Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in Greece last week. He took a long look around.

He looked backward. He looked forward. He looked around at our European Partners. He simultaneously took a long look at us.  The speech was designed to make us look inward. 

The remarks were wordsmithed to the finest detail. The optics set the Acropolis squarely in focus in the background to punctuate the historical line drawn straight to the present. Choices for direction and ultimately our future were placed in the balance.

One could question the timing of both this speech and dedicating to it a column that is mostly focused on State of Georgia politics just weeks before pivotal midterm elections.  Some will note it was Rubio’s soft launch of a campaign for 2028.  It may be, but that is another topic for another time.

We do have choices to make over the next few weeks. The choices do matter. Elections have consequences. 

The Acropolis was constructed about 2,500 years ago. The roots of modern democracy and our western world were planted and cultivated there. They’ve matured and endured throughout two and a half millennia bringing us to today. 

We, a relatively short sighted people, are too often stuck in the present. We take our history and the sacrifices made to get us here for granted, not unlike third generation trust fund kids separated from the hard work, motivations, and necessity that fueled the initial wealth creation. 

We have also largely separated ourselves from future consequences of poor present choices. A broad social safety net, bailouts, victimhood, or a lack of personal accountability or shame are all acceptable off ramps from personal or financial failure.  

We’re living in a time of unimaginable personal wealth and standards of living to even our forefathers a century ago, much less to those of the ancient Greeks. Too many look around at all we have, what have available to us individually and collectively, and only see the problems. They neither see the history nor work it took to get here, nor the systems that have withstood for centuries that have allowed us to stay here – at least, for now.

Our politics have grown short sighted and narrowly focused on ourselves. We want what we have and more. We don’t wish to sacrifice to keep it. 

America has endured various wars in the last quarter century that most of the country at least tacitly agreed were important. We fought them with all volunteer armed forces. The general public hasn’t been asked to sacrifice anything. 

As a result, we’ve grown more and more distant from our military and the consequences of military action, as well as allowing festering inaction around America’s major active adversary of the last half century. We’re now flailing about with mixed messages to both our allies and enemies as to what our goals are in Iran and the middle east, as well as Russia and Ukraine.  

China, for now, has chosen to be eerily silent on Taiwan. The saying “data is the new oil” was meant for Wall Street, as it was primarily used to fuel appetites to finance the tech boom. Taiwan produces about 90% of the world’s advanced semiconductors, which are now part of our everyday life and also critical to our defense apparatus. Those who wanted us to keep out of the middle east over oil should be taking a long and critical look at our current reliance on Taiwan.

These are not easy topics. They have weight because the implications and consequences are heavy.

But the speech given by Secretary of State Rubio wasn’t one of despair urging us to manage malaise with a stiff upper lip, nor was it one of gleeful platitudes that tell us to cheer up and ignore the pressing challenges we currently face. It was, instead, an appeal to return to greatness. 

In noting that “decline is a choice”, he instead urged us to choose greatness. 

“Too often, these days, we build downwards. We design our standards to ensure that no one will lose. We preoccupy ourselves more with the comfort of the worst than the potential of the best. We hold the most exceptional things among us hostage to the average."  

Part of the problem with a never ending campaign cycle is that it is difficult to step back and see the big picture. We have instant online reactions to every event. We have deep partisans and foreign influence operations reacting immediately to any headline of consequence to divide or distract us. 

For some, there is big money in being a divisive influencer. For others, there is a long game in destabilizing the world’s most successful experiment in freedom to date.

Secretary Rubio gave us the big picture, visually and rhetorically. We – Americans, Europeans, The West, and all who yearn to live freely – have more in common to unite us than what divides us. 

We need to take a long look around over the next few weeks before casting our ballots. We must not take what we have for granted. We must instead look for those who will work together to build upwards. 

We owe it to 2,500 years of those who built the foundation from which we stand.  More importantly, we owe it to the generations who will inherit this from us when it is our time to pass the torch.