Vote

It’s about 2 A.M. on June 10, 2004, and I’m driving to Washington, DC. I left my apartment in Grand Forks, ND at this odd hour completely on a whim. DC was the destination to see former President Ronald Reagan lying in state in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.

I wasn’t particularly political.

What I was, was lost.

My life in 2004 was in disarray.

In March, I lost my job — and what I thought was my identity. The one thing that kept me waking up each day was gone. All that remained was my addiction — but that was a monster of a friend.

But, I had quickly landed on my feet.

The reason I could pack a bag and get in the car just after midnight was because I started a web design company and quickly gained a lot of clients.

I was my own boss and I had cash.

One of my many roles in my previous job — the one I had just been fired from — was A.M. talk show host. During this time in my mid-20’s, I was starting form some political ideals — my own ideals. My job was to be critical and questioning of people in elected office. No one got a free pass.

But, my views were drifting more and more conservative. Or maybe that’s where they already were, growing up in a Cold War Air Force family in the 80s and 90s?

In the late 90s, during the peak of A.M. talk radio, I was an emerging conservative voice.

When President Reagan died, I recall being moved in a way I never had before — with the exception of maybe two other events: the Challenger explosion and 9/11.

In retrospect, what I was moved by was the sense of wanting to be part of something … of feeling something.

I grew up with Reagan. He was the President of my childhood. He defeated the Soviets. That resonated with me as a young wannabe fighter pilot that watched too much Top Gun, Red Dawn, and War Games.

Reagan exuded a confident bravado, quick wit, and warm compassion.

When I finally had some semblance of a political compass, it was magnetized by the “Reagan revolution”.

My life took a hard left turn in 2004. Addiction grabbed hold like it never had before. I wanted out.

Fortunately, a hard reset was in the cards.

Soul searching consumed the early phase of my addiction recovery. I did not know who I was. Until this moment, what I was or what I thought I was were constructs devised by others. This was my time to explore my values and beliefs — to see what captivated me.

I ended up going back to college 9 months after getting out of jail. Newly sober. Wide awake and thirsty for life.

Everything, it turns out, interests me.

Because I was studying journalism and history and was eyeing law school, I found myself closing down the library reading everything I could about the Founding of America, the Constitution, and the philosophy of civil society.

It was 2007 and there was a presidential election. My lingering connection to the politics of Reagan found me way too interested in more libertarian ideals. I was emotionally engaged in politics and Ron Paul weaseled his way into my psyche.

It truly seemed innocent at the time. I could not rise above the intellectual exercise of Ron Paul and the early Tea Party stuff to see the bigger picture.

I was drawn to the notions of limited government and freedom from government regulation. I could not see that my selfish desire to be free from government restraint could be limiting and devastating for others. I could not see the inherent racism in the Tea Party movement.

Thank goodness for law school.

Seriously. Law school was not a place for tea party tomfoolery. Also, Barack Obama won in 2008. Watching his acceptance speech that night sparked something else in me — it jarred my values.

Barack Obama becoming President was an arc of the American story that was too good to be true. America really was about opportunity and exceptionalism. But it was also about inherent restrictions and inequality.

Some of us could find our way through these obstacles — but far too many could not — no matter how hard they worked.

I started to see the bigger picture. I started to take a new look at the Reagan policies versus Reagan the man. And I started to read some books on economics — specifically, Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations.” But, it was Smith’s earlier book, “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” that really caught my attention.

Wealth of Nations wasn’t about the pure superiority of self-interest and capital markets. No. Wealth of Nations was the vivid prologue to Smith’s moral foundation of individual and collective sympathy.

Wealth is not best when based on self-interest. Wealth is best when based on mutual sympathy.

The Constitution of the United States starts by declaring that:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

“[P]romote the general Welfare.”

Despite the fact that the original Constitution did not recognize slaves and women in most respects, the belief of Jefferson, et al., was that equality was possible for all as the American experiment matured and progressed.

It sure seemed like we were getting closer to the American ideal with President Obama.

