What does America stand for anyway?

It’s getting blurry, isn’t it?

The most marketed to society in the history of the planet is getting a steady dose so murky and laced with spin and rhetoric that it’s hard to tell right from down, left from right and where we even started?

Where is it that America stands and what do we stand for?

I believe I know, in fact, I think most Americans know.

The idea of America is clear as day – it’s right there in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution.

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

In today’s political atmosphere, a few of those words are missing from our motivations for the things we say or do. Missing from the way we treat each other and missing from the targeted end goal of what we’re doing here.

And just to be clear, I am no less guilty of these sins.

While I believe in our ongoing formation of “a more perfect union” – and have enough perspective to realize that our union is more perfect than many others – I recognize that many of my neighbors and country members believe we have already achieved that goal.

I, however, do not. Nor do I believe we will ever be able to rest on our laurels and consider the job done. What’s perfect for you, may be lightyears from perfection for many, many others.

Have we established “justice?”

In many ways, yes. In many other ways, no.

Considering the legitimacy of our election system is being challenged in courts of law to an abusive degree by the one person charged with upholding and promoting the virtues and sanctity of our American values … apparently we haven’t reached our goal yet.

Our litigious ways do not, in my opinion, represent a society based in pure, unadulterated justice.

Don’t like something, sue ‘em. Lose an election, sue ‘em.

We’re a long way off.

“Domestic tranquility” – see Facebook.

“Promote the general welfare” – again, see Facebook. But also consider the Black Lives Matter movement, which didn’t spring up from nowhere, but from a collective outrage over system racism and abuse by law enforcement within our “perfect union.”

The “blessings of liberty” can only be obtained when they are offered to and available for everyone equally. Ideally, we would be working in unison for the freedom of American liberties that don’t infringe on the liberties of each individual.

Are we doing that? Sure, we have disagreements about which and what are rights and how those apply to our now bastardized ideas of what freedom and liberty is in our nation.

Heck, we can’t even come to an agreement on how to protect each other in our neighborhoods, much less protect every single American.

I’m talking about masks, not guns. See what I did there?

How do these missed targets affect our “posterity?”

Don’t make me talk about climate change and the position the current administration has regarding protecting our beautiful country for future generations, all in the chase of the almighty dollar.

Now, it might sound like I don’t love our country. In that regard, you would be dead wrong.

While we bicker over politically powerful agendas disseminated through channels which in turn gaslight us with spin and rhetoric, we’ve lost focus of what we stand for to begin with.

We had an election. We’ve had 59 such elections, and yet we’ve never suffered through a time as we are enduring now.

Americans are dropping dead from an airborne virus, while those we elect as leaders debate legal strategies and concoct schemes to overturn a rightly won election.

Masquerading as patriots and marketing outlandish conspiracy theories that have nothing more to offer than to chip away at our nation’s faith in our elections, these leaders have one goal in mind: Power.

That’s where we come in and remind them that their goal is a “more perfect union” and this nonsense must stop.

If we can’t do that now, if we can’t ensure the posterity of this nation for generations to come without regulating liberties and ultimately injuring our tranquility and the welfare of our nation … then how does our fight toward perfection continue?

We have to continue to hold elected representatives accountable for their actions and continue to speak truth to power.

It’s the only way, it’s always been the only way.

Jeff Pack can be reached by email at [email protected].