More than ranch dressing (but including it)
On the World Cup, American condiment dominance, and why America is mostly great because it's mostly outside the scope of government
It has been well-documented that many of the international visitors in America for the World Cup are having a spectacular time. This is terrific news for America and for the world. And although thoughts of government are bound to creep in during the simultaneous 250th anniversary of independence, the real story of what people are enjoying isn’t one of government.
■ The government didn’t create ranch dressing. The real secret sauce to America’s magnetism is that our country is a colossal, long-running experiment in what it means to be left alone. It’s a thought that even left an artifact in the Declaration of Independence, where Thomas Jefferson stealthily replaced the word “subjects” with “citizens”.
■ Subjects, as documented in the Supreme Court decision about birthright citizenship, owe something to the person of the sovereign in return for protection. Citizens, on the other hand, owe one another. And in the United States, what we owe one another is “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.
■ This, too, is why it sounds so reflexively un-American for anyone in high office to expect or demand gratitude from the public. We don’t owe our fellow citizens grateful thanks and praise for doing their jobs.
■ And because we are all citizens -- including Presidents -- we are all entitled to equality before the law. Equally, too, we should contribute in our own ways to making the country great. But the country is much more than its government, and most of the ways we achieve greatness happen voluntarily and free from coercion. That, even more than ranch dressing, is the secret recipe.
