12/11/2014 - Victor Davis Hanson Townhall.com
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.
The U.S. government now owes more
than $18 trillion in long-term debt. Even after recent income tax hikes for the
very wealthy and huge cuts in the defense budget, the Obama administration will
still run an annual budget deficit of nearly $500 billion.
No government official dares to trim
Social Security or Medicare. Everyone knows that both programs are fiscally
unsustainable.
More than 11 million undocumented
immigrants are residing in the U.S. as federal immigration law is reduced to a
bothersome irritant. A record 92 million American citizens 16 and older are not
working.
Red-state and blue-state animosities
reveal a nation more divided than at any time since the 1960s -- or perhaps the
pre-Civil War 1850s.
The permanent bureaucracy is awash
in serial scandals. The IRS, VA, GSA, NSA, ICE and Secret Service have all
deservedly lost the public trust.
Congress suffers from overwhelming
public disapproval. President Obama's approval rating hovers just above 40
percent.
Our new foreign policy could be
characterized as managed decline. Three defense secretaries have retired or
resigned under Obama. Two of them, Robert Gates and Leon Panetta, wrote memoirs
in which they blasted the administration. From Russia to the Pacific to the
Middle East, the world seems to be descending into the law of the jungle as the
U.S. withdraws from its traditional role as a global overseer of the postwar
order.
The Michael Brown shooting
illustrates seemingly irreconcilable racial divides not seen in 50 years. Al
Sharpton once was seen as a social arsonist and tax delinquent. Now he appears
to be the White House's most influential advisor on racial matters.
Student-loan debt has surpassed $1
trillion. Six years of college has become the new normal. Even then, more than
a third of the students who enter college never graduate.
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.
The epitaph for Silicon Valley is
written each year. Its tech industry is copied the world over. Yet seemingly
each year a new American technical innovation -- the laptop, Google, Facebook,
the iPad, the iPhone -- sweeps the world. Apparently, American informality,
meritocracy and top-flight engineering still draw global talent into Northern
California, which sends back out the latest gadgets to be gobbled up by
billions.
Neither drought, nor needlessly
cumbersome regulations, nor unfair trade practices have stalled American
agriculture. The farms of the United States -- where less than 2 percent of the
population resides -- have never turned out so much safe, nutritious and cheap
food that is feeding the world and earning America hundreds of billions of
dollars in foreign exchange.
The U.S. military -- in which fewer
than 1 in 100 Americans serve -- is facing record cuts. The Navy will have
fewer ships than the American fleet of World War I. The Air Force and the
Marine Corps are shrinking. Yet superb American forces continue to ensure that
the United States and its allies remain safe. Neither Vladimir Putin's Russia,
nor the communist Chinese hierarchy, nor the Iranian theocrats are quite ready
to take the on the U.S. military. All are rightly worried that to do so would
be suicidal.
America is not saved by our elected
officials, bureaucrats, celebrities and partisan activists. Instead, just a few
million hardworking Americans in key areas -- a natural meritocracy of all
races, classes and backgrounds -- ignore the daily hype and chaos, remain
innovative and productive, and dazzle the world.
The silent few of a forgotten
America have given the entire country an astonishing standard of living that is
quite inexplicable.
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