What should be the objective of our political discourse? In a recent writing in Discourse, Russ Greene argues that our political “discourse has turned toward nihilism, where nothing really matters except winning.” A great example of this is the leader of the Republican party, Donald Trump, going all-out in the support of illiberal primary candidates who are election deniers, and, in turn, the Democratic Party’s cynical support of those same candidates in the hopes they will make the weakest challengers to their own candidates in the recent November elections.
To rise above this nihilism, our political discourse should focus on creating a nation that President Ronald Reagan reportedly referred to as “a shining city upon a hill.” He explained what this meant in his Jan. 11, 1989 farewell address to the nation:
“I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.”
This shining city is first and foremost a commercial republic, but not just any commercial republic. Our republic is built on strong institutional foundations that have and will continue to endure over time. It will be populated by people who are native born and who immigrated from all parts of the World. These people will live their daily lives secure in the knowledge that their person and property will be protected under the rule of law, that they will have equal of rights under the law, have freedom of expression, religious freedom that allows them the ability to live a life of virtue in their own way, and be allowed to enjoy the fruits of an economy that is built on the promotion of entrepreneurship, free markets, and free trade. If so, then Reagan’s reference to this country being “God-blessed” makes sense.
Ronald Reagan believed in this shining city for decades prior to his farewell address, already embracing it when he entered office in 1980, a time when the country was suffering under the embarrassment of the failed attempt to rescue the Iranian hostages, the challenges of gas shortages and stagflation, and a continuing Cold War. Those were domestic and international challenges that are strikingly similar to what we face today (e.g., inflationary pressures, undignified withdrawal from Afghanistan; inability to get OPEC to produce more oil; supply chain issues; and a Russian threat to our security). By the time he left office, he believed, and many Americans believed, that the United States was undoubtedly on a much better footing in terms of both international affairs and economics. No doubt, his belief in America as a shining city and those that he inspired with that belief helped turn the tide.
Yet, after Reagan left office, our country lost focus on making America a shining city. This loss was confirmed by former President George H.W. Bush in his eulogy for President Reagan in 2004: “Ronald Reagan was beloved because of what he believed. He believed in America so he made it his shining city on a hill.” President Bush made it clear to all Americans that this “shining city” was Reagan’s, not his, or ours.
Why this happened is not clear. Perhaps because the vision of a shining city dulled without a charismatic messenger. Or, perhaps because the 90s was such a unique decade of peace and prosperity that we thought our work was done, the shared imagined reality of a shining city had become a reality, and therefore discussion of it in our political discourse was no longer necessary. Of course, such work is never done, hard work is always needed simply to sustain what we have created.
Or, perhaps many people simply misunderstood what President Reagan was saying, thinking that he was referring to our commercial republic only in economic terms, not realizing that his vision of a free market economy also allows us to achieve what our founding fathers desired for all its citizens, the “pursuit of happiness.” This famous language from the Declaration of Independence does not refer to hedonist pursuits but the ability to live a life of virtue. Our founders were very serious and learned men and they would have been heavily influenced by classical philosophers who believed that a life of virtue was how one obtained happiness. Thus, the pursuit of happiness meant the opportunity to live a virtuous life.
Thus, our Founders aspired to create a country that would provide its people with the opportunity to live a life full of wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. According to Samuel Gregg in his new book, The Next American Economy, a thriving commercial republic creates the foundation for pursuing such a life of virtue:
Unfortunately, the last 20 plus years have not been kind to our country. We have suffered through military setbacks overseas, a lack of domestic political stability, and a chaotic and costly war against Covid. Moreover, the economic foundations for a shining city have been shaken. During this time our economy has become increasingly intertwined with cronyism (corporate/government partnerships), protectionism, industrial policies that give government (not the more knowledgeable marketplace) the responsibility of picking winners, over-regulation, an increasing percentage of total GDP being devoted to government spending, and enormous government deficits. This is not free market economics. As a result, our path to creating a shinning city that allows for prosperity and a virtuous life has been impeded. We must unwind ourselves from these self-inflicted wounds, both political and economic.
However, this great unwinding will not happen if our political discourse is based on the objective of winning is everything. In such a world whatever we accomplish will be random and erratic with many opportunities that could fortify our shining city lost in the complete lack of direction that this objective provides. It will not allow my generation and succeeding generations to say as President Reagan did in his farewell address that “We made a difference. We made the city stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.” Therefore, striving to create and maintain President Reagan’s shining city, a city of virtuous people built on a free market economy, should be the objective of our political discourse.