The Yin and Yang of American Prosperity: Freedom and Entrepreneurship

Some people are born entrepreneurs. I have an ex-friend (we had a falling out over BLM) whom I’ve always imagined was selling washcloths to doctors when he came out of the womb. As a teenager, he started mowing lawns and was so busy he had to hire other kids to do the mowing for him. He ended up being a service provider who was too successful to actually provide the service himself.

From there, he started a company teaching entrepreneurship, took a stab at restaurants, and later bought an education company he eventually sold for eight figures. Honestly, the guy’s like Midas incarnate.

His story is far from remote. Although we all know about guys like Michael Dell and Daymond John, for every one of those guys, there are dozens more whose names we’ve never heard of. Guys like Jim Scott, a college dropout who started a ski-focused limo company, followed by a moving company, followed by a beverage company.

And if you think you’re not familiar with Scott’s success, think again. His Good2Grow licensed-character drinks are a staple in stores across America. As a matter of fact, your kids probably have some of their character-themed bottles on their shelves right now.

Sadly, I’m not one of those people. Although I traipsed through waist-high grass filled with raccoon-like creatures with giant teeth looking for lost golf balls in high school, the only thing I had to show for my efforts was stacks of ball-filled egg cartons I could never sell.

I most certainly have the entrepreneurial bug, but in my case, rather than being characterized by a beautiful butterfly that brings beauty to the world around it or a busy bee that pollinates and, as a result, feeds the world, I’m the moth that gets lost in the plastic of the lampshade, can’t find his way out, and the next morning is found trapped in a spider’s web. I’ll not bore you with the sad details….

But here’s the thing: My story, just as much as Dell’s, John’s, and Scott’s, is the story of America. What I mean by that is that America is the story of opportunity, the story of possibilities, and the story of empowerment. It’s not that you can’t have success without failure—some do—but the reality is that failure, and the resiliency it builds, is the fertilizer from which success eventually grows.

Human nature is such that not everyone will succeed. Although tens of millions of kids play ball in America, only a few thousand will ever make a living doing so. Contrast that with entrepreneurship. While a relatively small percentage of people have the physical skills to play pro sports, vastly more can look around, examine their lives and those of their friends and community, see what problems exist, and formulate a solution. They can do so understanding that, if they’re successful in solving problems, vast opportunities might exist for them that they otherwise might not have had.

So far, none of what I’m saying is particularly unique. Countless websites, university programs, and youth organizations seek to foster entrepreneurship. Which is good, because entrepreneurship is a key element of the prosperity that America enjoys. But the thing about entrepreneurship is that, while it’s necessary to build a society with widespread economic freedom and prosperity, it’s not sufficient.

And that matters because today we hear politicians and influencers tell us that capitalism is evil, that governments should basically provide everything, and that successful capitalists should be taxed to the hilt to pay for it. That’s a recipe for disaster.

Curiously, many successful entrepreneurs—guys like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Mark Cuban—have become billionaires many times over but somehow pour their support and money into un-American, leftist causes. It’s almost as if, while they’re pretending to care about the little guy, they fund programs and people whose leftist ideologies undermine the very things that allowed them to become successful in the first place….

And by that I mean the American system of individual freedom, free markets, private property, and, most of all, limited government. Without those things, America would never have become the most powerful and prosperous nation in history.

And all of that is under attack. From community supermarkets to public housing to “free” transportation, government “solutions” are making a comeback in the American political lexicon.

But the problem is, government doesn’t generate actual solutions. “For proof, look no farther than Samuel Langley, the university professor and establishment darling upon whom the American government heaped the equivalent of millions of today’s dollars in the pursuit of flight, only to see his full-scale aircraft fail while the Wright brothers, neither of whom had high school diplomas, achieved the first successful powered flight.

Government action—the cradle-to-grave kind being proffered (AKA Communism)—is finding new footing in America, and it’s generally hiding behind a Democrat or DSA mask. Make no mistake: “community this” or “government that” are the gateway drug to Communism, and its widespread application will be the end of the American experiment and, eventually, of America herself.

Well, I, for one, am not interested in seeing her disappear. While I spend a good deal of time writing about the evil of the left, I’ve created something that I hope will actually…help. It’s called Gratitude for America.

