I’d wanted to write a post for July 4th but as so often happens, life gets in the way and I wasn’t able to get to it. So this is my belated 4th of July post…
I remember America’s Bicentennial. The year was chock full of patriotism. My elementary
made matching red, white and blue baseball jerseys for every one of us. In TV
commercials, Red, White and Blue was everywhere, with everything from Coke to Savings bonds to God –
yes, really – represented. Not to mention of course the Schoolhouse Rock series
that ran for much of the decade, including my favorite, I’m just a bill. On the actual 4th of July I
remember sitting on the hood of my father’s Blue FIAT 124 sports car beside the
Pentagon and watching the most Amazing fireworks over Washington DC.
It sounds cliché, but it was a magical time. Patriotism was simply everywhere, with pretty
much everyone, and back then, in contrast to what Zohran Mamdani suggests, it
wasn’t about disparaging our history or challenging our leaders, it was about
celebrating America. And unlike in 2026,
when TDS afflicted Democrats – only
27% of whom are proud of being American – in eight
states declined to participate in celebrations on the National Mall, no one
had to be convinced to celebrate America.
And there was a lot to celebrate. The truth is, we had no idea how good we had
it. Not that everything was perfect, because it wasn’t, but at least back then,
we were actually free, largely because government was a relative guppy compared
to the leviathan it’s become.
The reality is, Americans in 1976 knew we lived in the
greatest country on Earth, and most were proud to call themselves
Americans.
And there was much truth to that. I often talk about western civilization and
all that it has brought to the world. And that is true, western civilization
has done tremendous things for humanity.
But the truth is, even within western civilization, the United States
has been far and away the single biggest driver of prosperity and freedom in
all of human history.
And it started from the very beginning. The United States was the first nation in
history to be established on the basis of individual rights from God. “We hold these Truths to be self-evident,
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” and what’s more, it explicitly stated that government power
came directly from the consent of the governed “That to secure these Rights,
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the
Consent of the Governed…”
While that was a turning point for the 13 colonies and the
beginning of a new nation, in reality, it was much more, it was a watershed
event in human history.
The United States would go on to shape the world like no
nation ever had, and it would be become the most powerful nation the world had
ever seen.
And while some of that applied via military might, the
bigger and more consequential impacts came far from the centers of martial
power.
From early on the differences between America and what had
come before were clear to see.
Alexis de Tocqueville
said: “The federal system rests upon a theory which is complicated at
the best, and which demands the daily exercise of a considerable share of
discretion on the part of those it governs… In examining the Constitution of
the United States, which is the most perfect constitution that ever existed,
one is startled at the variety of information and the amount of discernment
that it presupposes in the people…”
As grand as the Constitution was, its greatness didn’t come
from the government it established, but from the people it empowered. Capitalism, which coincidentally was articulated
by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations in 1776, found fertile ground in
America like no place else.
America was, by definition, a nation where men were free to
capitalize on their own efforts, be they physical or intellectual. And it didn’t take long for that reality to
pay dividends. Robert Fulton developed
the first commercially successful steamboat, which revolutionized shipping and facilitated
a rapid increase in trade between the various states and allowed the new
country to grow at an almost unprecedented pace.
A generation later Cyrus McCormick would become the most important inventor in
human history with his mechanical reaper in 1831. His farming machines would
allow the American plains to flourish and feed the rapidly growing nation. More
importantly, his machines and their progeny would make farming far more
efficient, eventually freeing up 80% of the population to do something in life
other than working on a farm. Everything
that was to come afterward is because the yoke of farming had been lifted by
McCormick.
The 19th century would end with more American
innovations that changed the world.
Rockefeller’s rationalizing of the petroleum industry, Edison’s
invention of the light bulb, Morse’s invention of the telegraph, Bell’s invention
of the telephone. And the 20th century would pick up right where the
19th left off, from Baekeland’s synthetic plastic to the Wright Brothers’
plane to Ford’s automobile assembly line to Carrier’s air conditioning.
The line of inventions and innovations would continue for
the next century and beyond, with the United States capturing by far the
most Nobel Prizes, having the most valuable companies in the world and a
GDP that by 1960, with only 5% of the world’s population, had the highest
share of world GDP, 40%, than any nation ever in all of human history. And along the way the United States would
save the world twice, send men to the moon, invent the PC, the Internet and the
mobile phone along with tens of thousands of other things.
The bottom line is that the United States, with the rights
of citizens coming from God, with the power of government coming from the
citizens and the primary role of government being to protect said rights in the
“Pursuit of happiness”, is indeed the most perfect union thus created on God’s
green earth. Add to that the geography
and other natural resources America has and you have the recipe for an
unprecedented impact on mankind. A
measure of that impact is that global life expectancy remained
flat until the middle of the 19th century when it began a steady
march upward and doubled over the next two centuries.
While all of that is accurate, from the rights from God to
the individual freedom to the unprecedented entrepreneurial and economic
success… none of that is what makes America spectacular.
No, the singular thing that makes America extraordinary is… Opportunity. Building on all the above, America is first,
middle and last, the land of opportunity.
It’s a place where any man, from any level of society, has the
opportunity to become a success, however he wants to define it. Whether it’s to have a steady job, buy a
house and raise a family, or start a company whose products are used around the
world, the characteristic that defines America, both at home and around the
world is opportunity. No place on Earth, today or ever in history, has upward
mobility been more accessible to more people from more backgrounds than is
found in America. Sure, some claim it’s
no longer true, and the leviathan of government certainly makes it more
difficult, but at the end of the day, America remains, as it has been for most
of its 250 years, the land of opportunity.
The American Constitution doesn’t guarantee any American happiness. That’s impossible. But by providing a
framework for the “Pursuit of Happiness” it gives every one of us the
opportunity to find it. And this side of
Heaven, I think that’s the most we can ask for.
And I for one, am grateful for it.
Follow me on X at @ImperfectUSA
