An Exclusive Interview with Uncle Sam
Two years away from the 250th birthday of the United States, the country is going through one of its darkest periods. Anger, hatred, incivility, and violence have intensified in an unusually extreme time of polarization. Uncle Sam, who has lived through 248 years and is beloved by all Americans, agreed to an interview with the author of Fifty Year Perspective, Keith Zeff.
KZ: Thank you for sitting down to talk. I hope you are well. The traditional caricature of you as a strong, self-assured elderly gentleman and respected leader is less in evidence. These days the news tends to portray you as tired, fearful, and sad.
US: I am sad. Everybody says they love America – left, right, center – but I don’t feel any love.
KZ: How would you describe our current milieu from your 248-year perspective?
US: There is a breakdown in trust. The advice and recommendations of the medical profession are not trusted. Scientific opinions are not respected. News organizations are assumed to be biased. Congress is seen as more interested in power than in governing. Even Super Bowl LVXIII is rumored to have been rigged.
KZ: What are people missing here?
US: As we learn more about the complexity of the world, John Q. Public has no choice but to elicit advice from specially trained experts about health, environmental risks, road safety, food quality, voting integrity, climate threats, judicial impartiality, border security – all the things for which we depend upon local, state, and national authorities. You may not agree with what the government does – and not everyone will; but you will have to live with its decisions until its leaders ask you to support them for re-election, initiate a recall process, or sue to stop enforcement by the government.
KZ: Where is the distrust coming from?
US: The “booming” economy is not working for everyone. People who want to work can’t, for lack of childcare. Employers who want to hire can’t fill jobs for lack of a growing skilled labor pool. There is extreme disparity in income and wealth. Many so-called “essential workers” cannot earn enough to support even a small family. Parents do not see a path to a better life for their children.
KZ: Do you see a way out of this state of affairs?
US: Look, I’ve been around for a very long time. I haven’t lived almost 250 years without compromise. Leaders need to accept that they may not get everything they want. As the saying goes, “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the possible.” You will lose the possible and never attain the perfect.
KZ: Do our founding fathers provide any guidance from how they governed?
US: Most people today say they share the values of the founding fathers. Freedom, equality, justice, and individual rights are acclaimed, even if not universally adhered to. That was true of the founding fathers themselves, many of whom owned slaves, and they admitted to their own hypocrisy as they declared that all men are created equal. But we cannot know how they would have governed if they were alive today; the world has changed too much. Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, could not Google “national debt” on a smart phone to see how much was owed to France following the War of Independence. And John Adams didn’t check a YouGov poll before signing the country’s first Declaration of War in 1812 against Great Britain. Today’s immediacy and universal accessibility of information can alter the course of events.
KZ: Then how should decisions be taken?
US: Thomas Jefferson approached politics through the Enlightenment focus on human reasoning. (He also believed the Constitution should be replaced every 19 years.) James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution,” worried that 1830s political battles over states’ rights threatened the survival of the union. Just before his death he wrote, “The advice nearest to my heart and deepest in my convictions is that the Union of the States be cherished and perpetuated.”
For nearly 250 years the union has been preserved, largely on the basis of pragmatically made decisions that sustained, or in the case of the Civil War, restored the country. We have fallen into governance based upon power. It’s not even ideology; it’s vengefulness. It’s winning elections rather than solving problems. Anyone is free to invent their own facts and challenge the actions of decision-makers. I didn’t live to be 248 years old by being greedy and power-hungry, but by seeking out advisors I respected, acting rationally and sustainably to balance order and liberty. We need to shun those impulses which lead to mob rule.
KZ: Thank you for your invaluable insight. I know your people will be glad to hear from you.