The reality is, countless efforts showcase entrepreneurship, but far fewer focus on the most important—and least recognized—part: the indispensable yin-and-yang relationship between the American system and entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship cannot drive widespread prosperity in a tyranny. It can do so only when citizens understand that everyone is supposed to play by certain rules, that individual freedom and private property are protected, and that competition is the best way to define success.

GFA is an effort to showcase the American entrepreneurs who built so much of the world we live in. With America celebrating its 250th birthday, I’m putting that idea into practice through GFA’s 250 for 250 Initiative: 250 stories of the entrepreneurs, inventors, and innovators whose ideas helped create the world we live in today.

Whether it’s Joseph Glidden, whose barbed wire helped tame the West; Steve Jobs, who drew on Xerox PARC’s pioneering graphical user interface work to help bring computer accessibility to the masses; or Malcom McLean, whose shipping containers, which dropped cargo-loading costs by roughly 97%, dramatically reduced overall cargo-handling costs, most aspects of our modern lives were forged from the minds, sweat, and perseverance of American entrepreneurs.

My goal is to showcase that reality, inspire gratitude for it, and then spur Americans to turn away from the dark side as they recognize how essential individual freedom, private property, and free markets are to their prosperity. Not all of them will become entrepreneurs, but the more Americans who understand that it’s freedom that drives prosperity and not government, the less sway leftists championing a government-delivered “better” world will have.

I’m not the only one out there championing this reality, but I think I might be the only one doing so by inspiring gratitude. In a world where Instagram “influencers” use AI to sell a variety of fictions to millions of gullible and envious followers, I’d prefer to inspire with stories of actual people who did real things and, in the process, changed the world in ways we can see in our everyday lives.

Gratitude for America… showcasing the people and ideas that built a world too many of us take for granted.  Support GFA here!

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Communists in America: Abolish The Police, Seize The Corporations, Erase The Borders

From coast-to-coast, voters on the left are turning to the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) to lead them to the promised land. For them, of course, the promised land is communism.

Not surprisingly, the DSA candidates usually run under the Democrat banner. Democrats and communists have always been soul mates.

In 1948, Henry A. Wallace, who had been FDR’s vice president from 1941 to 1945, ran for president under the Progressive Party banner. The Progressive Party was hard left and strongly aligned with, and supported by, the Communist Party of America. Wallace received 2.4% of the vote. Unfortunately, today’s communists (costumed in DSA clothing behind the Democrat curtain) are getting ten times that.

But don’t call them communists! Ask Democrats or DSA members, and they’ll vehemently deny they’re communists. The DSA will assert, “We’re not communists, we’re socialists. BIG difference!” Really? And Democrats often won’t even agree that they’re socialists, despite having mirror image policies.

The one good aspect of the DSA getting so much traction is that it encourages patriots to investigate their ideas.

So, let’s explore some of these ideas, shall we? Go to the DSA website and literally the first thing you see is “A Day Without Capitalism.” This is going to be good…

Guarantee universal healthcare at no cost to individuals, including complete access to reproductive and gender-affirming care.

America will spend approximately $6 trillion on healthcare in 2026, half by government and half by companies and individuals. The US already spends almost 20% of GDP on healthcare, far more than any country on the planet. And for all that spending, we end up at #55 in the world in terms of lifespan. So clearly, we should shoot for 30%.

‎Housing is a human right. Build new, publicly-owned social housing, strictly regulate investment properties, establish universal rent control, and guarantee right to counsel for all tenants.

A human right? Publicly owned housing? Has anyone at the DSA ever visited government-owned housing communities or Section 8 housing? Or rented a car? Do they even understand the concept that people take care of things that are theirs and rarely take care of things that belong to others, particularly when they’re not paying for them?

Demilitarize police departments, disempower police unions, and redirect funding to public services as steps towards fully abolishing the police and prison system which protects the rich and jails the poor.

So basically, they want to eliminate police and open up the jails. Is there a single policy on any platform in American politics that screams insanity more than this?

Does anyone in the DSA remember the crime wave America experienced in the late 1980s and 1990s? Or at least read about it? Or even saw a movie about it? And all that was happening long before “Abolish the Police” became a thing, so no doubt getting rid of pigs and prisons is the recipe for improving life in America.

