November 26, 2019—Give Thanks and Learn from our First Thanksgiving!

Let us pause to give thanks for all our blessings, and the lessons learned by those who came before us — particularly the Puritans who risked everything for a new life in America. Such memories help us see and meet our opportunities to leave this land better than we found it — with the help of the Sovereign of the Universe. So may it be . . .

We should learn from their hardships and associated lessons-learned that provided the foundation of America’s free-market system — so that we don’t repeat their initial missteps. We should recommit ourselves to keeping this land free and prosperous for those who follow us.

This week, we should not forget that the first Thanksgiving of that small band of Puritans in Massachusetts reflected an early variant of the American tradition of eventually getting it right after exhausting the alternatives — as memorably claimed by Sir Winston Churchill.

The First Thanksgiving.

Due to poor navigation, bad weather, rough seas and some believe differences with the Anglican Church of England, the Pilgrims landed and dug in on the shore of what we now know as Plymouth Rock on Cape Cod in Massachusetts rather than their intended objective in the northern Virginian territory — by some reports at Jamestown near Norfolk and by others at the mouth of the Hudson River now known as Manhattan.

That first bitter winter of 1620, they remained on board the Mayflower — during which 45 of the 102 of those who arrived at Plymouth died from lack of shelter, scurvy and the general conditions on that ship that bore them to the new world.

At some time during passage or shortly after arrival, 41 passengers signed the Mayflower Compact intended to govern the new colony:

IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. IN WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini; 1620.

The democratic elements from this Covenant of the congregation and its subsequently elected leaders set the colony apart from the monarchies that governed all Western European nations — and undergirded the future government of the American experiment from which we still benefit today.

During the next year (1621), the colonists met the “native Americans” who aided them in beginning to hunt, fish and successfully cultivate crops in their new homeland. Sometime later in that year, some of them joined the colonists in celebrating the first Thanksgiving, though it seems doubtful that several days of celebration were as late as we currently celebrate Thanksgiving.

I am much impressed by the lessons from the history of the governing efforts of these colonists. At first, they struggled under an attempt to govern according to the aspirations of Plato’s Republic — not only to be religiously devout, but also in a community based on communal sharing and social altruism. All would share in common — no private property or entrepreneurship.

The current liberal socialist-left approach to governance is an echo of that initial approach of the Pilgrims — and we should expect it to fail today, just as it did almost 400 years ago.

Click here for the diary of William Bradford, a signatory of the Mayflower Compact and five time governor of the Plymouth Colony. They cleared land and worked the land, but they had no great harvest and the spirit of brotherhood withered. Bradford recorded that there was no incentive for individuals to work hard since they were all to share equally in the products of the corporate labor. Initially, the lazy did not work — but eventually even the industrious also lost interest and worked less.

After two years of this failure of socialism/communism, Bradford and the elders of the colony realized that they were on the edge of extinction. So they decided to try something radically different: They assigned private property rights for divided parcels of land and the right of the individual families to keep the fruits of their own labor. And Plymouth Colony flourished!

Not only did the produce satisfy the needs of each family, but there was plenty to share with others—individuals instituted trading according to their individual talents and the community prospered.

Thus was born American free enterprise, and benefits that far outpaced the attempt to “spread the wealth” and for government to plan and regulate peoples’ lives, per Plato’s Republic.

Our Pilgrim Fathers tried that utopian fantasy and soon realized its bankruptcy and failure as a way for living together in society. Thankfully, they fostered the innovative idea that when men and women are allowed to follow their own individual and family interests in improving their circumstances, all benefit.

It is helpful to recall the words of leaders, those who found humor and often wisdom in difficult times, like Winston Churchill, who has been quoted as saying that “The Americans will do the right thing, after they have exhausted the alternatives.”

We should bear in mind that important history from our founding when considering the advocacy of today’s so-called “progressives,” who also echo the themes of Karl Marx.

And for Today?

In the wilderness of the New World, the Plymouth Pilgrims progressed from the false dreams of communism to the sound realism of capitalism. When we sit around our dining table with family and friends, we should remember the birth of free enterprise in the New World of America — and the subsequent founding of our great nation. We need to thank God for these blessings, and commit ourselves to seeing them renewed and preserved.

This is the proper context for viewing the challenges before us — as Ronald Reagan most soberly once warned:

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

There are obvious implications of the Plymouth colony experience that cry out for America not to sink into an abyss of socialism.

Beyond these spiritual concerns, there are existential physical threats that the powers that be need to address to protect all we hold dear. As we give thanks for all the blessings we have, we should pray that the Sovereign of the Universe meets our future needs. As Benjamin Franklin notably advised during the birth of our nation,

“I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth — that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that ‘except the Lord build they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel.”

