"Make America Great Again?": My Reflections Featuring the United States Constitution

Last weekend, I posed some questions that come to mind when we hear "Make America Great Again" in contemporary media and news reports.  Hopefully readers found these questions interesting, insightful, or at the very least a bit of a time killer.  

The following is my reflection to last week's questions, based on the introduction of the United States Constitution:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

 Who makes America great?

"We the people of the United States".  The writers of the Constitution along with the past, present, and future citizens that they represent.

What makes America great?

The people's effort "to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, and promote general Welfare".

When was America great?

The greatness described by the Constitution is secure and extended to not only the citizens at the time of the document became law, but to "our posterity", or the future citizens of the United States.

Where is America great?

The Union of the United States, which, at the time the Constitution was written, were 13 colonies.  Today the Union covers 50 states as well as several territories.

Why is America great?

The Constitution, the law of the United States, "secures the blessing of liberty" to all Americans.

How do we make America great?
The ordainment, establishment, and future observance of the Constitution is how America is made and continues to be great.

Drawing a Conclusion from my Reflections

The United States was established with the goal to have a "more perfect union" not "the perfect union". Greatness is defined not by perfection but by the effort to maintain justice, insure unity, freedom of speech, and "truths self-evident, that all men are created equal" (Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence, 1776).  As far as we know, America, even in it's darkest of time, has never ceased to strive for a more perfect union.  The very fact that supporters of "Make America Great Again", regardless of my opinion on the movement, can freely gather to rally under a cause they believe in and want to fight for, is proof of America's continued greatness.

Painted in 1940, Howard Chandler's Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States celebrates what made and continues to make America great.

Based on the values established in the Constitution, the United States is and has never stopped being great. I'll leave readers with this application:

Americans, regardless of their political viewpoints, should hold their leaders accountable in observing the greatness made law in the Constitution.  Any leader who runs under the premise that America isn't great and needs to be made great again should be seriously questioned, because there is the possibility that his political viewpoints are unconstitutional.  

I don't expect all readers to connect or agree with my application.  My only expectation is that as long as citizens and representatives observe their Constitution, America will never cease being great.