Establish paid family leave for all workers, a 32 hour work week with full pay and benefits, and a living minimum wage. Provide free, quality public education from pre-K to college and cancel all student debt.

The government already spends almost $1 trillion on K-12 education and yet somehow across the country we have places where few, if any, kids can read or do math at grade level. At the same time, students from high-spending states like California and New York are getting throttled by those from far poorer states like Mississippi and Louisiana. Certainly, the answer is more government in education.

Workers must lead our democratic transition to a green future. Pass a federal jobs guarantee. Implement massive investment in sustainable, publicly owned energy and transit infrastructure. Phase out the use of fossil fuels. Reclaim and repair our earth’s resources for all.

Aside from the whole “climate change” idea being a globalist anti-Capitalist hoax, there is no such thing as a green future...although there could be with nuclear, but we’re not allowed to have that. Fossil fuels may be dirty, but so too are the fictions of green energy, from the massive damage done to extracting minerals to the destruction of cropland to the unmitigated disasters associated with what to do with windmill arms and solar panels when their lifespans are over. At least fossil fuels have the benefit of being efficient, reliable, and easily transportable, none of which are characteristics of “green energy.”

End ICE detention and deportations and punish federal agents’ brutality. Legalize migration, grant amnesty for all immigrants regardless of status, provide a path to citizenship for all permanent residents, and end visa caps and quotas.

And there you have it. Literally, they want to erase America’s borders. They want everyone in India, Mexico, Syria, Haiti, Somalia, and every Third World country to come to the United States.

With more than 170 million people around the world expressing a desire to move to the United States, the DSA would increase our population by 50% by adding tens of millions of people with no connection to America, no shared values, and no culture. That’s worked out so well for America and Europe so far. We should definitely double down on it.

Abolish the Electoral College. Replace the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.

This is a knife into the heart of our Republic. Our government is dysfunctional, that’s true, but it’s so because our leaders have moved the country away from the original intent of the Founding Fathers. What little is left of Franklin’s “Republic (if we can keep it)” is held together by the Electoral College. A President and Supreme Court subservient to Congress is anathema to a free nation and limited government.

Establish public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries to ensure democratic control and accountability to the people. Enact aggressive wealth taxes on the richest individuals and corporations to spend on public goods and infrastructure.

Combined with eliminating the Electoral College and putting the President and SCOTUS under the boot of Congress, this gets to the heart of the cancer of the DSA, the Democrats and their communist ideology. They want to control industry, and they want to tax the successful and essentially plan every aspect of life in America. To do this, they want the full power of government.

And where is any of this any different from communism? Where is any of this different than mainstream Democrat party talking points? There is no light between these things. They are the same, regardless of how much they try to disguise it.

Invariably, when you call them out on the fact that their parties are doppelgangers for communism, they say they’re not, but even if they were, “real” communism is actually good; it just gets a bad rap because it’s never really been tried. Because Lenin and Stalin got it wrong. Because Mao got it wrong. Fidel and Che got it wrong. Pol Pot got it wrong. Because Hugo Chavez got it wrong.

Over 100 million dead and counting, but somehow none of that is the fault of the “real” communism. It’s never been tried...

So, absolutely, let’s try all of that here in America, because as we can see from New York City and California, communism lite has worked out so well that we should definitely try it just one more time on a national scale. It will work out perfectly this time...we promise.

 Follow me on X at: @ImperfectUSA

Ceuta: The Time-Lapse Photo Of the Collapse of Western Civilization

I find time-lapse photography fascinating.  One of my favorite examples is when someone in the far north points their camera at the North Star during winter and leaves it overnight. As a result you typically end up with an image of silhouettes of trees surrounding an array of circles made by the stars travelling across the sky as the earth spins. Although that picture captures reality, there’s no moment where you could ever actually see it by simply looking up.  It doesn’t actually exist, it’s only by seeing the time-lapse that you can see it.  

A more consequential example, although I’m not sure it technically meets the definition of time-lapse, is when a parent takes an image of their child every day or every Monday for a series of years and then puts them together so they run in sequence.  While each individual image might tell a story, “That was Janie at 12 when she first got her braces” or “That was Timothy at 8 when he decided to cut his own hair”, taken in aggregate the sequence tells a completely different story, when a daughter grows from a scared kindergartener to a smiling college graduate student. 

