America’s political system has an instinct to be chauvinistic regarding our place in the world. Their view is, that as long as they keep their hold on the reigns of power, America will continue to be the envy of the world and that the only fear we have is that government will be prevented, by unpatriotic subversives, from making us secure. That security, of course, demands that we beat back the threats of Islamofascism, revived Russian belligerence, and emerging Chinese hegemony by maintaining a global military presence aimed at making the world safe for democracy and consumerism.
In spite of Republican and Democrat claims that their leadership will sustain America’s place of international preeminence, there are some disturbing social movements that are straining the seams of the national fabric. The globalist schemes of free trade and open borders immigration are putting the squeeze on the working middle class by sending industrial jobs to other countries and placing downward pressure on wages on the fewer unskilled jobs left here. In the process some particularly virulent movements are emerging to or, on the other side, an absorption of the the American Southwest by Mexico.
Perhaps worse, however, is the home-grown hip-hop movement which is best known for its coarse musical productions, but at the core is encouraging political challenge . The danger of hip-hop comes from the utter nihilism of its most popular artists who promote that, “…ghetto life is so hopeless that an explosion of violence is both justified and imminent,….” Consequently, self worth is proven through a pursuit of , “nothin’ but bitches and money.”
Certainly this mix of social movements does not exemplify the “e pluribus unum” hope that America was founded upon.
These phenomena and their causes are real and neither the Republican or Democrat Parties seem to be willing to organize their structures to answer to them. Instead, their financial backers are benefiting from the narcissism and social erosion that now represents American culture. Although the political system cannot be blamed entirely for the national state of affairs, it has played a major role but, sadly, because of the largely unquestioning support of the general population of adults.
America’s social situation is serious but it is not terminal. What we need to realize that it is a social condition and requires a remedy from the society, not the government and certainly not a self-serving political system. Nor is the work to mend America’s social fabric a task that will be easy, timely or convenient. It will take generations of discipline, sacrifice, patience, and generosity.
The biggest challenge before the current generation of adults is providing the freedom to our children’s generation to restore America to its social, cultural, and economic vigor. That will not be achieved through the lack of restraint on either a personal or corporate level—as is advocated by the various movements cited above. Our children’s freedom to restore America will not be secured if they are slovenly, promiscuous, diseased, debt-ridden, or conniving. Such people expect their excesses to be ameliorated by government programs and funding or political diktats for “tolerance”.
Nor will our next generation of adults have any freedom if we continue to allow our government to spread an empire intended to serve the commercial needs of select business interests with sufficient wealth to influence governments around the world. Soldiers fighting wars started upon pretentious claims that make us fear peace are not defending our freedom. They are, instead, pawns for supplanting American sovereignty with the Utopian dream of global economic cooperation.
Our first tool for salvaging our freedom is voting specifically against the two-party political system that has been part of our national demise. A more courageous step would be to listen to and support those carrying messages that are built upon sound reason and argument–in spite of the derision those messages receive from the “mainstream”. America’s freedom is first built upon expressed thought, not on mindless, selfish pursuits. Time has long passed that we allow ourselves to be intimidated from political ideas that threaten the established political orthodoxy.
The future is not set in stone, but it does not make sense that we continue to place trust in organizations and methods that have done so much to damage what we were. The rhetoric of the Democrats and Republicans is encouraging, but does not deal realistically with the conditions that leaders of those parties have helped to create. If the future is to be ours, we would do well to take it from that political system and reshape it to our benefit using freedom productively rather than hoping that our national power will deliver us security.
“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”