America and What “Great” Means

Flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, President Donald Trump delivers his Joint Address to Congress at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, February 28, 2017. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

“We’re not going to make America great again; it was never that great,” opined Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week in New York. Taking exception to Cuomo’s rather contentious remarks is Zalena Zito in the Washington Examiner:

It was a line meant to take on his nemesis, President Trump, and his signature “Make America Great Again” slogan — but keeps with the notion that some in politics truly believe, that America is not all that great.

Perhaps they don’t know what great means.

Or worse yet, what America means.

Great is an aspiration — a higher elevation to which you constantly try to take yourself and your countrymen.

And that greatness resides in our people. It’s visible in the volunteer firefighters, the Good Samaritans, the compassionate, the people in this country hidden in plain sight that do the right thing not for glory, but out of a sense of duty.

America has never been perfect for all people, but it never stops striving to be that place taking on our shortcomings with protests, church meetings, policy changes and societal upheavals. It often takes too long, it often has setbacks, but at our core, we fundamentally never stop trying.

Not many who have seen Family Vacation don’t appreciate all the intricacies and humor behind the movie. The ostensibly fictional Griswold family drives from Chicago to “Wally World” in California. Chevy Chase, head of the Griswold clan, is the perplexingly optimistic force behind the mishap-laden road trip.

Jonah Goldberg writes in NRO of his family RV road trip this summer, “dingos” and reluctant teen in tow. No major mishaps yet, but then the trip is young. And Jonah doesn’t hint at any upcoming visits to uncouth cousins, like Family Vacation’s Dennis Quaid, but he does touch upon the importance of seeing our country first hand – a sentiment Dick and I always appreciated as we traveled the country on our Harleys, pushing 125,000+ miles over 25 years.

… it’s useful to remind yourself how big and diverse this country is. And when I say “diverse,” I don’t simply mean in the rainbow-flag sense of different kinds of individuals — I mean in the full sense: There are diverse communities, diverse geographies, economies, traditions, climates, you name it. Whether you’re on the left or the right, it’s important to be reminded that it is literally impossible to run a country of this scope and breadth from Washington. Or at least it’s impossible without doing incredible damage to this country and its traditions.

I don’t want to get into a wonky or even partisan discussion here. Right now, both parties are full of people who think this country can be run by a relative handful of people — or even one person – sitting in Washington. They think they’re smarter than the market or the people closest to the problems on the ground.

Traveling between Key West and Newport, although usually on four wheels rather than two, gave Dick and me the insight to see how far the 2016 polls were off the mark. Our private poll based on counting lawn signs showed it was a hands’ down win for Trump.

It was plainly a case of the Untouchabes vs. the Deplorables, as Julie Kelley from American Greatness refers to the Clinton/Trump race.

This is the Trump appeal that the ruling political class refused—and still refuses—to acknowledge. It is why Republicans were willing to overlook his personal peccadillos, and why voters in 206 counties who twice chose Barack Obama helped elect Donald Trump. It is why rural moms, union toughs, small business owners, and soybean farmers fill steamy Midwestern assembly halls during summer’s peak to rally around a thrice-married, brash, egotistical Manhattan billionaire who is the working class’s most unlikely champion. It is why Republican candidates across the country are bragging about their Trump-BFF status in tight primary races.