Note the date on the above famous Norman Rockwell painting that adorned the Saturday Evening Post—in the midst of World War II when the future was still very uncertain. As the “Greatest Generation” that saved Western Civilization fades from the scene and at least some of us who were the beneficiaries of their wisdom and courage are in our twilight years, I fear that we have not taught the “millennials” these important lessons.

Today’s Existential Threats.

Western Civilization again is at risk, from adversaries who intend to destroy all that our forefathers gave us and aspired for us to be.

Click here for discussion of a 2018 bipartisan report by a congressional mandated commission that concludes that our military capabilities have “eroded to a major degree,” such that we are in a significantly weakened state, ill prepared to confront five major threats, from: Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and transnational terrorists, particularly radical Jihadist groups. Click here for the full report.

The Commission referred to the “political dysfunctions and decisions made by both political parties” that have left the United States with “pronounced detrimental effects on the size, modernization, and readiness of the military.” Regrettably, little has changed in the Washington scene since then.

For example, that Commission soberly concluded that “the United States is particularly at risk of being overwhelmed should its military be forced to fight on two or more fronts simultaneously. Additionally, it would be unwise and irresponsible not to expect adversaries to attempt debilitating kinetic, cyber, or other types of attacks against Americans at home while they seek to defeat our military abroad. U.S. military superiority is no longer assured and the implications for American interests and American security are severe”.

Although their report did not specifically identify the existential threat of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, it is well known that the threats specifically identified in its pages include an important role for EMP, and any serious threat to the United States would include EMP in its attack strategy. Much space was accorded to the Cyber threat, which is indeed an important, even urgent threat.

However, it should be remembered that EMP is included in the cyber strategies of our adversaries, all of whom give EMP a prominent place within their military doctrine.

President Trump’s March 26, 2019 Executive Order on Coordinating National Resilience on Electromagnetic Pulses is potentially an important step forward, provided the dysfunctional Federal Bureaucracy will take its directives seriously. That conditional concern remains an open question — at least to me.

My concern is about the lethargic pace at which the lessons learned to protect our most important military systems are being quite affordably applied to protect our most important critical civil infrastructure — that delivers electricity to all of the essential operations needed to assure the survival of the American people.

A second important initiative is President Trump’s initiative intended to establish a Space Command, separate from and equal to the other military services. It also remains to be seen how this initiative will work out, especially since our regular High Frontier readers know that we understood how to build truly cost-effective space-based ballistic missile defense (BMD) systems decades ago.

President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) pioneered these concepts and in the early 1990s was at the stage an effective space-based interceptor system could have been built over two decades ago, and that would have discouraged the Russians from again building MIRVed ICBMs that now threaten our current BMD systems and the hypersonic threat against which we are now playing “catch up.”

Click here for our previous papers on Brilliant Pebbles, which was that most cost-effective BMD system concept that emerged from the SDI era (1983-1993). It regrettably was curtailed by congressional Democrats on my SDI watch; completely scuttled by the Clinton administration in 1993; and not since revived. Time for a redo!

As I have repeatedly observed, the Pentagon’s acquisition authorities approved in 1989-90 a formal Demonstration and Validation (DemVal) program for building a constellation of 1000 Brilliant Pebbles, that was credibly estimated to cost $10 billion in 1988 dollars ($20 billion today) to develop, deploy and operate for 20 years a very effective space-based interceptor system — one that we currently need as noted above.

And with today’s technology, that system should be more effective and cost even less. If the Pentagon cannot get its act together to accomplish, then perhaps Elon Muck can adapt his emerging space capabilities that employ tens of thousands of small satellites to also accomplish the Brilliant Pebbles vision of yesteryear.

Bottom Lines.

We have been in this condition before, for example with the “malaise” of the late 1970s. With Ronald Reagan at the helm, we made our way back to an America that made us proud.

As we give thanks this Thanksgiving for all we have inherited, pray we can find a way to repeat that return to the American dream that has previously stirred so many — and kept us free.

This is a challenge with today’s divided congress, but we’ve also been there before and should press ahead.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. Please include a prayer that we preserve this the greatest nation in History for our posterity.

What can you do?

Join us in praying for our nation, and for a rebirth of the freedom sought, achieved and passed to us by those who came before us.

Help us to spread our message to the grass roots and to encourage all “powers that be” to provide for the common defense as they are sworn to do.

Begin by passing this message to your friends and suggest they visit our webpage www.highfrontier.org, for more information. Also, please encourage your sphere of influence to sign up for our weekly e-newsletter.

Encourage them to review our past email messages, posted on www.highfrontier.org, to learn about many details related to the existential manmade and natural EMP threats and how we can protect America against them. I hope you will help us with our urgently needed efforts, which I will be discussing in future messages.

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