by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n
For the last 235 years, on the Fourth of July, Americans have celebrated the birth of the United States, and the founding ideas that have made it the most powerful, wealthiest, and freest nation in the history of civilization.<\/p>\n
But as another Fourth of July approaches, there has never been more uncertainty about the future of America \u2014 and the anxiety transcends even the dismal economy and three foreign wars. President Obama prompted such introspection in April 2009, when he suggested that the United States, as one of many nations, was not necessarily any more exceptional than others. Recently, a\u00a0New Yorker<\/em>\u00a0magazine article sympathetically described our new foreign policy as \u201cleading from behind.\u201d<\/p>\n The administration not long ago sought from the United Nations and the Arab League \u2014 but not from Congress \u2014 authorization to attack Colonel Qaddafi\u2019s Libya. Earlier, conservative opponents had made much of the president\u2019s bows to Chinese and Saudi Arabian heads of state, which, coupled with serial apologies for America\u2019s distant and recent past, were seen as symbolically deferential efforts to signal the world that the United States was at last not necessarily preeminent among nations.<\/p>\n Yet there has never been any nation even remotely similar to America. Here\u2019s why. Most revolutions seek to destroy the existing class order and use all-powerful government to mandate an equality of result rather than of opportunity \u2014 in the manner of the French Revolution\u2019s slogan of \u201cliberty, equality, and fraternity\u201d or the Russian Revolution\u2019s \u201cpeace, land, and bread.\u201d<\/p>\n In contrast, our revolutionaries shouted \u201cDon\u2019t tread on me!\u201d and \u201cGive me liberty or give me death!\u201d The Founders were convinced that constitutionally protected freedom would allow the individual to create wealth apart from government. Such enlightened self-interest would then enrich society at large far more effectively that could an all-powerful state.<\/p>\n Such constitutionally protected private property, free enterprise, and market capitalism explain why the United States \u2014 with only about 4.5 percent of the world\u2019s population \u2014 even today, in an intensely competitive global economy, still produces a quarter of the world\u2019s goods and services. To make America unexceptional, inept government overseers, as elsewhere in the world, would determine the conditions \u2014 where, when, how and by whom \u2014 under which businesses operate.<\/p>\n Individual freedom in America manifests itself in ways most of the world can hardly fathom \u2014 whether our unique tradition of the right to gun ownership, the near impossibility of proving libel in American courts, or the singular custom of multimillion-dollar philanthropic institutions, foundations, and private endowments. Herding, silencing, or enfeebling Americans is almost impossible \u2014 and will remain so as long as well-protected citizens can say what they want and do as they please with their hard-earned money.<\/p>\n Race, tribe, or religion often defines a nation\u2019s character, either through loose confederations of ethnic or religious blocs as in Rwanda, Iraq, and the former Yugoslavia, or by equating a citizenry with a shared appearance as reflected in the German word \u201cvolk<\/em>\u201d or the Spanish \u201craza<\/em>.\u201d And while the United States was originally crafted largely by white males who improved upon Anglo-Saxon customs and the European Enlightenment, the Founders set in place an \u201call men are created equal\u201d system that quite logically evolved into the racially blind society of today.<\/p>\n This year a minority of babies born in the United States will resemble the look of the Founding Fathers. Yet America will continue as it was envisioned, as long as those of various races and colors are committed to the country\u2019s original ideals. When International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was accused of sexual assault against a West African immigrant maid in New York, supposedly liberal French elites were outraged that America would dare bring charges against such an establishment aristocrat. Americans, on the other hand, would have been more outraged had their country not done so.<\/p>\n The Founders\u2019 notion of the rule of law, coupled with freedom of the individual, explains why the United States runs on merit, not tribal affinities or birth. Most elsewhere, being a first cousin of a government official, or having a prestigious name, ensures special treatment from the state. Yet in America, nepotism is never assured. End that notion of American merit and replace it with racial tribalism, cronyism, or aristocratic privilege, and America itself would vanish as we know it.<\/p>\n There is no rational reason why a small republican experiment in 1776 grew to dominate global culture and society \u2014 except that America is the only nation, past or present, that put trust in the individual rather than in the state and its elite bureaucracy. Such confidence in the average free citizen made America absolutely exceptional \u2014 something we should remember more than ever on this Fourth of July.<\/p>\n \u00a92011 Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services For the last 235 years, on the Fourth of July, Americans have celebrated the birth of the United States, and the founding ideas that have made it the most powerful, wealthiest, and freest nation in the history of civilization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[11],"tags":[624,1078,1042,458,1037,95,67],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-Fi","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7521,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-future-is-1979\/","url_meta":{"origin":2560,"position":0},"title":"Our Future Is 1979","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Obama\u2019s foreign-policy weakness encourages our enemies and disheartens our allies.\u00a0 by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online The final acts of the Obama foreign policy will play out in the next two years. Unfortunately, bad things happen when the world concludes that the American president has become weakened, distracted,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The World"","block_context":{"text":"The World","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo of Jimmy Carter holding cabinet meeting 1977 photo by US National Archives","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/375px-Jimmy_Carter_convenes_a_cabinet_meeting_-_NARA_-_175123.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10977,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/whos-really-winning-the-north-korea-standoff\/","url_meta":{"origin":2560,"position":1},"title":"Who\u2019s Really Winning the North Korea Standoff?","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review There have been wild reports that the United States is considering a \u201cbloody nose\u201d preemptive attack of some sort on North Korea\u2019s nuclear arsenal. Such rumors are unlikely to prove true. Preemptive attacks usually are based on the idea that things will so worsen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "North Korea"","block_context":{"text":"North Korea","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/north-korea\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1502,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/american-decline-is-a-state-of-mind\/","url_meta":{"origin":2560,"position":2},"title":"American Decline Is a State of Mind","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services We are hearing of all sorts of reasons why the United States is doomed to decline. After all, America is piling up deficits at a record rate of about $1.5 trillion a year while other countries are slashing their spending. The national debt\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "July 2010"","block_context":{"text":"July 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/july-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1045,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-perils-of-obamas-foreign-policy\/","url_meta":{"origin":2560,"position":3},"title":"The Perils of Obama’s Foreign Policy","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The mystery remaining about the Obama administration\u2019s foreign policy is not whether it has worked, but whether its failures will matter all that much. That is no rhetorical question, given that it is hard to permanently damage, in just three years, the position\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Foreign Policy"","block_context":{"text":"Foreign Policy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/foreign-policy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3454,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-schizoid-foreign-policy\/","url_meta":{"origin":2560,"position":4},"title":"Our Schizoid Foreign Policy","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Are we stupid abroad by accident or design? In the manner of a doctor, let us review the symptoms of our present foreign policy and then offer a diagnosis: Autocratic and dictatorial Russia has become a veritable friend. America will say very little\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Foreign Policy"","block_context":{"text":"Foreign Policy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/foreign-policy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11459,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/us-strategy-on-china-great-powers\/","url_meta":{"origin":2560,"position":5},"title":"US Strategy On China, Great Powers","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 19, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Hoover Institution The United States should use a strategy of power, alliances, and triangulation to best navigate the emerging world of \u201cgreat power\u201d rivalries, Hoover scholar\u00a0Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0says. The\u00a0post-Cold War global order is in flux with\u00a0the ascendency of an economically-driven China and its foreign policy of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "China"","block_context":{"text":"China","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/china\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2560"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2560"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2562,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2560\/revisions\/2562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}