Civis Americanus sum

The Country is in the very best of hands.  Srlsy.  It is, because it's not in the hands of the Political Class (yet).  It's (mostly, still) in our hands, and while some folks are moochers and slackers, they're still a minority.  That minority may be growing, but it's still a minority.

And quite frankly, the majority acts like grown ups, when it counts.  Jennifer nails this in a post so full of Win that it will leave you speechless, writing about hard times and an American response to it:

Were we unscrupulous, you’d be making our house payment.  We wouldn’t have paid a dime in taxes.  What I’m saying is that the rules changed enough that it seems awful clear that someone was trying to buy our vote with our own money.  We ate all year long.  We had clothes to wear, and we even had several luxuries.  And yet, I could have gotten every dollar and then some back from the Fed. Didn’t.  Won’t try.

If you did, fine.  I’m not judging your situation.  But really, the poverty level could honestly include a household that always has food, 3 cell phones, and multiple computers? Cable? Internet? BS.

That right there is the backbone of the Republic, stronger than tempered steel.  Words spoken with pride that's earned, from someone looking forward with hope and as much optimism as hard times allow.

Rome ultimately failed, as a top-heavy authoritarian political class grew too feeble to hold the tottering mass of Empire together.  But in its glory days, it rode high, carried by a free yeoman class that worked hard, and better than the principalities surrounding what would come to be known as mare nostrum - "Our Sea".  Governed by corrupt Senators and incompetent Consuls, they remained the foundation of the Republic.

That's Jennifer.  And (I hope) me.  And you.  We're not done yet, even with a political class every bit as contemptible as Rome's.  Civis Romanus sum was the pride of the Roman citizens - to say "I am a Roman citizen" set you apart from others, many of whom took a less noble path.  It meant something then, and the same spirit means something today.

Read it all, and be glad for the Republic that we have such spirit, despite the miserable political class.