Let’s make America great again! Again? So, does that mean America is no longer great? Were we ever really ‘great?’ Did we somehow lose our greatness? Judging by campaign rhetoric and endless politicking, it would seem that we were in fact, never really all that great.
How dare you!
Before I continue, let me clarify — I do believe America is a great nation. Are we perfect? No. The truth is there are no perfect people or perfect nations. But America is a great country and it has earned this status for many reasons.
But, something has happened — a drastic transformation of our national psyche that needs to be dragged into the light: our politicians, from Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, to the Mayoral candidate in Anytown, USA, seem to think that America is no longer great. How else do we explain why virtually every campaign speech delivered by a politician today, starts off with and ends with, “Let’s make America great again!”
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” – Thomas Edison
But this isn’t new
Doing a bit of research on political campaign strategy and messaging, one quickly concludes that politicians in both parties are increasingly trying to convince us that there is something wrong — America is in peril, we’re no longer great and there are threats and problems all around us and something needs to be done now. And what’s more, all of these politicians claim they’re precisely the cure-all for all of our (seemingly) endless woes.
Upon deeper reflection, something is really off with their hysteria. If, as they claim, we need to make America great again, why is it that in those same speeches, they fall to the crowd-rallying cry of “this is the greatest country in the world!” Really? If we are the greatest country in the world, why in that same speech do they warn us that we need to make America great again? Logically, if we need to get back to the point in which we are ‘great,’ you certainly can’t declare that we are the greatest. So, something isn’t adding up.
Which brings me to my point…
I believe that something has gone terribly wrong in our country — the challenge is identifying the root-cause of the problem. If one pays close attention to the mood and vibe of our country, one quickly concludes that we have moved away from the positive, “we can do it!” frame of mind, to one that is being centered on an endless cycle of doom and gloom.
Now to be fair, fear-mongering in politics isn’t a new phenomena. However, it has measurably intensified in its virulence. There was a time when a politician would simply criticize their opponent and then prove why they were the better choice for voters. Today however, we are seeing an almost violent form of politicking, with a scorched earth approach to governing — politicians these days rarely speak to their own abilities and values, but instead, seek to discredit and destroy their opponent. So, the choice now is not “I’m the better candidate and here’s why…” but is instead, “my opponent is evil and corrupt and if you vote for him, you’re will be responsible for destroying America!”
Today, politicians on both sides of the political spectrum employ a virulent form of scaremongering, centering their entire political platform on doom and gloom — unfortunately, in their fanaticism to win through fear, they create a palpable sense of negativity that spreads throughout the land, turning citizen against citizen. This is why we are a noticeably divided country right now and in place of civil and healthy political debate, we have citizens picking up their battle axes, prepared to fight to the death like a scene out of Braveheart.
“We become what we think about” –Earl Nightingale
The negativity has spilled out across the land
This use of fabricated crisis in politics has become so great that it runs across the land like a toxic spill, infecting every fabric of our daily life. Watch TV or surf the web for a few hours — from TV shows, movies, music and video games, we are besieged with dark, dire and depressing thoughts, words and images — our mainstream media now uses violence, debauchery and all manner of negativity to get our attention.
Even TV commercials have become downright depressing — they’re either from a pharmaceutical company putting fear into us about some dreaded disease, or they’re about an allegedly menacing problem that they (and they alone), can solve — for a price, of course. What happened to companies selling their products on their benefits and value? Do they really need a sad story to sell bath soap? Does everything that airs on TV have to be about a tragedy or a hyped-up threat to our very life?
From all angles, we are bombarded with the message that things are critical and in order to be saved from the phantom menaces that lurk around every corner, you need to vote for them, buy this product, visit this website or subscribe to this service…or else!
How bad is it?
Like the world of politics, Hollywood could not care less about the brutal and negative media they produce — for them, the national well-being is irrelevant.
When told recently that Sony Pictures would show ‘sanitized,’ more family-friendly versions of Director Jude Apatow’s movies for viewing on airplanes and in the home, the Director exploded, Tweeting:
“This is absolute bullsh*t and @sony and @SonyPictures is gonna get hell for F—ING with our movies. Shove the clean versions up your as*es!” (* inserted by me)
The entertainment industry seems determined to churn out as much filth and negativity as they can, proving they could not care less about the harm they’re causing.
Read the article Hollywood directors have turned their backs on families
With our political and economic engines now centered on using fear and gloom as their go-to strategy, I feel we are at a cross-road. Fortunately, people are starting to reject this assault of fear-mongering and trash media, but so much damage has already been done, we urgently need for more people to speak up.
When the entire national mind-set is intentionally moved away from the positive and toward the negative just to get votes or sell products, no good can come of it. We are rapidly moving from having a ‘can-do,’ positive outlook on life, to one of despair, fear, confusion and apathy.
I don’t believe we need to make America great again, because I believe we’re still great. America is a shinning beacon to the world because we admit our faults and more importantly, we try to correct them. It is our positive attitude and ‘can-do’ spirit that propelled us to the top in the first place.
No matter what any politician, media outlet or corporation tries to tell us, our best days are not behind us — they’re ahead of us. If we reject the hatred and vitriol and we ignore the fear mongering and hysteria that comes from both political parties, we most assuredly will continue to be a great nation.
If not, then like many great powers before us, we will descend into a state of malaise and division. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen.
“Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.” — William James