We’ve heard the phrase and seen the hats and other gear since 2016. So what is it that people want to “make America great again?” When was the ultimate era when they believe that America was truly great? Surely it could not be the Gilded Age at the end of the nineteenth century. While that was a a time of invention, innovation and great change most ordinary citizens struggled while the barons of the time became wealthy beyond dreams. 

Perhaps America was truly great during the nineteen forties and fifties. We won a war over fascism and when our young men came home there were tremendous opportunities for them to begin their lives in earnest. Still, what was it really like during those times? What was good and what was bad?

America’s “Greatest Generation” grew up during the Great Depression. It was a tough time to keep a roof overhead and food on the table. The era was so devastating that some people gave up and killed themselves. Others moved in search of work and a promised land. Many who remembered that part of their histories spoke with reverence of Franklin Roosevelt who seemed to be a savior for them. Still others worried that Roosevelt made too many changes too quickly. The quiet divisions tended to be forgotten over time but they were there. 

When Europe went to war most Americans wanted to stay neutral. The politics did not seem to involve them and they were still tired from the depression years. There was an America First movement that locked Roosevelt into inaction even as he seemed to realize the dangers of leaving Great Britain to fight alone. Horrifically there were even citizens who supported the fascist ideals of Adolf Hitler. An infamous rally was held in the Radio City Music Hall in New York City that included Nazi rhetoric and flags. The idea of going to war was far from being the universal gesture that it would ultimately appear to become. 

It took the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese to enrage Americans enough to support the idea of getting involved in the conflict. When Hitler also declared war on the Untied States the die was cast and the citizens of the United States threw themselves into the war effort. Young men dropped our of high school to enlist. Hollywood began instantly making films to keep the enthusiasm high. Women went to work in factories to produce the tools of war. It was a time of mostly national unity inspired by the idea of fighting an evil that had descended on the earth. 

After the war ended the United States itself was untouched by the destruction that had damaged most of Europe and much of Asia and Africa. Our nation was ready to help our allies rebuild. The economy was booming here and along with it the birth rate that brought babies like me into the mix. There were opportunities everywhere and many of them did not even require a high school diploma or a college degree. Homes were plentiful and made easier to purchase with the G.I. Bill that also paid for education. Life seemed perfect as we look back on those years but the Black citizens who were still struggling for equality would no doubt have a different point of view. Women who were still viewed as second class citizens might also agree. 

The perfection of those years was also marred by the fears that grew from the invention of the atomic bomb and the potential for worldwide destruction that changed our sense of security. The country began to worry about the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. We became involved in a war in North Korea. Fears of communism gave rise to the infamous McCarthy investigations in which people were blackballed and ruined by little more than innuendo that they were communists. There was an undercurrent even in the days when life appeared to be idyllic. 

In other words that has been no perfect imaginary time in our nation that we should aspire to embrace. Instead we should be looking to see what has been exceptionally good about our country and attempt to emulate those things. At the same time we must be careful to recall what was bad and why we attempted to change for the better. I suspect if we are honest and careful we will realize that we haven’t actually been so far off the mark. There is no reason that we must now destroy the work of decades in a misguided attempt to resurrect a moment in time that really never existed. 

It takes careful consideration to determine what we need to do to provide freedoms and opportunities for everyone, not just certain groups. First and foremost we must preserve the rights that have not always been available to all. We need to restore the strict division of our three branches of government with the understanding of how the Constitution describes their specific duties. We need to find the balance between those branches once again so that they might become independent entities working as our founders intended. All three should also remember that they are beholden to all Americans, not just those who voted in a particular way. Our government is broken and it is only when our elected officials and our judges leave their personal feelings at home and work for the good of the nation that we have been at our best. It’s time for the moneyed and powerful to have less impact on how the government works than the millions of individuals who represent a diversity of ideas. 

There was no perfect time to which we should all aspire but there have been perfect moments that we would do well to remember. It took time but we ultimately gave women the rights that they had deserved all along. It took even more time but we pushed hard to give the descendants of slaves the place in our society that always should have been theirs. It took time but we adjusted to the immigrants from around the world just as we should be doing with those currently coming to our nation. It took time but we eventually built an educational system that provided knowledge to more than just the wealthiest in our midst. It took time but we used our inventiveness to build rockets that went to moon. We created a system of research and cooperation to defeat diseases and keep our population well. We even managed to send our largess to places struggling to fight hunger and disease. These are the things good about us that are great. This is the kind of thing we must continue to do. 

Right now we are just tearing things down including our relationships with the rest of the world. This is not greatness. It is the worst of us. Somehow we must find our way back to the what we do best and no actions we adopt should involve bullying or persecution. There is goodness and even greatness in our history that has tried to help as many Americans as possible. Those are the ideas to which we should ascribe.