I have chosen to re-write an article I wrote back in October of 2007, as what I said then is just as pertinent now as it was then. Only some of the issues and talking points have changed. Back in 2007, I was discussing the decline in American life expectancy and education. Now, with the upcoming election, moral issues and the role in government have taken the headlines. In particular, the rights of women have become one of the major issues of this campaign and what is the role in government in our everyday lives. The nation appears to be divided on these two issues and we should have a better understanding how we got here and why.
To possibly answer this, we have to take a look at how the United States developed so quickly, from an isolated agrarian society to great industrial power as it entered the 20th Century. We were not a nation of people. We a nation of peoples and all of us are immigrants, including the DAR! As immigrants, we came to this country to find a better life from wherever we came from and America offered the best opportunity. The idea that we could move here and settle, without interference by a government, played an important role as to who we would become as a nation. The concept of “Rugged Individualism” shaped this nation. It was a perfect Darwinian experience as only the fittest survived. As the nation grew larger, we could leave society if we did not either like it or conform to it and move westward. By the 1890s, we had reached the end of the “Frontier.” In 1890, the U.S. Census Bureau officially announced that “The Frontier” was now closed. In 1893, the historian, Frederick Jackson Turner presented his thesis at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, IL in his “The Significance of the Frontier In American History”. Turner believed that as long as the frontier existed, the American way of life was preserved, as well as the ability to enjoy a prosperous and a content life. Once it was closed, Americans could no longer continue to move where they could fulfill their dreams. We would need a “New Frontier” and that would be our political parties. Turner’s premise brought immediate response as nonsense, but has remained in continued discussion for the next 120 years. This meant that we now had to change the national mindset. In other words, we now had to live with each other!
The Industrial Revolution took root in England and the European Continent during the 1830s, but the United States did not become a player until after our Civil War, which was one of the causes of why we fought; to decide whether we would remain an agrarian society or an industrial society. Once settled, America quickly grew to become one of the largest economic powers in the world, rivaling only Germany by the turn of the 20th Century. We did it with “laissez-faire capitalism” with little or no restrictions by the government or society, and the elite, as well as the entrepreneurs of America became multi millionaires. It became the way of the American dream. Accompanying this was the notion of “Rugged Individualism,” which defined success as the ability to go it alone and succeed. That may have more accurate at the beginning of the 20th Century, but it becomes a roadblock in the 21st Century, as we now must look at the nation as a whole, not just your particular private space. Turner may be correct after all these years, as it appears that we are two nations under one flag. The “Rugged Individualism” of the 19th Century was lost in the industrialization of the 20th Century. The “Frontier” remains closed but we continue to long for it, as it provided us with a path for a choice as to how we lived our lives. Of course we do have that choice, but government has become the referee, as we continue to argue the concept of “The Common Good”. Turner’s last observation was that Socialism would never take root in America, as the American character is defined by the spirit of individualism and the belief of American Democracy.
We now stand at the brink as we approach the 2012 Presidential Election. The problem is that we cannot go back to what we were. We have to define where we are and where we’re going. Turner’s observation that the battle lines would be drawn on political parties appears to have considerable truth to it. At no time in our history since the Civil War have we been so divided. One problem is that we never really dealt with what was won in the Civil War, so many years ago. No matter what you may have heard from the candidates, government is here to stay. The decision is what role is it going to play in our lives. We spent the second half of the 20th Century under relative prosperity as well as becoming the greatest power on earth. It has been unraveled over the past decade, but the seeds of that were laid thirty years before. We stopped looking long range and, in many cases, were sold a bill of goods that we could spend our way to “The American Dream”. That turned out to be a disaster for 95% of the American people. Nearly all of us are poorer than we were a decade ago. The larger question is why are we discussing social values when our pockets are empty? It’s time to deal with the problems that will define how well or how poor we are going to be in the future. We are a nation of problem solvers. Let’s put aside social issues and focus on the real problem that we all face. That is The rest of the world is either laughing at us or fearful that we will fail as the greatest power in the world. We have to focus on the real problem, which is how do we get America’s Economy moving again and where do we, as individuals or a collective body fit in!
To read the full article, please click here.