THE UNITED STATES OF SELF-DOUBT: “Today, on the 46th anniversary of Apollo 11’s triumph, its celebration feels hollow. America no longer leads the way into space. She doesn’t even have a vehicle to get astronauts into orbit. Americans no longer seem intrigued by what might be possible. Instead, they fear it. The unknown that was once so inviting is now forbidding. In the mistaken pursuit of a paradise on Earth, America has ceded the heavens:”

Conservatives would contend that private firms are better suited to pick up where NASA has left off. Democrats might claim that space exploration and its associated technological benefits is a great project worthy of a great nation, but so, too, are universal health care or federally-funded pre-kindergarten education programs. Both attitudes would indefinitely consign mankind to its rocky cradle.

Put me down in the former camp — while even Ayn Rand celebrated NASA landing a man on the moon, getting there was essentially yet another variation on the left’s century-old moral equivalent of war trope (as even NASA admits), which it always uses to grab more power and money. Best to use the memories of this day in 1969 as the inspiration for more commercial development than government spending.