The Republic Strikes Back

America is clearly a country divided. For most of its 242 years, while it has been a nation of diverse peoples that may have held opposing views, it has always been a nation of peoples who have shared the same fundamental principles of liberal democracy – working to expand liberty, equality, and prosperity for all citizens. Where there were differences it has usually been about approaches to implementing policy on how to achieve these same foundational principles. The divide has evolved, however, to a place where there is no longer a coherent debate between left and right. Today we have become a fractured nation where there is a much deeper existential struggle over what the nature of the American experience should be. This divide has become a war for the very soul of America.

Today we have one side that defends the classic constitutionally based American experience and another growing collectivist progressive faction that outright rejects it. The new ideals envision a new America that is governed both in politics and culture based upon identification by race, ethnicity, and gender instead of on our common citizenship. The clash has been most apparent between the former Obama administration's focus on “fundamentally transforming America” and the current Trump administration's undoing of the former to restore the traditional values that have characterized perhaps the greatest nation-state to have ever held power in modern history.

A look at the rise and fall of great nation-states throughout history demonstrates that whenever a major country goes into decline and begins to collapse, there is always a contingent that arises to do everything it possibly can to hasten the process toward collapse. The progressive-liberal campaign to separate America from its founding values clearly fills this role as it vilifies current leadership for being the cause of the nation's woes with simplistic arguments to support their disarming contention. These arguments and accompanying rhetoric that supports the destruction of the establishment and its icons are spread by a vindictive media bent on emotional appeal at the expense of logical discourse based in facts and historic precedent. It is a tried and true recipe. Follow the above instructions, turn up the heat, and bake until done.

The process is playing itself out not only in the United States, but in many other countries as well. It speaks to the nature of power rather than to where we are in the cycle of nation-states. Even at the time of this nation's founding there were those who would do whatever it takes to usurp to power and return the country to tyrannical rule. There was rot within the cabinet of the first administration of George Washington with Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton continually seeking to subvert the objectives of Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was clear to note that “even under the best form of government, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.”

“Democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51% of the people may take away the rights of the other 49%,” again, according to Mr. Jefferson. As a nation, we have passed a significant tipping point where a majority of citizens receive handouts from the government. Once that happens those who wish to usurp to power have a ready tool to sway the “majority” with emotional arguments of entitlement and victimization. Historically, once a nation reaches this point (we are not the first), there is no going back. The nation becomes ripe for revolution.

Again, historically, the irony of such revolutions is that they are generally never for the benefit of the people - only to the benefit of those seeking to usurp to power. Citizens always fare poorly in such (r)evolutions, ending up with fewer freedoms and dominated by the new government to a greater degree. Always.

We're witnessing this (r)evolution in slow-motion right now. The current administration is putting the brakes on the collectivist progressive coup with its own counter-coup, exposing those that seek power for their own benefit, while attempting to re-balance the percentage of the citizenry dependent upon the government with policy changes aimed at shifting economic demographics.

It remains to be seen which side will prevail in the short term. The revolutionary collectivist progressives have one significant historically undeniable fact on their side. In every revolution only a very small minority of the population is necessary to bring about the unseating of establishment leaders. The current leadership is unlikely to be chased or voted out of office any time soon. If a time comes when the current leadership is replaced by the collectivists, whether peacefully or otherwise, the outcome, again, historically, is something that is predictable.

The nation forestalled a rapid decline when a majority chose not to elect Hillary Clinton. Should her ideological successor succeed at some future point, it won't matter what label he or she identifies by. The outcome will be the same. The 51% electorate responsible will euphorically see themselves as heroes of change, but all they will ever be will be the pawns of the new order. Collectivism or socialism or whatever you want to call it always grows to a point of being top-heavy and eventually topples over due to a lack of productivity.

We can only hope the momentum of the collectivists screeches to a halt or reverses direction. Historically, it has never happened. Will the story of the nation of the people, by the people, and for the people have a happy ending? Historically speaking... you already know the answer. But I personally am still a believer, and I hold out hope for what we like to call a miracle. Call me naive, but I believe we are all living through the early days of that miracle right now. Watch and listen very, very carefully. GOD BLESS AMERICA!