Jon Meacham: Nothing Can Make You Think U.S. Is a Stable and Safe Environment if You Want To Pursue Your Work

EXCERPT:

MEACHAM: “These were competitive political parties, competitive political men who made a decision at the beginning of the Cold War that we were going to compete and we were going to research, we were going to build. We might not see instant returns on a dollar, but that’s what research is. It’s, to use a biblical allusion this Holy Week, it’s bread upon the waters. Sometimes it comes back. And the builders won that debate. And now that’s being undone. And I think that’s one of the particular tragedies. There are a lot unfolding at the moment. But it is, as you say, it’s a self-inflicted wound and one that it may or may not be generational. I fear that it is, because if you’re a scientist, if you’re looking for a stable world in which to pursue your work, what makes you think, after the last decade in American politics, that the United States is a stable and safe environment for you to pursue something that may or may not find favor with a particular party?"