Should we have seen this coming?

It’s too bad that most Americans are so totally self-absorbed that they missed the passing of their personal and economic freedoms. Somewhere between NFL Monday night football and that second helping of potatoes and gravy Americans forgot why we exist and what purpose America has served. For all of those sleeping off the stupor of too many pork rinds and beer, this is a gentle reminder: We are the children of those who came here to make a life that would be impossible to duplicate in the Old World. We are the children of those who brought Europe and Asia back from the brink of totalitarianism not once, but three times. (If you’re thinking only WWI and WWII, don’t forget the Cold War). When calamity strikes anywhere in the world, all eyes turn toward America. No country has ever defeated us. Instead, we have defeated ourselves from within, a not a single shot was fired.

What Communist Russia and the Peoples’ Republic of China had tried to do unsuccessfully for decades, we managed to do ourselves. No one was minding the store. America reveled in its material success, in its puerile fascination with sexuality and permissiveness. We allowed a culture to develop that apologized for sloth, stupidity, depravity and dependence. And while the party raged, politicians, bureaucrats and the liberal elite took apart our guarantees and opportunities. The news and entertainment media played the part of rodeo clowns, distracting us while the power elite took aim at American principles and ideals. Our government grew explosively, eating away at the GDP and our personal incomes. And now, some are wondering if our best days are behind us.

They are. It may take a half-century to right the ship of state with no guarantee it will ever sail like the one commisioned by the founding fathers. The damage to the American psyche, to the spirit of optimism and self-reliance is considerable, and probably mortal. Who knows if we’ll ever recover. At the moment, those who benefit from government largesse can out-vote or out-lobby those who actually pay taxes. Once that dynamic is in place, the situation corrects itself only when the treasury is completely empty and the parasites have nowhere else to turn. It won’t be pleasant. But, it will signal bottom.  From there, it’s anyone’s guess.