690. Locke said: “When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner.”

Charles Montesquieu: Author of The Spirit of Laws, published in 1748, in which he describes a system of checks and balances, the “distribution of political power among a legislative, an executive and a judiciary.”

Thomas Paine: Author of Common Sense, published in 1776. Paine said: “No country can be called free which is governed by an absolute power; and it matters not whether it be an absolute royal power or an absolute legislative power, as the consequences will be the same to the people.”

Our Founding Fathers were students of the Enlightenment thinkers and the ideas of these thinkers had a profound influence on our founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. Recommended reading: the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers and our Constitution.

Declaration of Independence

The Declaration was written to justify our suit for divorce from King George the Third…the subtitle could well have been: No More Kings. It includes a statement of our rights based on the principles of the Enlightenment. “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.”

Foreshadowing the future Jefferson noted to a “candid world” that The King “has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.” In addition he included a prophesy of the work of George Soros and his flying monkeys, aka Antifa: The King “has excited domestic insurrections amongst us.” Recommended reading: Sacred Scripture by Pauline Maier.

The American Revolution would have been for naught had it not inspired the Constitutional Convention of 1787. At that Grand Convention (Recommended reading: The Grand Convention by Clinton Rossiter) a group of incredible minds met to engage in open, and sometimes contentious, debate about how to secure the vision of the Declaration and the principles of the Enlightenment…their work product was the United States Constitution.

Constitution

The Constitution incorporated the advice of Montesquieu by establishing the three branches of government. It was intended to create a system of checks and balances to ensure that neither the executive nor legislative branch would be dominant. The overall design was carefully structured to limit the power of the Federal government in order to ensure that the real power would reside with the people and the states. After the founders finished their appointed task an extra measure of protection was put in place…The Bill of Rights. The Ninth Amendment states: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. The Tenth Amendment states: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

The Constitution, as drafted, should forever ensure the greatness of America.

Our Original Sin

We must address an issue that the Left uses to question the sincerity of Jefferson’s statement “that all Men are created equal”. Slavery has been with the world for thousands of years but it was, in America, in jarring conflict with the Declaration. Does that suggest that our founding documents are so flawed as to be irredeemable?

It is time to fully and finally dispel that question. The seeds for ending the Peculiar Institution were embedded in Section 9 of Article 1 of the Constitution.which provides that the importation of slaves “shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight.” The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807 became law on January 1, 1808.

Four score and seven years after the Declaration was issued Lincoln asked whether “a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal…can long endure.” Recommended reading: Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Over 600,000 men gave their last full measure of devotion during the Civil War and when Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 it was made clear that that War was intended to bring an end to slavery in America. It was hoped that the ratification of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments would heal our racial wounds.

Sadly, it took another 90 years to bring full equality to our fellow American Blacks because we underestimated the intransigence of the misnamed Democratic Party which was unalterably opposed to equality of the races before the law.

Manifest Destiny

In 1845 James Polk the proclaimed his support of America’s Manifest Destiny.. Thus began the westward migration, perhaps in response to Horace Greeley’s advice in 1865…Go West Young Man! The journey from the river (the Mississippi) to the sea (the Pacific Ocean) was a rigorous trek that was undertaken at great personal risk. And there was no assurance of a happy outcome. That so many Americans elected to gamble their lives and fortunes is a reflection of the character of the people in the 19th century. The decision to leave the safety of the established East required a fierce independence, a strong desire to control one’s own destiny, a willingness to carve out a new life in an undeveloped land and a desire for individual freedom. These pioneers believed in the value of hard work and were risk takers. These are the character traits that made Americans great in the post Civil War era.

The Economic Greatness of America

The last half of the 19th century was marked by the triumph of unbridled free enterprise which made possible the transformation of America from a parochial, isolated nation into the economic envy of the world. The great industrial leaders of the American miracle should be revered for what they did to make the lives of Americans and people around the world infinitely better. Poverty was reduced and the collective wealth of the entire nation was increased. Education was made available to all Americans and life expectancy rose dramatically. In short, the entire country grew and prospered.

