ICYMI: Honoring our Founders, Remembering our Principles
By Trinh Nguyen
How do you normally celebrate President’s Day? Sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to George? Recite lines from Thomas? Dress up like each president, numbers 1 to 44?
As former California Rep. Mary Bono Mack reminded us yesterday, perhaps the greatest service we can do in honoring our presidents and founding fathers is to remember the principles that have brought us from where we were to where we are today…
George Washington concluded his two terms as our Nation’s first president on March 4th, 1797. It is safe to say that when they fought for independence, established a fledgling democracy, and wrote our founding documents, neither Washington nor the other Founders could imagine what their great struggle would achieve and what America would become. In the years since, America has become the world’s leader, offering hope to millions, becoming an engine of innovation, and achieving milestones of human progress – electricity, the automobile, flight, the exploration of space – that our Founders could never have dreamed of. America – and the world – looks very different today than those that the Founders knew.
But America’s founding principles endure.
… and where we’ll be in the future. Notably, as Bono Mack aptly affirms, our foundational belief in property rights has served as an engine for propelling America as the global leader of innovation, human progress, and prosperity:
Intellectual property rights incentivize and drive innovation, and America must protect its intellectual property if it is to remain the world’s engine of innovation as it has been in the past. In a knowledge-based global economy, America’s ability to remain a world leader in innovation depends upon our ability to protect our intellectual property. And in an increasingly digital and global world, these rights must be protected online but also in our new pending trade agreements, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), that expand export opportunities for American goods.
To read the full article, please visit Real Clear Politics.
