You are invited to read this commentary from the Free Enterprise Foundation. It will make you think!

Public Ignorance

“Never forget public ignorance is the government's best friend.” Anon

“All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue, so much as downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation.” John Adams

In a somewhat joking manner, I am approached fairly often by friends and strangers alike to decry the quality of the U.S. electorate, and I have myself pointed to the need for continuing voter education as to those issues which are of critical concern. In my last column I called for a town hall meeting that would provide an educational message, not a partisan one to the citizens of Charleston on our economy, its strengths and weaknesses and just what needs to be done so that as a nation we may be secure that we are not heading off a cliff. Assuming I can find the relatively few dollars to film and edit, it would be my intent to post the product of that meeting on our Free Enterprise Foundation website with free links to anyone who wanted to connect. I would also upload to Facebook on my page as well as one designated for the Foundation.

Jokes aside, the media description of our electorate in scores of sit-coms, is decidedly unflattering and false. What is true, however is that candidates of all stripes, conscious of the media limitations of space and time, focus on the catch phrase which, though memorable, creates an incomplete if not a completely false picture as to what the issues are confronting us, their complexity, the give and take needed to work to solution and the likely time of consistent focus required to reach solution.

If not the electorate of John Adams, the vast majority of the American electorate today is “a good and moral people” who wish to live their lives in a stable community with family values we can all identify with. Most of the American people want and expect to carry their own load and be responsible for themselves and their families. Milton Friedman, speaking back in 2006, noted that he was optimistic. In his view, life in America and the character of the Republic has gotten better every century over the past three, and he expected that trend to continue. This “Better America” however needs education on the major issues facing us that avoids partisan rhetoric to focus on the underlying challenge and the tradeoffs that will need to be made in order to move to resolution. These concerns, though most have a major financial component, must go beyond finance in our efforts to find a solution.

Today, as in times of yore, “the huddled masses yearning to be free” still set their sights on the same Lady of Liberty that greeted so many of our ancestors. While I can become emotional that so many of today’s immigrants feel forced by conditions in their home countries that are almost unbelievable to violate our laws in order to seek survival in the United States, I can also understand that violation of our laws to get here and our consequent failure to control our borders threatens the very values of freedom and opportunity they seek. The millions of undocumented immigrants not only stretch our Republic to the fraying point, they threaten our ability to assimilate them in the same way we have previous generations who have landed on our shores. This problem too would benefit from thoughtful education of the public rather than being caught up in a political standoff between those who insist that the border be closed first and those who insist that we first deal with the millions we have here. Both perspectives have consequences that need to be considered. This issue should not be a third rail that like entitlements terminates the political viability of anyone who honestly tries to bridge the gap by suggesting paths to solution.

A third area where this educational effort needs to be undertaken is obviously “entitlements.” Here we are caught between our word enshrined in law to generations now well advanced toward a time when these benefits will be required and, on the other, the public’s understanding that the amounts required are in an amount and at a rate the country cannot sustain. Entitlements, just as the other issues I have described, can be solved equably. It is not beyond the genius and the character of our people to do so, yet we seem stuck between political factions that demand that a share of future national income great enough to pay these benefits be permanently taken from the domestic economy in amounts that will permit them to be paid regardless of what that would do to the ability of the private sector to support them and which would fundamentally abridge the freedom of choice historically part of the American ethic. That is no solution at all.

Bismarck is attributed as proclaiming, “There is a special providence for drunkards, fools, and the United States of America.” Whether he did or didn’t say that, America and Americans are a favorite target of foreign gibes at the seemingly sudden enthusiasms propelling us to frantic action followed by disillusion and frantic action tacking back in the reverse direction. Whatever favor we may have received from the Creator, we must now earn our way by the hard work of seeing that each citizen is possessed of a level of knowledge that their vote is a meaningful expression of the national will. Our collective neglect is soon to overwhelm our ability to counter its ruinous cumulative effects on our Nation. I invite any of my readers who can help me set up such a first Town Hall briefing to let me know what they can do to help. Let’s try one and see where it gets us. I end with a paraphrase of the inscription on my wall from President Reagan to the effect that we can expect that any challenge will yield to our efforts because We are Americans! I believe that to the bottom of my soul and hope you do too and will join me in this effort. _._

Copyright © 2011 by Robert E. Freer, Jr. All rights reserved

About the author: Robert E. Freer, Jr., after an extensive career in government law and business, serves as the first BB&T Visiting Professor in Ethics and Free Enterprise Leadership at The Citadel. A regular contributor to the Mercury, Prof. Freer may be reached at Robert.freer@citadel.edu. Copies of his earlier columns may be found at The Free Enterprise Foundation A compilation of “classics” from his articles has just been published by University Press as Citadel Values II and can be found at Barnes and Noble and on Amazon.com. The opinions he expresses are solely his own.