Unfortunately, a segment of America thought their freedoms were in jeopardy. As Professor Timothy Snyder notes in his new book, “On Freedom,” President Obama was exercising the notion of “positive freedom.”

The Affordable Care Act, for example. The original law had a taxing provision — which would eventually get struck down by the Supreme Court. But, the rest of the law, setting up a required marketplace and access to affordable insurance simply meant that millions more Americans were brought to par with many other Americans.

Being sick and unable to access doctors is not freedom.

The ACA built structure for people to be healthy. Being healthy opens opportunities and promotes productivity and prosperity.

Freedom does not mean what most think it means.

When I doom scroll Threads, I see a segment of American Citizens that root their American-ness in self-interest. They are voting for the former president because they believe their individual life will be better off when the scales of government are tipped in their direction — others (fellow Americans, neighbors) be damned.

When many people describe why they are voting for the current Vice President, they say it’s to protect rights and freedoms for others.

One side has consumed a perverse reading of The Wealth of Nations. The other is lifting up Smith’s moral sympathy to “form a more perfect Union.”

And when I doom scroll Threads, I repeatedly see a portion of a speech Ronald Reagan gave on his last full day in office, January 19, 1989 [emphasis is mine]:

America's freedom does not belong to just one nation. We're custodians of freedom for the world. In Philadelphia, two centuries ago, James Allen wrote in his diary that ``If we fail, liberty no longer continues an inhabitant of this globe.'' Well, we didn't fail. And still, we must not fail. For freedom is not the property of one generation; it's the obligation of this and every generation. It's our duty to protect it and expand it and pass it undiminished to those still unborn.

Now, tomorrow is a special day for me. I'm going to receive my gold watch. And since this is the last speech that I will give as President, I think it's fitting to leave one final thought, an observation about a country which I love. It was stated best in a letter I received not long ago. A man wrote me and said: “You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German, a Turk, or a Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American.”

Yes, the torch of Lady Liberty symbolizes our freedom and represents our heritage, the compact with our parents, our grandparents, and our ancestors. It is that lady who gives us our great and special place in the world. For it's the great life force of each generation of new Americans that guarantees that America's triumph shall continue unsurpassed into the next century and beyond. Other countries may seek to compete with us; but in one vital area, as a beacon of freedom and opportunity that draws the people of the world, no country on Earth comes close.

President Reagan, on his last day in office, did two extraordinary things: (1) He bestowed the Medal of Freedom on two American Citizens; and (2) He defined America by who becomes an American.

America is an amalgamation. We aren’t like Germany or Turkey or Japan. We are a collection of people from all over the world who choose — or chose — this country as their sovereign nation.

People come here because America shined a beacon of freedom and prosperity in their direction.

We are a people forever reaching with outstretched hands at that great vision of a more perfect Union.

We strive. We fight. We protect. We hope. We compromise. We progress.

It’s about We.

I drove to DC because I believed in We.

President Reagan’s casket would lie in state in the Capitol rotunda for 34 hours. 104,684 people walked by and paid their respects.

I was not one of them.

When I finally drove into DC it was around 4:00 am. Listening to the news on WBAL, I heard that the line to view the casket was closed. The next major event was the departure of the casket from the Capitol. The public could view the departure from the east lawn.

So that’s what I did. I got lined up along the stone railing. Capitol staff were passing out embossed cards commemorating this historic occasion.

Standing there, I didn’t feel like there was an us and a them. If there was a them — even though it was 2004 — them were the Soviets (Russians) and Chinese. And because it was 2004 — them was certainly middle eastern terrorists.

My fellow Americans were not enemies. That thinking was unfathomable.

Reagan, despite his deeply flawed and unequal policies, would never have called a fellow American his enemy.

I believe in the ideas of positive freedom.

I believe that a government of the people and by the people, must work for All the People.

I believe that good government requires good people.

I believe that good character makes for good people and a great nation.

I believe in efficient and effective government.

I believe that 235 years is long enough for men to only be President of the United States.

I believe that the shining city on the hill is still ours.

I believe that a black, female, liberal woman will promote prosperity through moral sympathy.

I believe that we will be okay when Kamala Harris is elected President of the United States.