There is no political gain in a bad attitude

Three out of every four people you meet today - at the beach, at the grocery store, at work, perhaps even in your own home - believe that the America of tomorrow will be worse off than the America of today and most definitely worse than the America of yesterday. That is what the polls say. These “seventy-six per-centers” have lost faith in the proverbial “brighter tomorrow” for their children and grand children. 

Do not count me among them.

And let me warn my friends, particularly, but not exclusively, my Republican friends: There is NO political gain in a bad attitude.

Exactly when did we become a nation of pessimists and backward thinkers? 

Instead of celebrating the technologies that have freed us from the drudgeries of mall shopping, voluminous dictionaries and searching the backs of closets and attics for cherished family photos, we write books like Michael Harris’ The End of Absence - 243 pages of self-absorption decrying the internet and what it is doing to our children.

Instead of applauding the worldwide rejection of communism, the toppling of dictators like so many dominos on the global game board and the explosion of free enterprise in China and the African continent, we wring our hands and lament America’s supposed shrinking middle class and fuel with venemous hatred our envy of our own successful capitalists.

Instead of - especially this - of entering elected public service with hope and optimism; ideas and plans; heart and soul; our candidates spend their very first campaign dollars researching their opponents and figuring out how to tear them down. Is it any wonder really that the “unenlightened masses” think so little of all of you?

There is no equity in pessimism. Even if you are right about our future - which you are not - what is to be gained by walking around like George Orwell’s cynical and pessimistic donkey Benjamin from Animal Farm? Let me suggest that it is not coincidental that Orwell chose an ass for that character.

America is desperate for hope. It is not as if people do not want to believe in a brighter future. It is not as if they do not desire a better tomorrow for their children. 

The national candidate who can build and deliver that better mousetrap of optimism will find a receptive and hungry audience. 

Our next President needs to be an optimist. Our next President needs to have the spirit of Ronald Wilson Reagan - regardless of what you think of his policies. Our next President needs to reject the view that the “United States has had its days in the sun, that our nation has passed its zenith” as Reagan so eloquently repudiated in accepting the nomination of his party 34 years ago this summer.

We do not have to wait until 2016. Let the American renewal begin today. And let it start with YOU. After all, pessimism is an attitude. It is an outlook. It is a belief. It is easily changed. So today, lift a glass of one of America’s great wines or micro-brewed beers on your deck or patio or front steps or balcony or even underneath the flap of that cardboard box you might be living in and toast this “shining city on a hill” we have the great privilege in which to reside. And KNOW that tomorrow is going to be even better. In fact, I guarantee it.