I was recently asked a question about one of my blog posts. The question essentially was ‘what does Make America Great Again mean to me?’ This is a question I have been thinking about for some time but have never really articulated it in any meaningful way.
This slogan has many different meanings for many different people, but also multiple meanings for each individual. This makes it difficult to clearly determine what it really means as it is subject to each individual’s opinion and experience.
The Critics
First I am going to address some of the critics of this slogan. The people who say or believe that America was never great or apply the worst parts of America’s past to this slogan.
To me it seems the biggest problem people have with the statement Make America Great Again is the last word. Again. When these people look back at the history of America all they see is the horrors.
They see things like slavery, mistreatment of Native Americans, and the examples of racism. To them that is the history of America, so when they hear Make America Great AGAIN, they believe people want to go back to those horrific practices. It is an understandable criticism because of the vague nature of the statement.
But it does not take into context the other half of the history of America. The part where America was founded on the ideals of freedom and liberty, the same ideals that gave voice to end the horrible institution of slavery, not only in America but across the world. The same ideals that gave voice to extend the vote to women. The same ideals that allowed individuals to make advancements in medicine, civil liberties, technology, and industry.
It is easy to look back at the past through our modern morality and point out how horrible things were. These moments need to be viewed in the context of their time. Imagine a group of Americans attacking a tribe of Native Americans. On the surface this seems like a horrific event caused by ‘greedy racist white men’ who only want the land the Natives are living on.
Yet if you seek out context you might find that these Americans lived on the frontier, surviving by farming the land. There are no police, no national guard, and these farmers have experienced raids carried out by the Native Americans. Livestock stolen, children killed before their eyes, wives and daughters raped and taken as slaves.
If taken in this context, while you might not condone the raid and the violence it makes it a bit more understandable. If you have children you might understand their anger and desire for revenge a bit more as you too would probably move heaven and earth in order to get to someone who has willingly hurt your children.
History is never as clear cut as we all would like it to be. With that said I am going to move on to what Make America Great Again means to me.
Individual Self-Reliance
President JFK once said “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” The American people took pride in being able to provide for themselves. They knew that was part of the price to pay for the precious gift of freedom.
Lately we find people who are more eager to point out a problem and demand something be done, but will not do anything to take on the responsibility of fixing it themselves.
America is a society where you take responsibility for yourself instead of demanding the government take responsibility for you and provide you with the things you want. Food, healthcare, school. I am not opposed to providing a safety net, but it needs to be a temporary status not a method of sustaining oneself.
We need to move away from incentivizing people, through welfare, to remain in a state of compliant dependence that keeps them at the bottom of society.
Those who are proponents of increased welfare say they want freedom from want, but the truth is that want is a part of life. Your body will always want food and shelter and those who want to increase welfare say you should be free from that want in your life. That if you did not have to worry about those wants you would be freer to pursuit your interests.
In reality you still have those wants but you have them fulfilled by someone other than yourself, in this case the government. I would argue that this is a reduction in freedom as opposed to an increase in freedom. This sort of freedom from want is really just dependence. When you are dependent on someone for your wants and needs you are not truly free but rather at the mercy of those on whom you depend.
When you ask for government healthcare and school you are saying your friends and neighbors all owe these things to you. I am not saying we can be 100% independent and do everything ourselves, because there are just somethings individuals cannot do as effectively by themselves.
I am not saying that people cannot ask for assistance or that asking for help is bad, rather I am saying that instead of seeking help from those in positions of authority instead we should turn to ourselves first and our fellow Americans second. When I say our fellow American I am not saying the government but instead I mean our friends and family, our neighbors and local communities. This would increase the effectiveness of the type of help as well as the accountability of those who are seeking help.
For example if you see a homeless person and think, ‘if only they had more money their life would be better’ you might actually be making the problem worse. If that homeless person is addicted to drugs and is not serious about getting clean, more money could actually make their life worse.
They would spend all the money on their drug of choice, increasing the likelihood of an increase in drug traffic to the area. The homeless person could overdose and do serious damage to their body or someone else they came across while under the influence of the drug. For the homeless person it might be more beneficial, in part, to be poor because they are unable to feed their destructive drug habit.
A large federal system set up to help give money to this poor person is not going to be able to understand their individual needs. A local community would know it will only make it worse to give the person money but might understand that when they are ready, rehab would be a more effective method of assistance to that person.
Ending Identity Politics
I think it would be beneficial to describe what I mean when I use the term identity politics. Identity politics is advocating for a group of people based on an immutable characteristic.
