The Great Red State
Our nation, the United States of America, is as a whole Republican. To look at the country alone, and to see the climate of political varieties within, one would not come to this conclusion. Instead, to see this one must look at our country and its place in the world.
We want democracy for everyone, but will not cede our power to anyone. Democracy reigns supreme, unless the United States is present. In which case, the United is President of the World, and democracy is Vice-President.
Domestically, we must retain control of our own homestead, just as we must globally retain our homeland. The government is not welcome in our home to document our guns, nor is any foreign government welcome on our soil to oversee our nuclear capability. The liberals and intellectuals in Los Angeles/New York can not tell us what is right for our families, just as the foreigners in France/Venezuela can not instruct us how to run a country.
And the list goes on. For the environment, we make no significant commitments. Economically, we would never do anything that could cripple our market. Aid to nations in poverty is sparse. We are after all, capitalists, and they, are competition.
Whatever we may feel that our identity is domestically… we are by our own standards, conservative abroad. I do not align with a national identity such as this, but what can be done? There needs to be a paradigm shift. In a world so globalized, it is unhealthy to retain an elite nationalist self image. There is a greater community beyond our borders that we as a nation have yet to recognize. But until that day, this is a red state.
D- Once, as a child, I was at the dinner table listening to the adults’ conversation. The topics lingered from small talk (”Sure has been a cold winter.”), to gossip (”Guess who I saw at the store? Small world!”), to politics (”I heard that France’s health care system blah blah blah…”). I interjected with the thought: “Someday the world will be so small that people will just move to the countries that they feel have the best governments.” That way, I thought, everybody would like everybody else in their country. My comment was mostly ignored I think, which was fine. I didn’t really have anything else to say on the subject. And I still don’t, really. Your post just rather randomly reminded me of that moment.