chapter fourteen

A dream, in focus

"The American Dream is freedom, prosperity, peace -- and liberty and justice for all. That's a big dream. It's not always easy to achieve, but that's the ideal. More than any country in history, we've made gains toward a democracy that is enviable throughout the world. Dreams require perseverance if they are to be realized. Fortunately, we're a hard-working country and people. We're the luckiest people in history, just by the fact that we are Americans."

-- Donald Trump, 3/22/2007 Forbes interview

How to define the America of which Trump spoke so passionately?

Its founding was historic, an inspirational example to people around the world of men daring to stand in defiant renunciation of monarchical tyranny. America has to its credit landmark triumphs: An entrepreneurial economy that cultivated developments benefiting all. Medical technologies that draw global envy. Military might that bows to no one. World defense against the oppressive Nazi and communist ideologies (and, today, that of radical Islamic terrorism). Important strides toward equality for all of its people. And a boldly blazing torch of liberty that stirs men the world over to dream, attempt, and succeed.

Such was the proud legacy left us by our forbears. They crafted a Constitution whose arrangement of governmental authorities and processes, and guarantees of personal liberty not subject to authorities' beneficence, stands yet as a marvel among formal documents.

But is the traditional definition immutable, or can (and should) it transmogrify according to changing attitudes of its people? Doesn't a free citizenry have the right to make changes it feels are appropriate to its evolving nature?

Late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, writing after the 2005 Van Orden v. Perry decision, argued that: "What distinguishes the rule of law from the dictatorship of a shifting Supreme Court majority is the absolutely indispensable requirement that judicial opinions be grounded in consistently applied principle. That is what prevents judges from ruling now this way, now that -- thumbs up, or thumbs down -- as their personal preferences dictate."

Scalia offered further wisdom during a 2008 NPR interview: "If you somehow adopt a philosophy that the Constitution itself is not static, but rather it morphs from age to age to say whatever it ought to say -- which is probably whatever the people would want it to say -- you eliminate the whole purpose of a Constitution."

Candidate Trump frequently cited Scalia as representative of a judicial philosophy he found compelling. With understandable pride, he boasted to audiences that Maureen Scalia, the late justice's widow, maintained in her yard a Trump campaign sign. February 2017 press accounts noted her presence at Trump's first national address before Congress.

The Constitution's drafters understood that a foundation was necessary for the ensuring of order and freedom. Certainly, progression as might be desired by a changing citizenry can be pursued. Change must always, though, be realized within the existing constitutional frame. Yes, the Constitution provides for amendment, that potential being necessary to meaningful self-determination. But the founders wisely put in place a process requiring arduous, large-scale effort. Such changes cannot be made easily. Nor should they be, considering that national stability and citizen liberty hang in the balance.

Like any nation, America has a cultural identity. Unlike many other nations, though, America's is a composite of influences. Some suggest that diversity is our strength. It is not. Our country's true strength is articulated in the motto E Pluribus Unum. From many, one. It is when Americans of all backgrounds unite in recognition of shared national interests that we are truly formidable.

The Donald Trump-Mike Pence campaign gave voice to an all-American sense of citizens bonded together by common cause perhaps unseen since the WWII era. During the incipient Trump Revolution, it was again thought admirable to be unashamedly patriotic. 

And the Trump Revolution rekindled something many may have forgotten: That it's OK to believe in something bigger than yourself. A spirit with roots in yesterday, a reawakened resolve today, and confidence that tomorrow holds the potential for wonders that we can, as a free nation, make real. 

We're a unified people whose courage, wisdom, inventiveness, and indomitable independent nature mark us as exceptional.

It may be that President Donald Trump's resurrection of that truth in American hearts will go down in history as his finest accomplishment. 

But then, only time will tell. 

"Together, we will make America strong, again. We will make America wealthy, again. We will make America proud, again. We will make America safe, again. And yes, together, we will make America great, again!  God bless you."

- President Donald Trump, 1/20/2017 Inaugural address