by Herman Cain
Hope inspired our Founding Fathers to declare their freedom from the tyranny of a distant king, and then fight and die to secure it for their children and the coming generations of freedom-seeking people from all over the world.
Hope inspired Thomas Jefferson to write in the Declaration of Independence,
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness . . . . That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it . . . . And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
With the stroke of a pen on July 4, 1776, fifty-six brave and hopeful colonists banded together and signed a document that set in motion the greatest experiment in history--the birth of the United States of America and a system of government by the people, of the people, and for the people.
Hope inspired President Abraham Lincoln to take all measures in his power to protect the Union during the tumultuous years of the Civil War. In his 1863 Gettysburg Address, he urged a public weary of war to continue the fight to preserve the Union and to remember all those who have come before to do the same:
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Hope inspired President John F. Kennedy in his 1961 inaugural address to warn would-be aggressors that the United States stands ready to defend its freedoms and the freedoms of its allies across the world. In addition, he called on citizens to accept the responsibility of protecting America's freedoms,
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility--I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it--and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
Hope inspired Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to persist in the great struggle for civil rights and equal opportunities for all citizens, even when confronted by angry mobs, police beatings, police dogs, fire hoses, jail sentences, and death threats. In his 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech, Dr. King inspired the entire nation that in spite of all the obstacles he faced, his dream and his persistence in seeing it come true had never faltered:
We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.
Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.
Hope further inspired Dr. King at a rally on the night before he was assassinated to urge striking sanitation workers in Memphis to remain steadfast in their struggle:
Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination.
And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation.
I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!
Hope inspired President Ronald Reagan on many occasions. President Reagan was one of the most hopeful, optimistic leaders in the history of the United States. His belief in the spirit and abilities of the American people and peoples throughout the world was unwavering, and his faith in God and belief that He has a special purpose for our country resolute. In his 1981 Inaugural Speech, Reagan stated,
We hear much of special interest groups. Well, our concern must be for a special interest group that has been too long neglected. It knows no sectional boundaries, or ethnic and racial divisions, and it crosses political party lines. It is made up of men and women who raise our food, patrol our streets, man our mines and factories, teach our children, keep our homes, and heal us when we're sick--professionals, industrialists, shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies, and truck drivers. They are, in short, "We the People." This breed called Americans. . . . The crisis we are facing today does not require of us the kind of sacrifice that . . . so many thousands of others were called upon to make. It does require, however, our best effort, and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds; to believe that together with God's help we can and will resolve the problems that now confront us. And after all, why shouldn't we believe that? We are Americans.
Reagan's hope and optimism in a 1987 speech in front of the Berlin Wall inspired the world that communism could be defeated and freedoms made available to all people who seek them: "General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom."
A number of common themes permeate the words of Jefferson, Lincoln, Kennedy, King, and Reagan. Among these are an enduring faith in God and an understanding that He created our great nation and all its promises and has charged its citizens with its protection.
President George W. Bush referenced this charge in a speech I heard him give in 2004 when he stated, "Democracy is not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to the world, and our responsibility to protect it."
A second common theme is that these great men understood America's unique place in the world. We are not a conquering nation, but we will fight to the end against those who wish to bring us harm. We are a nation of individuals in pursuit of our individual dreams, but we are bound together by a love for the freedoms necessary to allow us to pursue our dreams and aspirations.
The third common theme in the words and lives of these great leaders is hope and optimism. Each one overcame extraordinary obstacles to achieve extraordinary goals. They were not always successful in each step along the path to success, but their hope and optimism allowed them to persevere and achieve their "calling." Hope and optimism allowed each one of these leaders to change the country and the world forever.
Dr. Robert Schuller calls this hope and optimism "possibility thinking." The late Don
Clifton describes it as "positive psychology." The Apostle Paul calls it "faith." I call it "the key to happiness."
Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned from the lives and words of Jefferson, Lincoln, Kennedy, King, and Reagan is that there will always be a greater number of people around us who are consumed by doubt and defeatism who, for various reasons, want to stop us at all costs from accomplishing our goals. And yet, the most successful among us, those of us who will achieve the greatest successes, dream the biggest dreams and make them all come true, are those of us consumed by hope and optimism.
Those of us who are not afraid to challenge the status quo in Washington will be the ones responsible for forcing Congress to enact aggressive policy change. Those who demonstrate the initiative to start their own grassroots movement, grow that movement, and show members of Congress that their political futures rest on changing the status quo and on leading the nation out of problems instead of watching problems get worse.
This great nation was built on the shoulders of those filled with hope and those who believed in a better tomorrow despite the obstacles. We can force Congress to unshackle us from the chains of economic slavery and allow all citizens the opportunity to achieve economic freedom. As our nation's forefathers have shown us, it all begins with faith, optimism, and hope.
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SUMMARY FOR CHAPTER 5
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We Are All in the Same Boat Now
• The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, reminded us that we are a nation of individuals who share many of the same hopes and dreams.
• In a crisis we unite. In times of prolonged prosperity we fight among ourselves like cats and dogs. Terrorism is a crisis. The war against our economic foundations is a crisis.
Terrorists Want to Kill All of Us
• Support of our president and our military should not be partisan as they prosecute the war on terrorism. Otherwise, the terrorists will be victorious in their mission to instill fear, divide, and destroy our great nation.
• Democrats and the liberal media must not be allowed to plant the seeds of doubt that destroy hope in our abilities, weaken the morale of the public and military personnel, and divide rather than unite us.
