Make America Great Again

A simple statement.  Make America Great Again.  It simple implies that people want America to return to greatness.  It also implies that America is suffering.  How can the average American take offense to that?  Do you take offense that people believe that the quality of life in America is suffering?  I'm not even 40 years old yet but I can see a country which has fallen in it's greatness.  The signs of decay are everywhere.  Our infrastructure is a mess.  Jobs are hard to come by and it's even harder to find a job which will provide enough to raise a family, have a house to live in, and save up.  Those weren't as common concerns prior to the 90s.

Since then things have steadily gone downhill.  Not for everyone mind you.  This chart gives a good impression of unemployment over the years.  It actually looks like since the mid 70s things have been tough.  Between those who lived in better times, and those who have only read about them, times now just don't seem as great.  It'd be interesting to see how many people were entrepreneurs over the years.  My gut tells me people felt more comfortable taking the risk to start a business before but feel much less so now.  This is supposed to be a land of liberty, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness.  A huge part of that involves feeling comfortable enough to take the risk to be your own master.   

Today, more and more people are wanting the government to be their master.  They want the government to pay for, or provide, lots of their daily needs, as if they are rights.  They want the government to give them jobs.  They want the government to regulate and decide what is right and wrong.  The problem with that, is right and wrong are up for interpretation, which is ultimately influenced by bias.  That in turn makes people feel more at risk.  Why?  Because, who is to say that the hard work you put into developing your business may not be taken away because of some bias lawmaker.  And then your opportunity to recover after that failure is less likely because there are less jobs.

So America certainly needs a return to this greatness.  The greatness that once existed.  Look to historical examples in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  People and families who often felt secure enough to take risk after risk but never felt that they'd be unable to put food on the table for the family.

Why else might people take offense to the simple phrase Make America Great Again?  Might it be simply because the connection between that phrase and our current president, President Trump?  I'd definitely say so.  As 10 minutes listening to the radio, watching TV, or just skimming headlines can tell you, he's not befriended by the status quo.  As I've already pointed out though, many people have good reason to not be happy with the status quo and for wanting change. 

What may then be hard for a lot of people to understand is that people wearing those MAGA hats, people who believe in Making America Great Again may not necessarily be firm Trump supporters.  They may just be people who realize something real needs to change so that there is opportunity for America to be great again.