What defines, "National Strength"?

…let’s define national “strength”.  Is it a cowboy or a scientist?  A soldier with a gun or a marketing genius with a product?  An economist or a politician? Bush or Obama?  Reagan or Carter?  History is strewn with the carcasses of the bombastic and empty threats of tyrants and dictators who have defined strength as blind nationalism and exclusionary rhetoric.  Men in power have leveraged religious extremism to achieve their self interests.  For centuries foolish populations have been lead to believe the empty promise that by creating national military strength meant to be used to bully those who are unlike them or have resources they want to steal will guarantee national success.  This has created horrible violence and war that has destroyed generations of young people depriving the world of brilliance and art.  The technological innovations created in Scandinavia are as much because they haven’t waged war in over two hundred years as it is about they’re educational and socialistic efforts to improve the lifestyle of their citizens.

The definition of a strong nation today is more about economics and culture than military might and political strong-arming deterrents.  The sophisticated, nuanced knowledge needed to lead our country and to help encourage industry and international cooperation is available to us with Obama and has been recognized by the rest of the world.  The vitriol and lies thrown at him by his opposition is close to being able to be defined as terrorism because the chaos it creates in our government ultimately results in hurting our ability to function, compete and excel in the world’s markets and cripples our government to help mitigate our problems.

History is clear that many of the right wing’s ideas don’t work, “trickle down” economics, unlimited defense spending, walling off of borders and the war on drugs and immigrants are just a few examples, yet they continue to brandish these ideas as if no one studies history.  When they’re reminded that the economic crisis was created by unregulated, right wing, free-market radicals the right wing’s retort is that it’s “ancient history” and the left should live in the “now” and stop blaming Bush!

The successful education of our youth builds national strength, federal funding of research and development creates national strength, international trade agreements and open ended sharing of technology world-wide provides national strength.  Fair and simplified tax laws and national health care builds national strength.  Pounding shoes on tables in the UN, isolating a nationa with import tariffs or superficial posturing with hyperbolic rhetoric shows weakness.  Media manipulation and the blatant dissemination of propaganda and falsehoods creates division, confusion and weakness. 

Obama has come to us a as a gift, a lucky blunder of the political system that so often propels the worse not the best among us to positions of power.  We should be celebrating his efforts, appreciating his honesty and intellectual curiosity and admiring his focus on what has to be done to better our national situation as opposed to attempting to better position himself and his party by saying and doing what the polls and pundits want him to.

We are strong as a nation because we’re such a strange mix of people and places.  The European countries are each a more homogeneous population, culturally diverse between themselves and labor’s mobility between the cultures is often cumbersome and ultimately limits their ability to grow economically or create exceptional entrepreneurs.  The idea of a Sara Palin as a political figure is disgusting and shameful for us as a nation but she is the perfect embodiment of what the Republican platform is all about; superficial energy and self-serving platitudes meant to divert peoples attention away from their lack of intellectual substance.

And that’s all I have to say on the issue of “Strength”  J