I’ve saved this one to close out the year — from a few weeks ago by Victor Davis Hanson — here’s the subtitle: Even in its current malaise, the U.S. still soars above the global competition.
Here’s VDH’s open:
Germany’s first chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, supposedly once said that there was “a special providence for drunkards, fools, and the United States of America.”
Apparently, late 19th-century observers could not quite explain how the U.S. thrived when by logic it should not. That paradox has never been more true than today.
He then lists many of the negative realities facing us today, including federal debt, unfunded entitlement programs, a failed immigration system, joblessness and record numbers leaving the work force, racial tensions, a screwed up foreign policy (to name a few)…then he writes:
In such a depressing American landscape, why is the United States doing pretty well?
Put simply, millions of quiet, determined Americans get up every morning and tune out the incompetence and corruption of their government. They simply ignore destructive fads of popular culture. They have no time for the demagoguery of their politicians and the divisive rhetoric of social activists. Instead, these quiet Americans simply go to work, pursue their own talents, excel at what they do, and seek to take care of their families.The result of their singular expertise is that even in America’s current illness, the nation still soars above the global competition.
Only in America can you find the sort of innovation, talent, legal framework, and can-do attitude needed to invent and refine hydraulic fracking and horizontal drilling. Just a few hundred thousand scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, oil riggers, and skilled craftsman have revived the once-ossified oil industry for 320 million Americans.The United States is not running out of fuels — as was predicted over the last 20 years. It instead has become the largest gas-and-oil producer in the world.
Read the entire article at National Review.
And Happy New Year!
