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Today’s Conley Commentary comes to you from the American Airlines lounge at O’Hare Airport, where I’m waiting for my connecting flight back home.
CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – A woman asked Benjamin Franklin what kind of government our new American nation would have. It was assumed that we would be yet another monarchy, with George Washington as king.
“A Republic, ma’am, if you can keep it!” was Franklin’s reply.
So, 248 years later, how are we doing at keeping it?
Remember, for 150 years before 1776, people had been arriving from Europe into the New World. They are guaranteed nothing beyond what they could provide for themselves. If you couldn’t build a shelter, or hunt, or grow things… you were likely to freeze or starve to death. It was a hearty, self-reliant people who built the American colonies.
Consider some cultural touchstones. In the Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life, the money-hungry Mr. Potter is reviewing George Bailey’s finances. He suggests “$15 a week to support your mother.” It’s a line that shouldn’t be lost on us today. Working children gave a portion of their income to support their aged parents. The movie was from the 1940s – there was no Social Security. Today we give away those benefits to people who paid nothing into the system, including the disabled, dependent children, and illegal immigrants. No wonder the system will go bankrupt by 2035.
Could you imagine any American politician speaking Robert F. Kennedy’s touchstone line: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”? The leader of JFK’s party brags about student loan forgiveness today.
Some wise patriot observed many years ago that the end of American democracy would come when half the voters realized that they could vote money out of the U.S. Treasury that was put there by the other half. We’re certainly getting to that point. Last year 40-percent of U.S. households paid no federal income tax. That’s a horrible policy. I believe that even the poorest of us should pay 1 or 2-percent. If you benefit from the system, you should also pay into it.
Lastly, those on the political left have put forward the lie that some people don’t get a fair chance in America. Non-whites are told that this isn’t really a good country; that they’re suckers for being patriotic. If that’s true, why are so many people voting with their feet to come here, legally or otherwise?
Our nation has always overcome challenging times. To my fellow patriots, hold on, morning in America will come again.
Chris Conley
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