American Optimism: Still Alive!

Honest optimism is in short supply these days. Traditional, freedom-loving, patriotic Americans are pretty much in despair. While the leftists of the world may be thrilled that their agenda is being advanced, that thrill is framed by a vengeful, ‘screw the rich’ or ‘bring down the other guy’ mentality which is anything but optimism. Real optimism is the confident expectation of greater good for all.

But here’s why we’re optimistic. We think Obama came along about a half generation too soon to do what he wants to do. Had Hillary Clinton or even John McCain been elected, the country’s slide away from conservatism—the true principles of the America of the founding—would have continued along a more gradual course, and the broader American electorate might never have noticed. A few pundits would still shout and scream, but their voices would be like a radio alarm where the volume is set too low. The people would hit ‘snooze’ and go back to sleep. After another few election cycles, the radio alarm would have been rendered mute.

But Obama's fraud —his outrageous, deliberate concealment of his radical, hard-left philosophy and agenda—has delivered a wake up thunderclap across the country. Talk radio and the web are more than an echo chamber for this thunderclap---they are a turbo-charged amplifier. And the people are awakening.

The Pravda media doesn’t see it because they can’t see it. They are like the hypnotized drunk who doesn’t grasp that everyone else is sober. But the political class, though reflexively inclined to bow to the Pravda media, is still possessed of enough self-interest to pause every now and then to check the pulse of the people. Some can be bought off or scared off by Soros and the moveon.org noise, but there are still enough who can’t.

And so the thunderclap is reverberating around the country. The April 15 tea parties are just the beginning. Obama and Pravda are desperately hoping that the tea parties are some kind of bourgeoisie temper tantrum that must have its day, and then they can move on full speed with their agenda. They are in for a major surprise.

First, the tea parties won’t be peopled by the bourgeoisie. They will be populated by Americans (as defined by Peter Ferrara in his classic essay) of every stripe. The unifying characteristic won’t be age, gender, race or tax bracket—it will be love of freedom and love of America. And the tea parties will blow off some steam, but they will stoke the fires for more. They represent a generally modest but firm and spreading determination to take back the country. They are just the beginning.

We think this determination is going to prevail. We can’t predict all the ways it will play out, in part because we don’t see an easy historical parallel from which to make such predictions. But our confidence that it will prevail doesn’t need a precise historical parallel. Truth and all of human history supports it.

Mankind’s right to freedom wasn’t created by America’s founding fathers; it was acknowledged by them to be an endowment of our Creator. America and Americans thrived as a result of this acknowledgement, not because it was a nifty idea that can have its day in the sun until the next nifty idea comes along, but because it is grounded in truth itself—which is unchanging and unchangeable.

Americans —around the world—know this, instinctively. Since Bible times, this right to freedom has always been under assault, and the enemies of freedom can sometimes make headway when the people are mesmerized or asleep. But once aroused and awake, people rally to the side of freedom and truth. Perhaps ‘divine Providence’—another term used by the founders—has something to do with this.

As we said in the beginning of this essay, after 10-15 more years of gradualism under Clinton or McCain, the people may have been so deeply asleep that the wakeup call may not have been heard by enough people to make a difference. But in a way he most assuredly does not see, Obama arrived just in time.

So keep the faith. Attend a tea party! Make your voice known! Don’t be intimidated or fooled by lies. You’re on the side of truth. You’re on the side of greater good for all. You can be optimistic!

Paul Gable

Posted April 9, 2009