The following is from our November issue. Forty-one symposium contributors were asked to respond to the question: Are you optimistic or pessimistic about America’s future?
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There is no sadder sight than an American pessimist. Americans—Jean de Crèvecoeur told us—are born a free and hopeful lot, “a new race of men,” blessed with a bounteous land and a moderate government. Lincoln called Americans an “almost chosen people,” a designation bound to leave many readers of this magazine wondering at the divine improbability of being selected not once, but twice. Optimism, by nearly all accounts, has been an integral part of our national DNA.
What, then, is one to think of opinion polls today showing that, by a margin of almost 4 to 1 (77 percent to 20 percent), the public considers the nation to be on the “wrong track”? Malaise of such Carteresque proportions might easily be interpreted to mean that Americans have lost faith in themselves and in the future.
I am not so sure. Contrary to initial impressions, the real pessimists today are probably to be found among the “right-trackers,” clinging stubbornly to the change they once believed in. Having put their dream team on the floor, under the leadership of one touted to be the greatest political talent of our era, these die-hards have little choice now but to put on a grim public mask of hopefulness. For two years (2009–2011), we enjoyed by their reckoning virtually unchecked government of the best, by the best, and according to the best theories.
Yet things have not panned out. The outcome is being blamed on the difficulty of the challenge, on fate, or on severe headwinds, but doubt must certainly be creeping in that the fault is theirs. Right-trackers today are a desperately dispirited group, filled with dread that their opponents will take over and fail or, much worse, succeed.
One segment alone of the right-trackers seems upbeat: the so-called foreign-policy realists. For decades, intellectuals of this persuasion have yearned for a much less assertive America on the world scene. They have a president who agrees. Now, with constraints imposed by our current indebtedness as the rationale, these thinkers insist that America has no choice but to cede leadership to others. Blessed is the nation in decline, for it shall disinherit the earth.
And what of the almost four-fifths of Americans who think the nation is on the wrong track? Many, perhaps most, in this group have not lost hope. Dismayed almost to the point of despair at where the nation is now heading, they nevertheless see a path to revival and restoration by a change of direction. They reject a no-growth economy as the “new norm,” affirm a return to more limited government, and back a vigorous foreign policy. Their rallying cry has been American exceptionalism, a concept vague in its content but expressive of a strong, almost defiant, spiritedness.
Whether optimism or pessimism prevails will not by itself determine the outcome to the crisis the nation now faces. Far more will depend on the soundness of our leadership and the wisdom of the policies it adopts. The prophet, not the prognosticator, alone can know the future. Still, only a nation that possesses an underlying confidence that it can shape its own destiny is prepared for greatness.
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James W. Ceaser is professor of politics at the University of Virginia and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution.
I'm a pessimist by nature and think it's been maligned. Being a pessimist doesn't make one a dysfunctional cynic who can't get out of bed in the morning. A motivated pessimist can be highly effective and leave those blinded by rose-colored glasses in the dust… n nThat being said…It's hard for me to be optimistic about the future of American after having watched the media, the entertainment industry, academia, and other central elements of the society get an Obama elected in the first place.
The fact that many of our fellow citizens see the country on the wrong path does not, by definition, mean they think the country is lost. America is not losing altitude with no hope of recovery. Rather, I submit, citizens see our current conditions as poor but poor conditions are not irreversible. Like a pilot whose plane is descending we can pull-up and return to high altitude flying. But we have to pull-up. n nYes, we are suffering now. Yes, there are many problems to solve. And yes, there’s lots of work to do. n nAmericans are not the kind of folks to simply sit-down, give-up, and wait for rigor mortis to set in. Like boy scouts lost in the woods, we can, and will, find a way out. (The upcoming elections will be our map out of the woods.) We need confidence that we will see better times, despite what the newspapers want to report, and despite what we tell ourselves. America has done much good for ourselves and the world at large. There’s no reason that will stop now. n nSometimes there’s a country song that fits our situation, and here is one to consider for some levity: n“Proud To Be An American” by Lee Greenwood: n n“That I’m proud to be an American, nwhere at least I know I’m free. nAnd I won’t forget the men who died, nwho gave that right to me. nAnd I gladly stand up, nnext to you and defend her still today. n‘ Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land, nGod bless the USA. n nA little optimism can go a long way. n
Frankly I am confused by the author’s assertions that the current administration is responsible for the malaise and lack of optimism in this country. I see many of the current problems of this nation as a direct result of polices begun in the 1980s when Saint Reagan began dismantling the safeguards for ordinary folks, an extreme increase in the influence of the wealthy elite to look out only for themselves and social agenda that has tied up the functioning of this country’s government to its detriment. I will grant you that the wealthy elite have always had the upper hand as far as influence goes, but they have a death grip on this country now so their lackeys in Congress are incapable of crafting fair legislation for the rest of us. Also, our elected leaders on both sides of the aisle in Congress have squandered the prosperity of this country with unnecessary wars that kept their hands in the cookie jar of Social Security to the point that it will not be there for my children and grandchildren. Sadly we elected those short sighted folks, so I guess we deserve the mess we have. r nr nWorse yet, the social conservatives have beat the drum that science is bad and our schools are bad to the point that we believe everything the naysayers are saying and the naysayers have created a self fulfilling prophecy.r nr nYes we have plenty to be pessimistic about and with the current batch of people wanting to be in charge, I don’t see things getting any better, only worse.