The funny thing about such time-lapses is that they often show us things that we simply don’t see in real time. Like the time in 11^th grade when, seeing your son every day you didn’t realize until your visiting mother-in-law pointed it out, that his hair had grown from a buzz cut to a mop-top in one semester. Sometimes it’s only when we step back and see things in a larger perspective that we can see the big picture or recognize what’s going on.

The point of time-lapse is that it gives a story in a relative blink of an eye. 

That same thing holds true for cultures.  Billy Joel did something of a cultural version of that with “We didn’t start the fire”. 

The time in time-lapse is relative of course.  It can chronicle the carving out of the Grand Canyon over millions of years or it can be the life cycle of a bacterium that lasts a few days…Or it can be the collapse of a civilization over a week.

That last one is a bit of an exaggeration.  But not by much.  A couple of weeks ago we had the bad fortune of watching something of the collapse of western society in the period of one week.  I am of course talking about Ceuta, the African outpost of Spain, population 80,000, that was overrun by 50,000 Moroccans recently.

The outpost’s officials called for the Spanish military to come to their aid, but at that point the damage had already been done.  The population increased by 75% in a matter of days.  67 people died trying to make their way into the enclave. And as soon as the invaders made their way in they wrought havoc.  They were looting stores, fighting with locals and leaving massive amounts of… chaos in their wake.  The Spanish government claimed most returned home.

No doubt some returned home, but the claim that most have is questionable, particularly as it came from Pedro Sánchez, the Communist who runs the Spanish government and who’s facing a political firestorm, both internally and externally.   This of course came on the heels of his legalizing half a million illegals earlier this year. 

That amnesty was likely the catalyst for the invasion, just as Ronald Reagan’s amnesty in 1986 led to 50 million illegals invading the United States over the next forty years.

But here’s the thing.  Even if all of those Moroccans eventually go back home willingly, or are sent back, either of which is unlikely, no doubt thousands of them will make asylum claims and seek to be sent to Europe at the first opportunity.  Whatever the number of Moroccans who stay in Ceuta, the outpost is likely changed forever.  Even if only 10,000 stay, you can’t increase your population by 15% overnight and not have it remake the face of your community. 

That week long invasion of Spain, along with the country’s globalist, Communist leadership, is like a time-lapse of Europe over the last 25 years.  Like a time-lapse of a daughter from the time she’s 3 until she’s 23, when you put the first and last images side by side you recognize the dramatic change you never see when going from one to the other by flipping through all of them. Ceuta, going from a quaint but robust western trading center to a dystopian nightmare in a matter of days is the west today.  The difference is, Ceuta was relatively easily rescued because Spain belatedly sent thousands of armed troops to try and eject the invaders. The west in general, and Europe in particular will not be so lucky. 

Why? Two reasons. The first is the fact that the United States cannot rescue the continent from another suicide as it did in WW I & WW II.  America, led by the Communists in Democrat clothing, have travelled a similar path over the last half century and is only now starting to address the cancer within. The second reason, which dovetails with the first, is that unlike during those previous wars, the enemy is not easily identified by different uniforms and front lines that can be drawn on a map.  No, today Europe’s leaders have forced its invaders right into the heart of its breast. From capital cities to fishing hamlets, European leaders have forced their citizens to accept millions of invaders into their communities, bringing with them violence, behaviors and cultures that are utterly foreign to Europe.  What’s worse, these globalist clowns are forcing their own citizens to pay to support those very invaders in their midst.  

Not surprisingly, over the course of this last quarter century, much of Europe has lost its understanding of who they are and what put them at the top of the mountain in terms of civilization, power and prosperity in the first place:  Christianity… on its last legs. Freedom of speech… a distant memory.  Capitalism… a smoking husk on the side of the road.  Equal application of the law… a joke with no punch line.  And, perhaps most of all, their national identities, trading them in for the laughably amorphous moniker “European” if not in word, most certainly in deed. 

