Horowitz: Widespread Talk of American Decline is Just Plain Wrong

Tuesday, July 08, 2014

Rob Horowitz, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

Before we say a final goodbye to the 4^th of July with its ritual fireworks, parades and backyard barbecues, let’s pause for a second and truly celebrate our still robust and successful national experiment now going on 238 years. Founded on the universal ideas of equality for all and self-government—not on nationality, tribe or clan—our nation remains, in John Winthrop’s words famously quoted by Ronald Reagan, a “shining city on a hill.”

In today’s polarized and harshly critical political and media environment, it is all the more important to spend time focusing on our strengths. Pessimism is all too much the mood of the day. According to the RealClearPolitics average of national polls, only 27% of Americans say generally speaking the nation is headed in the right direction, while 63% say we are pretty seriously off on the wrong track. And front pages, home pages and television newscasts are rife with stories and commentary about American decline at home and abroad.

But there is much under-reported good news underneath the blizzard of negative headlines. The economy is truly picking up steam with unemployment near a 6 year low, nearly 300,000 new jobs created in June and the stock market topping 17,000 for the first time in history. The lingering effects of the financial crisis and resulting Great Recession are mainly behind us, and there is likely a period of steady economic growth ahead. Also, little noted in the United States is that as we have since the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, we continue to outperform nearly all the other Western economies on growth measures. While much remains to be done to increase incomes for struggling middle class wage earners, there is now an economic environment where this is possible.

And American ingenuity and entrepreneurship remains second to none. Our thriving tech sector, renewable energy pioneers, and advanced manufacturers are among the encouraging growth areas of the economy. We truly continue to create the jobs of tomorrow.

Immigrants in this nation of immigrants fuel much of this creative entrepreneurship. The world’s best and brightest are still coming despite are inability to reform our broken immigration system. Imagine how much more could be accomplished, if we could adopt the kind of welcoming comprehensive immigration reform that fit the true spirit of our nation and is in our enlightened self-interest.

Further, our substantial and noteworthy progress on moving towards full equality for gay, lesbian and transgender Americans brings us nearer to truly fulfilling the aspirations for our nation proclaimed in The Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

These are just a few of the positive trends in our truly remarkable nation. I sense a robust period of American renewal, accomplishment and new found optimism ahead.

Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island.