Volume 8, Issue 35
President Trump visited Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Monday without major incident. Joe Biden is schedule to be there Thursday. Why is there not more disruption during the day? And is America really about to burn to the ground?
The answer requires a glimpse into who America is in the dream that was the Great American Experiment. And are we willing to give up the hope for reconciliation? What, in fact, is the real state of affairs of America today?
In 1776, upon declaring independence from Great Britain, the economy of the colonies was driven 100% by small business, primarily Christian family-owned. What the colonists discovered was that big government, isolated from the true needs of the people, was generally destructive in the free flow of efficient commerce. A new society was developing in the Americas to which the king was insensitive and insulated in the bubble of the royal court. “Taxation without representation” became a political slogan for recognition of the detached reality.
The genesis of the revolutionary rebellion was the unfairness of the king’s levy. The monarch still saw citizens as serfs to be used for the government’s purpose in the valuation of common labor. The family business owners were the first to realize that the value of their labor was measured not just in the sweat of their brow, but in the profits of their products or services. The king had no concept of taxation formulas based on reasonable assessments as a percent of gross domestic product.
The term capitalism was first used in the late 1840s and early 1850s. It referred to those who had capital and invested it to produce goods and services for trade in general commerce. Up until the 18th century, wealth was measured in land ownership and rents. Young America conceived the concept of investment for the expansion of production. This simple concept of capital put to work with labor, combined with expertise and resources, exploded into the greatest economy the world has ever known. Land grants from the king no longer dictated absolute wealth and power.
The Declaration of Independence was not just based on freedom as an unalienable right, but also freedom in the pursuit of happiness. This meant that not only was government to be restrained by limitations of oversight, but controlled in its insatiability to capture an unfair share of the profits of production which included both investment and labor. Innovation, entrepreneurship, and private small business was now out of the king’s control.
As a point of reference, it is important to note that John Wesley counseled Adam Smith that only through Christian morality as a safeguard could capitalism be truly righteous in the distribution of resources. By this he meant that the widow, the orphan, and the poor must always be protected. This became the definition and vision of the American free enterprise system.
At first, other world powers were bemused by the great American Experiment. Alexis de Tocqueville came to America in the 1830s at first to simply ask the question: why did the American colonists take on this great challenge with such risk of retribution at stake? De Tocqueville came to the conclusion in his book Democracy in America that freedom did, in fact, unleash individual potential. However, to self-govern without a king to determine what was in society’s best benefit, the American people would have to be committed to a society built on freedom and liberty as the necessary essentials for the definition of that society’s moral code and purpose. He believed that he found Christianity was the binary force that bound freedom and labor as those foundational elements that would determine egalitarian pursuit of happiness.
America has always stood out against the world as the exception from governments’ tribal tendencies to control commerce to maintain privilege through birth. America established the principle that, through freedom, birth is not destiny.
Why would anyone fear America? There is no reason. The perpetuation of freedom, in and of itself, renders a nation-state munificent. Yes, the United States has been involved in many foreign wars, but never for the purpose of acquiring land or stealing resources. It was America who, in 1820, eliminated colonization in the Americas through the “Monroe Doctrine.” We are as a country the most open, most transparent, and most accommodating sovereign in the world. The United States, in fact, poses no threat to any other foreign state or culture.
The fear of America is not generated by what we might do, but the fact that our founding beliefs may actually be truth.
China fears the American free enterprise system. As long as the United States is successful economically, communism will fail. Command economies cannot compete with free choice economic systems. It can only succeed as the sole option. This is why the Soviet Union raised the Iron Curtain. They tried to implement communism in a closed system, eliminating any choice of freedom. They failed miserably.
Russia fears the United States because of our intent to defend freedom. Russian prosperity is driven by the commodity of oil. To grow, they must expand in dominance. To support their foreign policy ambitions, they pursue 21st century colonialism. They impose their will on neighbor countries through client-state relationships. Only America stands in front of Russia’s threat.
Iran fears America because of the First Amendment to our Constitution, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” America respects and defends the freedom of religion and the right to have no religion. Our presence in the world defies their claim of theocratic rule.
Global billionaires who have taken it upon themselves to restructure the world into a new world order fear America’s existence. George Soros profits from chaos. He was indicted in France and convicted of insider trading. He has moved from country to country to escape investigation. He has stated, along with Klaus Martin Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, that the United States of America is the greatest threat to a new world order. Really? Whose order? These billionaires seek to reorganize the world for their own profit and gain. They are anything but peaceful merchants of universal solutions. They are despots who vie to control individual citizens for a new world society that they will rule. They fear the United States most of all.
As the presidential campaigns debate the future of America, may the protestors be protected for their constitutional rights of assembly and free speech. But through all the debates and all the rhetoric and all the protests, may we keep in mind and reemphasize the dream that was America in 1776. It was Martin Luther King’s dream. It was John Lewis’s dream. It must be every American’s dream. In freedom, birth is not destiny. Pursuit of happiness is in the vision of the individual. And moral values are in the full authority of the family unit.
Today, 50% of the U.S. non-farm adult workforce works for a business of 25 employees or fewer. Of these businesses, 10 million are Christian family-owned. Our economic heritage is sound and worth defending.
Don’t let The America the World Fears become a doubt of our national purpose. The American Dream is as important today as it was in 1776. It is not just an alternative government structure. Freedom codified by law is the only government structure that provides any sensible solutions or lasting hope.
The state of American affairs is eternal in its struggle, for the spirit of freedom is eternal in mankind’s soul.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?