I’ve struggled with this column more then most. Should I offer up a message of hope to battle-weary troops? Should I try to unite? Or should I tell you the truth?
In the end, I find myself standing in an empty field, not far from George Washington’s famous cherry tree. I’ll tell you the truth.
Most commentators make a terrible mistake in labeling the 2012 election as a vote to preserve the status quo. By this they mean the election simply retains the three-way power split between the Republican House, Democratic Senate and Obama’s White House. “That’s what we had before,” they say, “that’s what we have now. Status quo.”
I don’t think so.
Elections are sometimes like great ocean currents. They are deep, silent and unseen rivers that flow within the sea, hidden beneath the surface. By the time we see them bubbling up to the surface, it is too late to take corrective action. The storm is at hand.
Obama’s 2008 election victory was widely viewed as a “one off” against the hapless McCain, who had been saddled with eight years of Bush Derangement Syndrome, a media-created microbe released out into an unsuspecting public.
Election 2012 demonstrates Obama’s first victory was much more. Few people will understand this, but who they are matters to all of us. No, they are not the D.C. power-brokers. No, they are not the Silicon Valley wunderkids, now vying to become the new industrial titans. And no, they are not the 1 percent so demonized by the Obama campaign.
Who are they? Today they are nobodies, just like the rest of us. Yet there is one thing that sets them apart: They carry within their minds the spark of creative genius that has kept alive the spirit of American exceptionalism. They are the children of America’s nobodies. They are homegrown, and they are immigrants who saw Lady Liberty in their mind’s eye, long before they met her in person and greeted her with tears in their eyes. They are the future’s progenitors.
They are as different as can be; race, upbringing and education, yet they share one trait. They are not stupid. They see before the rest of us the great electoral ocean under-currents; the ones that will soon surface to signal a momentous change in the destiny of the “land of the brave and the home of the free.”
It is widely believed these people have to stay in America, because … where else would they go?
But think about it. The industries of tomorrow require an idea and an Internet connection. Given that spark of genius once known as American exceptionalism, millions in China, India and the developing world stand at the ready to do their bidding. Armies of entry-level jobs here in America will spring up to ship their product to consumers. And the dollars their ideas and products generate will flow to a new home overseas.
The tribute demanded by a grasping, socialist government in America will be carefully weighed against what would be extracted by the drug lords in a developing nation. I suspect that the drug lords have now become cheaper, less demanding and more trustworthy than our federal government.
Most of us choose to be directed by others. Under socialism, we are directed by government. Under capitalism, we are directed by entrepreneurs. Under the one you have no choice of your master; under the other you can pack your bags and walk across the street.
The Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and now Western Europe have demonstrated the effectiveness of government direction. What is left of Europe disintegrates before our eyes. Yet we race to catch the same dream before it disappears down the vortex. In the process we discard all that has worked so well for us in the past.
America had – up until now – demonstrated the effectiveness of a rising entrepreneurial tide that lifted all boats. Yes, some were yachts and some were rowboats, but that is the way life works. Those who wanted opportunity came here. Contrary to what this socialist government believes, they did build that, and in so doing provided high-quality jobs and lives for many Americans.
Romney, while not a perfect candidate, favored entrepreneurial direction and a free market over government control. But American voters – or the Chicago machine (it matters not which) – have spoken. Government control it is, beginning with who lives and who dies and how much money is spent on us in between. With the implementation of Obamacare, all manner of life choices become a matter of public health and therefore subject to government control.
The exodus of tomorrow’s American exceptionalists will not even be noticed. The nation and its political parties are now gearing up for the fight over who gets how much of a slowly dwindling pie – until it’s gone, and we begin consuming one another.
So the next time you are pulled aside to be searched or fondled before boarding an airliner (it’s the terrorists, don’t you know), look at the kid who walks past you with a one-way ticket out of Obama’s America. Perhaps she carries within her mind – and to another country – one of the last remaining creative sparks of American exceptionalism. No alarm will sound as she walks through the screening area for the last time.
