We either have a country or we don’t.
This is something Donald Trump said in the campaign of 2016. It might just as well have been Ronald Reagan in 1980, Teddy Roosevelt in 1904 or Abraham Lincoln in 1864.
For that matter, it was also the central insight of Alexander Hamilton and George Washington in 1787. Hamilton was himself an immigrant to the colonies that would soon become the greatest nation the world had yet known — but not until he and his allies overcame powerful forces that would have left us in a permanent state of division and economic failure.
At the moment Trump spoke that simple truth in those straightforward terms, he set forth his leading qualification to be president of the United States. It involves the capacity to see and synthesize relevant facts into sound observations and determined action. We can call it executive judgment.
Among the skills essential to leading America and the free world — or leading one of its 50 states, as I did — it is foremost and there is no close second.
Americans today feel a deep sense that their country is in trouble. They observe that we have become less industrious, less educated, less prosperous, less virtuous. Many of us have grown wealthier, but as a nation we are materially and spiritually poorer and the American people know it.
They know that America is by stages becoming less American. And they know that this is happening not because of lawful immigrants who lift and ennoble our nation, but largely because of rampant illegal immigration and a wide range of left-wing policy choices that fuel it.
Millions have taken the improbable step of voting for Donald Trump because they see this happening in our time, and they put much of the blame on a timid, self-serving political class that will not even acknowledge it, let alone confront it.
They place further blame on a media complex that has long since cowed and domesticated all those weakling politicians and sold out truth for mere advocacy. Trump’s plainspoken criticism and defiance of both these elements, his open rejection of the cynical Washington game which profits them but harms the country, suggests to voters the kind of courage and resolve necessary to face and solve the nation’s real problems.
After eight years of deepening division, dependency and deception, and the prospect of four or eight more from Hillary Clinton, you could say Donald Trump represents hope.
Trump’s detractors, when they aren’t rioting or otherwise shouting down opposing speech, complain about the things he says. Fair enough. He is not a professional politician and not yet practiced or refined in the sensitive arts of political discourse in the modern era. He has been given to some crass expressions which in our time travel around the world before they can be retracted or clarified.
In this regard, he will need to better himself and reach higher. He will need to join his courage in speaking essential truths to new levels of wisdom in leadership. He is humble enough to realize this, confident enough to accept it and smart enough to achieve it.
But he comes to the work knowing that we either have a country or we don’t. We have a border which must be secured; an immigration system, rule of law and assimilation process which must be honored; and a vicious, mortal enemy which must be defeated, while President Obama and Hillary Clinton refuse even to call it by name.
We have an economy which must restore its historical upward pathways available for all to climb, and a national history and culture that must be commonly cherished, not thrown over for the endless airing of grievances from an ever-evolving list of media-approved victim groups.
Contrary to what you have heard, this year’s Republican convention may be a good one. If you can set aside the dull drone produced by the faction of disconcerted Republicans, you’ll find a lot to look forward to in this election. Record numbers of Republican primary voters already have.
Our candidate has what we need to win, and beyond that he has what we need for our country. When he promises to make America great again, he is expressing his resolve to restore Americans’ confidence in their government, their institutions, their neighbors, their opportunities and their future.
He is pointing toward a renewed sense in our nation of where we came from and where we are going, how we became the greatest nation on Earth and how we intend to grow greater still.
This is what presidents must do. Donald Trump is the one candidate for president who can do it. He is the only one who will even try.
Jan Brewer was governor of Arizona from 2009-15. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
