Never Stop Believing in America : Political system and informed public are keys to recovery

It is a little difficult to declare oneself a patriot these days without running the risk of being considered under the influence of euphoriants.

To be sure, unthinking patriotism needs always to be eyed with great suspicion--exploitative patriotism being well known as the last refuge of the scoundrel. And, certainly, all is not well in America. Job layoffs and hiring freezes tell us that. So does the current state of our cities--not to mention the state of race relations, not to mention the national spirit in general. Firecrackers will go off today, though the national mood right now is less celebratory than troubled.

But if Americans were to take the longer view--particularly helpful when the shorter-term outlook seems so bleak--the issue of patriotism might be put in perspective. For this valuable national emotion need not be the last refuge of the scoundrel but instead the first instinct of the concerned citizen.

America is indeed in trouble now, but it has been in far worse difficulty before. In the 1920s it careered into a devastating depression; in the 1940s it ran up against the evil of Hitler and the grand imperial ambitions of Japan. In war it triumphed over these--and many lesser--challenges.

America was successful for many reasons, such as a tremendous industrial base and bountiful natural resources. But it was also successful because America never stopped believing in America.

But now that communism, the great enemy of democracy, is discredited the world over, why is it that democracy, too, seems to be entering a crisis of self-confidence?

A worldwide recession, as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has suggested, tends to take the air out of everyone’s balloon; a diminishing tide, as it were, lowers all boats.

Right now the shaky economy has gotten on everyone’s nerves, and in no little measure that’s one reason so many Americans are more pessimistic than they used to be. That’s no reason to doubt the American political process, however, or to lose faith in the American people. On the contrary, this is precisely the time for a little self-confidence, or even a little patriotism, if you will.

The American political system, long the envy of many societies, has overcome everything thrown in its way. Yes, major reforms are needed, especially in the area of campaign financing, if the political arena is to regain its vigor. But the United States possesses a system that combines tremendous tensility with considerable flexibility: It is one that over the long run can include in its decision-making processes a greater percentage of its population, and more different kinds of people, than any other political system known to man or woman.

More Americans of more types and stripes have the real opportunity to participate in the political and business system than ever before. Inadequate voter registration and low voter turnout continue to be problems. But no problems are so difficult to fix that one can’t imagine a day when they no longer prove barriers to the full functioning of democracy.

Our thought on this Fourth of July is that our troubled America is blessed with the very tools required to get it out of the woods. Those tools include a political system that is still better than any other and an American public with good common sense, great diversity and, yes, appropriate patriotism. These are the elements of a winning society.