Discovering America's North Star

Lead with American Values & Defend American Interests.

This is from our Letters From The Founder publication.

Dear America Network –

Question for you. Does America live by its values or its interests? What about you, personally?

As I’ve discussed before, at the highest level, America’s primary objective in world affairs should be to Lead with American Values & Defend American Interests. However, what are our values, what are our interests, and are they always aligned?

Consider a few quotes from U.S. presidents:

• “The interests of a nation, when well understood, will be found to coincide with their moral duties.” (Thomas Jefferson (author) for George Washington (orator), 1792)

• “Our American values are not luxuries, but necessities -- not the salt in our bread, but the bread itself.” (Jimmy Carter, 1981)

• "Our families nurture, preserve, and pass on to each succeeding generation the values we share and cherish, values that are the foundation of our freedoms.” (Ronald Reagan, 1985)

• “When our interests and values are at stake, we have a responsibility to act.” (Barack Obama, 2011)

• "I'm here today to represent the interests of the American people and to affirm America's friendship and partnership in building a better world.” (Donald Trump, 2018)

There’s clearly something fundamentally important about American values and interests. What is not clear is what is actually meant when these words are used – even by our leaders in the highest office. Yet, understanding their meaning is not merely an academic exercise, it’s essential to establishing a common language between leaders and citizens. Without it, “the People” are flying blind.

Let’s start with values. In a previous discussion, I laid out a simple framework for thinking about American values. I dubbed it The American Values Meal – a topic all Americans can identify with, because let’s be honest, what’s more Americana than fast cars and fast food? As cheesy as it may seem (sorry, if we’re talkin’ buns, I’m talkin’ puns), The American Values Meal gets to the heart of American values. A thorough dissection can always provide more detail, but let’s lay out the important elements to remember.

The American Values Meal

Order. You’re cruising down the road, your stomach growls like a rabid dog, and a glorious sign emerges in the distance – one you know oh so well. As you skid into your favorite fast-food joint on two wheels, there’s one thing you have to do first before your taste buds reach the promised land …order. For nations, without Order, no other values can be secured. A nation that doesn’t establish order and the rule of law from the beginning – both in its constitution and in its culture – will not be a nation for long. Not surprisingly, it is no coincidence that a significant number of America’s Founding Fathers and even members of Congress today have backgrounds in law.

Democracy. When you pull up to the window, and that bag of deliciousness is handed to you, at its core is your entrée. Quite likely, it’s a burger – since this is America and no food screams stars and stripes like a good burger – but more specifically, we’re going to call it a Democracy Burger. In any democratic form of government, such as in a republic as we have in the U.S., the government derives its power from the people. It does not seize power through force or inherit it from a bloodline. Power is granted, temporarily, through elections by “the People.” This ideal is core to American values.

Freedom. Even though that burger’s on your mind, I’ll bet two shakes of salt that when your hand nosedives into the bag, the first thing you’re pulling out is a few fries. I’ll also bet that you would savor them even more if you knew they were Freedom Fries. In America, we cherish individual liberty and free people, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the list goes on. Freedom… is the word on the tip of the tongue of every American. It’s just who we are.

Fairness. Maybe you made it home, or maybe you pulled the e-brake after spotting the first empty parking spot coming out of the drive thru. Either way, after a few bites of your burger and fries, you’re washing it down with something. I contend, that a shake is the way to go, and it tastes even better if it’s a Fair Shake. Call it what you will – a fair shake, an equal opportunity, etc. – no matter your background, title, or riches, America is built upon the ideal that every person gets their shot.

Rights. You’ve finished your meal, your euphoria has reached its cruising altitude, and all is right in the world. But it’s at this moment that you realize the bag’s not empty. The cashier must have noticed that childlike twinkle in your eye and inconspicuously slipped a bundle of joy into the bottom of the bag. Yes.. it’s a toy. But not just any toy – The Rights Toy. Just like the toy in a kid’s meal is all but a birthright in America, so too are Americans’ rights. Americans are not just free, we have “unalienable rights” enshrined explicitly and forever in our Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Order, Democracy Burger, Freedom Fries, a Fair Shake, and The Rights Toy – that is The American Values Meal. These are our values, and together they are unabashedly American, made in the USA and served worldwide.

