Losing Confidence

Andorra. Australia. Austria. Bahamas. Barbados. Belgium. Canada. Cape Verde. Chile. Costa Rica. Cyprus. Czech Republic. Denmark. Dominica. Estonia. Finland. France. Germany. Hungary. Iceland. Ireland. Italy. Kiribati. Liechtenstein. Lithuania. Luxembourg. Malta. Marshall Islands. Micronesia. Nauru. Netherlands. New Zealand. Norway. Palau. Poland. Portugal. Saint Kitts and Nevis. Saint Lucia. San Marino. Slovakia. Slovenia. Spain. Sweden. Switzerland. Tuvalu. United Kingdom. United States. Uruguay.

No, this isn’t a geography quiz. It’s a list of countries that, according to Freedom House, scored the maximum score in the 2008 Freedom of the World report. The US and 47 other countries share this honor - which makes me think that there’s got to be a better way to differentiate the “most free” from the “free.” But that’s another topic.

I post this list because, although the US is still considered one of the most free countries, economically speaking, that’s quickly changing. In the past eight years, we’ve increased the national debt by $9 trillion (if you include the bills for the bailout), we’re spying on our own citizens in the name of “homeland security,” we’re handing out money left and right to people who can’t properly run the companies they’ve been given charge of, and we’re fighting two wars that no one can tell how we’re going to win. And this has all been with a Republican president and a generally Republican Congress!! Imagine how the Democrats are going to screw things up!!

As most of you know, I’ve switched to the Libertarian Party. But, even knowing that I’m a member of the most freedom-minded US political party isn’t making me very happy right now. That’s where the list comes in. Would a liberty-minded person be happier (and still just as free) in Australia? Canada? Germany? Micronesia? Liechtenstein? Or, even more broadly - is America past the point where it can be fixed? Have we, like the Roman Republic, gone too far down the road towards government control?

The knee-jerk response is, ‘Of course, America is worth it. We’ll get through it - we always do. We are the city on a hill.’ But I really don’t think that Americans have the same passion for liberty that we once had. Jefferson said that “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” There is a very small minority of Americans today who would shed their blood for freedom - and since 1945, they’ve been told to shed their blood for someone else’s freedom! I honestly don’t think the majority of Americans care whether or not they are free - as long as American Idol comes on and they get their tax rebate check from the IRS every April.

I don’t have any answers right now. I’m disgruntled, disappointed, and frustrated. Perhaps there are those in the GOP who share similar feelings because their candidate lost. That is not the source of my frustration - although the late political season has given me opportunity to think about such things in depth. I just think I’ve lost the wide-eyed amazement about this country.