“With Malice toward None/Charity for All”
In a recent NYT/Siena survey, only 33% of registered U.S. voters believe our political system can address our country’s problems. The other 64% believe we are too divided to solve much of anything. This loss of faith in our political system crosses all lines of age, sex, race, ethnicity, education, and partisan affiliation.
William A. Galston writes in the WSJ that that 22% of Americans believe that “the biggest threats to the United States come from outside our country in the form of adversaries “such as Russia, China and Iran.” The other 74% believe the biggest threats to the U.S. “come from within our country in the form of polarization, corruption in government, or dysfunctional cultural trends.”
Threats to Domestic Tranquility/National Security
Galston argues that. “If we can’t agree, we can’t act,” adding,
“Inaction in the face of danger is a prescription for disaster.”
Donald Trump’s 2nd administration has focused mainly on 1) deporting illegal immigrants and 2) hammering away at woke American universities.
Through trade deals, Trump has focused on American jobs rather than, for example, China’s “relentless military rise.” Will Trump, wonders Galston, especially with both parties deeply divided, be able to convince Americans that acting on international threats is essential to American security?
Winning with Mass Production Techniques
A major logistical challenge faced the US. It is reported that during WWII, for example, destroyers and their escorts were basically put on “auto-build.” Mass production techniques allowed the build time for the Liberty ship to go from 200 days to 43 days by 1943.
America’s capacity to build ships has completely disappeared, reports Galston. Moreover, the defense industry is not keeping up with America’s needs. Indeed, Donald Trump inherited this situation, but he has taken no steps to reverse it, notes Galston.
To save our country from Chinese domination and other threats to our security, foreign and domestic, we must act together. … partisan polarization has undermined public trust in the institutions—private and public—through which we act.
Mr. Galson’s recommendation is a radical fix for the next administration. Presidential candidates usually (always) promise to “bring us together,” to be a president for all Americans, not only for supporters …
… the next president must mean it. Binding up the nation’s wounds by persuading citizens to unite around shared goals must take priority over controversial policy agendas, whatever their merits, that will deepen our divisions.
Build on the Declaration of Independence Principles
There are many issues on which Americans can agree. These issues will go a long way to contributing to a political foundation for a moderate, consensus-building approach to public policy.
Average Americans still believe in the principles of the Declaration of Independence, the system of checks and balances enshrined in the Constitution, the rule of law, respect for the judiciary’s decisions, procedural fairness and nondiscrimination.
(Most Americans) would surely support a president who consults with leaders of both parties, takes opposing arguments seriously, seeks to maximize common ground, speaks respectfully even of his adversaries, and does his best to meet the needs of all Americans, regardless of their party affiliation and geographical location.
To such a president, it wouldn’t matter whether a natural disaster happens in a red state or a blue state. Such a president wouldn’t label some executive branch agencies “Democrat or Republican.”
Such a president would not allow America’s cities to be “training grounds” for overseas conflicts.
Lincoln’s Prayer for America
Americans would be wise to adopt words from Abraham Lincoln’s 1st Inaugural Address:
”We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.”
In Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Address, he urged victors of the Civil War to act
“with malice toward none, with charity for all.”
The alternative, William Galston warns, is an “endless cycle of retribution that will destroy everything worth preserving.”