There is a differences between advocating for the rights of a particular group as opposed to advocating for human rights which include a particular group. For example it is different to advocate for black rights as opposed to human rights for black people.
Black rights imply that there are specific rights that only apply to black people, while human rights for black people means to include them in the same rights as everyone else. A clear example of this sort of identity politics can be seen in the SAT.
As reported in the LA Times people get additional points depending upon race. Black individuals get an additional 230 points simply for skin color, meanwhile Asians are penalized 50 points for their skin color.
This is the truth about the racism of identity politics. It creates a stereotype box to place people in based on immutable characteristics, assuming everyone with that characteristic is exactly the same.
America was founded on the idea that you are more than your skin color, national identity, or national origin. You are an individual and as an individual you have the sovereignty to make choices for yourself and to run your own life. Instead of being an Irish-American or African-American we are all just Americans.
I am talking about the end of identity politics on both the left and the right. An individual’s identity is more than just a single characteristic. People are not simply black or white, male or female, gay or straight, but rather an uncountable number of identities that come together to form an individual.
Identity politics on both the left and right is simply the reemergence of Marxist collectivism. At its core this collectivism has a built in philosophy of hatred. Originally Marx proposed that the proletariat were justified in hating, and subsequently morally justified in destroying, the bourgeoisie because they were being oppressed.
Identity politics changed this by generalizing the concept. Instead of classes of people such as proletariat and bourgeoisie identity politics used oppressor and oppressed. They then set about to separate people into stereotypical groups and identifying one group as oppressed and another group as oppressor.
Under this type of thinking men oppress women, straight people oppress LGBTQ people, cis people oppress trans people, white people oppress people of color and abled people oppress disabled people.
The reason identity politics needs to divide people up in this way is because the entire worldview is based on power. To an identitarian there is nothing but power and the world is just these groups at war for more power for their group.
As more people start to play the game of identity politics on the left, in the name of compassion no less, they start to force people to the Alt-Right. Independent journalist Tim Pool does an excellent job describing this in his video The Danger of Anti-White Identitarianism in Mainstream News.
He explains how the growth and power of identity politics on the left is fueling the growth of identity politics on the right. Which in turn fuels the growth of identity politics on the left. Both sides see this as a good thing because ultimately they are both identitarians who seek a racial consciousness awakening in all people.
Make America Great Again opposes this sort of collectivism in favor of the foundational idea that the individual is what matters most. If the group is what matters most then you, the individual, only matter insofar as you are part of the group and follow the stereotype of that group. Meaning you do not matter very much when it comes to the group.
Make Men Masculine Again
I know how this sort of statement will be twisted by those who are either ideologues or under ideological possession. They will say that what it really means is that I want women to go back into the kitchen and to be subservient to men. That I seek to go back to a time when women were oppressed. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
I am not talking about women but rather talking about men and boys. There is a general sense that masculinity is toxic, that it is nothing but violence, patriarchy and rape culture and that men and boys are nothing but the embodiment this toxicity.
Toxic masculinity is a real thing but it is not the result of too much masculinity, rather it is the result of too little masculinity and the suppression of masculine behaviors. This starts with absent fathers and the rise of single motherhood. This is in part due to men not accepting responsibility for themselves and their own actions and in glorifying the single mother.
I understand why single mothers are glorified. They work, they care for children and balance everything on their own. It is a journey filled with suffering, difficulty, and tribulation that is worthy of respect. We also need to look at the outcome of that journey, what did you produce with all your suffering and sacrifice?
Boys with little respect for authority, with no real example of a masculine ideal or role model, and men who are simply boys in adult bodies. These boys grow into the adults that will marry and form relationships with our daughters. Men who do not understand what it means to be a man, to take responsibility for themselves and those around them.
This suppression continues as boys enter into public school. Boyish behavior is looked down upon as disruptive and bad. Girls are seen as the gold standard, while boys are seen as simply defective girls. Recess is rapidly vanishing across the country, competitive games like tag and dodgeball are being banned, and boys are more likely to become suspended for simply acting like boys.
These difficulties lead to fewer men going to college and even fewer men graduating college. Instead they seek any form of masculine behavior they can find. They get into video games, they get taken in by a gang, or they simply never leave mom’s basement.
Men and boys need to be encouraged and to willingly accept responsibility for the need the world has of them. We need to stop alienating young men as nothing more than oppressive tyrants in waiting. Instead men need to know that the world needs them, not as a collective but as individuals.
