Earlier this week, I spoke to the summer interns at the Mackinac Center. My topic was public relations at the time of the American revolution. This topic coincides with the fact that this decade is the 100th anniversary of public relations being called such as a full-time profession. But public relations scholars have long pointed out that forms of public relations were practiced in all of human history. In my remarks, using material from the PR Museum, I showed how this was so at the time of the American revolution when people throughout 13 colonies needed to be convinced that it was necessary and appropriate to declare independence from Britain. Of course, this topic was also timely given the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is being celebrated this week.
My subject was to be an entire special topics class this fall semester at the university where I am a professor. Unfortunately, there were not enough students enrolled by a certain scheduling deadline and the class had to be cut. I don’t know if it was added too late and students had their schedules set, or if there is disinterest in history among college students Maybe some of both. The ones who had signed up had been eager to take the class and were disappointed.
The interns at the Mackinac Center, none of whom are even public relations students, showed keen interest in the subject and asked good questions. That was encouraging and fun.
I am naturally passionate about public relations and its history. That would be expected from someone who has been a professor of public relations and published articles and chapters on its history among my other research subjects.
But I am also interested in American history and keenly appreciative of the uniqueness of our founding documents and the uniqueness of our form of governance. What we celebrate this week is 250 years of shedding oppressive control, forming our own government, and gaining national and personal liberty unlike any that has been achieved in the world with the possible exception of ancient Greece.
Therefore, education and celebration on this subject has always been important. But it is more so now. That is because many today, in the grip of the re-emergence of a flawed Marxist ideology, actually deplore America and are “offended” by seeing reverence for the flag and celebration of national history. They see America as an oppressor, not a liberator.
This is nonsense when as an abstract, socially constructed idea it is measured against experience and observation.
Individual rights, liberty, and responsibility are the foundation of the US, and the ingredients for a system that has enabled more opportunity and prosperity than any nation in history. Yes there are flaws and imperfections, but that can be addressed by policy within our governing framework, not throwing out the system. Some today want the government to provide for them in the form of free health care, busses, education even universal income as opposed to embracing self-reliance and getting government out of their lives. Recently elected politicians in New York City and other local governments across the land are promising such things, and many are falling for it. This form of government as nanny, socialism, central planning, Maxism, call it what you will has never worked, and in fact is abusive. Read Road to Serfdom, written 80 years ago but applicable today.
The issue is, nothing is free. Those who succumb to accepting so-called free things from government lose their personal liberty. I once asked a student who thought free things from government was a good thing if he would live with his parents after graduation for the remainder of their lives. He said of course not. I said what if they gave you free rent, free food, free use of a car? He said no. I asked why. He wanted his independence. Exactly.
I once saw two families at the beach. Each had a toddler. It came time for both families to leave and they started gathering their things and trudging across the sand. The toddler in one family said “I carry!” He boldly dragged a beach chair to the family car. The other family’s toddler whined and said “carry me!” His father added the child to his collection of cooler, chairs and bags. The former child knows the joy of self-reliance and independence. The other is a malcontent destined for a life of dependence, dissatisfaction and marching at rallies with signs protesting the fact that he is “oppressed.”
As former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said of socialism: “it works until they run out of other people’s money.” Or eminent economics professor and author Thomas Sowell’s apt description of socialism: “favoring what sounds good over what actually works.”
America, at 250 is an empirical lesson in what works. Our republic as a system is not perfect, but it was precisely designed to manage those imperfections. It remains the best, most exceptional effort at self-governance that the world has known.
Bernie Sanders, a long-time U.S. Senator who champions socialism and decries millionaires and billionaires, has never held a job outside of government. Nevertheless, he flies first class and has three homes. When questioned about doing this as a public servant and having only a taxpayer-funded salary, he defends himself by saying he wrote books that sold well. So, taking personal initiative and being rewarded financially is ok for him, but not others. And all he generated was words, much as I love books. Meanwhile, those millionaires and billionaires he hates created millions of jobs, products and services people need, and numerous other positive outcomes.
The Sanders story is just one. Look at the long history of socialism and see how its leaders become enriched and the people for whom they claim to serve suffer in terms of limited liberty, choice, opportunity and personal advancement.
The very things those who hate America are proposing are the very reason so many people are flooding our borders to get to America. They are not coming here to be “oppressed” by our federal republic—they are fleeing the oppression in the socialist states in which they live. While some Americans live in other countries as expats, and do so for the weather, family relationships, or other nominal reasons, there are few Americans who immigrate completely and take up citizenship in other countries for more personal freedom.
