What Made America Great

I realize that headline probably just lost me a lot of readers – the kind of people that cannot bring themselves to state the name of the President of the United States out loud.  But I am willing to take that risk – mostly because taking risks is what did, in fact, make America great.  Right now, thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people in Southern California are without power.  “The temporary outages are intended to reduce the risk of electrical equipment sparking wildfires during strong winds.”  California continues its rapid decline because its primary goal is to reduce risk, not take it.

This nation is built on risk-taking. I don’t know when we lost sight of that fact, but we did.  I do know covid was peak risk avoidance, but a lot of the nation, particularly blue parts of the nation, haven’t learned the lesson just yet.

Perhaps people think the original European settlers that established this nation came in the luxurious cruise ships we enjoy today.  They didn’t.  The journey was deeply risky and the destination riskier.  There were no hotels to check into once they arrived – just a tent and the effort to cut some trees and build a rudimentary cabin.  Two-thirds of the very first colonists died in the first winter on this continent.  The risk was enormous.

Perhaps people think people drove their cars on the interstate highways as the westward push began.  They didn’t.  It was walking and mules and horse and wagons for the lucky ones.  From my home I can cross the Cumberland Gap in a couple of hours.  For them the trip took days, even weeks.  One specific westward movement had a mortality rate of between three and four percent.

Perhaps people think the richest man in American history was born with the proverbial “silver spoon in his mouth.”  He wasn’t.  He was the son of a snake oil salesman that had to work his behind off to start the business that made him wealthy.

I think more than anything else, what divides left from right is a willingness to accept risk.  Simply put, the Left these days wants to mitigate all risk.  Whether it is in the name of charity, equity, fairness or socialism they want to eliminate risk.  Unfortunately, it is an immutable law of reality that without risk there is no reward.  If you take no risk, what you receive is simply not precious enough to be viewed as a reward.

Trump himself was a tremendous risk as POTUS – unconventional to say the least.  He does not fit the mold of the modern statesman.  His ego and sexual history do not, to my mind, make him an admirable human being.  But the risk was necessary simply because risk is necessary to achieve great things.  Trump is not the overwhelming success a Ronald Reagan was.  The characteristics that make him risky prevent the kind of groundswell a charismatic figure like Reagan could produce.  But the risk is nonetheless producing rewards.  Rewards we want…Rewards we need.

Democrats and the Left are lining up to run as “not Trump.”  Which means they are lining up to avoid risk.  It is time we learned the lessons of covid – risk avoidance is reward avoidance.  I think we all want the rewards.