In response to Ed Rutan’s “What’s MAGA mean?” I have a plethora of examples of how and when America was great.
America was great when God was first and foremost. America was great when stating the obvious was not seen as criminal. America was great when a college education resulted in a skilled trade, and college was a place that taught students how to think, not what to think.
America was great when college was affordable and students could actually get a part time job to pay for their tuition. America was great when classes like mechanics, diesel engine repair, ROTC, wood shop and debate were part of the curriculum.
America was great when journalists reported the unvarnished truth. The reporting on the “mostly peaceful protests” with buildings on fire and cop cars turned over in the background was asinine.
America was great when facts ruled over feelings. America was great when parents told their kids that no, you’re not that great at everything, yes you will fail at things, yes you will learn from your mistakes and no …. not everyone cares about you. But we as your parents do care. And that should be enough.
America was great when personal responsibility was first and foremost in a person’s life. America was great when biological sciences that have been known since time immemorial were not set aside for “sciences” that just emerged for political sake.
America was great when doctors could tell their patients that being obese is not good for their health, that taking experimental drugs is probably not good for the general population, and that unelected bureaucrats don’t make mandates that control private citizens’ lives.
America was great when mental illness was seen as such and the inflicted were helped with therapy from licensed therapists, not pharmaceutical companies and surgeons making millions off of mutilating surgeries to young children.
America was great when we told the German Nazis (the real ones…the ones trying to exterminate the Jews, the Gypsies, the gays, the Arabs, the Romand Sinti people, blacks and the Slavic’s) to FOAD, the Soviet Union to FOAD and Iran to FOAD.
America was great when it elected a leader who had the gumption to stand in front of the country and declare we are a nation “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
And America was great when that same president knew enough to not promise equal outcomes to individuals because that is not possible.
America was great when criminals were treated as such, heroes were worshiped and the two were never confused with each other. Thank you, Daniel Penny, for looking over your fellow train riders.
America was great when its citizens could disagree with the government and voice their opinions without criminal rebuttal and prosecution. America was great when the eyes of justice were blind and American citizens could trust it to be as such.
And Ed, America was great when the slogan “Never Trumper” was never a slogan, because that slogan is so Anti-American that no true American would ever claim it.
Jennifer McDonald
Park City