I continue to be confounded by the many people who declare that they want to change America. My question is always why? Change has become a wonderful word to run a political campaign on. But change just for change’s sake is usually wrongheaded, often silly, and, in some cases, downright stupid. A political slogan, such as Change You Can Believe In, is just a slogan and nothing more. It has no substance, no measurability, and certainly no predictive value.
Let me illustrate with an example from recent politics. In October 2008, Mr. Obama made a speech in Columbia, Missouri in which he stated that “…we are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” No one held his feet to the fire and asked him why he wanted to do that and what did he mean by “fundamentally transforming.” In my lexicon, “fundamentally transforming” is rather serious business. Let parse that phrase and put it in simple terms. Fundamental means basic, underlying, core, or foundational. Transform means making a thorough and dramatic change in form or substance. Now, why is that necessary? It is not. Most of this change rhetoric (in today’s meaning of that word) is based on emotion or feelings, not facts.
I also keep hearing that America is a racist country and that is was founded on racism. Perhaps, this conclusion is the case for change. I will assume that these critics mean slavery when they say that the United States was founded on racism. However, let’s get the perspective and history correctly stated about slavery and about the founding of the United States.
For America to be a racist country, an overwhelming majority of American citizens must be racists. Let’s assume that overwhelming majority is 60 percent for discussion purposes. How is that possible? It is not, because it would mean that at least 192 million Americans are racist. Any serious or objective analysis of the population of the United States cannot support such a number.
From a slightly different perspective, I would add that countries cannot be racist; people can be, but countries cannot. Pundits, journalists, and politicians are not very disciplined in their word usage when they make broad generalizations about countries being racist. It is an easy trap to fall into.
As to the foundation of the United States on racism, we must remember that the first black slaves were brought to North America in 1619 to the English colony of Jamestown in Virginia by Dutch traders. So, the English introduced slavery to North America. And as I have written elsewhere, slavery was a world-wide practice and was not unique to the English or to North America. Moreover, it was not based on race or skin color.
With that as a backdrop, we must also remember that the United States became an independent nation in early 1789. The U.S. Constitution was ratified by nine states by June 1788; New Hampshire was the ninth state to endorse the Constitution. The fledgling United States began operations 170 years after slaves were first brought to North America. Ergo, slavery was an accepted practice at the time of the founding and the constitutional ratification, and was not created or initiated by the new government of America.
The most telling point, which needs to be fully recognized, is that it was the British and the American Governments that took the necessary steps to abolish the slave trade in the very early 1800s, followed by the end of slavery in the United States with the issuance of President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Slavery was ended in the United States, now almost 157 years ago, or approximately two lifetimes of an average American citizen living today. That is a long time in anyone’s understanding of time.
Let me now add a personal perspective to the above. I have lived in seven countries and have traveled to 70 others during my lifetime. When I compare life in those 77 countries to what I observe in today’s America, I remain convinced that America is the freest country in the world and one of the best in which to live. Have American leaders made egregious mistakes? The answer is yes. In sum, however, America has done more good than bad and has added more value to the world than any other country in my memory.
Let me close with a quote from Winston Churchill: “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” Remember this quote when you do your homework. Focus on truth.