I believe nature works hard to balance its different forces. For example, where I live there are hot days balanced out with cold days.
This balancing act is no less true in our democracy.
With the creation of the Declaration of Independence, there emerged brilliant people who represented different values expressed in the declaration. For example, John Adams argued vigorously for a strong central government that protected the rights of all citizens of the entire nation as expressed in the constitution. Thomas Jefferson, on the other hand, argued equally effectively for a decentralized government which allowed individuals the right of self determination.
Not unlike the Adams and Jefferson debates, we have another major duel of competing forces today.
With the election of Barack Obama in 2008, we finally had direct evidence that the long awaited promise of the Declaration of Independence and the constitution had worked. The ideal of equality of all citizens was actually working. An African American had been elected president. We finally had a strong enough federal system that was able to successfully carry out and hold that promise.
But, In the 2016 election we had a competing force rising up and demanding expression. With the election of Donald Trump we have the most powerful demand for states’ rights and self determination since the Civil War of 1860. In Trump we have an equally powerful force to that which brought Obama to office. A large population of citizens who feel left behind from globalism and had been ignored by the political system finally found a leader who was able by sheer force of personality to give them a voice at the table. His message was clear: he is determined to drain the swamp, I. E. , the federal government.
While impeachment proceedings are going forward on President Trump for crimes of extortion of a foreign head of state, the deeper tension between competing interpretations of the constitution are playing out. In all likelihood Trump will be impeached, but not convicted. But, that’s not the end of it. Issue by issue will see the two opposing forces fighting for a new vision of how we will be governed in America.
What will we have going forward? A strong central government able to protect the rights of all its citizens? Or, a significantly more decentralized government where citizens at a local level have great power in exercising their self determination in carving out their own destiny?
The stakes are equally as high as they were back at the founding of the nation. Obama and Trump are no less powerful than were Adams and Jefferson, and in all probability more powerful.
All Americans need to understand that an inflection point in American history is visiting us once again. It demands our attention and our best judgment.
Welcome to destiny.