Tracy Brian - The American spirit: celebrating the virtues and values that make us great

The
American
Spirit

The
American
Spirit

Celebrating the Virtues and
Values That Make Us Great

Brian TracyandEdwin J. Feulner, PhD

Note: Historical American documents quotes without accompanying endnotes are found at the Cato Institutes website, www.Cato.org.

2012 by Edwin J. Feulner and Brian Seabury Tracy

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Scripture quotations noted NASB are taken from THE NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE. The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations noted KJV are from The Holy Bible, KING JAMES VERSION.

Scriptures marked ESV are from THE ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION. 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Tracy, Brian.
The American spirit : celebrating the virtues and values that make us great
/ Brian Tracy and Edwin J. Feulner.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-59555-337-9

1. National characteristics, American. I. Feulner, Edwin J. II. Title.
E169.12.T69 2012
973--dc23

2012006061

Printed in the United States of America

12 13 14 15 QG 6 5 4 3 2 1

To our familiesfirst among societys little
platoons and the fundamental unit upon which
the American Spirit rests and is renewed.

From Ed to my wife, Linda, and to E. J., Wendy,
Betsy, and Sara, and to Emily, Chris, and Wills.

From Brian to my wife Barbara, and to my wonderful
children: Christina, Michael, David, and Catherine.

Contents

My upbringing was midwestern conventional. Mom and Dad instilled the entrepreneurial spirit in me from an early age, and my political views were developed in an open and free atmosphere. A professor of history introduced me to Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, who penned a minor classic, Liberty or Equality, and to Russell Kirk, who authored the magisterial volume The Conservative Mind. Political discussions were intense and eye-opening, but they were civil. I learned my friends and I could disagree with each other without being disagreeablesomething that seems to be lacking in todays Washington and indeed in many academic settings.

ix

Coming to Washington was like arriving in another world, and my political and philosophical views were put to hard tests.

I was hookednot on the politics of the place, but on the policy implementation of the governmental process. As a fellow at a then start-up think tanklater as a congressional staffer, a political aide to the secretary of defense, and the cofounder of what has become a major American institutionI relished the process of making laws, of giving real Americans, from Elmhurst and from La Jolla, a chance to experience the best of a free society.

x

My personal story underscores my frequent claim that I am Washingtons greatest optimist. Even today, I remain optimistic about our nation and our people.

In an earlier book, with Doug Wilson, I called our fellow citizens back to first principlesto examine every proposal from government in the light of its ability to offer further opportunities to each of us and to bring us together as a people.

In this book, my longtime friend and colleague Brian Tracy and I share our view of the real core of America, of American virtues and values, of those characteristics that we share and that are so noble and transforming both here and around the world.

We also share our view of things going on in America that we dont like, not simply because they raise the deficit or delay our economic recovery or promote unemployment, but because they threaten to change the character of the American people in some very far-reaching and fundamental ways.

In his farewell remarks to his ministers in 1955, Winston Churchill said, Man is spirit. It is this spiritthis American Spiritthat Brian and I wish to preserve above all else. So long as it remains alive and kicking, we are confident that all the problems facing our nation will eventually sort themselves out satisfactorily. But should it ever be impaired or transformed, the brightest policy experts from the best think tanks wont be able to arrest our inevitable decline.

xi

Whatever your views about marginal tax rates, the gold standard, debt-to-GDP ratios, the Laffer Curve, and similar policy issues, we hope you will come to share our belief that an American Spirit exists, that it defines us as a people, and that it deserves to be preserved.

Edwin Feulner
February 2012

When I was a young man, I set out on a journey of discovery that eventually took me to ninety countries on six continents. Having started with no money and no high school diploma, very early I began asking the question, Why is it that some people are more successful than others? This question saved my life.

As I grew and educated myself, I studied such philosophers as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, all of whom asked, How shall we live together in order to be happy? These early thinkers saw man as a social animal and gave careful consideration to the best way for society to be organized for the greatest good. This question led me into a lifelong quest to understand why some countries, and even parts of countries, are more successful than others the world over and throughout history.

By the time I was eighteen, I realized I did not want to live in a world where America, with its American ideals, was not the dominant power. The twin isms of socialism and communism were powerful influences in the world at that time, and they exerted an attraction on many people who should have known better. I concluded the American ideals of freedom, equality, individual rights, self-reliance, free enterprise, respect for private property, civil society, and the rule of law were the finest principles to which man has aspired in all human history.

xii

Today, millions of Americans are not clear about why the United States is the greatest country on earth and in all human history. Overseas, large numbers of people disapprove of America and the American way. Our aim in writing this book is to explain clearly what it means to be an American and why each American can be proud of being a citizen of this great country. We also want to explain to the world why Americans are an exceptional people, the almost chosen people of Abraham Lincoln. Every person reading these pages will emerge with a better understanding of the burden and the glory that come with being an American.

In a speech not long ago, the writer Midge Decter, who had switched from being a New York leftist hypercritical of America to a solidly pro-American conservative, explained what had caused her conversion. I looked, she said, at the ideal upon which America was founded, and to which I am committed, and then compared these ideas with what I really believe was right and good for myself and my family. I then joined the conservatives. I decided to join the side I was on.