Ceuta, even if it gets back to something resembling normal, has pulled the curtain back on the reality of the civilizational suicide the globalists are inflicting on their citizens. It exposed the chaos behind the Potemkin façade that globalist Western leaders have been maintaining for the last 25 years while pontificating about progress and unity, hoping we wouldn’t notice the incremental destruction of the greatest civilization in human history. Some of us have recognized the lie.  Most haven’t.  Perhaps Ceuta will be the wake up call they need… Only time will tell. 

Follow me on X at: @ImperfectUSA

How the 1964 Civil Rights Act Eviscerated the American Constitution — James Madison Would Be Horrified

James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, was the driving force behind transforming what started out as a water navigation dispute between Maryland and Virginia into the Constitutional Convention, which produced our Constitution.  Madison was not only one of the primary influences during the Convention itself, but writing as Publius (along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay) in the Federalist Papers, he advocated for its ratification. 

His Constitution, with its staggered terms, federal system, three branches of government and more, was written specifically to tamp down and limit the power of both mobs and government. He was, by any stretch, a brilliant man, a student of history and a man of extraordinary vision. 

All of that being said, there was one place where Madison was, rather astonishingly, blind:  A Bill of Rights. He thought one was unnecessary because 1) nothing in the Constitution gave government the power to oppress citizens and 2) by explicitly stating some rights had the potential of being seen as a limitation on citizens’ rights. For a man so aware of the nature of man, his initial position was curious.

Eventually he came around and history has proven that the Bill of Rights, which has been the cornerstone of American success for most of her history, was indeed necessary.

But it was not sufficient.

It was part of the Old Constitution. 

Today we’re living under a New Constitution where what’s written is archaic.  Christopher Caldwell, in his extraordinary book The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties, lays out what he calls the New Constitution, one which is utterly detached from the Old Constitution.  He argues that while the Old Constitution was based on individual liberties and freedoms from government intervention, the New Constitution is just the opposite, one characterized by group dynamics, demographic characteristics and a demand that government remediate all perceived inequities. 

The New Constitution went into effect on July 2, 1964 with LBJ’s signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. 

Senator Barry Goldwater, voted against the bill, stating “The two portions of this bill to which I have constantly and consistently voiced objections, and which are of such overriding significance that they are determinative of my vote on the entire measure, are those which would embark the Federal Government on a regulatory course of action with regard to private enterprise in the area of so-called ‘public accommodations’ and in the area of employment—to be more specific, Titles II and VII of the bill.” So loud was the worry that those two Titles would give the government too much power that one of the bill’s primary drivers, Senator Hubert Humphry, felt compelled to state: Contrary to the allegations of some opponents of this title, there is nothing in it that will give any power to the Commission or to any court to require hiring, firing, or promotion of employees in order to meet a racial ‘quota’ or to achieve a certain racial balance. That bugaboo has been brought up a dozen times; but it is nonexistent. In fact, the very opposite is true. Title VII prohibits discrimination. In effect, it says that race, religion and national origin are not to be used as the basis for hiring and firing.

As we all know, that was 100% wrong.  In fact, as Caldwell points out, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 opened the door for fundamentally changing virtually every aspect of American life. From public accommodations to employment to housing to banking to college acceptance to healthcare, immigration enforcement and more.  Every single aspect of American life was now virtually controlled by the government. But it was not just government regulations that brought us this brave new world… rather, out of a fear of being sued under the various aspects the CRA, companies and schools and police forces and unions  and practically every organization in America adopted similar practices in an often futile effort to demonstrate their anti-discriminatory bona fides. 

And of course, despite the fact that the law came about specifically as an effort to eliminate Jim Crow laws targeting blacks in the south, in reality it opened up a Pandora’s box of “remedies” that “protected” almost every group in America except white heterosexual male Christians. Whether it was women in combat or bakers making cakes for gay marriages or dudes playing in girls’ sports, the courts – empowered by the CRA of 1964 – became the venue of choice for changing the face of American life.

Over the 60 years following the passage of the CRA, the New Constitution would take hold, giving us the most consequential change in American governance since the ratification of the Constitution:  An army of federal judges (and justices) who began to see themselves, not just as jurists, but as legislators.  Suddenly things that could never get passed by Congress became the law of the land:  Affirmative action.  Forced school busing. Abortion. Defense of Marriage Act.  Gay Marriage. And one of the most cancerous ideas ever to make it onto the American political stage, Disparate Impact, the insane idea that any group simply being underrepresented in any targeted organization was sufficient to prove discrimination. 

