Purpose of America
... [I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue. (1)
The Purpose of America was to prove to the Kings and Queens of the world, and to ourselves, that an educated and moral people were capable of ruling themselves. Nobility believed that people wanted to be controlled for their own safety and security. They had good reason to believe this as anarchy or mob rule was the usual result of self rule.
Just because our republican form of government has been successful for over 200 years does NOT mean that it will ALWAYS be successful. EVERY generation must fight to ensure that our Foundational Principles endure. It only takes ONE generation to destroy it all.
The American experiment in freedom is still a Nobel experiment in self rule. The success of this experiment in NEVER guaranteed. Each succeeding generation has a sacred burden on it to learn and safe guard our nations principles and values and hand them down to the next generation.
Dictators believe that it is their responsibility to create a “perfect” society. Anyone who opposes their viewpoint is considered an enemy of the state and must be dealt with - usually by imprisonment or death. Whether the dictatorship was a theocracy or secular, the end results were always the same - an all powerful government where the people had no rights.
As archaic as this may sound, this mentality is still alive and well today in the world - Castro of Cuba, Chavez of Venezuela, Putin of Russia, the government of Communist China, Mugabe of Zimbabwe and others. Even after over 200 years, with the massive expansion of government, America is still the freest country on earth.
The Founders believed that America could succeed where everyone else had failed. The Founding Fathers knew full well that freedom is a double edged sword. Freedom means we have the ability to achieve greatness or destroy ourselves. Freedom means we have the choice to succeed or fail. Freedom means we have the choice to be a drug addict, or be clean - to acquire good work habits or be a lazy bum - to learn in school or sleep in school - to be resourceful with your money or blow it. The purpose of America for each individual is to give you the opportunity to develop your potential to the maximum and be what God called you to be. Whether you take advantage of this opportunity is up to you.
Our nation was founded on a belief in the God of the Bible and every tenet rests on this belief.
The American Dream rests on the documents that our founding fathers, true visionaries, had the courage to bind us too - The Constitution of the United States of America, and its first ten amendments, The Bill of Rights. These documents base their authority on the consent of the people who are granted their rights by God. No system in the world up to that time had given such importance to the individual.
More people immigrated to the United States then any other country in history. Millions of people came to America over the past 200 years in pursuit of the American Dream - freedom, opportunity, safety and private property. In America, hard work and self initiative would determine their fate. Many came to escape the class structures of their societies that kept them down. Some came to escape persecution. Others came to escape poverty. Others came to escape the endless wars in many parts of the world. Many came to escape the anarchy of their own societies. In America, neighborhoods were safe. Whenever people faced hopeless situations in other countries, they came to America. Everyone came seeking true freedom and security for their families and their children and succeeding generations. One of the foremost desires of Americans throughout our history has been to endure sacrifice so their sons and daughters would have a better life.
Early America had more freedom than any other country by far. No income tax. No socialism. No welfare bums. No bureaucrats. Actually there was very little in the way of government. You were on your own. In a time of crisis, you were helped by family, friends and church.
Black people in the past did not come voluntarily, but as slaves. Yet given the chance to immigrate back to Africa after the creation of the nation of Liberia in 1822, very few blacks left America. They realized, even before the civil war was fought, that America offered the best hope for the future. Today, if any black people don’t feel they belong in America, they are free to renounce they citizenship and emigrate to another country.
It is a sad fact that few Americans today appreciate the incredible wisdom and intellectual brilliance that went into establishing our country - the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and setting up the machinery for self rule. A thorough study of the Founding fathers will show that America was founded by men of immense intelligence and good will. The American Constitution was the best founding document ever written.
The collective goodwill of the people of any country determine the livability of each neighborhood. Some have suggested that America’s history is horrible, while others seem to think that previous generations were more moral and law abiding than the present generation of Americans. The truth is somewhere in the middle. There are bad things in America’s past and wonderful things about America’s past. The important thing to remember is that there was always a majority of Americans who tried their best to do the right thing. One of the many unique aspects of America was that a free people, without any outside coercion, made continuous progress in making America a better country for no other reason except that it was the right thing to do.
Our country has made more positive changes in the world than any other country. For most of 200 years, our country constantly changed, making things better, people more prosperous, expanding civil rights and opportunities.
No country in the history of the world has done more good for the world than the United States of America. America taught the world about representative government, a free society, freedom of the press and freedom of religion. Since the US became a world power in the early 1900s, America has been the defender of world peace and a force for justice. Americans have laid down their lives again and again to defend or liberate other countries from oppressors. America held the line against Communism for half a century until this evil system collapsed.
The American attitude of good will caused America to give unprecedented sums of money to other nations and to write-off huge loans owed the US from other countries. Today, there are many free nations in the world, and many of them have the United States of America - and the lives of US soldiers - to thank.
America has made continuous social progress since colonial times and the American economy has produced unprecedented prosperity. And in America, you could agree to disagree on various issues, yet still be civil with each other.
Destroying the American Dream
But the optimistic attitude for the future that embodied the American spirit for 200 years has been replaced by a more negative attitude. This change started in the 1960s by evil leftist radicals who hate America and blame America for virtually everything they think is wrong in the world. These radicals gained control of many aspects of American society from the 60s onward. It is a fact that the hard core political left uses positive sounding slogans and utopian programs to advance their agenda - which has proven to be incredibly destructive. Every area that Leftists took control of got worse instead of better - education, criminal justice system, social programs, National Defense, social morals, civil rights, race relations, etc. As time as gone by, this negative attitude about America has become entrenched in some of the most important aspects of American society - school textbooks, news media, music, and television. There was a time not very long when
Americans just knew that good old American know-how would solve a problem and save the day. This “can-do” positive attitude, and the social system that spawned this attitude has been destroyed by leftists as well.
Sources:
(1) John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Little, Brown, 1854), Vol. IX, p. 401, to Zabdiel Adams on June 21, 1776.)
Founding Brothers: The revolutionary generation by Joseph J. Ellis, published by Vintage Books, February 2002
