A Divided Nation and the Brite White Line of Truth
Hello Fellow Patriots:
America leads the world in both good and bad ways. American freedom, culture, literature, work ethics, technology, altruism, democracy, and other attributes do set the tone for the rest of the free world. Arrayed against us are several anti-democratic countries that find American values and power their existential threat and have become our natural enemies. I’d like to start with some statements of truth that some will argue are incorrect or at least debatable. Nevertheless, these truths do exist and are the bedrock that will see us through this turbulent time once more. Here we go:
1. The United States is the most powerful force for good in the world
2. The cohesiveness of our country is under threat through immigration dilution
3. Our traditional social mores are under attack
4. Our leaders are no longer stateman
5. Media and communications, in general, have become a massive threat to our society
These five issues/truths (I am sure you could add more to the list.) are:
The United States is the most powerful force for good in the world:
It seems almost obvious to me that there is no other nation as generous, admired, free, industrious, or pick your own metric and we either are number one or very close to the top. It’s no accident either! What makes a country great is its people and institutions. Pick your segment and we’re likely in the top five except for education. That’s a topic we’ve spoken about in the past and we’ll revisit it again at some future date.
If it is our people and institutions that keep us at the top, you could ask why that is so? Forget the detractors who might see it differently; our country attracts the best and brightest in large numbers. Except for China (and you might wonder about their propensity for theft of intellectual property), we issue more patents than any other country. In fact, if you look at Basic Patents, defined as a patent granted for an invention recognized as pioneering, unexpected, and unprecedented by the scientific community or industry, we are number one by far. All but 2 or 3 of the 15 basic patents that changed the world were American in origin. https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/design/g20051677/patents-changed-the-world/ And, American generosity is unmatched, with America giving the majority of charity in the world. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2019-12-20/the-worlds-most-generous-countries With all our faults and warts, a world without us would be much darker.
The cohesiveness of our country is under threat through immigration dilution:
If what makes a great country is its people and institutions, how does immigration fit in? Is it a plus or minus? Are all immigrants equal? It is an important and largely undiscussed series of questions that a sane nation needs to talk about. Leadership, to be discussed later in this article has completely failed us here. Have you wondered why there is no national discourse on the consequences of massive immigration and open borders? I have as well. The Biden administration states they have “complete control of the border.” Who believes that? Here’s one undeniable truth: “We are inviting the third world in against our national interest.”
Here’s my Power Statement of the Week: The roughly 50 million migrants in the country today have massively changed our country for the worse. To be clear, not everyone who comes here is an issue. Many of those individuals want the American dream, have the skillsets we need, and want to assimilate. However, many are not traditional immigrants.
Facing the truth, overwhelming, Mexico is the top origin country of the U.S. immigrant population. In 2018, roughly 11.2 million immigrants living in the U.S. were from there, accounting for 25% of all U.S. immigrants. This figure is now over 15 million. Lump in other Central and South American immigrants and that number climbs to over 40%. Many from these countries choose not to assimilate. That’s the problem and the challenge. How to encourage the right kind of immigration that benefits our country and curtail the rest.
From Pew Research: The U.S. foreign-born population reached a record 44.8 million in 2018. Since 1965, when U.S. immigration laws replaced a national quota system, the number of immigrants living in the U.S. has more than quadrupled. Immigrants today account for 13.7% of the U.S. population, nearly triple the share (4.8%) in 1970. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/20/key-findings-about-u-s-immigrants/
There is no right, by law or by God that says anyone who wants to, should be able to come and live here. Eventually, our country will simply be overwhelmed with the social welfare demands of an ever-increasing invasion. How can we not see that? This is the Alinsky model writ large. https://bolenreport.com/saul-alinskys-12-rules-radicals/
Our traditional social mores are under attack
Whether through design or happenstance, our nation has accelerated a helter-skelter devolution of the traditions we held for our first 200 years. Are we better for it? It may strike most of our readers as a fact, not in dispute. But, millions of people think new liberal social mores make us a better country than we were previously. By what objective standard? That’s exactly the problem. Liberalism thrives on emotional arguments. I had a dear friend say to me today that when I asked by what objective standard, she thought something was right. Her clever answer was…because I am the Queen, that’s why! Unfortunately, when we throw out objectivity, we ultimately throw out personal freedom as well. Here are several bullets to become objective. From INC—I found the following:
A. Acknowledge and Compensate for Your Biases
B. Use Pro and Con Lists
C. Imagine Counseling a Friend
D. Strip Down Your Deciding Factors
E. Experiment By Reversing Your Line of Thinking
F. Create a Scoring System
G. Make a Decision and Live with It
The takeaway is simple. All of us have biases that tend to hold sway when we should strive to be objective in our thinking. If we want a nation of mamby pambies, we are well on the way. But, if we want solid, standup citizens that are honest, thrifty, and productive; there is a line to toe. It may be easier to go with the flow, but often that flow is going right over a waterfall. Strive to do what is moral and correct personally, and hold others to that same standard. Yes, we can. Realize that nothing in life is free and generosity can’t be standard, it must be available for the occasional situation, lest we create dependencies. Human beings, being who they are, can be conditioned to be weak and needy. Not the best aspirational standard for our population.
