“Men, like nations,
think they’re eternal. What man in his 20s or 30s doesn’t believe, at least
subconsciously, that he’ll
live forever? In the
springtime of youth, an endless summer beckons. As you pass 70, it’s harder to
hide from reality.
Nations also have
seasons. Imagine a Roman of the 2nd century contemplating an empire that
stretched from Britain to the Near East, thinking, ‘This will endure
forever.’ Forever was about 500 years, give or take.
France was pivotal in
the 17th and 18th centuries; now the land of Charles Martel is on its way to
becoming part of the Muslim ummah.
In the 19th and early
20th centuries, the sun never set on the British empire; now Albion exists in a
perpetual twilight.
Its 95-year-old
sovereign is a fitting symbol for a nation in terminal decline.
In the 1980s, Japan
seemed poised to buy the world. Business schools taught Japanese management
techniques. Today, its birth rate is so low and its population aging so
rapidly that an industry has sprung up to remove the remains of elderly
Japanese who die alone.
I was born in 1942,
almost at the midpoint of the 20th century – the American Century. America’s
prestige and influence were never greater. Thanks to the ‘Greatest Generation,’
we won a World War fought throughout most of Europe, Asia and the Pacific.
We reduced Germany to rubble and put the rising sun to bed. It set the stage for
almost half a century of unprecedented prosperity.
We stopped the spread
of communism in Europe and Asia, and fought international terrorism. We rebuilt
our enemies and lavished foreign aid on much of the world. We built skyscrapers
and rockets to the moon. We conquered Polio and now COVID. We explored the
mysteries of the Universe and the wonders of DNA…the blueprint of life.
But where is the glory
that once was Rome? America has moved from a relatively free economy to
socialism – which has worked so well NOWHERE in the world.
We’ve gone from a
republican government guided by a constitution to a regime of revolving elites.
We have less freedom with each passing year, becoming more and more dependent
upon a government which can never provide for us. Like a signpost to the coming
reign of terror, the cancel culture is everywhere. We’ve traded the American
Revolution for the Cultural Revolution.
The pathetic creature
in the White House is an empty vessel filled by his handlers. At the G-7
Summit, ‘Dr. Jill’ had to
lead him like a child.
In 1961, when we were young and vigorous, our leader was too. Now a feeble
nation is technically led by the oldest man to ever serve in the
presidency.
We can’t defend our
borders, our history (including monuments to past greatness) or our streets.
Our cities have become anarchist playgrounds. We are a nation of dependents,
mendicants, and misplaced charity. Homeless veterans camp in the streets
while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.
The president of the
United States can’t even quote the beginning of the Declaration of Independence
(‘You know — The Thing’) correctly.
Ivy League graduates
routinely fail history tests that 5th graders could pass a generation ago.
Crime rates soar and we blame the Second Amendment and slash police
budgets.
Our culture is
certifiably insane. Men who think they’re women.
People who fight
racism by seeking to convince members of one race that they’re inherently evil,
and others that they are perpetual victims.
A psychiatrist
lecturing at Yale said she fantasizes about ‘unloading a revolver into the head
of any white person.’
We slaughter the
unborn in the name of freedom, while our birth rate dips lower year by year.
Our national debt is
so high that we can no longer even pretend that we will repay it one day. It’s
a $28-trillion monument to our
improvidence and refusal to confront reality.
Our ‘entertainment’ is
sadistic, nihilistic and as enduring as a candy bar wrapper thrown in the
trash.
Our music is noise that
spans the spectrum from annoying to repulsive.
Patriotism is called
insurrection, treason celebrated, and perversion sanctified. A man in blue gets
less respect than a man in a dress.
We’re asking soldiers
to fight for a nation our leaders no longer believe in.
How meekly most of us
submitted to Fauci-ism (the regime of face masks, lockdowns and hand
sanitizers) shows the impending death of the American spirit.
How do nations slip
from greatness to obscurity?
• Fighting endless wars they can’t or won’t win
• Accumulating massive debt far beyond their ability to repay
• Refusing to guard their borders, allowing the nation to be
inundated by an alien horde
• Surrendering control of their cities to mob rule
• Allowing indoctrination of the young
• Moving from a republican form of government to an oligarchy
• Losing national identity
• Indulging indolence
• Abandoning faith and family – the bulwarks of social order.
In America, every one
of these symptoms is pronounced, indicating an advanced stage of the disease.
Even if the cause
seems hopeless, do we not have an obligation to those who sacrificed so much to
give us what we had?
I’m surrounded by
ghosts urging me on: the Union soldiers who held Cemetery Ridge at
Gettysburg, the battered
bastards of Bastogne,
those who served in the cold hell of Korea, the guys who went to the jungles of
Southeast Asia and came home to be
reviled or neglected.
This is the nation
that took in my immigrant grandparents, whose uniform my father and most of my
uncles wore in the Second World War. I don’t want to imagine a world without
America, even though it becomes increasingly likely.
During Britain’s
darkest hour, when its professional army was trapped at Dunkirk and a German
invasion seemed
imminent, Churchill
reminded his countrymen, ‘Nations that go down fighting rise again, and those
that surrender tamely are finished.’
The same might be said
of causes. If we let America slip through our fingers, if we lose without a
fight, what will posterity say of us?
While the prognosis is
far from good, only God knows if America’s day in the sun is over.”
