OP-ED: What made America great slipping away
Last October, Washington County Treasurer Tom Flickinger wrote in the Observer-Reporter that a conservative is “someone who holds a political outlook rooted in tradition, stability, and individual freedom.” He aptly described the economic and social values shared – at least until recently – by conservatives: free markets, small government, respect for the law, for example.
The conclusion I draw from his essay is that President Trump is no conservative, nor are those who applaud his very un-conservative actions.
“Liberal” is not the opposite of “conservative,” just as a race horse is not the antonym for stock car; they are two ways to run government, and two ways to run a race.
Whether you consider yourself conservative, liberal or, like most Americans, somewhere in between, the Trump administration has provided you with plenty of things for which to be disgusted:
– The tariffs that have or will make just about everything more expensive and amount to assault on free trade.
– The dismantling of USAID that has, for example, forced its clinics in South Sudan to close in the middle of a cholera epidemic, leading to the death of hundreds.
– The hundreds of millions of dollars spent to put thousands of heavily armed and poorly trained wannabe ICE soldiers in our cities to round up, imprison and deport not just criminal illegal aliens but anyone looking foreign.
– The threats, insults and belittlement of our nation’s allies.
– Going to war (blockading shipping and bombing another country IS war) without the approval of Congress.
– Putting the health of our youth in jeopardy with unscientific vaccination edicts and withdrawing funds from vital medical research.
– The continuing failure to come up with a viable alternative to the Affordable Care Act, or a comprehensive immigration policy.
– Use of the Justice Department to seek revenge on political adversaries, drop cases against loyalists and, now, to prosecute Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in an effort to remove him and take control of the independent Fed.
– Forcing museums to revise history to something more agreeable to the president.
– Turning our back on Ukraine in its darkest hour of need.
These are not partisan complaints. These are issues that should concern Americans of every political stripe.
The United States was – not so long ago – admired around the world not because of its wealth; not because of the overwhelming size and strength of its armed forces, but for its generosity. That generosity and our government’s willingness to come to the aid of the oppressed are what made us proud to be Americans.
And all of that has slipped away.
Park Burroughs is the retired editor of the Observer-Reporter.