America is at a crossroads. Maine must choose a road. | Opinion
Tom Allen lives in York Harbor.
Oscar Wilde once said, “The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.” Rewriting history doesn’t mean erasing it. It means reexamining myths and realities to guide our future.
Today, the United States faces pressures that challenge not just its power, but its very purpose.
The real question is not whether America will change, but whether that change will be guided by a conscious commitment to its founding principles or surrendered to division.
The real question is not whether America will change, but whether that change will be guided by a conscious commitment to its founding principles or surrendered to division.
America’s future depends on renewing three interdependent commitments: democracy at home, restraint and legitimacy abroad and education as the engine of national strength. These are not separate issues; weakening any one destabilizes the whole. As voters, let’s make sure our candidates have an understanding and clear voice on this.
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The Constitution promises a more perfect union — justice, tranquility and liberty — while the Declaration of Independence grounds government in the consent of the governed and equality of rights. Democracy gives citizens a voice through free and fair elections, but these ideals require truthfulness, accountability and peaceful disagreement. Citizens must be willing to lose gracefully, and leaders must concede honestly.
From the Civil War to Jan. 6, 2021, fear has tempted Americans to trade principle for the illusion of security. Recovery has always depended on public insistence that law — not loyalty to individuals or tribal identity —must prevail. Institutions have held because enough people refused to let them fall. A frequent and famous summer visitor to Maine, Mark Twain once said, “Loyal to the country always, loyal to the government when it deserves it.”
Democracies erode when criticism is treated as treason and facts dissolve into competing narratives. Foreign adversaries exploit this vulnerability, seeking not to defeat our armies but to erode confidence in free elections and the legitimacy of government. Citizens who believe all politicians are equally corrupt become bystanders, and bystanders do not sustain republics.
Foreign policy reflects democratic health. Historian Paul Kennedy warned of “imperial overstretch” — when a great power’s global obligations exceed its capacity. A superpower must fund security, meet economic needs and invest in future growth. Guns and butter, as they used to say. Neglect any part, and decline accelerates.
America’s military reach and alliances remain strong, but it risks a subtler danger: a post-American moment where power persists but purpose fades. Strength without legitimacy is unstable and self-defeating. American leadership is compelling not just for its might, but for its ideals. Abandoning those ideals at home weakens America’s argument for leadership abroad.
Education is a strategic issue. Andrei Sakharov, Soviet physicist and Nobel laureate, argued that intellectual freedom is the only real defense against mass myths and authoritarian manipulation. Societies that suppress debate or undermine universities sacrifice the capacities that sustain national power.
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Education also underpins democracy. An electorate unable to distinguish evidence from propaganda is easily divided and controlled. Universities, courts and a free press are not luxuries — they are the immune system of a free society.
America has overcome civil war, world wars, economic collapse, and political scandal. Each recovery involved confronting uncomfortable truths, investing in knowledge, reasserting constitutional norms, committing to democratic legitimacy at home and credibility abroad. Decline is not inevitable, nor is renewal. Both require choice.
The American experiment has never been self-sustaining. It depends on citizens —enough of them — who choose engagement over cynicism and understand that the Constitution is a discipline to practice, not a trophy to display.
As our republic celebrates its 250th year, remembrance must become resolve.The experiment rests on intellectual honesty, civic restraint, refusing to dehumanize opponents and the courage to speak and listen peacefully. We defend the Constitution by living it. Power answers the world’s how; principles answer its why. The choice is between renewing democratic foundations or allowing them to decay. History will be rewritten regardless. Let’s shape it, Mainers.
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