At the same time, things that legally passed by referendum were thrown out, such as California’s Proposition 187 in 1994.  Having passed by 59% to 41%, it denied state-funded non-emergency social services, public healthcare, and public education to illegal immigrants. A federal judge struck it down, saying that it intersected with federal immigration authority. 

The ultimate demonstration of the reality of the Democrat driven New Constitution came with the election of Donald Trump. Federal injunctions were virtually nonexistent in American history and grew only slightly after 1964.  Even during the Reagan in the White House they were rare, largely because, faced with an overwhelming Democrat controlled House, Reagan ultimately left most Democrat priorities in place. All of that comity changed in 2017 when Donald Trump was inaugurated.  Pushing back against the woke leftist bureaucracy and seeking to control the border, Trump ran into a buzzsaw of judicial activism. Why?  Because for the first time in history of the New Constitution, the one that no American voted for, someone was challenging it and its activists in black robes didn’t like it. 

Fundamentally, this New Constitution is a way of achieving objectives without ever having to convince a majority of your fellow citizens to vote for them. The foundation of law is no longer based on the words of a 240-year-old document, but rather on the coordinated machinations of community organizers, slimy lawyers, an endless array of professional victims and power-hungry jurists who legislate from the bench. It’s a tyranny of a tiny, mostly Ivy League educated leftist cabal, the intellectual progeny of the radicals who took over universities in the 1960s. 

For many Americans the ideas that undergird the Old Constitution such as individual freedom, free speech, limited government and private property no longer hold sway. They prefer the New Constitution, where the purpose of government is to redress any perceived inequity, redistribute away any inequality and ensure no minority’s (writ large) feelings are hurt by mean words.   

America prospered because Madison gave us the Old Constitution specifically written to reign in the worst excesses of human nature.  The New Constitution eviscerated that and empowered those worst excesses. That is a recipe for disaster. No nation has ever succeeded under such rules. It always ends in bloodshed and tyranny. 

 

Follow me on X at @ImperfectUSA

250: The Real Reason America Is the Greatest Country on Earth (It's Probably Not What You Think)

I’d wanted to write a post for July 4^th but as so often happens, life gets in the way and I wasn’t able to get to it.  So this is my belated 4^th 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 4^th 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 19^th 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 20^th century would pick up right where the 19^th 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 19^th 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. 

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Trump’s Iran Betrayal: From ‘Help Is on the Way’ To Handing The Regime $300 Billion

Originally posted at American Thinker on June 19

In 1979 the Shah of Iran was overthrown and Ayatollah Khomeini came to power. Later that year students took over the American Embassy and took 52 hostages. Thus began one of the most transformative moments in American history.  Americans became glued to their television sets like never before. It birthed Nightline as Ted Koppel came into our homes nightly and told us how many days they’d been held. It became a nightly ritual from coast to coast.  And that’s where the ubiquitous yellow ribbons started.

America had watched television en masse before, during moments of the Vietnam War (Tet) or during the moon landing, but nothing like this. It’s no coincidence that CNN’s Headline News launched in June 1980, right in the middle of this. And thus began America’s captivation with always on news. 

The transformative effects of that revolution were not just on American television viewing habits. More importantly, it was likely the deciding factor in Ronald Reagan’s election. While Carter had other problems, the Nightline count was a hurdle he couldn’t overcome. The hostages survived and were released after 444 days, in the middle of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration speech. 

The Iranian revolution was similar to the Cuban revolution. Both were led by charismatic leaders who lied their way into power. Both hid their true agendas while promising freedom, independence and justice against a tyrannical government. Once in power, both stepped from behind the curtain and began a tyranny that far outstripped that of their predecessors in both scope and brutality and became enemies of America.

Khomeini’s brutality hit America in 1983 when Iranian backed fighters bombed the American Embassy in Beirut in April, killing 63 people and then the US Marine Barracks in October, killing 241. Sadly, in one of his few mistakes in office, Reagan, listening to the advice of Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, chose not to respond.

