Here are some topics on which I couldn’t find an American position. Any ideas?

Two days ago I made an off-the-top of my head list of positions/beliefs/values that I considered American and anti-American.  Danny and Zach rightly pointed out that many of these might more properly be considered un-American rather than anti-American.  Of course, the leadership of the Left is both.  Consider, for example, Obama’s measured insults of America’s friends and fawning over America’s enemies.  Consider the Left’s eagerness to turn over American sovereignty to international bodies run by people who hate America (which has resulted in very unfortunate treaties that Zach rightly says America is bound by; he supports them; for the most part I don’t).

 

Be that as it may, as I was creating the list I came up against any number of topics I couldn’t figure out what to do with, and I’d like your ideas on.  The most obvious of these is abortion, which so deeply divides America that I think it is impossible to state an American position.  But there are others.  What is the American position on foreign relations?  Historically, it borders on isolationism.  But mixed in with that is an almost religious zeal to spread democracy to other countries and an unfortunate tendency to stick our nose in the affairs of other countries.  What about truth?  Generally speaking, Americans value truth far more highly than other cultures.  But, that seems to have changed in recent years, with it being considered more important to take the “right” position, rather than the true position.  For example, one can’t say blacks are generally faster sprinters (even though in truth they probably are) because that would not be the “right” position to take.  Worse, we aren’t even allowed to do research in certain areas to determine the truth, because the truth might tilt over a sacred cow or two.

 

Which brings me to my next topic, global warming.  One would think that the American position would be something like “Let’s find out if there is really a problem, then, if there is, let’s figure out how to fix it.”  Neither side in the debate seems to take this attitude.  The Left has decided there is a problem and the way to fix it (apparently the only way to fix it) is international governmental intervention to restrict other people’s (that is, other than the leftist leaders like Gore who can afford to buy indulgences) greenhouse gas emisions.  The Right has decided that the problem remains unproven and, apparently, believes we should do nothing at all.

 

Finally, as a libertarian conservative, I have trouble seeing an American position on moral social issues.  On the one hand, America was founded on a Judeo-Christian, rather Puritanical, morality.  On the other hand, America was also founded on a belief in the freedom of the individual.  To the extent that we impose a Puritanical morality on others we restrict their individual freedom.  Whether we are talking about homosexuality, promiscuity, drug use or any other form of private behavior that social conservatives would like to restrict, we are faced with this contradiction.  How do we resolve these conflicts?