We need to get back to a time when men were providers. Not because women are incapable of providing but because by taking responsibility for providing you decrease the amount of suffering not only for yourself but for those around you.
Take the single mother example from before and look at the suffering she has to go through to attempt to balance work, family, and home. Would it not be great to ease that suffering with the help of a responsible man who can help with the kids, bring in additional income, and help take care of the house?
The history of couples is not the history of men dominating women, but men and women working together to increase the chances of survival not only of themselves but of their offspring.
We as a society need to stop demonizing masculinity. At the same time men need to accept the responsibility that they are needed in society.
The Family
The family used to be celebrated as the building block of our social structure. Over time this foundation has been eroded by both incentives in the form of welfare and social stigma in the form of discouraging women who want to be mothers.
Our welfare system was designed to help those we saw as the most vulnerable, namely single mothers. While the intention was good the unintended consequence of these programs is that we are providing incentives to people to remain in their current situation.
This is understandable because while you might not have much on welfare at least it is better than having nothing. Why risk what little you have in an attempt to gain a little more when you could end up losing it all and being worse off?
This same system incentivizes women to have more children and no husband. It is this incentive that in part results in the rise in single motherhood. Imagine you go into the welfare office because you are struggling. When you sit down with the social worker they ask you a bunch of questions but they will also tell you how to get additional welfare.
They will say things such as If you were single you could get more EBT benefits or if you dropout of college we could also pay your rent and get you a cell phone. It is these financial benefits that cause people who would normally consider getting married to hold off in order to get more benefits, especially if they have children together.
To some people getting married is just signing a piece of paper at the courthouse. In reality it is far more than that, it is a promise you make in front of all your friends, family and community to another person to spend the rest of your life together. To love and support each other and to share in both the joys and suffering of life. It is much harder, morally, socially and legally to end a marriage then it is to end a dating relationship.
So if you incentivize people to remain single by giving them more welfare benefits you erode the institution of marriage. With the corruption of this institution you start to see the breakdown of the family.
Another part of this is the social stigma around wanting to become a mother and a stay at home wife. Instead women are told that in order to be happy and successful you must go out and have a career. If that is what a woman wants to do, great more power to her, but if she wants to be a stay at home mom, raise her children and take care of her family she is questioned.
This is probably best embodied in the evolution of the feminist movement. Feminism originally wanted women to be able to have equal choice and opportunity on the same footing as men. Yet lately it has evolved into a Marxian movement that seeks to frame men as oppressors and women as oppressed who are locked in a struggle for power.
This is because some feminists believed that once you gave women the opportunity to seek a career instead of having a family that women would pursue the career. They believed that they would see more women in positions of power and in part they were correct, just not at the level they had hoped.
This reality failed to materialize as expected, so instead of accepting reality and working with it they looked around for a reason why their predictions failed to manifest. This is where you get politicians shaming women for voting for Trump and saying that they only did so because their husbands pressured them into doing so.
This is the same sentiment used to shame women away from being mothers. It is the idea that you can only be a strong, good, woman if you do exactly what I want you to do. It is as if they are saying you can only be an independent woman if you live your life the way I say you should or vote how I think you should vote.
This is an attitude of condescension toward women who might have a different opinion on how to best live their own life. It is as if they believe you are weak if you make a different choice and that the only way you would have made a different choice is if you were forced or pressured into it by a man.
I can think of nothing more noble then to make the choice to become a mother and raise a family. It is willfully accepting a responsibility that will be around for the rest of your life. A responsibility that, if taken seriously and done properly, will be a lot of work but will yield a lot of love and happiness.
Family is important, a strong family will make strong individuals. Society is made up of individuals and if you want a strong healthy society you must start with the family.
Love of Country
You do not love something because it is perfect, rather you love something in spite of its flaws. America is not perfect but compared too many other places on earth throughout time it is an exceptional place. A shining light of freedom and liberty in a dark brutal world full of violence and oppression.
Make America Great Again means that it is okay to be a proud American. To love your country and what it stands for. The principles of freedom and liberty and the understanding that we as individuals and as a country do not always live up to those principles but those principles are good and important.
It was this mutual understanding of the value of these principles that united the country. They allowed us to disagree on topics while at the same time accept that was okay because we all shared these basic principles.
Lately we have seen a rise in anti-American sentiment. I have personally been called a Nazi and a fascist in Portland Oregon for carrying the American flag. Another person, who came out to protest Patriot Prayer, a pro-American right wing group, was assaulted because he was flying the American flag.
