The United States is in a funk. Indeed, Tony Blankley says he’s hasn’t seen so much collective self-loathing and lack of confidence since the French surrendered to the Germans in 1940. And, even then, the French began to get a little of their own back sooner than we Americans, who’ve been in a blue mood for more than two years now, have managed to do.
Maybe the return of French confidence Is instructive:
[T]hat French despair ended — and it started to clear when Gen. de Gaulle found himself in London in June 1940, unknown, with no resources, no respect, but an uncontainable will to rally Frenchmen to the majestic task of saving France from her self-imposed infamy.
DeGaulle seemed to be facing impossible odds, but he rescued his country from disgrace and self-hatred:
The intangible, extraordinary, immeasurable power of the will of just one human can become a world force to be reckoned with. The exercise of human will defies and baffles historians, economists and experts of all sorts as they attempt to predict the path of nations and the unfolding of history.
America has been in a two-year funk — which is not surprising, as nary a national leader or news outlet has encouraged us to spit in the eye of fate and cheerfully grab the future with both fists.
Good heavens, I am currently fighting a dose of stomach cancer — and I’m more cheerful and hopeful than healthy, bright young college grads laid low by a shortage of great jobs.
It is time for America to get over its funk and stop listening to alleged experts (who make their fortunes coming up with novel theories of national catastrophe).
America has become a great nation because we have been an optimistic people who insist on both success and liberty. If you can’t visualize success, you are unlikely to gain it.
America’s can-do spirit has been the wonder of the ages. It has raised us from a handful of farmers to the colossus of the planet.
We are horribly in debt, and the nation’s housing stock is worth less than we had hoped. But these are problems that can be solved. We have the top universities and 200 years of history as a democracy. Let’s hope our leaders will call for some spunk.
What we need is to regain a view of ourselves as a great nation. I think this is called American exceptionalism. And good wishes to Mr. Blankley.