If these days and years will be seen as great, it will be because we will decide in coming months and years what course we will take, pass policies that reverse the trends and return America to its competitive edge and full solvency as the best investment in the world, or whether we will lapse into decline. Will we figure out a way to care for the poor and disadvantaged, to keep our promises to older generations, but refrain from pouring an unbearable burden on our children and grandchildren?

Or, perhaps better said: will we return America to a beacon on a hill, the leader of the free world? [cont…]