America: Arsenal of Democracy

It wasn’t too long ago that a serious man of distinguished national service stepped to the podium and laid before for the prominent leaders and dignitaries of his nascent nation the reasons he was to lay down the mantle of power he had already achieved in favor of returning that power to its rightful origin.

His lesson was as simple as the belief that if his brethren would jealously guard all they had won, and did so together, they would continue to enjoy a treasure unlike any the world had ever known. He said, “The Unity of Government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so; for it is a main Pillar in the Edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home; your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very Liberty which you so highly prize.”

There are no words so timely for that same nation that was this year traumatized by a sudden blow to its health, its pride and its security by surprise terrorist attacks. George Washington’s farewell address in 1796 not only remains a timely reminder for us all that America is still the pre-eminent government composed of citizen servants dedicated to a greater cause, but also that we must remember the true reasons this nation was conceived through noble ideals, paid for in full with blood of the brave, and insured by a generational compact to preserve that union.

Washington announced that day his decision not to extend his reign any more than two terms, believing that to do so would act as poor precedent and eventually lead to another monarchical figure destroying the people’s government. This is a critical piece of historical evidence that is often overlooked by those who attempt to distort with the lens of modern America the historical view of the reasons the country was founded.

Despite what many may pull out of an elitist liberal academy, which uses spite as its language of barter and revisionist history as its stock in trade, this country was and continues to be a shining city on a hill because it aspired to be something more magnificent than any social or governmental pact to date. It was not simple economic greed, as is espoused by many recent cynics fortunate enough to find an audience for their jelly-spined retort to American destiny.

The claim that many disenchanted scholars make regarding the motives of the nation’s forefathers is unfortunately like light refracted through a bent lens. In other words, those who read the pages of history to mean that it was purely economic self-interest to found a new nation have a skewed perspective of freedom.

True, economic self-destiny was a critical point in selling the revolutionary war to the British colonists, but it was only a microcosm of the greater cause worth fighting for. After all, if one cannot choose how to make their own living, then they will likely not have the right to make other important life choices.

It is the right of self-determination, from economic to religion, that enables America’s citizens to build a strong nation and defend freedom at home and abroad. In World War II, it was Franklin D. Roosevelt who said that America must be the arsenal of democracy. He, like the rest of our greatest leaders, knew that it was the economic and personal freedoms of its citizens that unleashed the potential of Americans to fight the toughest battles.

The unique quality that has enabled America to be a world leader for decades is the inherent drive of its people to make it a nation of strength and compassion. While those same elitists attempt to denigrate the current nation through the black eyes our country has surely taken along the way, the real story of America is that of a lasting hope that those facing the worst oppression, whether domestic or from afar, will eventually find peace and justice within our borders because Americans will always do what’s right — from ending slavery at home to ending world wars that began in Europe, and from improving the lot of our own homeless to becoming the world’s bread basket.

But America doesn’t simply believe in lofty ideals — it also puts the lives of our own young men and women in harm’s way to fight for those beliefs. Americans have gone abroad to wade onto the shores of Normandy and crawled through the rice paddies of Vietnam, shed blood in every square inch of Europe and battled in icy oceans thousands of miles from the nearest shore. Even more devastating have been the occasions when we fought for the nation’s survival on our own land, from expelling the British to the defense of Texas, and the most solemn days of the Civil War to the most recent stealth attack by Islamic extremists.

Each time America has put its own blood on the line to service a debt to the past, a debt owed to wise men like George Washington who understood the awesome blessing and responsibility of a new kind of nation that didn’t force — but rather allowed — their citizens to make the hardest sacrifices. To that end, Washington added in his departing remarks that it was unity that would be most crucial to the nation in all days to come.

“But as it is easy to foresee,” he said, “that from different causes & from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal & external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly & insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment, that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national Union to your collective & individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual & immoveable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the Palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our Country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.”

That goal of unity is often quite uneasy to attain. It is hard to put aside past grudges, past prejudices and old notions. From the national level, where the U.S. stands on the brink of a new era of bipartisan cooperation and guarded friendship with Russia, to this university, where diehard conservatives find themselves accepting many pro-war liberals into the ranks of those in agreement, it is a strength of Americans to overcome those old notions to take aim together at a greater goal.

It is the “unity of government,” of which Washington spoke that can now be seen in its most recent incarnation, with a Republican president leading a divided Congress into a new war. It is a time that has seen a man once called “Shrub” turned into a national pillar of strength, leading his people through troubled times. Even while there will be the occasional disagreement on how to reach America’s objectives, it is a remarkable event to once again have common objectives in the face of a unifying threat to world peace and prosperity.

Perhaps this holiday season it would be well worth remembering that America is still the most perfect union on the face of the earth, and that is indeed something to be grateful for.