It is said that one of America 's enduring characters is
that it keeps rejuvenating itself. This is manifested in the fact that America is a
nation of immigrants, and that it continues to welcome into its midst new blood
arriving from everywhere on the planet. But that's not the whole story or even
its most important aspect.
What's important about America's rejuvenation is that the
country is governed by a political system geared to the imperative of cleansing
itself when it gets soiled so badly, it is repulsed by an electorate eying not
only to throw the rascals out, but seeing to it that no new rascals manage to
replace them – at least not any time soon.
That history plays itself out
cycle after cycle; perhaps once every generation or two. The cleansing happened
in a noisy way right after the “Watergate Scandal” four decades ago; it
seems to be happening now in a more subdued but no less determined way. The
signal that the cleansing operation is on at this time comes in the form of the
people in its throws who are beginning to shift their outlook on life – and not
hiding it.
You can detect that shift when reading the article that came
under the title: “Don't let angry politics smash all that works in America ,” written
by Ralph Peters and published on March 7, 2016 in the New York Post. Peters was
the pessimist that used to see only the half-empty side of the glass. He has
shifted … and to sense the magnitude of his move from pessimism to a balanced
view, it is useful to contrast his current position with that of Dennis Prager
who has not shifted. Prager wrote: “The World is Getting Worse, but This Time
America Won't Save It,” published the next day, March 8, 2016 in National
Review Online.
Dennis Prager whose main preoccupation in life is the
welfare of “Israel , always Israel and no one but Israel ,”
remains pessimistic because: “The United States
is led by a president whose primary foe seems to be the prime minister of Israel .” What
is worrying Prager is that thanks to that American president, Iran “now has more than $100 billion in
additional cash to spend on the most powerful anti-aircraft weapons, making a
successful air attack on Iran
almost impossible”.
Prager does not fully explain why it is a bad thing that Iran
has installed a system capable of protecting it from air attacks. But maybe we
can do what he and the other Jewish pundits always do. That is, we're going to
amuse ourselves playing the game of “connecting the dots”.
Let's see now; where to begin? Ah, here is a good place
where we can begin to play that game. Every time that the Jewish pundits used
to call for keeping all options on the table – a euphemism known to mean: let's
bomb Iran into the Stone Age – crowds of concerned Iranians gathered in a Tehran
square and responded with the chant: “Death to America, death to Israel”.
That's what Prager describes as Iran
“regularly call[ing] for the annihilation of Israel .” But now that Iran can
protect itself from air attacks, the Jewish pundits will stop calling for its
annihilation. The consequence is that there will be no more chants in the Tehran square, and no more excuses for the Jewish pundits
in America
to play the game of victimhood.
That's why the Jewish pundits are lamenting. Unless they
find another set of excuses to claim the wages of victimhood for themselves and
for Israel , they will have
to cease siphoning off aid from America
of the kind that helps Israel
maintain its ongoing criminal occupation of Palestine .
You know what, my friend? I'm beginning to like this game of
connecting the dots.
As to Ralph Peters, he begins by making an admission he kept
hidden all these years. He now admits there are things that work in America . He
calls the current age (under the current president) “a golden age [that's]
prosperous, protected, privileged and free.” He describes the president's
government as being “much maligned [but that] it is remarkably effective.
Justice prevails. Opportunities for advancement are unprecedented”.
When you see this kind of a shift on the part of someone,
you want to know why he could not see then what he sees now. And he tells you
why. He says this: “We, the people, seem[ed] determined to shatter what we have
been given”.
Well then, as we remain on the binge of connecting the dots,
we see a nexus between the shattering that Ralph Peters admits he used to do,
and the shattering that the likes of Dennis Prager lament they can no longer
do. And it is the contrast between these two positions that tells the story of America 's perpetual
rejuvenation.
This time, in the words of Ralph Peters: “My gravest concern
… is that we, in the thrall of demagogues may precipitate catastrophe … This
country is great right now. Could it be improved? Of course”.