Kennedy got it wrong. The real Kennedy, not the nepo baby crackpot currently rasping around trying to get Trump elected. I’m talking about his presidential uncle, JFK, who famously declaimed: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

It’s a good line. Folks love that line. It’s also total BS.

The fact is, most of us are here by happenstance. We found ourselves pushed into a world neither of our making nor our choosing. The fact that we find ourselves in this particular nation at this particular time is no more than luck of the draw. So why do I owe a single, solitary thing to this landmass on which I find myself?

Why should I ask myself what I can do for America when America is letting so many of us down?

There are many ways to think of a nation. One way is the JFK model: The nation is a home and all of us are responsible for maintaining and improving that home. That’s a pleasant way to think of it, but it also implies a family structure because a home, after all, is a place to house a family.

So what happens when the other family members aren’t holding up their end of the deal? What happens when Mom and Dad won’t stop bickering long enough to make sure the light bill gets paid? What happens when the family is a........

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