Everett, Wash.
Published: Monday, August 4, 2008

AMERICAN IDEALS

'Change' agents deny real progress

 There are those among the chattering classes who perpetually doubt America, who compulsively seek out injustices about which to pontificate: the poor and middle classes are struggling, racism is pervasive, our foreign policy is imperialist, consumerism is raping the planet, greedy corporate cabals exploit and manipulate, global warming will end civilization. America apparently has more vices than virtues these days. Whatever prosperity they can't convince us is illusory they denigrate as the loot of exploitation rather than the honest wages of hard-won freedom.

Who are these people? They're the same people who sneered at Ronald Reagan for believing the Cold War could actually be won; who once blamed man-made global cooling for hastening a new ice age; who declared that overpopulation would starve the world by 1990; who insisted welfare reform would thrust millions into poverty. They're the same people who declared the Iraq War "lost" a year ago, and still shamelessly cling to their white flags even as our soldiers turn the tide of battle. When these lordly prognostications failed to materialize they simply "refined" their predictions rather than rethinking the mindset they're predicated on.

They invent new crises requiring never-ending self-flagellation and sacrifice, yet insist their message brings "hope." They undermine progress they cannot take credit for, but pretend they're above partisanship as agents of "change." They refuse to modernize their 40-year-old view of the world, but ridicule others for "living in the past."

Is this really "change we can believe in?" I prefer to have faith in the essential goodness of America and its citizens. I prefer to believe that tomorrow will be better than today because I see overwhelming evidence that today is better than yesterday. I prefer to believe that progress comes because of American ideals, not in spite of them.

Reed Purcell
Everett
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