The Two Visions

No society or government can ever be better than the people who populate it. The highest ideals mean no more than the actions of people who reflect them honestly or betray them foully. Evil deeds often have hidden behind fine words. And when public officials say or do ugly things, people must take note.

In a self-governing society of free and equal citizens, no government can be better than the representatives elected to serve in it, and the judges those representatives appoint (and confirm) to judicial offices of public trust. In every court, but especially the Supreme Court, the rule of law depends absolutely on the honor and honesty of individual judges and justices. Corruption unchecked can reach anywhere.

Each generation of Americans must strive to do better than the last. Every age of men witnesses terrible mistakes. Correcting them is both a duty and a virtue. No one said it would be easy. Grave error must be confronted and remedied without fear or favor. No one is above the law, nor beneath its protection.

“Two Visions of America” first appeared on RATIO ET RES IPSA (RERI) June 13, 2024, shortly before President Biden withdrew from the presidential race and endorsed Vice President Harris.

Harris runs against DJT, a defeated former president, who refused to concede defeat. He runs now to impose a lawless, anti-immigrant, isolationist and thoroughly corrupt tyranny in America. He seeks to avoid accountability for his criminal misconduct. He now openly embraces neo-Fascist and even Nazi rhetoric. A large minority of Americans nevertheless supports his lawlessness, sedition, and hateful ideology still.

But the November 2024 election is about more than the lawlessness of one criminal demagogue. Two visions of America compete – again (and still) – for the future of the nation. Up and down the ballot, Americans will choose one vision or the other.

Here is (the final) Excerpt No. 9 of “Two Visions of America.”

The Two Visions

In stark terms, here are the two visions of America dividing us today:

One views America as a White, Christian, male-dominated nation, where “real” Americans are free (virtually) to enslave others socially, politically and economically, in order to become wealthy without interference from the government, which they mean to control, by whatever means necessary – let the devil take the hindmost.

The other vision views America as a nation where all men (all humans) – including women, Native Americans, Black people, Brown people, Asians, the young, the old, the ill, the poor, and the infirm – live truly as created equal under laws enacted by honest representatives of the whole people, representatives elected to represent (actually and truly) the common interests of the entire nation and of all our fellow inhabitants.

The first vision resembles a land of privilege, where birthright renders life-long advantage and entitlement to a select few. It resembles the land American patriots in the late 18^th century viewed as a British tyranny, imposing from afar artificial and unjust laws on a free people endowed with inalienable rights.

The second vision resembles the Idea of America, the ideal – perfectly conceived in liberty, but imperfectly implemented in reality – of free and equal citizens governing themselves, enacting just and natural laws based on facts and reason, honoring the democratic institutions that actually and truly ensure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, with liberty and justice for all.

The choice between these two visions of America confronts voters starkly in November 2024. Of the presidential candidates, one, calling himself a Republican, and the other, more truly an honest Democrat – each seeks to realize a vision of America.

Register. Vote. Choose.