Pun Salad

Mr. Ramirez gets it right:

And, for that matter, so does Nikki Haley: We Are Blessed to Live in America. RTWT, but here's her bottom line:

I always get a little dismayed when I read about polls asking people if they're "proud to be Americans". As someone who's been Catholic-adjacent for many years, I'm pretty sure that:

1. Pride is a sin;
2. In fact, it's one of the deadly ones;
3. But even if it wasn't, it would be tough for me to be proud of being an American;
4. Because being an American isn't something I did;
5. Without going into details about what Mom and Dad did back in 1950, I had zero control over the result: Me, American.

So "blessed" is the right word. Nikki likes it too; her 2024 presidential campaign made it donor t-shirt swag, and it's my attire du jour, modeled for you on your right.

Also of note:

• Being blessed doesn't mean we can't gripe. Kyle Smith is old enough to remember: The Bicentennial Was a Better Birthday Than This. (WSJ gifted link)

  The grocery store brands were bursting with red, white and blue. CBS, during commercial breaks, ran brief public-education spots called the Bicentennial Minute. The Sears catalog—the analog Amazon of the day, the Aladdin’s Cave of consumer wonders—put out a bicentennial edition. Kids pedaled around on bicentennial bikes. Special-edition bicentennial coins were the pride of every pocket, when dealing with change was something we all did every day. The joy of being an American was everywhere.

  In my little hometown of East Longmeadow, Mass., a wall opposite a gas station in the center of town sported a large fresco modeled on Archibald Willard’s iconic 1875 painting “Spirit of ’76,” with three musicians on the march and the flag in the background. My family had a huge picnic in the backyard, featuring appearances by many seldom-seem cousins from out of town, that turned out to be the only one of its kind we ever hosted. Late in the day we turned on a little black and white TV to watch the magnificent parades of tall ships in New York and Boston.

  Ah, well. 250 is just another number, I suppose.

• Among the many things about which the Founders would be appalled… Jonathan Turley thinks The Founders Wouldn’t Back a ‘Billionaire Tax’. (WSJ gifted link)

  Was James Madison the Zohran Mamdani of his time? Gavin Newsom seems to think so. In joining the growing number of Democratic leaders supporting a wealth tax, the California governor claimed that the U.S. Constitution and our Founders were all about wealth distribution: “The system America’s founders built,” he said, “was designed to prevent the concentration of power in a few hands, but we have allowed that concentration to happen anyway, slowly, in plain sight, over decades.”

  But Madisonian democracy is designed to avoid the concentration of political power, not the concentration of wealth. The Founders were great believers in capitalism and the free market. This isn’t the 250th anniversary only of the Declaration of Independence but also of the publication of Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations,” which the Founders embraced. Many of the Founders were themselves quite wealthy, including banker Robert Morris Jr., who was known as the “Financier of the Revolution” and would be a billionaire today.

  I fantasize that a time-traveling James Madison would take a few minutes to size up Gavin Newsom, and be struck with wonder at how such a transparent glib phony made it into a position of power.

• 

  I judge the mixture to be about 70/30. Stephanie Slade has a Fourth-relevant article in the July Reason: America's Founders Blended Liberalism and Religion.

  In "Why I Am Not a Conservative," the economist F.A. Hayek averred that "what in Europe was called 'liberalism' was here the common tradition on which the American polity had been built." He was neither the first nor the last to see America primarily as a nation rooted in individual liberty.

  Yet to think the United States is purely a liberal country is to take a truth too far. The Founders drew on a panoply of sources, from classical philosophy to biblical theology, from the natural and common law traditions to the ideas of the Enlightenment. They took from each the insights that seemed best-suited to their project, and in doing so they created something at once revolutionary—a novus ordo seclorum—and rooted in the wisdom of the past.

  In championing "Fusionism", Ms. Slade is following the argument of Frank S. Meyer, one of National Review's best writers in its early days. I remember checking out Meyer's book, In Defense of Freedom, from the Omaha Public Library at some point in the 1960s, and it made a lasting favorable impression to this impressionable youngster. I'm glad to see him, and his political philosophy get some respect and attention at Reason.

  Ms. Slade has a book coming out on September 1, and I've pre-ordered at Amazon. Should you be so inclined, the convenient link is at your right.

• Vivre libre ou mourir! Kevin D. Williamson appreciates the help: Vive la France! (archive.today link)

  When I was 19 years old, I was drinking Shiner Bock in Austin, writing newspaper editorials, and going to see punk shows at Liberty Lunch—a full schedule, but somewhat short of the ambitions of Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, the young French aristocrat who, being inspired by the ideals of the American Revolution, bought a ship and sailed to the New World in order to present himself to the Continental Congress and offer his services. Congress was in Philadelphia, and Lafayette landed in South Carolina—he was an idealist, not a geographer.

  But with a letter of recommendation from Ben Franklin in his hand, he made his way up to Philadelphia, where Congress, grateful for the services of an enthusiastic young aristocrat who had the good taste to bring along his own money, commissioned the 19-year-old as a major general. Contrary to what probably was Congress’ intent, Lafayette took his commission seriously—not merely as an honorary title. The revolution was to be a grand adventure, to be sure, but also a hard one: Lafayette was wounded at Brandywine, endured the hardships of Valley Forge, and was one of the key players when the tide was turned at Yorktown. Lafayette also provided a critical channel between the upstart Americans and the French monarchy, whose financial and naval power were simply indispensable to the project of American independence.

  No Lafayette, no United States of America.

  Fun fact: US Route 1 is named "Lafayette Road" in most NH towns, because Lafayette took this route when visiting America in 1824-5.