OPINION:
On the 250th anniversary of our independence, we should ask what America means.
Commentator Dennis Prager once wrote that, for most countries, the question is irrelevant. England, France and Spain are nations with their own histories and cultures. However, through mass migration, they are being colonized by the Third World.
Still, there are Englishmen who are rightly proud to be English.
Yet to ask what England means now that its empire is gone is absurd. That Britain has had six prime ministers in the past 10 years is a sign of a nation adrift.
America is unique. From our founding, the United States was meant to reflect certain truths: “That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
That is as much of a revolutionary statement today as it was in 1776.
We went on to offer a model of limited government in the Constitution. We fought two world wars in pursuit of our national purpose and later defended the free world during the Cold War.
We embraced Adam Smith’s free market vision, as set forth in “The Wealth of Nations,” published the year we declared our independence.
From the outset, we were a creedal nation, one based on ideas rather than blood. People came here from all over the world. We were e pluribus unum — out of many, one.
As it was during the Civil War, we are once again engaged in a great struggle to determine which will prevail: the philosophy of the Founders or a darker vision.
The Democratic Party hates America. Only 27% of Democrats intend to display the flag on the Fourth of July this year.
Socialism — an ideology diametrically opposed to the principles of the Founders and a failure everywhere it has been tried — is on the rise. New York and Seattle have socialist mayors. Washington just elected one. In New York City, socialists just won three congressional primaries.
Polls show that a majority of young adults have positive views of socialism. For a dose of reality, they should spend a week in Cuba or Canada.
President Reagan said: “Freedom is a fragile thing, and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction.” This could be that generation.
The leadership of the Democratic Party does not believe in borders. It thinks homelessness is a natural phenomenon and is convinced that crime can be controlled with more social spending.
A Democratic congressional candidate in New York believes that no one should be in prison, including murderers. Far-left Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent, thinks private property should be taxed out of existence.
The party’s leadership cannot tell you what a woman is, but it will help your son become one.
The national debt is a staggering $39.2 trillion, or $115,000 for each American. It grows by $2 trillion to $3 trillion a year. If the fiscal house of cards we have built ever collapses, we will all be buried in the rubble.
We are governed by career politicians, a notion the Founding Fathers abhorred. President Biden spent 55 years of his life serving in elective office.
Opposing this is an army of patriots of every race, religion and creed. These are people whose hearts beat faster when they see the flag or hear “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Some have worn their country’s uniform. Others have engaged in political warfare for decades.
Some have lineages going back to the Mayflower. Others, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have immigrant parents.
When someone called novelist Ayn Rand a “foreigner,” she replied: “I chose to be an American. What did you do, besides being born here?”
Regardless of where we were born, we all choose to be Americans.
The fate of humanity will depend on the outcome of this struggle. Daniel Webster, the great 19th-century Whig leader, cautioned: “Hold on to your Constitution, for if the American Constitution shall fail there will be anarchy throughout the world.”
If not America, who will stop mankind from marching backward into slavery — old Europe, which has severed its religious roots?
This is our time to stand up for freedom.
As it was with the Colonial militia of 1775, the blue coats on Cemetery Ridge, the soldiers on Omaha Beach and those who fought in muddy fields, jungles and deserts around the world, now it is our turn to sacrifice for America and all mankind.
• Don Feder is a columnist with The Washington Times.
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