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THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT AMERICA |
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Written by Peter Wehner
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Friday, 09 June 2006 |
[Nothing could
better illustrate the Left's depression over George Bush's military killing
Zarqawi than this morning's headline in the Washington Post: After Zarqawi, No Clear Path For A Weary Iraq.
The media's relentless pessimism has infected
America in general. It is about time
conservatives stop being suckered by liberal pessimism, and start celebrating
what's right with America. Peter Wehner, Deputy Assistant to President Bush at
the White House, here provides grounds for doing so. ---JW]
Americans hear a great deal about the problems they face. We
hear hardly anything about the encouraging developments. So here is an empirical assessment of where
we are.
Social Indicators: We are witnessing a remarkable
cultural renewal in America. Violent crime rates remain at the lowest levels in
the history of the Bureau of Justice Statistics' survey (which started in
1973).
We are experiencing the sharpest decline in teen crime in
modern history. Property crimes are near the lowest levels in the history of
the federal survey. Welfare caseloads have declined almost 60 percent since
1996. Both the abortion rate and ratio are at the lowest levels we have seen in
the 30-year period these data have been tracked.
African American and Hispanic fourth-graders posted the
highest reading and math scores in the history of the National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP) test. The use of illegal drugs by teens has dropped
19 percent since 2001, while the use of hallucinogens such as LSD and ecstasy
has declined by more than half.
The teen birth rate has fallen for a dozen consecutive
years. The percentage of high school students who reported having had sex is
significantly lower than in the early 1990s. The divorce rate has fallen
steadily for over a decade. And teen smoking has dropped by almost 50 percent
since the late '90s.
There are areas of concern, to be sure. Births to unmarried
women are at an all-time high, and in many respects our popular culture remains
a cesspool. But context is important.
Between 1960 and the mid-'90s virtually every social
indicator got worse -- and in many cases staggeringly worse. Then things began
to turn around, almost as if a cultural virus created its own antibodies.
The Economy : The American economy is the strongest
in the world and growing faster than that of any other major industrialized
country. It grew at an annual rate of 5.3 percent in the first quarter -- the
fastest growth in 2½ years.
It has added more than 5.3 million jobs since the summer of
2003, and employment is near an all-time high. The unemployment rate (4.6
percent) is well below the average for each of the past four decades.
Mortgage rates remain near historical lows, homeownership
remains near a record high, and sales of new and existing homes reached record
levels in 2005. Real disposable personal income has risen almost 13 percent
since President Bush took office; and core inflation rose just 2.3 percent over
the past 12 months.
The Dow Jones industrial average has risen from under 7300
in 2002 to above 11,000 for most of this year. Tax revenues are at an all-time
high -- and so is total household net worth.
National Security : Perhaps no nation has ever been
as dominant as the United States is today -- and we are using our military
power to promote great purposes.
Thanks to America's world leadership, today we are
witnessing one of the swiftest advances of freedom in history. In the past four
years more than 110 million people have joined the ranks of the free -- and for
the first time freedom is taking root in the Middle East.
Once ruled by cruel dictatorships, the people of Afghanistan
and Iraq are now governed by constitutions and are participating in national
elections. The governments of the two countries once provided safe haven to
terrorists; now they are engaged in a mortal struggle against them.
This struggle is longer and harder than any of us would
wish, but by any standard or precedent of history, Afghanistan and Iraq have
made remarkable political progress.
Kuwait's parliament has granted full political rights to
women. Arab intellectuals are pushing for a rapid acceleration of democratic
reform. After almost 30 years, Syrian troops left Lebanon in response to the
Cedar Revolution. And Libya has abandoned its program of weapons of mass
destruction. The biggest nuclear-smuggling ring in history, run by Pakistan's
A.Q. Khan, is being rolled up. The government of Pakistan has cast its lot with
us against al-Qaeda.
Islamic terrorists have been denied sanctuaries, their
networks are being broken up, their leaders are being incapacitated and are on
the run, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is dead.
Our homeland has not been attacked since Sept. 11, 2001. And
we have set aside decades of mistrust to put relations with India, the world's
most populous democracy, on a new and fruitful path.
This account does not mean that everything is going
smoothly. Every day we are reminded that hardships are real. Grave threats
persist. Missteps have been made along the way. And more can always be done.
But we are witnessing significant progress on many different fronts, and there
are authentic grounds for optimism.
The Sept. 11 attacks, two wars, a recession and the worst
natural disaster in our history have been turbulent and draining events.
History-shaping periods often are -- and so, not surprisingly, the nation is
unsettled. Yet the United States is a deeply resilient and hopeful country. The
trajectory of events is in our favor - there really is an abundance of good
news for America.
Peter Wehner is Deputy Assistant to President George W.
Bush and Director of the White House's
Office of Strategic Initiatives.
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