American Revolution 2.0 - "People are the Solution"

Early in his Presidency, Obama assured us that “government is the only solution” to economic woes. Pravda’s echo chamber ran with this theme, and soon we had Time magazine proclaiming that “we’re all socialists now”. Not too much later we had polls showing a bare majority of Americans prefer capitalism, while socialism has broader and perhaps majority acceptance among younger Americans. Ronald Reagan’s warning that ‘government is not the solution to all our problems; government is the problem” was soon seen by the Beltway elites and Political Class as passé, ancient history, a remnant of an era now past, and so ‘over’. Colin Powell even instructed us that we really do want more government services, not less, while railing at a more conservative view that he associates with ‘nastiness’. (We’re still waiting for his public response to our open letter: "Dear Colin...")

So it was refreshing to hear Jimmy Kemp, son of the late Jack Kemp (the self-identified ‘bleeding heart conservative”), speak of his father’s philosophy in this way: "My father didn't think people were the problem but the solution." He believed people had talent, dynamism, brilliance and hunger, and a good government was one that did not thwart but helped them, through sound policy, to become what God built them to be. "He wanted to unleash." (Peggy Noonan’s column which includes Jimmy’s quote is here).

As described by Jimmy Kemp, Jack Kemp was and is a Brushfires kind of guy. And maybe the shorthand formulation of Jack’s philosophy into “People are the Solution” is a good new way to add even more energy to the second American Revolution that we feel is coming. The Political Class, including Pravda, want to frame the debate in terms of more government vs. less government, or maybe more taxes vs. less taxes—and too many Republicans accept the framework. But the real debate ought to be more freedom and trust in ‘we the people’ vs. less freedom and less trust in the people.

We know how that debate comes out. Americans want more freedom and trust in themselves. This is the essence of the founding fathers’ message 230+ years ago—it is the essence of America itself. Especially when we add the last part of Jack Kemp’s philosophy: that when ‘unleashed’—which is to say, free—people can become ‘what God built them to be', which is full of ‘talent, dynamism, brilliance and hunger’. In our view, this is just a slight rhetorical flourish on the self-evident truth that ‘all men are created equal’ and endowed by their Creator with the right to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Or, as we put it in an earlier Brushfires essay:

“We” are individuals. Every single one of us. We are unique, intrinsically valuable, purposeful, and capable of lives of great goodness, generosity, nobility and sincerity—under two conditions: we live in freedom; and we see ourselves as ‘created equal’ and ‘endowed by our Creator’, or, in the Bible’s terms, made in the image and likeness of God. “We” are not animals, and we are not defined by material accompaniments—skin color, gender, physical appearance, or even size of our bank account—but by our spirituality—our fidelity to truth, our humility in the face of our shortcomings, our ability to discern and aspire to and be responsible for that which is good. We have within us everything it takes to experience outside of us a society characterized by progress and good will toward our fellow men and women.

America’s founding established the framework of limited human government that best enables each and every one of us to discover and be who “we” are. We have been blessed by it and have thrived under it; we have innovated, created, produced and achieved in every field of human endeavor far beyond any other era of human history.

Sorry, but we don’t think there’s a nice way to say this: the Soros/Obama philosophy that is trying to direct and control this country is antithetical to America and her founding ideals. It is a philosophy that denies man as created by God and created to be free; it is a philosophy that hallows human elitism—i.e., that replaces the idea of God-given freedom for the God-free tyranny of secular authority and power in the hands of the superior ones. It is literally a god-forsaken philosophy that has failed whenever tried and can only fail. It must be stopped and reversed.

The remedy is a retaking of power by ‘we the people’—the people that founded America; the people that Peter Ferrara has spoken of in “What is an American?”; the people that Jack Kemp wanted to unleash; the people that Brushfires has described. These people can learn from a failed bank and build a better bank; they can learn from a failed auto company and build a better auto company; they can deal with weak politicians who aren’t worthy of the American heritage; they can achieve (and fail) at amazing tasks, and keep improving life for generations to come; they can solve any problem, when they are free under God.

It may take a second American Revolution to get us back where we need to be, but we can do it.

“People are the Solution.”

Paul Gable

Posted May 8, 2009