Unfortunately, the free enterprise giants who made it all happen were slandered as “Robber Barons”. Our self-identified intellectual elites did not subscribe to Adam Smith’s observation: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.”

Every student in our schools should study the accomplishments of these “greedy capitalists”. Their positive impact is incalculable.

Andrew Carnegie: A Scottish immigrant who settled in Pittsburgh where he created the Carnegie Steel Company which later became US Steel. During the last 18 years of his life, he gave away some $350 million (equivalent to $6.9 billion in 2026 dollars), almost 90 percent of his fortune, to charities, foundations and universities. His wealth was used to create more than 2000 libraries across America. Recommended reading: Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw.

John D. Rockefeller: Founder of Standard Oil where he found ways to utilize 100% of every barrel of oil. Kerosene, pharmaceuticals and plastics are among the products that Rockefeller inspired. He was responsible for creating major philanthropic institutions, including the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (1901), the General Education Board (1902), and the Rockefeller Foundation (1913). During his lifetime Rockefeller distributed more than $500 million. Recommended reading: Titan by Ron Chernow.

Henry Ford: Revolutionized mass production and made the automobile available to every American thus allowing Herbert Hoover to use the campaign slogan “two cars in every garage”. His Ford Motor Company gave us the Model T, the Thunderbird and the Edsel. His legacy is the Ford Foundation the largest private endowment in the world. Recommended reading: Wheels for the World by Douglas Brinkley.

Thomas Edison: 1,093 patented inventions including the light bulb and electric utility system, recorded sound, motion pictures, R&D labs, and the alkaline family of storage batteries. His Edison Electric Company became the General Electric Company. Edison led the drive for the advancement of technology. Recommended reading: Edison by Edmund Morris.

These and other foresighted risk takers connected our East and West Coasts, increased mobility of all Americans and created technologies that improved the lives of every American..

Admittedly they became phenomenally wealthy but they left huge fortunes that were invested in the American Dream. Compare and contrast this with George Soros who invests his fortune trying to destroy the American Dream.

The Arrival of Moral Termites

Eventually Americans lost their innocence as a result of our involvement in events beyond our protective ocean moats. The Spanish-American War and our entry into the First World War…described by HG Wells as the war to end all wars…introduced us to political philosophies that were in direct conflict with our Enlightenment heritage. Marxism, Fascism and Communism are based on authoritarian governance and their disciples feel strongly that they should impose their policies on the world…by force.

The Frankfurt School introduced a divisive and destructive philosophy to an unsuspecting world. Critical Theory divides the world into two groups: the oppressed and the oppressors. It leads to societal conflict and it fractures our motto, E Pluribus Unum. It is no surprise that our former VP Al “Emmet Kelly” Gore proclaimed that our motto means…From One Many. And to think we made fun of Dan Quayle.

The modern “oppressed”, unlike our ancestors, don’t want to improve their lives, rather they want to exploit the perceived oppression. DEI is their Wonka Golden Ticket to unearned rewards.

The American Dream is Being Subverted

Contact with the post 1900 European zeitgeist resulted in a different American migration…the migration of power from the state and local governments to Washington. That migration slowed to a trickle during the Coolidge Administration and the Roaring Twenties. Then the Federal Reserve orchestrated the Great Depression which resulted in a tidal wave of political power moving to Washington and Team FDR. FDR “erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.” Sound familiar?

The Left is purposefully undermining the character traits that were part of the DNA of the American people for more than 150 years. They have turned Americans into panhandlers and grifters. The Democrats have turned upside down the guidance of Harding and JFK: .”We need citizens who are less concerned about what their government can do for them, and more concerned about what they can do for the nation” (1916) and “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” (1961).