American Interests

So that’s American values, but what about interests?

Tabling the food metaphors for now, interests, as important as they are to a nation, are actually fairly simple to explain. Although the phrase is often used ambiguously and as a catchall justification for any and all government decisions, American interests fundamentally boil down to two things: national security and prosperity. National security can most simply be thought of as the physical safety and security of Americans, while prosperity as Americans’ economic security and future potential. That’s the crux of it.

Making a Choice

Now that we have a common understanding of American values and interests, let’s return to the questions I posed at the beginning of this letter. Does America live by its values or its interests? What about you, personally?

In a perfect world, it’s both, and American values and interests are always aligned. Although we should aspire for alignment, in the real world, this is not possible for every decision and we must choose which to prioritize. I understand this reality may be difficult for our more idealist tendencies to come to terms with. Certainly, in our personal lives, we all have red lines that we do not cross, and most of us seek to prevent compromising on our values. In most cases, this is achievable with a principled foundation and a dash of discipline. Yet, it’s not too difficult to imagine a scenario in which the most challenging of moral dilemmas can arise.

Step into the gray with me for a moment. Imagine your family is starving and nearing death. What food that’s available in the community is scarce, but you have none. Would you steal to feed them? …Would you kill to feed them? Let’s broaden the impact of your decision to another wickedly difficult, albeit hypothetical scenario – you’ve been given the power to go back in time to the moment of Hitler’s birth. You’re alone with him, next to his crib, in the dead of night. Would you kill him, an infant? If taken seriously, these are clearly not easy questions to answer. The mental gymnastics we all do to explain our decisions in these scenarios is the essence of moral philosophy.

Now. Expand moral dilemmas like these to a nation with hundreds of millions of people and the most significant global role in history. Whether we’re always aware of it or not, at any given moment, hundreds if not thousands of extremely difficult decisions are being made by our elected leadership, military, intelligence services, and more, at home and across the world. And as already mentioned, their power is ultimately derived from “the People.”

So, with that said, what should be their – and by extension, our – north star when making these decisions? Making the ‘right’ choice time and time again is no small feat. Hindsight is 20/20 and it’s easy for some to look in the rearview mirror of history and judge specific decisions as ‘bad’. No doubt some were, because let’s be honest, we’ve done some dumb shit. Yet, even with our fair share of scars and bad actors, I do believe the foundation of America is fundamentally good and our combined ideals exceptional.

That is why my position is that our north star should be to Lead with American Values & Defend American Interests. Moreover, staying clear-eyed about the world as it is and not as we wish it to be, we must prioritize securing our core interests. We should do this while living out our values to the best of our ability, but an America without its core interests secured will not be an America at all – and American values will become all but irrelevant. When our core interests are secured, not only is it easier to lead with our values, we then have opportunities to promote them throughout the world – keeping in mind that this is a means to a goal, not the goal itself. As, a world safer for American values is a world safer for American interests, vice versa, and on and on the flywheel spins.

In sum, here is how I see it. Both values and interests are fundamental to the decisions that we make, but they require different considerations. Values are how we think the world should be; they are principled and idealist in nature. Interests are how the world is in reality; they are practical and realist in nature. It’s fantastic when neither needs to be sacrificed for the sake of the other, which can be the case for many of our daily decisions. However, in those inevitable dilemmas, how do we make our decisions? How do you make your decisions? What is our north star? What we decide in these moments can be incredibly revealing of who we are at our core, and over time, will come to define us.

Thomas Jefferson knew this over 200 years ago, and 200 years from now, these ideals will continue to ring true.

Think freely,

Zack Spratling
Founder & CEO
Dear America Network

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