A Red, White, and Blue Nation

The World & I Online ^ | 11/2/01 | Lee Edwards

[Jean S]

ince the agonizingly narrow presidential election last November, Americans have been haunted by the specter of a divided America. Etched in our minds is a twin-hued map--the "red" Gore nation of the secular, elitist East and West Coasts and the "blue" nation of the observant, populist heartland.
        Our politics became increasingly rancorous and partisan, fueled by politicians who could not let go of the last election or stop plotting for the next. Our economy, after 18 years of unprecedented prosperity, teetered on the edge of a recession, and who was to blame became the favorite game of the media.
        Our society seemed obsessed with the trivial--a big lottery payoff--and the absurd--such as whether we will have enough money for Social Security a quarter of a century from now. Does anyone really believe that we cannot come up with a plan to preserve Social Security so that our senior citizens need not rely on dog food to survive? But the cowardly and unprovoked assault on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon by an international network of terrorists has swept away the political and social detritus of the last nine months and will, I predict, lead to a newly resolved and united nation. The signs of a new America are all around us.

COURAGE, WISDOM, PRUDENCE

good society is characterized by courage, wisdom, and prudence. Judging by the extraordinary acts of so many ordinary citizens, America is a very good society. There was the unflinching courage of hundreds of New York City firefighters and police officers who plunged into the burning twin towers in lower Manhattan, knowing that they might not come out. Their first concern was for the lives of others, not their own.
        There was the courage of the passengers on United Flight 93, who told relatives and friends via cell phones that they were going to try to stop the terrorists. As a result, the hijacked Boeing 757 wound up in a field in western Pennsylvania rather than on top of the White House. Those passengers are as deserving as any member of our armed forces of a Medal of Honor.
        There was the diplomatic wisdom of Secretary of State Colin

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Like Truman, George W. Bush is a doer, not a talker, a quiet but decisive leader who has the knack for attracting the wisest and most experienced to his side.

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Powell, who persuaded NATO members to do what it had never done before in its 52-year history--invoke a clause that an attack on one member is an attack on all.
        There was the war-tested wisdom of Vice President Richard Cheney, who managed the underground command center at the White House. And there was the bipartisan wisdom of Democrats Joseph Lieberman, Richard Gephardt, and, yes, Hillary Rodham Clinton pledging their unequivocal support of a president whose legitimacy they had been questioning.
        There was the presidential prudence (the virtue by which reason governs the emotions) demonstrated by President Bush, who did not raise his voice as he delivered a globally televised message to the terrorists and those harboring them: You may run, but you cannot hide from the retribution coming your way. There was the judicial prudence of Attorney General John Ashcroft, supervising the largest manhunt in U.S. history and drawing the net ever tighter around the at-large terrorists.

UNCHARISMATIC ROLE MODEL

or those who fret that Bush is not the charismatic leader that Ronald Reagan was--and that Bill Clinton tried to be--I would remind them of another uncharismatic president, Harry Truman, who, among other things, initiated the policy of containment that made possible eventual victory in the Cold War. Like Truman, George W. Bush is a doer, not a talker, a quiet but decisive leader who has a knack for attracting the wisest and most experienced to his side.
        Other signs of the New America abound: the overnight spurt in military enlistments; the thousands lining up to give blood; the tens of millions of dollars

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There will be serious tests of the national will in the coming weeks, months, and years.

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in donations flowing into the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and other faith-based organizations; the doubled and tripled attendance at churches, synogogues, and mosques; the runaway sale of American flags--one store in Chicago sold 25,000 flags in one day, more than it had in all of the past year.
        There was the simple eloquence of the man explaining why he had risked his life to administer emergency aid to someone buried beneath the rubble of the Trade Center; the choked-back tears of the fire chief remembering his friend, a priest who had been seeking people to comfort and had suddenly just disappeared; and the quiet acceptance by backed-up motorists of a civilian women directing traffic (road rage seeming suddenly quite irrelevant).
        And there were the news media, doing what they are supposed to do in a crisis or emergency, keeping their voices low and measured, telling the facts and avoiding speculation, letting the nation's leaders lead, making it clear in word and picture that as grievous as the attacks on two of America's premier symbols had been, the nation still stood.
        There will be serious tests of the national will in the coming weeks, months, and years. There will be more terrorism, even after we have found and punished those responsible for the horrific events of September 11. We can expect new and far more stringent security rules in our airports and on our airplanes (those who have flown El Al know what is coming).
        We can expect fiscal ripples (billions of dollars to rebuild the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon and expand our antiterrorist capabilities), investment ripples (the stock market is likely to perform like a yo-yo), and global ripples as we put together an international coalition to deal with an international problem--state-supported terrorism.
        What will keep us going is what the founders institutionalized and Alexis de Tocqueville observed--America's unique amalgam of ordered liberty and transcendent faith. Now, as in crises past, faith and freedom will produce a united America: a red, white, and blue America.

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Lee Edwards is senior editor of the Current Issues section of The World & I.

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