Senator Jim DeMint - Falling in Love with America Again

by

Dr. Ben Carson

When I was growing up in inner-city Detroit, and later in Boston, the civil rights movement was just getting started, and young African Americans like myself were confronted with vicious racism at virtually every turn. Sometimes I came across it in the park, when a group of older white boys tried to drown me in a lake. Sometimes I faced it in school, when one of my teachers was so upset by my high grades that she took all the white students to task for allowing a mere black to outperform them academically. I was shocked by episodes of blatant racism I witnessed within my own family as my two older cousins were the victims of brutal, racially motivated beatings by the police.

One of the worst effects of growing up in a racist society is that if everyone tells you that youre worthless and good for nothing, chances are high that youll end up believing them. Fortunately, like many young blacks, I was a beneficiary of an extensive network of little platoons that African Americans had established over the yearssupportive families (in my case, a remarkable single mom), dedicated ministers, and some truly caring neighbors. They shielded us from the most corrosive effects of racism. Our bodies may have been battered by white bigots, but our souls were unscathed.

Jim DeMints important new book, Falling in Love with America Again, is a love song to Americas little platoons. At a time when so many in the media are bent on singing the praises of the high and mighty, Jim reminds us that Americas real heroes are not to be found strolling through the corridors of power or ensconced in the mansions of the rich and famous. Rather, theyre the modest man or woman who lives next doorwho may not have attended an Ivy League university, or even graduated from high school, but who takes our Judeo-Christian heritage seriously and strives, day in and day out, to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8).

These are the men and women whom we should honor and strive to emulate, but whom we usually overlook. Instead, too many of us pin our hopes and prayers on big government, believing it holds the solutions to our nations most urgent problems. Jim regards this worship of the state as a modern-day form of idolatry, which he calls statism. In this book, he shows how damaging it is to our way of life, but it can be countered.

There are three things that I took away from Jims compelling analysis. First, far from solving our problems, statism exacerbates them. Whether the goal is ending poverty, reforming education, protecting the environment, or improving health care (something I know a little about), big governments involvement takes a serious problem and makes it worse. Thats because the incentives that motivate big government (as well as the other Bigs Jim describes) are geared toward enhancing its own power over the helpless masses who cant possibly manage their own lives, at least in the opinion of government bureaucrats. By contrast, the reason the little platoons are so effective is because they run on the most potent fuel of allthe power of love.

A second consequence of statism that Jim describes is the harm it inflicts on our souls. Just as racism sought to make African Americans feel inferior, so statism tries to make all Americans feel that were just not up to the many complicated (a favorite statist word) challenges facing us today. Instead of empowering Americans to take charge of our lives, statism diminishes us. It claims that were not smart enough or educated enough or experienced enough to take responsibility for our own destinies. Far better, it urges us, to place our future in Big Brothers ready hands.

Jim fiercely opposes this approach, and the many stories he recounts all point to the same moral: Ordinary Americans are chock-full of talent, courage, and resourcefulness, and can manage quite well without Big Brothers interference.

But its Jims third point that I find most thought-provoking. Up until now, nearly all conservatives have pretty much made the same case against big government: Its too costly, too inefficient, and too overbearing. But Jim strikes an entirely new note. The main reason big government is so harmful, he maintains, is because it threatens to destroy the love that we Americans should feel for our country. This love is nurtured and sustained by the little platoons of everyday life, but as these little platoons are overshadowed and sidelined by the state, the wellsprings of our love for America are also drying up. In falling in love with big government, we risk falling out of love with America. Jim is determined to prevent that from happening.

In 1944, a Swedish social scientist named Gunnar Myrdal wrote a book called An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. Myrdal correctly argued that racial segregation was seriously at odds with the American creed of liberty and equality. Although the book was in some ways seriously flawed (Myrdal was a socialist), it was hugely influential, and was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 1954 landmark decision, Brown v. Board of Education, that outlawed segregation in our public schools.

I believe that Jim DeMints Falling in Love with America Again compares very favorably with Myrdals An American Dilemma. Although Jim is not a social scientist himself (and most definitely not a socialist!), it draws heavily on the insights of the brilliant thinkers and researchers who are Jims colleagues at Americas leading conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation. Like Myrdals earlier work, it too focuses on a crucial American dilemmathe conflict between the statism widely embraced by Americas elites and the American creed embodied in the Constitution and the writings of our Founders. And just as race was the all-important dilemma facing America seventy years ago, so powerwhos got it: the Bigs or the people?is the fateful dilemma confronting our country today.