Welcome to the American Story.

Stories about what it is that makes America beautiful

and worthy of our love.

This is Chris Flannery with the Claremont Institute.

I call this one skunk works.

America is a land of innovation.

The American Revolution was the greatest political innovation in history.

The motto on the reverse of the great seal of the United States is,

Novus Ordo Seclorum, a new order of the ages.

It is displayed on the back of our $1 bills.

The American founders themselves spoke of the provisions of the Constitution as inventions of prudence,

a phrase wonderfully bold and cautious, conveying how what is new and speculative takes into account what is old and real.

Innovators, inventors, solve problems and create opportunities.

They're not stifled by conventions or fashions. They imagine

futures that others do not see, take risks, often fail, and create futures that

might never have been.

In the most recent generation,

inventions in garages and college dorm rooms

spawned the information revolution.

We are less accustomed to think of innovation taking place within large

organizations or corporations, but it does. Take Lockheed Martin's charmingly

named Skunk Works.

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