Capt O, I was extremely stupid when I was a teenager in the '60s, but fortunately smartened up by the time I could vote. In my parent's house, you'd better vote or else not come home (I think this was the rule of the majority of 1st generation irish-american parents).
We'd discuss issues and candidates, but wouldn't reveal who we voted for till later. I'll never forget the 1980 election, coming home & asking my father who he'd voted for (he'd always voted democrat) and hearing his answer: "Ronald Reagan". Turned out that we ALL voted
for Ronnie. It was the "sea change" that created "Reagan Democrats". Ronnie knew that you cannot "talk to" or reason with your enemies.
In his 1/11/1989 farewell address he wrote: "an informed patriotism is what we want. And are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world? Those of us who are over 35 years of age grew up in a different America. We were taught, very directly, what it means to be an American. And we absorbed, almost in the air, a love of country and an appreciation of it's institutions. If you didn't get these things from your family, you got them from your neighborhood, from the father down the street who fought in Korea or the family who lost someone at Anzio. Or you could get a sense of patriotism from school. And if all else failed, you could get a sense of patriotism from popular culture. The movies celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced the idea that America was special. TV was like that too, through the mid 60's.
But now,we are about to enter the 90's and some things have changed. Younger parents aren't sure that an unambivalent appreciation is the right thing to teach modern children. And as for those who create the popular culture, well grounded patriotism is no longer the style. Our spirit is back, but we haven't reinstitutionalized it. We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom - freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs protection."
That to me is the perfect synopsis of what we needed to do and where we've failed.
Ronnie was right and we allowed our schools to be taken over by teachers unions with a leftist agenda, we have a "popular culture" dedicated to tearing down America values and - instead of showing that America IS special, that America is BAD (we should be GLOBAL).
Ronnie was so right "freedom is special & rare, It's fragile: it needs protection". I'd add that it needs that protection from within as well as from without. You guys are doing a fabulous job Capt o - in protecting us from our enemies without, but I think we've been doing a pretty crappy job protecting ourselves from within.
Mary Ann