After 250 Years, Are America’s Best Days Still Ahead?

Waiting in gas lines and listening to sweater-wearing President Jimmy Carter tell us to turn down the thermostat are among my most distinct memories growing up during the 1970s malaise. I was thrilled to buy my first home in the early 1980s with an 11 percent interest rate, having fallen from its 19 percent peak. Americans wax poetic about lost factory jobs, but I had two—and still have PTSD from the misery. They also celebrate Detroit muscle, but before Japanese competition you didn’t want to buy an American car built on a Monday or Friday.

Nostalgia is a dangerous drug, so as the nation celebrates its semiquincentennial—the Declaration of Independence’s 250th anniversary—it’s easy to believe these trying times are unusually terrible. Yes, I’m deeply concerned about the state of America’s liberties, social fabric and democracy. We are enduring political challenges not seen in years, even if our standard of living far exceeds anything even our parents could have imagined. I’m hardly an optimist, but it’s a tad early to write America’s political obituary, even if it’s tempting to see the irony in it ending at the 250 mark—a round number future historians will thank us for.

One of the era’s great anthem songs (“Are the Good Times Really Over?”) comes from Merle Haggard, the country singer whose parents fled Dust Bowl Oklahoma for the Kern County oilfields. It was released in 1982, but the song reflected the glum outlook of the late 1970s: “Are we rolling downhill like a snowball headed for hell, with no kind of chance for the flag or the Liberty Bell.” It’s mostly dour stuff and even complains about Richard Nixon lying to us all on TV and the sorry state of American automobiles. But he finishes on a high note, promising “the best of the free life is still yet to come.”

We’ll see. It is hard to feel excited about next Saturday’s celebration, as Americans remain divided by political tribes and are increasingly given to viewing their fellow Americans as enemies rather than comrades. Opinion polls confirm my feelings. Few Americans are paying much attention to the festivities, with most of us not particularly excited. The most energetic group is Trump supporters, which isn’t surprising given our narcissistic and divisive president has called for the celebration to be a “Trump rally” rather than an event that unites all Americans under the flag.

However divisive these times, this is a country that has endured multiple wars, the 1960s’ civil rights upheavals, segregation, and civil war. It was, of course, started by a revolution. Human nature being what it is, it’s unrealistic to expect people in a large and diverse country to spend a lot of time singing Kumbaya, even if Americans can do a much better job of seeing each other’s humanity. Sometimes it takes outsiders to remind us of how much we have to lose if we continue down this path of score-settling and scorched-earth politics.

Many Americans were amused by the reactions of Europeans and other foreign nationals who had traveled to the United States to watch the World Cup games. Their amazed online postings after, say, visiting a giant Buc-ee’s travel stop, eating Texas barbecue, witnessing our vast geographic diversity, or experiencing the friendliness of American strangers were downright heartening. One German tourist, Freddy, created a cult following as he traversed the country. He got stuck in Texas because of a flight issue, and airlines—and even the governor of Utah—got involved to get him to the next match on time. I really like that America and want more of it.

It’s nothing new for wide-eyed foreigners to wander through America and offer hot takes. French political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville’s observations from his 1831 to 1832 visit to America remain vital reading because of his prescient and sometimes critical observations about a country he admired. One useful warning from his “Democracy in America”: “A man’s admiration for absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him.”

That captures the biggest current threat, which is the most pernicious result of MAGA (although it’s far from the only culprit). The more divided we are, the more we despise our perceived enemies. And the more we despise them, the more likely we are to back a massive government that attacks or punishes our foes. It’s a warning as our founders fled malicious, absolute governments in the Old World.

Many complaints against the king could apply to this and other presidents. The solution—and, despite posts from basement-dwelling online warriors, I seriously doubt many people want another civil war—is for Americans to recommit themselves to a system that limits government abuses against everyone, friends and enemies alike. America’s future actually depends on it—much more so than on our ability to weather the next economic malaise.

This column was first published in The Orange County Register.