And thus began decades of Iranian backed terrorist attacks on Americans that would strike everywhere from Saudi Arabia to Tanzania to Yemen. What’s more, during the Iraq war at least 500 American troops were killed by Iranian backed fighters.

During much of this time, the regime was seeking to develop nuclear weapons despite claiming their ambitions were peaceful. By 2013 the Iranians were seen as being close to creating one.  The Obama administration led negotiations to head it off and in 2015 signed a deal… that basically let Iran pursue nuclear power, just more slowly, with practically no real verification. And it did nothing about Iranian support for terror via its proxies, which continued, including the Hamas attacks on Israel of Oct 8th, 2023.  But, it did do something about Tehran’s financial challenge.  It loosened sanctions and gave them $100 billion. 

Donald Trump was not impressed with the deal, calling it “the worst deal ever". In 2018 he pulled out of it, stating: “It is clear to me that we cannot prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement...”

Now fast forward to February 2026 and Trump announces Operation Epic Fury, a mission to keep the Iranians from getting nuclear weapons, to destroy their ballistic missile capabilities “And finally, we’re ensuring that the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm, fund, and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders.”

Four months later we have peace! Well… a Memorandum of Understanding, basically a 60-day ceasefire deal where the US and Iran talk about a final deal. 

Among the highlights: 

“Iran will conduct dialog with the Sultanate of Oman to define the future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz” So, despite the Strait being international waters, Iran now is given some ability to administer it?

“America undertakes with regional partners to develop a definitive, mutually agreed plan with at least USD $300 billion for the reconstruction and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” The administration has said that the money will not come from American taxpayers, but money, like oil, is fungible, so we’ll see about that. 

“Iran reaffirms that it shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons.” And we believe them because they’ve always abided by their agreements…

“America undertakes to make fully available for use the frozen or restricted funds and assets of Iran.”  And: “America and Iran and their allies in the current war, by signing this MOU, declare the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” Peace in the middle east!  Sure. The same day MOU was signed, Iran was promising Hezbollah new funding. 

All of this to say, WTF is Trump doing?  All he had to do was sit back and deport the 50 million illegals and get the SAVE America Act passed and he would have gone up on Mt. Rushmore.  That’s it.  That’s all he needed to do.

But no, instead of doing either of those things that Americans really want, he began a war with Iran.  (Now the president has more information than I, so maybe they were on the cusp of nuclear power… I can’t say.) But what I can say is that this deal is a travesty.  The regime in Tehran has been funding terrorism against America for decades.  And pursuing nuclear weapons most of that time. 

By signing this MOU with the regime Trump is doing nothing but kicking the can down the road so that someone else will have to deal with the exact problem in a few years. Before the war, he said: “Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING - TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!... HELP IS ON ITS WAY,”  They did. Thousands were killed, more arrested.  And now Trump is making peace with the regime responsible.

It’s not America’s job to solve every problem and change every regime that’s hostile to us. But when Trump engaged Iran, he should have been smart enough to recognize that the only way to eliminate the threat of terrorism and a continued pursuit of nuclear weapons is by eliminating the regime that’s been doing both for half a century. And that doesn’t mean the US had to do it.  The Iranians want to do it. In 2009 they launched the Green Revolution, but it was brutally put down and failed in the face of Obama’s tepid response, something he admitted was a mistake.  At the same time, surveys regularly put opposition to the regime at between 70 & 80 percent. The Iranians were willing to take on the regime themselves and needed some help.  Donald Trump told them help was on the way, but stopped far short of finishing the job. Sure, he took out a number of their leaders, but they’re quickly replaced.

At the end of the day, America is not and should not play policeman to the world.  But this MOU feels more like a political move than a military or strategic one. Sure, falling oil prices will help Americans at the pump over the summer, and sure, maybe Jared and Steve Witkoff’s companies and friends can make billions off the rebuilding of Iran – Note: most of what was destroyed was military, meaning plenty of money left over for malls & hotels – but where does that leave anything resembling peace in the middle east? Where does that leave potential victims of the next wave of terror funded by an emboldened Iranian regime? Not in a good place at all, and no amount of spinning by the president will change that. 

Follow me on X at @ImperfectUSA