What Is America?

Shortly before the 2008 presidential election, candidate Barack Obama proclaimed before a cheering crowd of supporters, “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming America.” That statement raises several immediate questions. First, does America need to be “fundamentally transformed”? Next, why does America need to be “fundamentally transformed”? And thirdly, what does Obama want to transform America into? To answer those three questions one must first know the answer to the more basic question, “what is America?”

America has a relatively short history when compared to the longevity of other nations. Many nations have indeed been “fundamentally transformed” over the years. Coups and revolutions occur with frequency across the globe. In fact, the nation of the United States of America was created following a revolution. In the late 18th century America was transformed from a colony of the British Empire into an independent democratic republic – an improbable, noble, and unique experiment in a government “under God”, a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people…” (see Gettysburg address). More than anything, America is an idea. America is an idea founded on the belief that man’s fundamental rights come from God – not from government. The rights bestowed upon man from God are many but the most fundamental of these rights, as clearly spelled out in the Declaration of Independence, are “…Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

When the Founding Fathers finally crafted the Constitution of the United States in 1787, Benjamin Franklin, one of those responsible for the document, was asked what had been created. His reply, “A republic, madam, if you can keep it.” Many of the Founders insisted that a Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791, be incorporated into the document so that there could be no question about the most fundamental rights of men. Over the years, many Americans have fought and died at home and on foreign soil to preserve the republic and make it strong. The idea that “all men are created equal”, put forth in 1776 when Thomas Jefferson authored the Declaration of Independence, has since spread across the globe as perhaps the most powerful moral and philosophical belief to ever serve as a foundation for the government of men.

Unfortunately, there are now too many in this country and around the world who no longer believe in this greatest experiment in human history. Rather, they believe that only government – not God - can bestow blessings upon the governed. Today, judges and politicians routinely overrule the Bill of Rights in order to impose a “progressive” agenda upon American citizens. Egalitarians want to redistribute wealth and replace individual responsibility and liberty with governmental largesse. More and more, politicians determine how we should live our lives – how much money we should make, what we should eat, what kind of cars we should drive. Individual liberties have been discarded for the “collective good”. President Obama and our political leaders want to grow the federal government and run our lives. This is the fundamental transformation of America they intend to impose upon us.

Our only hope is to find and elect representatives who will return America to the principles upon which the country was built – a return to the Bill of Rights. Rather than transforming America, we need representatives who will restore America. We need to reclaim our God-given rights and stop those who would steal them from us.

America Is the Solution - Not the Problem

President Obama has recently been traveling throughout the world apologizing for America’s supposed arrogance, aggression, unilateralism, and other sins. In Europe Obama proclaimed “In America, there is a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.” This shows an amazing sense of naiveté and a complete ignorance of American and world history. Is Obama totally unaware of 20th Century events in Europe where America came to the rescue of the Europeans time and time again? While he was conducting his European apology tour perhaps Obama could have spent some time visiting the World War I battlefields of France or the beaches of Normandy which were soaked with the blood of “arrogant Americans” during World War II. Perhaps he could have toured the former Pershing missile sites which saved Eastern European countries from the expansionist clutches of the former Soviet Union during the Cold War or the territories which suffered endless Balkan wars eventually resolved only by the intervention of a “dismissive America”. Yet, instead of reminding the militarily-weak European nations of the numerous times America has saved their bacon, Obama is more interested in inflating their egos while bashing former president Bush and tarnishing America’s history. Obama seems to be more interested in reinforcing his own cult of personality than standing up for America’s history of self-sacrifice, courage, and defense of the principles of freedom.

America was born as a noble enterprise which stood for the inalienable rights of all human beings. America threw off the chains of a repressive monarchy and rejected the misguided policies which led to the subjugation of people throughout the world. America welcomed with open arms millions of impoverished and enslaved immigrants from all continents and countries. When European dictators threatened to engulf Europe in the early 20th Century, Americans gave their lives and much of their national treasure to stop them. When evil totalitarian regimes in Germany, Italy, and Russia waged wars against other European countries and enacted genocidal campaigns against one race of people, Americans once again came to the rescue. Not once did America seek to create a world empire or seize conquered lands for herself. Instead, democracies were established in the defeated countries and, once again, American treasure was freely given to insure the future success of these fledgling democracies. For close to 40 years following the Second World War, Americans gave their lives in battles throughout the world to prevent the spread of totalitarian Communism which was responsible for the deaths of millions of people in China, Russia, North Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam, Cuba, and much of Africa, Eastern Europe, South and Central America. Again, when Muslim fascists waged wars of terrorism against civilians throughout the world, it was America which led the fight to defeat them.

This is America’s proud legacy and one that president Obama should be reinforcing rather than denigrating. When Nicaraguan Marxist thug Daniel Ortega recently conducted a fifty-minute anti-American diatribe, Obama simply sat in the audience calmly taking notes. When Iranian nut-job Ahmadinejad recently gave an anti-Semitic rant against Israel in the United Nations, several representatives from Western nations at least had the moxie to walk out on him in protest. However, when Ortega charged America with terrorist aggression in Central America, Obama simply sat and endured the humiliation. When Venezuelan clown Hugo Chavez eagerly greeted Obama with an enthusiastic handshake and a present of a 30-year-old anti-American book written by a South American Marxist, Obama’s response was a huge smile and a comment that he enjoyed reading. When Obama later had the opportunity to address the same audience which had welcomed Ortega’s rant, he said nothing to refute the anti-American sentiments. In a further act of contrition, Obama seems ready to welcome the brutal Communist regime of the Castro brothers in Cuba back into the fold of respected world governments. He stated that we cannot be prisoners of “past disagreements” and “stale debates” as if the struggle between freedom versus enslavement was a thing of the past.

Obama seems intent on winning new “friends” by denigrating his own country, blaming his predecessor for America hatred, and ceding America’s leadership in the world. His need to seemingly put down his own country in order to elevate his personal prestige is narcissistic, at best, and extremely dangerous, at worst. America has undoubtedly made mistakes in the past but she has also taken great strides to admit and correct those mistakes. America’s heritage and history as the greatest force for freedom and democracy in the world should not be denigrated by president Obama. It’s time for him to stand up and affirm to everyone everywhere that America has been and, God willing, always will be the best hope for the world.