The Oppressed

In 1865 the 13th Amendment ended slavery in America. For 165 years there have been no slaves in our country but we still hear a call for Reparations. The basis of the claim is the imagined “legacy of slavery.”

We have turned the safety net of welfare into an entitlement and created a generation of Americans who do not understand the meaning of self-reliance. They want to be supported by the American taxpayer. Margaret Thatcher famously observed that “socialism works until you run out of other people’s money”

The Millennials and Generations Z, Alpha and Beta, the most pampered Americans in our history, are products of ignorance factories, aka the public schools, and they have never studied the lives of their forebears or the values they embraced. They believe they are among the oppressed. They have turned their backs on the American dream, a dream they don’t begin to understand

Elon Musk has become the world’s first trillionaire. His reward for all that he has accomplished was a level of moral outrage/envy that should be an embarrassment to everyone. Fauxcahontas Warren raced to the nearest microphone to suggest that Musk’s wealth should be confiscated and used to pay off all of the outstanding student loans. Not to be outdone Adam Schiff for brains called for the seizure of what he believes to be Musk’s ill-gotten gains so that he can personally deliver a $7,500 check to each and every person in the United States. The basis for the Warren and Schiff demagoguery can be traced to Obama’s imbecilic statement: “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen ” Musk’s created wealth can, apparently, be used to buy votes for the election of the Fagins and Artful Dodgers who make up our kakistocracy.

Going Forward

We have created “The Ungrateful Generation” that believes they are entitled to cradle to grave handouts from those who work and create. They avoid risk at all cost. They are allergic to accountability and responsibility and follow the authoritarian dictates of their overseers in Washington without regard to the consequences. The lemming like response to the devastating policies promulgated in response to Covid are a perfect example of this behavior. Don’t even think about standing up to Big Brother or speaking truth to power.

Blue collar workers, those who produce, build and maintain things, are accused of being troglodytes, white supremacists, closet Nazis and, worst of all, Trump supporters. The police and ICE are compared to the Gestapo. Christians are attacked for opposing abortion on demand or transgender surgeries on minors. The assassination of Charlie Kirk was cheered by some for reasons that they cannot articulate. A CNN commentator asserts, with furrowed brow, that American Blacks never had it worse than they do in 2026…apparently to this benighted fool slavery was a better life. Young people know George Floyd but know nothing about Emmett Till or Jackie Robinson.

Thomas Jefferson said: “Equal rights for all, special privileges for none.” The Left today has abandoned equal rights in favor of equity by which they mean equality of outcomes. This allows people to avoid hard work, intellectual curiosity, critical thinking and personal accomplishment…they are entitled to success without having to work for it. DEI is a demand for special, and unearned, privileges. A far cry from the attributes that made this country great.

By all objective measures America has retained it’s structural greatness and those who survived the Depression and World War II are accurately referred to as the Greatest Generation. Recommended reading: The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw.

It is time to Make Americans Great Again. To create the next greatest generation, a generation that embodies the qualities of our ancestors. How about MEK…Merit, Excellence and Knowledge…rebuilding the American Can Do attitude.

250 years of greatness protected by our founding documents and driven by great Americans is a good start. Here’s to the next 250 years.

A thought for today’s celebration…

Recommended listening: Ray “The Genius” Charles was born in Albany Georgia in 1930.  Charles, a blind Black man, was raised in a racist, intolerant and fully segregated world. Between 1882 and 1968 Georgia had the second highest number of Black lynchings in America. It is fair to say that he dealt with greater adversity than the vast majority of Americans.  Take a few minutes to listen to his rendition of America the Beautiful which was performed at Yankee Stadium during the 2001 World Series..  His love for this country is palpable and his performance has been described as a “spiritual shot in the arm” after 9/11. 

One has to ask: If Ray Charles can love America so passionately how do we explain the politics of AOC, Zohran Mamdani, Abigail Spanberger and Katie Wilson?