TWO AMERICAS
Part 17 of a Series
Reagan Renaissance
October 23, 2004

John Edwards is right about there being two vastly different populations occupying a common country and presently sharing the same body of law. These two groups of Americans look alike and each group looks like any other cross section of Americans. The differences are not in appearance, levels of wealth or in their life styles; the differences are in their points of view, specifically how the two groups think Americans should live their lives. In many respects, it is difficult to distinguish between the two groups because each group believes they share a common heritage, education, culture, and they have some common or overlapping goals and ambitions. They share a common language, currency and tend to use the same descriptions and words to define themselves. Rather than label these groups with a name, or even define them by their own descriptions, I am going to call them A and B. It is my intent to describe them to you and let you identify not only the groups, but also where you fit yourself into the picture that I hope to paint of our Two Americas, not as John Edwards sees them, but as how I see them.

Let's begin with three things that virtually every American believes are shared values, but where there are in fact striking differences between the two groups. First, freedom is paramount in importance to Americans. It is the foundation of what America actually is. Every American should be able to take freedom for granted and assume that other Americans along with government will preserve, protect and defend our freedom. One day after writing the two prior sentences I ran across an article by Bruce Bartlett in which he cites a survey by the National League of Cities where roughly 30% of unprompted Americans consider freedom to be the American Dream. When asked to select from a list of dreams, the number selecting freedom as the American Dream rises to an eye-popping 44%. A dream is something that you don't presently have, but hope or aspire to obtain through prudent or successful uses of your talents or resources. Freedom may be a dream for someone living in a third world country, but what does this say about our country where the foundation of our country tells us that freedom is an unalienable right?

Second, Americans know the Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land and a major part of the foundation that guarantees our freedoms. Third, most Americans aspire to the American Dream whether you define it as financial security, owning your own home or wanting to leave an America where your children can enjoy a better quality of life than the one you inherited.

Some Americans do not have a clear understanding of what freedom actually is. By itself, the right to vote has nothing to do with freedom. Under Saddam or in the Soviet Union, every adult had the right to vote. Even the right to vote for the candidate of your choice is a bit misleading and implies a greater measure of freedom than reality delivers. Between the workings of the primary system and the electoral college, it virtually guarantees that a write-in candidate cannot become President and that in any given election for any national office, there is almost no chance for a candidate to win who is not a member of our two major parties. The right to vote and the right to vote for a candidate among a selection of candidates is a vital part of freedom, but it is not the determinative characteristic of the freedom that so many Americans have willingly lain down their lives to earn, or to defend. Nobody endured the Winter at Valley Forge in order to vote or to have the right to vote for Washington instead of Adams.

By definition, freedom is the right to make your own decisions about how you live your own life. Freedom is quantified by how many and what types of decisions an individual can make free from the control or influence of government and also by the range of latitude for any single decision. There is a segment of our population, Group A, that understands this and believes the powers of government should be few and strictly limited. Members of Group A have no illusions about government. Group A believes that government growth means freedom is being lost. Members of Group A know that they can provide better support and make better decisions for their families than Washington bureaucrats or politicians elected by Group B.

In contrast, Group B believes that there is a large number of individuals that are not intellectually, emotionally, morally or financially able to make decisions for themselves. The authors of The Bell Curve proved that Group B is wrong about there being any significant number of individuals unable to make decisions or provide for themselves. The authors also proved that this is true even in a country as large as ours. That has not stopped or deterred Group B in any way. Group B did not know how or was unwilling to define which individuals are not intellectually, emotionally, morally or financially able to make decisions for themselves. Unable to separate and quantify levels of incapacities for specific individuals, Group B determined that Americans should be treated as one big collective family. This had the result of forcing Group B to rationalize some curious paradoxes. In effect, Group B believes government should be every family's partner and insurer. As every American's "partner", government dictates how much of the partnership's income it is entitled to receive and conversely how much income an individual is entitled to receive from the US collective enterprise depending on the circumstances. This means Group B is forced to hold the bizarre belief that individuals and certain groups should not be held accountable, nor suffer the consequences for their own mistakes or bad decisions, but that everybody else should. This fosters another of Group B's equally bizarre rationalizations; it allows them to blame everybody else for their own shortcomings.

