It’s time for another American revolution
By Bill Settlemyer
For those who have access to the HBO cable channel, the series now being presented on John Adams and the American Revolution provides a thoughtful framework for the daunting challenges this nation faces today.
As chronicled in many superb historical narratives, the American Revolution was launched and carried to its conclusion through the courage and vision of extraordinary people who put everything on the line to create a new nation.
They really did pledge their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor, and more. They had the courage and persistence required not just to win a war but to create the framework for democracy embodied in our constitution, at the very least one of the great political documents in human history.
Courage and compromise
In our country’s recent history of angry and contentious relationships between Republicans and Democrats and liberals and conservatives, we have most certainly failed to understand how this nation was founded and nurtured in its early and precarious history.
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were the results of both courage and compromise, not just one or the other. As the HBO series painfully reminds us, the issue of slavery was deferred because delegates who firmly opposed slavery recognized that they could not give birth to a nation and address this issue at the same time.
They expected that a reckoning would come at some future date, but it’s doubtful they could have imagined the terrible carnage of the war that would lead to the abolition of slavery.
Fast forward to our country’s political environment in recent years and you’ll find political leaders vilified for “consorting with the enemy,” meaning those of the other political party.
Ironic or not, John McCain and Hillary Clinton are two of the people on opposite sides of the aisle who took the risk and the heat for their decisions to seek compromise when most in their parties opposed that course of action. The same is true of S.C. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has certainly drawn plenty of fire for his decision to extend his hand across the aisle on matters of great importance to the nation.
In 1858, President Lincoln warned that “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” The terrible proof of his assessment was soon to follow.
That principle applies today as much as it did in 1858. And while we face no issues as consequential as the abolition of slavery, there are many daunting challenges that threaten our future well being as a people and a nation.
Our national leaders cannot find their way to a fair and effective policy to address illegal immigration. We are a debtor nation with a currency falling from grace in the world’s financial markets. The gap between the very rich and everyone else is widening. Lobbyists and campaign contributions steer Congress away from serving the needs of their constituents.
Our children are falling behind those of other nations in their educational achievements. We are less healthy than those in many other countries. Our jobs are moving overseas. We have lost respect in the world community due to our unilateral conduct of war and our refusal to join other nations in addressing the threat posed by global warming.
We the people…
“We, the people, in order to form a more perfect union ...”
Those were the opening words in a remarkable speech on the subject of race in America by presidential candidate Barack Obama. And while the speech was a direct response to public reaction to inflammatory rhetoric by his former pastor, Obama went far beyond that task and delivered an honest, candid and inspiring challenge to all Americans.
In an era when we’ve become accustomed to political speeches designed to steer clear of sensitive issues, this must have come as a surprise to many who heard or later read Obama’s remarks, as I did. He did not shy away from the reality of racial tension, nor did he dwell on it. Instead, he addressed other issues that Americans of all races must contend with:
“I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time,” he said, “unless we solve them together—unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction—towards a better future for our children and grandchildren.
“In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand—that we do unto others what we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find the common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.
“This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation—the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.”
A new revolution
Obama is right that young people flocking to the presidential campaigns have a different generational outlook. They wonder why their elders can’t “get over it” and start building a stronger and better society. And those of us in the “elder” category are probably carrying a lot more emotional baggage than we realize at a time when our country needs us to move fast and travel light.
In public opinion polls, Americans have said loud and clear that our country is on the wrong track. We desperately need a new American revolution, one that reawakens us to both the courage of the Founding Fathers and their willingness to put aside their differences and work together to create a more perfect union (with freedom and justice for all).
We all bear a measure of responsibility for the mess we’re in, and we’re not going to get out of it unless we do it together.
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