What is present day reality in America?
That is a hard question to answer for the average American, or is it? A better question, is the average American facing reality? There is a famous quote: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. (George Santayana)
Victor Davis Hanson is well respected and noted for his commonsense commentary on today’s times and his ability to put it into historical context.
The next four major points will be based on his work.
“The Dying Citizen”
“How progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization are destroying the idea of America”
“The idea of America” One could spend numerous hours and hundreds of pages describing the “Idea of America”. One of the corner stones is individual freedom and all that entails.
There can be no individual freedom without individual responsibility! “The idea of America cannot exist without citizens willingly completing the tasks required of a good citizen!
Tribalism: Are the American people being separated by race color and creed as never before?
Globalization: Has the UN been a success?
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“Are We the Byzantines?”
“We should take heed from the last generation of the Byzantines. Nowhere is it foreordained that America has a birthright to remain the world’s preeminent civilization”
Simple question. “The Greatest Generation” is used to describe those that fought and won WWII. What term is appropriate for the present generation? “The Self-Centered Generation”?
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The Sovietization of American Life
Behind all our disasters there looms an ideology, a creed that ignores cause and effect in the real world—without a shred of concern for the damage done to those outside the nomenklatura.
When did the American people decide to turn control of their lives over to the so-called experts?
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The above articles deal with the “unwillingness” of the average American citizen to fulfill their civic responsibilities.
The next two articles deal with the results.
“Americans Die When Merit No Longer Matters”
There is no question that those in power in the administration were put there not because of their ability or proven success in a particular field. They were put there based on an ideology. The administration brags about the number of first i.e. the first female, African American, vice president, etc. and will not discuss the abject failures in almost every aspect of governance.
Simply put, nobody does their job anymore!
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This next article is by Nathaniel Blake, senior contributor to The Federalist and a postdoctoral fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
“The More Americans Decide the System is Rigged, The More They Will Silently Rebel”
“What happens when the people who have been the backbone of America realize the system is rigged against them and stop supporting it?”
The average American has lost faith in the justice system and the integrity of our financial system.
The justice system: It is obvious that there is a two-tiered system of justice.
The banking system: Is rigged to favor those who support the ruling class at the expense of the middle class.
In the article the author speculates that America will become like Northern Ireland:
“But we might instead get Irish democracy, which has been described as “the silent, dogged resistance, withdrawal, and truculence of millions of ordinary people. It is subjects cooperating with their rulers as little as possible”
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The reality is that this country is more divided today than it was prior to the Civil War. Of the fifty states, 25 are Blue States and 25 are Red States. Adding to this situation, is the middle class, who are the backbone of the American economy are moving from the Blue States to the Red States. Consequently, the Blue States now have a feudal society made up of the ruling class and the peasant class who are completely dependent on the government. This is unsustainable.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand“ this is a biblical quote made famous by Abraham Lincoln in a speech prior to the Civil War. Will history repeat itself?
To quote Victor Davis Hanson:
The Byzantines never woke up in time to understand what they had become.
So far, neither have Americans.
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Tom Vaillancourt is a U.S. Navy Vietnam Veteran. He is a retired small business owner and is married with two children and two grandchildren