But an anti-American sentiment persists. That is because each generation must be taught about the unique and beneficial values of America. But our education institutions are actually teaching our young to hate America, and pushing socialism and communism on students. I know K-12 teachers who personally have stood up against curriculum that does this and they were reprimanded. Universities, often founded to train pastors and citizens with civic pride and professional abilities, now seem bent on conditioning the youth of the nation to turn against it. Read more about how a radicalized left has worked to undermine America in Christopher Rufo’s America’s Cultural Revolution.
We have seen a rise recently of local and state candidates winning elections who are part of the Democratic Socialists of America. They claim to be for workers, but their website also makes clear they are a political activist organization, not a party. And they are less about the economic well-being of American workers than they are about flawed globalist ideologies, such as open borders and intensification of anti-Semitism.
It is interesting to see some people today liken our current president to Adolf Hitler or a NAZI. This may be hyperbole or a literal assessment. Either way, in their emotional ignorance, they forget that the term NAZI is an abbreviation of the German word Nationalsozialist, which translates to National Socialist in English. It specifically refers to a member of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), which was led by Adolf Hitler. The Democratic Socialists of America, with their fiery rhetoric, claims to be for workers, but its candidates’ unabashed hatred of Jews, disdain for individual initiative and propensity for violence seem far more like the NAZIs in 1930s Germany than any other party of movement in America today. Yet the re-programmed youth and others stirred to anger blindly vote for them.
Another unique and brilliant aspect of the founding of the USA is acknowledgement that rights come from God, not government. This was revolutionary and reformative, spoken of by Hobbes, Locke, and others. The government is merely other people, and who are they to presume the granting of rights. We have the rights as our founding documents say to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The anti-Americans among us favor Marx over Locke and seek to eliminate faith from our culture. They devalue life with promotion of assisted suicide and abortion. They want the government to control everything at the expense of our individual liberty and choice. And rather than allow people the freedom of their own pursuits they would propose the government supply what they think will make people happy. Socialism runs its course is arrogant and elitist. The bedrock of America’s founding values is actual respect for individuals.
Another threat to our democracy from socialism is its intended divisiveness. We have on our currency the latin phrase “e pluribus unum,” which means out of many, one. This is a statement that even in our different races, philosophies, religions, and individual differences, we are still united on foundational national—and positive—principles as indicated above. Some today insist that all agree to certain moral and political perspectives based on hatred and anger, or face gaslighting and cancellation.
I can end this essay with some hope as I think about America going forward.
Occurring concurrently with our national 250th birthday is the World Cup on our soil. There have been many articles, such as this one from the BBC, about how these fans from many other countries realize they were lied to (one person interviewed actually said this) about the USA and are ecstatic about their actual experience. They are raving about everything from the splendor of suburban homes, to the vast offerings at supermarkets, to the kindness of average Americans.
Most Americans are still in line with founding and other positive values, and are not on board with what socialists are pushing, according to some research by independent journalist Michael Shellenbarger shared in his Substack called “Public.” He notes: “Abolishing the police drew just 15% support even back in 2020 at the height of the power of Black Lives Matter. Seventy-four percent of Americans approve of the separation of powers, 90% favor co-equal branches, and only 9% want any one branch to hold more power. Eighty-one percent of Americans view free enterprise positively, while only 39% view socialism positively, and that 39% reflects the diluted Scandinavian sense of the word, not expropriating apartment buildings and other forms of housing. Seventy percent support closing the border, and 69% support limiting who can claim asylum.”
Perhaps reading the statistics and polls, more traditional Democrats are trying to save the party—and the nation—from the dangerous leftward tilt of Neo-Marxist communists in socialist clothes. As one example, New York Democrat U.S. Representative Tom Suozzi wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal warning that “Democrats Need to Show Our Love for America.”
Another reason for hope is the 15 or so young people I spoke to earlier this week. I am pleased to see they understand all of this. I encouraged them to speak positively about and advocate for our country as often as they can in their personal and professional lives.
On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the world is showing love for America. Some Democrats are standing up to socialists in their party who pose a threat to our unique democracy and national culture. A sample of young college students is showing respect and appreciation for our history. All Americans must maintain that view as well as we celebrate a quarter millennium of history. We need remain very mindful that ours is a country not based on geography or ethnicity but an idea. That idea brought positive change and centuries of benefits. The idea of America is worth celebrating and keeping.
