Our national anthem has it that America is the "land of the free and the home of the brave." This site contains much writing on the soul, "the animating principle," of America--that a can-do optimism animated America, that yes, we had bravery in our soul. We had the "spirit" to complete a solo trans-Atlantic flight in 1927; the daring, in 1962, to "choose to go to the moon, not because it is easy but because it is hard." And to do it in 1969. There is also much writing here that the soul of America was changed by 9/11, that afterwards we became a more inward-looking, tentative, fearful country.
Where was the Joseph Welch of 1954 to stand up to a dangerous demagogue in 2015-2020? Ted Cruz? Marco Rubio?
The 2020 election was "a fight for the soul of America" as candidate Joe Biden said repeatedly in 2020. It was, now-President Biden was right. We, and he, won the fight but the battle for America's soul is not over.
Even a repudiated, disgraced figure still makes Republicans cower in fear.
Where was the civic responsibility of 1955 in eagerly volunteering for testing of a new polio vaccine?
Where was the other-centered heroism of the individual ordinary American that we saw in Lenny Skutnik in 1982 among the professionals in Surfside in 2021?
We have lost it. Anybody here seen my old friend, Uncle Sam? I just looked around and he was gone. The soul is a malleable thing and having changed before it can change back again but ever since 2001 we have lost our soul.
