Who Owns The Future?
This is the second part of a 2 part series—read the first here
Eighty-one years ago tyranny was alive and it was spreading its poison across multiple continents. This nation, after a brutal surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, resolved to end several mighty dictatorships that could have been cut right out of the cloth of an Orwellian novel. We did not claim to have all the answers because an honest accounting history does not allow for such a claim. But we did know with certainty and moral clarity that our way of life was under threat and that way of life was worth preserving—not just for us but all the world's people as far as our power would allow us to extend it.
This conflict and its aftermath was the brainchild of Franklin Deleno Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, men from very different political traditions. Roosevelt was an idealist, who believed in the power of liberal values and liberty to improve the human condition. He believed in institutions, with divided and independent bases of power—balanced carefully against each other and meant to insulate the entire system from shocks and disturbances.
Churchill was conservative with a deep aversion to communism, a militant attitude towards his enemies, and a great distrust of human nature in general. He was a romantic with a streak of realpolitik, knowing when to flatter and when to insult in equal measure. He was a blue blood in love with the old world of Empires, but his contribution to the story is his recognition that the old world was dead—destroyed by a horrible war and never to return.
The ferocious battles of this war, in particular, live as epic and tragic moments in our collective memory across continents because they were so formative of the world we know now today. A frenzy of institution building followed the war, as the generation so scared by its sacrifices sought zealously to guard the hard won gains. The United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, and the International Court of Justice were established in 1945—the same year the guns went silent. The World Bank was in operation by 1946, offering loans to nations devastated by conflict. The World Health Organization was founded in 1948, meant to coordinate all the planet’s resources to handle global health crises. These were institutions constructed by American capital secured with American hard power and supported by British prestige. Churchill willingly surrendered an empire that he loved, because he recognized that times had changed and he wanted to guide the world to what the new future would be.
We have tried to maintain this system at great cost of blood and treasure, and with errors in judgement along the way. On balance the liberal world order has been a boon to America and to the world. Under Trump and other populist movements around the planet this order is now fracturing. The costs to maintain it have become too high for America to bear alone, and our own doubt over the value of the American contribution to this international structure cannot be ignored any longer. The accumulated failures of this admittedly imperfect order have spread suspicion. The systems that undergird that order are no longer flexible and are failing to adapt to the changing times. I fear the task has fallen to our generation to build something new, and if so, it will be a defining struggle. It will be hard, but all we need to do is tell the truth. In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
So allow me to start and offer you some honesty. I believe in the power of markets to create wealth that didn’t exist before and to elevate the human condition above the barbarism that is the default. I believe that character is destiny, and that despite the trials we all face—we are required and obliged to always be responsible and accountable for our own failures. I believe that though our founders were not perfect men, they still stumbled upon a set of principles that are sacred, timeless, and true. I believe that liberalism is and should forever be the guidebook for the ordering of a just society. I know with religious certainty these principles should be defended with honesty, fierceness, and uncompromising zeal. I also believe our nation is truly an indispensable nation, and we should be ready and willing to rain hell upon the enemies of liberty, should it be prudent to do so. I am fundamentally a Republican of the old school variety. The last 10 years of behavior from that party is infuriating, because it’s forgotten everything it should have stood for. I think a lot about Churchill now, when the structures of belief he had built his life around began to fall apart.
There are not many people like me in this movement, but we exist and our numbers are growing as the stakes to our Republic clarify, and as the coalition learns how to communicate beyond the activist bubble into the body politic more broadly. One of our goals as a chapter and as a movement is to grow the tent to include as many people of good faith as possible—which is hard when there are so many perspectives that must be absorbed, codified, and annealed into a single cohesive whole. But it must be done and so I am prepared to do the hard work—including analysis and reflection of my own beliefs. I also feel welcome and at home in this movement. Though the fit will never be perfect , it is possible to make friends and allies here if you try just a little.
I can only speak for myself—but I do not have a personal agenda beyond the preservation and conservation of Constitutional norms that have undergirded our security and our prosperity for over two centuries. It was the same set of principles that guided Reconstruction after the Civil War. It was these same ideas that informed Roosevelt and Churchill’s deliberations about the new world order they built on the ruins of the old. It was that same sacred trust under the moral clarity and righteous indignation of the Civil Rights movement. There is something sacred and timeless beneath the principles we defend, and I still believe it to this day when the wealthy or the embittered scoff with cynicism at a moral value.
Photo via https://www.un.org/en/about-us/history-of-the-un/preparatory-years August 14, 1941
As the economy weakens under the Trump regime's mismanagement the anger of the public will grow. As ICE agents patrol the streets harassing citizens and legal residents alike, the ambivalence to government felt by so many will turn to fear. As political and religious minorities are persecuted it will start to dawn on more and more people in the Trumpian orbit that maybe they made a mistake by their association. We can trust only one thing from this Administration—that they will do things that are stupid, self-destructive, and cruel.
As the failures of the Administration multiply, opportunities to hold them to account will rise and we must be ready, willing, and able to exploit them. But we must never forget that at the tail end of each failure, each abuse, each insult—there will be some number of humans who will suffer. This process will not stop until it is stopped—legally and without violence—but not without power and force. In that, the future will not be much different from past eras of strife.
I want to be as humble as I can manage despite the gravity of what we face. It will be upon other wiser men and women to build the future from the space we intend to make. I am committed to this, not out of a need to push a particular branch of political philosophy, but to preserve a system of renewal while the institutions built 80 years ago start to crumble. A day will arrive when the balance of forces changes and the darkness on our horizon can be held in abeyance. The tide will turn and may already be turning. Perhaps then, a leader from in or outside of the movement will take up this mantle, as we evolve a philosophy of governance that is fresh, powerful and effective.
This is a long winded way to say I think we may have found an alternative answer to Orwell’s question about who owns the future. Remember that it was only 150,000 ordinary men, combined with the might of American industry and together with allies from around the world, in a coalition that we assembled, organized, and led—decided to invade an ally to save it from tyranny. Then after the guns fell silent, the Greatest Generation chose to imagine an entirely new world and they built it almost from scratch in a few short years. History and the future were made by simple moral choices by masses of men and women acting in concert for a greater good.
The lesson I have chosen to learn from that period of history is that the future belongs to those with the wisdom to recognize the shape of things to come, the honesty to discard ideas that do not matter, and the courage to seize it when all the world chooses to doubt you. If enough of us say we can make a difference, we can.
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