© 2020 Jim Spence - It is fascinating to contrast the way the blame-America first crowd argues basic facts about the U.S.A.'s place in the world. At stake in their claims regarding all the wrong doings by the U.S.A. is the fundamental nature of Americans. The Colin Kaepernicks of the America always find the American glass empty. Others of similar ilk find it at least half empty. Blame America firsters will routinely point to the scourge of slavery, 19th century American colonialism, and even 19th century American imperialism, as a way of presenting a permanently negative image of the fundamental nature of America. In their process of doing so, they typically try to make sure those who consider their assertions, come away believing that America’s past is hopelessly tainted and Americans, particularly white Americans embrace the nation’s past wrongdoings. They also imply that anyone in today’s generation of Americans, must either accept responsibility for all the transgressions of previous generations of Americans, or become socialists, as a way of "redeeming" themselves. Millions of gullible people including those running public education buy into this tripe.Unfortunately, gullible people wind up being the victims of their own gullibility. Consider how all of the incredibly gullible people in Germany allowed Hitler to come to power, outlaw all other political parties, round up Jews, and annex by force, neighboring countries. Tojo behaved in a similar way in Japan with the tacit approval of the nation's gullible “emperor” and gullible citizens. The Japanese military butchered hundreds of thousands of innocent Chinese citizens as well as other Asians. Germany eventually attacked the Soviet Union and butchered hundreds of thousands if not millions of Russians, as well.
Previous generations of Americans found themselves in a precarious situation in 1939-1940. They did not want to fight battles in Europe or Asia. However, when England, Russia, and China begged for any form of assistance against the assaults of the Japanese and Germans, the United States showed compassion for those being invaded. Eventually this stance dragged the U.S. into World War II.
Let's make no mistake, there was a concerted effort by many nations to defeat the butchers of Japan and Germany in WWII. However, without American treasure, American industrial might, and American blood, neither Hitler’s Nazi Germany nor Tojo’s Japan would have been defeated. Young Americans like my uncle Nelson Spence endured incredible hardships fighting and winning critical battles at places like Guadalcanal in the Pacific. He was a lucky. He came home. Tens of thousands didn't.
There is an old saying, “You can’t have it both ways.” Tom Brokaw wrote a book called, "The Greatest Generation.” It provided tremendous documentation of the sacrifices of young American men and women during WWII.
There is a question for 21st century Americans that is intriguing. Can we take credit for all of the bravery and sacrifices made by the WWII generation of Americans? Do the virtues of those thousands of American who died on the beaches at Normandy and in the Pacific, transfer to today’s American citizens simply because, we are loosely defined, members of that same general group of people?
The best answer to this question should be a resounding NO. We 21st century Spences are entitled to make NO claims, that because Nelson Spence spent months fighting on the island of Guadalcanal, that WE somehow, deserve to take credit for his sacrifices or the sacrifices of other brave Americans during that period. Talk to Colin Kaepernick and millions like him, and they will quickly and completely agree that 21st century Americans have NO claims on the virtues of our ancestors who fought in WWII against Germany and Japan. Sacrifices made by those Americans to help save the lives millions of Russian, French, English, Dutch, Belgian, Filipino, and Jewish people, is irrelevant to our own virtues in this century or lack of virtues. Fair enough.
Now let’s have some fun and invert this exercise. When we do so, it does not take long to expose the utter stupidity and hypocrisy of the modern-day progressive Democrat. Why are they pitiful? Because they want to have it both ways. 21st century American progressive are constantly trying to pin all of the transgressions of previous generations of Americans, including the scourge of slavery, colonialism, imperialism, etc. on present day Americans, particularly white men. Anyone with any sense of fairness should be able to see that this mindset is truly unfair. Nobody should try to take credit for unearned virtues, nor take the blame for transgressions done by others. This is basic fairness.
Still, this have it both ways approach is the essence of the Democrat's identity politics. Democrats attempt to categorize all people as members of groups instead of evaluating every human being as an individual.
Martin Luther King Jr. nailed it when he said people need to be judged by the content of their character. Nothing could be more profound than this statement, simply because it rejects group identity that can make one evil or virtuous simply based on their group membership category.
When discussing this idea with a friend recently she put it to me in more succinct terms, "I didn’t risk my life to liberate Europe or Asia from Germany and Japan, and I never lynched anyone either."
Democrats have a failed message to Americans, simply because they kowtow to the group identity crowd in their party.
We are a nation of individuals and should be judged according to the content of our characters.
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