We may disagree, and I know that we argue on many issues. But whatever our disagreements may be, and whatever we differ on, the important thing is: America is the nation founded upon the principle that all men are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. THat individual liberty is not just a political principle - that it is a moral principle - the moral principle that should the chief guide of our political principles.
We may argue about the specifics - but it is not a coincidence that the greatest jump in human achievement - in America and abroad - follows 1776. Between 1776 and 2010, humanity had reached further than in the millenia of its history before that. When we compare between what we have today as societies and what we want to have - we lose sight of the progress we had already made. Two centuries ago, America was the world’s only free nation. Today, over a third of the world’s nations maintain at least a degree of free speech and private property rights - and it’s because of people like Tom Paine, and Jefferson, and Hancock.
“All men are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.” I’ve quoted those words many times - to audiences of people who have never been in America, who speak fractured English. And there’s no quote, no phrase that can likewise inspire people and reignite that belief in liberty - even in people who are not Americans, who do not even speak the language.
It’s not a coincidence that it is Americans that walked on the Moon. It’s not a coincidence that Norman Borlaug was an American citizen. It’s not a coincidence that Americans contributed so much to the world’s economic growth, prosperity, and freedom.
Economic growth and freedom are mutually supportive prospects. More freedom equals more economic growth - but wealthier societies allow their members more differentiation in their habits, in their work patterns, in their hobbies. These are the things that define a man - not just where he works, but how he spends his life outside of work. The average daily features of American life - the hobby store, the separate house, the personal automobile - are the symbols of individual liberty as powerful as the rifle and the printing press.
We can argue on the best strategies of preserving this individual liberty. We can argue about what cultural and philosophical approaches are more conducive to a society where men are free. But it is not arguable that it is men like JEfferson, and Hancock, and Thomas Nelson are the people who first created the vision of liberty, and maintained it with their toil and blood. And today, the ordinary American maintains it - by his ordinary, daily work - that society which is perhaps not as free and just as we like it to be, but which is still free and just.
True, oppression still exists, even in America. But if there is any nation whose main feature is its liberty, where liberty and individualism is the defining point of its culture, America is that country. And if there is any country today where it is possible to reach for even greater liberty (perhaps even for an end to the existing forms of oppression) - then this country is America. By merely existing, America defies the designs of social-engineers and totalitarians. By merely being, it intimidates socialists, and fascists, and their pitiful Wahhabi offspring.
People sometimes forget that the American anthem does not end in only one stanza. It does not end with a question. It ends with an affirmation:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave
