Civil Rights
We used to all be Americans. Sure, we would point out differences in our heritage and notice cultural distinctions. All very normal human activities. But it wasn't a problem because we were all American and we all knew that. It wasn't until it became "politically correct" to draw more formal distinctions between Americans, that civil rights became a problem and not a solution. We are no longer Americans, we are now Hispanic American, African American, Asian American, Native American, et al. And these distinctions don't help. By definition they divide because the labels come with some past harm done or some cry for new rights that must be recognized and in some cases celebrated. That creates a debate when you demand certain things of the society and wrap that in your label. If we are all Americans, then civil rights becomes a part of what being an American is all about. And those rights are provided in the Constitution. And, yes, discrimination and worse have happened in our history. But also yes, we have corrected those horrible injustices. Yet, constant vigilance is necessary. It is an ongoing goal in any society that we guard against and punish radical extreme intolerance. George Washington cautioned future generations to watch out for "whatever may suggest even a suspicion that [the union] can in any event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest." Because of this principle, we fought a war and righted wrongs. There is no better place than the United States of America, where Americans, all share the same individual "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness".
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The Right and the Moral High Ground

3/31/19
By Shelby Steele,
from The Wall Street Journal,
3/31/19:

Today minorities suffer from underdevelopment, not racism. And here, at last, is conservatism’s great opportunity.

As many have noted, Donald Trump’s presidency is an insurgency. Mr. Trump himself is the quintessential insurgent, doing battle with a disingenuous and entrenched establishment. This was his appeal over a field of more conventional Republican candidates in 2016. But last year’s midterm elections were disappointing, and Mr. Trump has gone wanting for political clout in the immigration fight. His successes—a booming economy, tax reform, low unemployment, increased oil production, the abandonment of terrible treaties, new and better trade deals—have brought him little goodwill even from his own party. Today’s leftist cultural hegemony squeezes President Trump—and conservatives generally—into an impossibility: No matter what they achieve, they are always guilty of larger sins. Make the economy grow if you must, but you are still a racist.

But today there is a way for conservatism to overcome its vulnerability. The world has truly reformed since the ’60s. Racism remains a dark impulse in humankind, but America has already delegitimized it. Today minorities suffer from underdevelopment, not racism. And here, at last, is conservatism’s great opportunity. Conservatism is the perfect antidote to underdevelopment. Its commitment to individual responsibility, education, hard work, personal initiative, traditional family values and free markets is a universal formula for success in a free society. Coming at the end of 60 years of liberal failure, conservatism is now “the new thing” in many minority communities.

Suppose American conservatism begins to argue for progress as the best way to overcome inequality—not to the exclusion of justice, but simply as America’s guiding light in social reform. Progress is possible, measurable and most of all doable. Rather than fight over “microaggressions” and “triggers,” why not, as Booker T. Washington so beautifully put it, “cast down your bucket where you are”? To put all this on a dangerously romantic level: Why not go back to that perpetually workable thing, the American dream?

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