Since Group B doesn't trust individual Americans to make decisions, Group B is forced to believe that government should control how we build our homes; where, how, and how long we educate our children; how long we work; how much we are paid; the conditions of our work place; what retirement plan we will have; how much retirement benefit we will receive; and how much risk we will have to assume at every step and stage of our lives. Government has become the collective parent, nanny, educator, regulator, standard setter, insurer, retirement planner, banker, transportation provider, and health care controller. More Americans are employed by government than are now employed in the entire US manufacturing sector of the economy. Social Security even provides a death benefit paid toward cremation or interment. Boxed in by government, Group B believes in a delusion of freedom. Government exercises more control over the lives of American families and family finances than family members do. Perversely, Group B believes these are testaments of their success.

Group B has mandated that government's share of the earnings from each individual's partnership with the government is, on average 48% of the working family's total production. On the other hand, Group B, has determined that under the partnership concept, individuals that are not working or producing for whatever reason, are entitled to what the government has determined to be a modest but adequate standard of living, in aggregate receiving 60% of total government expenditures. Group A does not understand why working and productive Americans are forced to pay as much to government as they are allowed to keep for themselves and why government then turns around and pays more of its revenue to non-working and non-productive Americans than it spends on its Constitutionally delegated functions. Nor does Group A understand how Group B can think this makes any sense. Group A is never going to share Group B's delusions about freedom.

Ancestors closer to the thinking of Group A (hence the Bill of Rights) wrote the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence. Members of Group A basically controlled government from 1789 until 1912. Group B got its first real taste of power in 1912 and effectively gained control of government from the thirties until the middle part of the nineties. Group B's pleas for bipartisanship offer evidence of their fear of permanently losing power. Group B will begin to recover its rationality when it recognizes that the "United" part of the United States is only going to happen if Group B abandons its socialistic delusions. Our country will remain or become even more divided as long as Group B remains irrational. "Men, it has been well said, think in herds. It will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one." � Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, 1841.

Group A understands the timeless nature of the Constitution as it was written and amended. The Constitution requires no interpretation, only enforcement. When members of Group B were elected to public office or were appointed to the federal judiciary, they took their delusions with them. Since the thirties, many laws passed by Congress and many decisions of federal courts, including decisions by the Supreme Court, reflect delusional interpretations of the Constitution.

Irrational and delusions are strong words. We have not yet touched on the American Dream and there are a number of Americans who do not see themselves as members of either of these two groups. Our next article (Dreams, Dichotomies, and Defaults) will delve deeply into the use of strong words and some details about the American Dream including discussion about the best way to realize the dreams that are shared by the members of both groups.

When two groups hold completely divergent points of view, both cannot be correct. Differences of opinion are highlighted whenever one group wants to impose its own choices on the other group. Group A does not believe the differences are irreconcilable, but a united America is not going to happen unless the members of Group B recover from their collective madness. The profound meaning of the Declaration of Independence is just starting to dawn on the members of the two groups. As we approach the time when the Gokhale-Smetters clock will begin to run out, the map above raises the possibility that the Two Americas that I can see, could turn out to be separate countries.

© 2004 Reagan Renaissance
Editorials Archive

Author's Note
There is no Constitutional authority for socialism at the level of the federal government. Socialism is a failed economic model because under socialism, all of the incentives are backwards. Socialism is not compatible with capitalism because it undermines savings and investment. Every democracy in history has ended in bankruptcy or hyperinflation whenever the people learn to vote themselves benefits from the public treasury. Our republic has become a democracy by surrogates through "professional" politicians because we do not have term limits. Socialism is the economic equivalent of cancer. "Professional" politicians are the cause and the sole means of spread. Either Americans are going to voluntarily end socialism which would be the catalyst for launching the Reagan Renaissance or socialism is going bring down the United States through bankruptcy or hyperinflation. Socialism needs to be ended quickly before the unfunded liabilities of the boomers begin to mature. It is time to go for the throat of the "professional" politicians before it's too late.

The Reagan Renaissance is being moved to the launch pad. It will not be long before we are ready to begin the count down. Have you contacted friends, family and other interested parties? Leveraging the power of the internet will be a vital part of the rocket fuel needed to power our engines to overcome gravity and reach escape velocity. Please send your friends, family and people that you know that are conservative, or to anyone who wants to restore the Constitution's limits on government or to end socialism, this link to the Reagan Renaissance Archive. Please post links to the Reagan Renaissance Archive at internet forum groups, on internet bulletin boards, and internet newsgroups. How far and how wide you spread the word about the Reagan Renaissance will be a major determinate for its success. My thanks again to Financial Sense Online and the Puplavas for allowing me the opportunity to make these views publicly available.

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