Economic Slavery for All
• The "new slavery" is not the slavery of one man owning another as his property, but economic slavery--slavery to a tax code and Social Security system that are out of control.
• The federal tax code, Social Security, and Medicare, enacted in 1913, 1935, and 1965, respectively, are the three pillars that support our nation's economic infrastructure. All three systems are in a mess and have been for decades.
• The federal income tax code must be replaced. Several commissions over the last twenty years have all concluded that a replacement tax system should satisfy six criteria. The FairTax (a national sales tax) satisfies all six criteria.
• The Social Security system is nearing bankruptcy due to decades of mismanagement, a flawed structure, and a lack of leadership and the political will in Congress for meaningful change. It must be replaced by a system of personal retirement investment.
• The health care system in the United States is severely sick. It is unduly influenced by the federal government, federal regulatory agencies, state governments, state regulatory agencies, insurance companies, and trial lawyers.
• Some of us may have arrived to this nation on the Mayflower, and some of us on slave ships, but we all are in the same boat now.
The City of Doubt--Washington, D.C.
• The public is much more hopeful than members of Congress for the possibility of aggressive policy solutions. Veteran politicians have learned to campaign on hope and optimism, but then they go back to Washington and maintain business as usual.
• Most voters turn off their political antennas the day after the election. Veteran politicians depend upon most voters having short memories or no memory at all.
• It is no wonder why millions have lost hope in their government. Their government has forced them to lose hope in themselves and their ability to be a new voice for policy change. If the majority of the electorate does not express a new voice after election day, the City of Doubt will never become a City of Hope.
A Nation of Hope . . . We the People
• Our nation has been blessed with many leaders in its history who faced seemingly insurmountable challenges and legions of doubters en route to achieving political victories that have forever changed the world.
• Leaders like Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Ronald Reagan were not dissuaded by the doubters. A number of common themes permeate the words of these great leaders, including an enduring faith in God, an understanding of America's unique place in the world, and a sense of hope and optimism.
• We can force Congress to unshackle us from the chains of economic slavery and allow all citizens the opportunity to achieve economic freedom. As our nation's forefathers have shown us, it all begins with faith, optimism, and hope.
Chapter Six
A New Model to Inspire Voters
A New Voice
There is an old wives' tale that says if you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will jump out. But if you put a frog in a pot of cold water and add just a little bit of heat, the frog will adjust to the change and stay there. Then you add another little bit of heat, and the frog will adjust again. If you continue to add a little bit of heat over a long period of time, the frog will eventually boil to death without even realizing it.
Like the frog in that tale, the public has been conditioned since the enactment of our tax code (1913), Social Security system (1935), and Medicare program (1965) to accept incremental losses of our individual economic freedoms. Congress has gradually taken more and more of our money, and with it our economic freedom, through numerous forms of taxation to fund the federal government's entitlement programs and pork barrel spending. We the people have allowed it to happen.
When our Founding Fathers boldly declared "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" as the foundation of what has become the greatest nation in the world, they also required us to "alter or abolish any form of government" which becomes destructive of those ideals. The tax code mess, the Social Security mess, and the Medicare mess are destroying those ideals and our economic freedom.
Our form of government was designed with a system of checks and balances to help ensure sound public policy. On the other hand, the system makes it difficult to change public policy quickly unless there is a crisis. Whenever there is a threat to our national security the president and Congress have historically reacted with a heightened sense of urgency. The attack on our economic security has been a slow boil, but most people do not yet feel the heat.
The inefficiency and unfairness of the tax code and the coming train wrecks for Social Security and Medicare are well documented. But the collective sense of urgency of the president, Congress, and the public has been absent. The general public has become conditioned to expect minimal changes from Congress, and Congress has perpetuated that expectation. As a result, our nation faces a growing list of other important problems, which are compounded by the new and different war on terrorism. But if we do not stop the gradual collapse of our economic infrastructure, the list of other important issues will become irrelevant.
News and information overload has produced a society of incomplete information, unclear thought, and uncertain feelings about nearly all political issues and events. We have been bombarded with too many sound bites, not enough information, and too few facts. People's lives are crammed with too many things to do in the same twenty-four-hour day. As a result, many people are making critical decisions based on isolated factoids of data, which are often not any better than the flip of a coin.
This is why we have constant gridlock in Congress, more too-close-to-call elections, confusing public opinion p
olls, unsolved decades-old national problems, a declining moral conscience, and a growing lack of personal responsibility. The future of this nation will be determined by the degree to which the general public can better connect the headlines of the day to the facts and their lives and the degree to which government can accelerate its ability to address the big issues effectively. A new model of government is not required to fix these problems, but a new sense of urgency is long overdue.
This nation is richly blessed with know-how, but a deficiency of right-now. Solving the big problems is not a matter of having the skill to solve them. It is a matter of having the will to solve them. In order for aggressive solutions to rise to the top of the public's mind-set and the forefront of congressional action, we must systematically and consistently challenge the status quo with a passion for change, or we will continue to get more of the same. We must demand greater urgency from our elected leaders in Congress, and we must demand more intelligent participation from the general public.
Technology has dramatically transformed our nation and our lives and continues to do so at an accelerated rate. We must change public policy at an accelerated rate on the big three critical systems to create a new day in government and a new day in the economic lives of working citizens. To accomplish this will require A New Voice.
