We need a president who will be honest with the American people. One who will remind America of our ideological roots and stand by them, not just give them lip service. The country is in bad shape. America will not recover by virtue of its own existence. Many seem to focus on American ‘greatness’, but forget what made America great in the first place. Greatness is not about being #1 in one category or another. A country is great if the people are left alone to choose their own course, not have some Leviathan state chart it for them.

Many founders believed a country is made great by its people, not its government. A country is made great by its freedom, not having the largest economy or military. Without freedom, none of that matters. By the superficial standard that is promoted by many today, Rome and Egypt were once ‘great’, but in their “greatness” they were not free. A great country is one where the people are left free to prosper or fail on their own accord, who are left free to act so long as they do not injure others. Where ideas are left free to combat one another and not be silenced by force. Where theft is not sanctioned by law. Where each person is truly respected in their equal natural rights. Where association and cooperation are by voluntary consent, not by coercion. A great country is one that was envisioned, even if imperfectly implemented by the colonists.

When politicians talk about American greatness, ask yourself, “what definition of greatness are they talking about, one that is determined by its degree of freedom, or one that is defined by its economic and military might”? If America becomes that beacon of freedom again, I hope it is not ‘exceptional’, because I hope it is not the exception. I hope that people around the world, seeing an example of true freedom, will realize the fruits of Liberty, their own right as a people to be free and grasp it for themselves. My hope is that Liberty becomes the standard and not the anomaly. As for my own country, my hope is that it will choose freedom and judge its own greatness by that standard above all others.

John Q. Adams on American Greatness as the example, not enforcer: http://www.fff.org/freedom/1001e.asp

“When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different: Liberty, sir, was the primary object.”
– Patrick Henry, Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1788

“She [America] well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom.

The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force….

She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit….

[America’s] glory is not dominion, but liberty.”
– John Q. Adams, speech to the U.S. House of Representatives on July 4, 1821