Finally on this subject…we have plenty of enemies that feed the current victim narrative so widely popular today. We can’t all be victims, can we? Ultimately, many of us, especially the young must be harnessed into productive work that benefits us all. Anything that works against our most cherished traditions is not only suspect, it’s likely to be an IUD directed at undercutting or even destroying our country. According to Federal Labor Participation Rate reporting, only about 52% of adults who could be working, are. This is startling low. In 2000 the rate was 64%. https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/labor-force-participation-rate This rate, if to be believed, is even worse than it appears. During this period, the US experienced the highest rate of immigration in over 100 years. Think about that. This trend portends nothing good for the long-term stability of our senior citizens and the country as a whole. I have included this topic in our discussion of Social Mores because, at its core, the choice not to work is also a choice to game our system for its many benefits. I blame politicians, the media, and the school system for creating a bunch of entitled crybabies that have made ‘handouts’ standard operating procedures. This must end. Ethical individuals should not tolerate society destroying conduct. All of us must take a stand.
Our leaders are no longer statemen
Be it Biden or Trump, neither fits the statesmen mold as far as I am concerned. John Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and even Franklin Roosevelt (I don’t have to like his politics to appreciate his presentation and presence) all wore the mantle of Statesmen. Statemen change the world. Politicians like we have today all lack the authenticity of the foregoing individuals. This does not infer that Trump, for instance, did not serve a great purpose. He changed the trajectory of our nation and should be appreciated for that alone. But he was not and is not a Stateman in the classical sense.
We need utterly great, charismatic, powerful, and effective statemen at least once in a generation or at other critical times (like now) in our nation’s history. We’ve been lucky that so many great men (and the occasional woman) stood that line against tyranny or other disasters, be it financial, social, or political. As far as I can see, I see no one standing in line to be that next great statesman and I am very circumspect of the real thing stepping up in the near future. I wonder why it’s been so long since we’ve seen the strength of backbone, purpose, and vision that a country as large as ours should possess.
What have we done as a country that seems to discourage the best of us from working in government? Far too often we see photogenic and well-spoken individuals in government who don’t know squat, rather than the Henry Kissinger types of cerebral and honest individuals that our country requires. Our press and political machines function sequentially as either cheerleaders or meatgrinders depending on which party is in power. How does anyone expect the largest and most complex government in history to function well with mediocre functionaries or dullard leaders? It simply can’t happen. God give us good leadership, please!
Media and communications, in general, have become a massive threat to our society:
As a follow on to our previous topic; now that we have bitten into the apple from the Garden of Eden, how do we reform and redeem ourselves? History is not comforting. In doing research for this article, I found that only truly earth-shaking events like war, revolution, or other major societal disruptions allowed for a major change in established systems.
Government is so grossly inefficient and unresponsive in responding to actual vs. perceived needs that I don’t see a way back. Just this morning I needed to speak to a department of the Federal Government. I called right on the dot when they opened and then again 15 minutes later only to receive the message that they were exceedingly busy right now and try again the next day. Did you know that up to 20% of Federal workers are still at home due to Covid! https://www.cnsnews.com/article/washington/susan-jones/rep-mccarthy-wants-answers-how-many-federal-workers-including We aren’t talking about telecommuting either; many simply are being paid to stay home. There’s just no imperative impetus to get value for the public’s money.
Why are there no media stories to expose this utter waste of our money? Why do we tolerate our elected officials, government employees, and contractors raking citizens over the coals financially? The answer is that we have become too detached from our government. We have an incredible ability to communicate the messages we want to send, but a horrible ability to message critical subjects. The reason is all too simple. Both a dummied down citizenry and imperial government at all levels are no longer responsive to the needs of its citizens, replaced by the new game of governmental war played out every day. This game is about power, longevity (theirs, not ours), and standing. Will it really require an actual war of some kind or a horrible natural disaster to reset the clock? Only time will tell.
Wrap-up:
I have painted a dire picture of what once was a shining star. Incrementalism got us to where we are today. If not some kind of societal dislocation; what would it take to reset our clock and achieve cooperative and effective government? Frankly, I don’t have that answer in hand. However, as Rahm Emanuel once stated while Mayor of Chicago…” Never waste a crisis.” Perhaps the next crisis can be one that does not benefit one political group or the other, but benefits all our citizens of what is still, warts and all, the greatest nation on Earth. Let’s hope so.
God Bless America and especially Ukraine at this time of extreme suffering.
Allan J. Feifer
Patriot