Ask Not, Want Not

Pissing people off for asking what my country can do for me.

As some of you may know, I am, of late, a weekly columnist for The Daily Beast. They asked if I’d like to write opinion pieces leading up to/about the election, and I said sure because what the hell else am I doing?

I knew today’s piece would upset some people because it asks the verboten question: what does my country owe me? I argue that America owes us a whole hell of a lot more than it’s been giving.

Here we are, through birthright or immigration, living in the richest and most powerful nation in the history of the planet. We pay taxes to support this nation. Most of us perform civic duties in terms of voting, showing up for jury duty, doing volunteer work, etc.

Isn’t it fair to ask what we should expect in return?

I know what’s on my national wish list: a nation with much less gun violence, healthcare for all, affordable education for all through the undergraduate level, a housing market that allows people to actually buy houses, world-leading infrastructure, etc. etc. etc.

We don’t have any of those things despite the fact that most people want some, if not all, of them. At what point do we look at the contract between the nation and its citizenry and decide the nation isn’t holding up its end of the bargain?

How are we, its citizenry, expected to look at America? With reverence, no? How do we imagine that America looks at each of us? Certainly not with the same bright-eyed glint that I’m expected to have towards it.

Why is my loyalty towards America assumed but my nation’s loyalty towards me is not?

Yes, if I were to get plucked from the streets of Damascus by the secret police, I trust that my country would have my back. But not so much if I get caught up in a firefight in Dayton. Not so much if my kid ends up with a serious medical issue. Or if I want to get my children through college without incurring a couple hundred thousand dollars in debt. I don’t expect my country to have my back in my own country. And that sucks.

In the book I wrote with Meghan McCain, America, You Sexy Bitch, I lamented that America appears to have lost its mission statement. For many of its inhabitants, the shining city on a hill has gone dark. We’re a nation suffocating in greed. Oligarchs are grabbing more and more for themselves while the rest of us squabble over bathroom privileges. It was always hard out here for a pimp, but damn.

And yes, on average Americans do live pretty well. But why don’t we live better? If we’re going to say America is exceptional, then why don’t we live exceptionally well? For all of our money, we somehow don’t have enough money. That’s not because of a lack of resources, only misplaced priorities.

What do we need to do to reorient the nation towards something approximating the ideals for which we claim to stand? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are great, but only when they’re available to all.

If my nation can’t, or won’t, give me what I want, why shouldn’t I take my services elsewhere? Other nations I might consider living in will not cross every item off my wish list, either, but there are places that would get me closer. I could move to a nation with a lower cost of living or someplace whose culture doesn’t have its people running ragged; wherever I would go would also have the advantage of not leaving dinosaur-sized hoof prints as it stomps its way across the globe.

It's not about threatening to leave. Nobody would care if I went, anyway. It’s about taking a few moments to question our assumptions and to evaluate our relationship with our home nation. It’s about asking at what point does patriotism becomes a vulnerability?

People want to contribute to the success of the nation. Which is why JFK’s quote asking what we can do for our country rang so loudly during his 1961 Inaugural Address. We were brimming with optimism and enthusiasm for the nation’s potential as we assumed global leadership after WWII. We wanted to pitch in because we knew we could do great things together.

All these years later, though, it’s hard not to feel like a sucker. America has taken and taken from its people but gives less and less back. I don’t just mean in terms of money; I mean in terms of giving its people, and people from around the world, something to believe in. Something ennobling. Something that appeals to our better angels instead of only our billfolds. We need to flip the lights back on for that shining city on a hill. If we can’t or won’t, then I think it’s reasonable to ask why we’re footing the electric bill?