America at her best is Hamiltonian

• Published in: The objective standard 2017-03, Vol.12 (1), p.12
• Main Author: Salsman, Richard M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 1783-1865; Academic achievement; American history; Checks and balances; Civil war; Constitutionalism; Declaration of Independence-US; Despotism; Evaluation; Fathers; Federalism; Hamilton, Alexander (American statesman); History; Hostility; Immigrants; Immigration policy; Individualism; International trade; Mercantilism; Military engagements; Money; National debt; Nationalism; Nativism; Politics; Progressivism; Protectionism; Public debt; Racism; Rights; Riots; Rule of law; Schools; Separation of powers; Slavery; Statesmen; Taxation; Twain, Mark (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) (1835-1910); United States history; United States history, 1789-1817 (Early republic); Voters; World War I
• ISSN: 1559-1905; 1559-1913

America at her best loves liberty and respects rights, prizes individualism, eschews racism, disdains tyranny, extolls constitutionalism, and respects the rule of law. Her “can-do” spirit values science, invention, business, entrepreneurialism, vibrant cities, and spreading prosperity. At her best, America welcomes immigrants who seek to embrace the American way, as well as trade with foreigners who create products we want. And she is willing to wage war if necessary to protect the rights of her citizens—but not self-sacrificially nor for conquest.America hasn’t always been at her best, of course. Beyond her glorious founding (1776­–1789), America’s best was exhibited most vividly in the half century between the Civil War and World War I, an era Mark Twain mocked as the “Gilded Age.” In truth, it was a golden era: Slavery had been abolished, money was sound, taxes were low, regulations minimal, immigration voluminous, invention ubiquitous, opportunity enormous, and prosperity profuse. The capitalistic North both outpaced and displaced the feudalistic South.America today flirts with the worst version of herself.3 Her intellectuals and politicians routinely flout her Constitution. Gone is her firm adherence to separation of powers or checks and balances. The regulatory state proliferates. Taxes oppress while the national debt grows. Money is fiat, finance is volatile, production is stagnant. Populists and “progressives” denounce the rich and condemn economic inequality. Government-run schools produce ignorant voters with anticapitalist biases. Freedom of speech is increasingly assaulted. Racism, riots, and hostility toward policemen abound. Nativists and nationalists scapegoat immigrants and demand walled borders. Self-defeating rules of military engagement preclude the swift defeat of dangerous, barbaric enemies abroad.Those wishing to see America at her best again can be inspired and informed by the writings and achievements of her founding fathers. And, fortunately, interest in the works of the founders appears to have grown in recent years. Many Americans today, despite their generally poor education, glimpse America’s distant greatness, wonder how the founders created it, and hope to regain it.