This was not done by the people he came to protest but by people who call themselves Anti-fascists. And what did the other ‘peaceful’ protesters around this man do when he was brutally attacked for carrying the American flag? They watched and left him lying on the ground bleeding. His only crime was that he was carrying the American flag. A flag that is a symbol of freedom and liberty.
There are people who seek to shame you into not loving America. They see America as an evil oppressor across the world and in this country but they fail to accept or recognize that the American people are living in the most prosperous time in human history.
They have no gratitude for the sacrifices of previous generations that helped lead us to this point in world history. They take for granted the peace and plenty that we have as if this is the norm. In reality what we have here is rare.
Most of human history is the story of war and suffering. Of countries that are run by people who are more than happy to kick down your door in the middle of the night and kill you if they believe you are a threat or have expressed opposition.
You have protesters in the street chanting things like ‘No Trump, no wall, no USA at all.’ You have politicians telling crowds that America was never really great. You have politicians openly calling for the harassment of cabinet members of a sitting president and who are cheered by a crowd for doing so.
You can disagree with the president, you can protest, you can vote for who you think will run the country best, and you can oppose policy. All of that is part of what makes America great. There is a difference between doing those things out of a love for your country and out of a hatred for your country.
The American author Mark Twain said it best when he said “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” The ideals and principles of individual liberty and freedom, ideals such as free speech, the right to peaceably assemble, and freedom of religion, are the ideals that America was founded on. It is these principles that people refer to when they say they are proud to be an American and that they love America.
The Rule of Law
Some people try to conflate the meaning of the phrase rule of law with the meaning of systemic oppression. Rule of law simply means that you enforce the law as it was written regardless of the emotional outburst it creates in a vocal minority or the damage it may do to your chances of reelection.
We elect people to make and enforce the law, not pick and choose which sections of the law they would like to enforce and which they would like to ignore. That is something a king or a tyrant would do.
If the president or a police officer or an enforcement agency does not enforce the law they are essentially sweeping it under the rug for someone else to deal with. If the law is not enforced how are we the people supposed to know if the law is good or bad, effective or ineffective? How would we know if it needs to be altered or abolished?
If a law is not enforced and then enforced by someone who is following the law then it comes across as selective enforcement. If you are selectively enforcing the laws then you are circumventing the will of the people whose government created those laws. When you selectively enforce the law you are placing the authority of the individual invested with the power to enforce the law over the rule of law.
The rule of law is important because it sets up a system of impartial rules that apply to everyone equally. It should not take into account the wealth, status, race, religion or any factor other than the law itself and the actions of those accused of violating the law. It is the idea that the law should rule the country not an authority.
Freedom of Speech
A few years ago it would have been unthinkable to attack freedom of speech. Hate speech legislation is just that, an attack on freedom of speech. What am I trying to say here? Basically I want to say that with the rise of PC culture and the idea of hate speech we are seeing attacks on one of the important foundational principles of our society.
People who defend the idea of hate speech typically try to explain that all they are trying to do is make people more polite or that they are just trying to protect marginalized people. The only problem with hate speech is that what is and is not hate needs to be defined.
That is the rub, who gets to define what is hate speech? Should we allow the president to do it? That would mean Donald Trump gets to decide what is and is not hate speech, is that a power you want to invest into that office?
The truth is that the people who will get to define what is and is not hate speech are the people you least want to do that job. The idea of hate speech, or that free speech is just a cover for hate, is another form of appealing to authority to enforce your beliefs.
Along with the right of freedom of speech comes the responsibility to speak truthfully, honestly, and clearly. Failure to do so results in the erosion of freedom of speech by violating the trust between individuals.
Making America Great Again
For me this is what Make America Great Again means. It means getting back to the first principles of our country. The ideas and ideals it was founded on and stop chastising people for the sins of the past and taking credit for accomplishments of the past.
What matters is what you do as an individual. Become self-reliant so that you do not need to be dependent on the state. End the tribal cycle of identity politics that only serves to pit groups of people against each other.
Recognize the positive aspects of masculinity and end the attack on men and boys. The family unit has done well to serve humanity for thousands of years and we mess with that institution at our own peril.
You should love your country, not blindly but honestly accepting the flaws but understanding the value of the principles on which it was founded. Understand the importance of the rule of law and of freedom of speech. Getting back to this first principles is what it means to me when I hear the phrase Make America Great Again.
