Facebook Friend Michael Smith:
I tend to think in corny analogies, so be forewarned. Here comes another one.
Those of us of a certain age have a mental image of the Ford Mustang.
What began as a fun little car, a sporty little coupe and convertible, launched an entire landscape of American muscle cars that included the Camaro and Firebird from General Motors, the Challenger from Dodge, and the Javelin from American Motors.
We had a Javelin, though it never looked this nice.
The original Mustang was co-designed by John Najjar, who was a huge fan of the P-51 Mustang fighter plane. Najjar and Robert J. Eggert, Ford Division market research manager (who also bred quarterhorses) suggested the name. Ford management decided the combination of these images, the power, muscle and lethality of the P-51 combined with image of a wild mustang running wild and free across the plains, was the very essence of America.
When I think about the Mustang, I see two cars in my mind — a 1965 maroon convertible that is, to this day, in just about every parade held in my hometown and the ’69 GT 390 Fastback from the Steve McQueen movie “Bullitt”.
What I don’t see is a 4-door, all-electric sedan with child safety seats in the rear.
When you change what makes a Mustang a Mustang, it isn’t a Mustang, I don’t care what the badge and the marketing materials call it.
Ford tried that once already with the Mustang II (second generation) and to some extent, the third and fourth generations. The Mustang didn’t begin to look and drive like a Mustang until the fifth generation was introduced in 2005.
It’s not that there weren’t some iterations that were decent cars, it was just that none of them were real Mustangs.
Ford went back to what worked, what made a Mustang a Mustang.
It is the same with America.
Over the past 60 years, America has had its guts slowly ripped out over and replaced with parts called “not America”. Hopefully, we will follow the Mustang evolution and get back to what makes America America.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am.
I believe there are far more Democrats than Republicans who hate America for what it is, not what it has been. They have such a jaundiced view of how America has dealt with significant and difficult moral and civilizational issues, that nothing they see satisfies them.
These folks tend to compare America to some theoretical standard of perfection that has never existed outside the Kingdom of Heaven, believing that it is appropriate for their enemies to bear the sins of their ancestors while denying the sins of their own.
There are Republicans who are just like these Democrats, they are just too cowardly to admit it.
The libertarians can’t decide if they are John Birch or Karl Marx, authoritarians or anarchists. There is a lot to like about their ideas of freedom and liberty until you get to the schizophrenic parts.
Look, there is a lot that Tulsi Gabbard, Joe Rogan, Peter Theil, Elon Musk and I will disagree upon. To a lesser extent, I have disagreements with many of our “conservative thought leaders” — Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, Tucker Carlson, Glenn Beck — each for different reasons — but where I disagree with Democrats 80% of the time, I agree with the latter folks 80% of the time.
If you love America and believe in Justice Scalia’s perspective of our Constitution — that it says what it says and it doesn’t say what it doesn’t say — we can be members of the same tribe.
If you are ready to get back to basics, to MABA – Make America Bullitt Again — I’m ready to work with you, regardless of your party affiliation.
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 