For some decades now, our enemies have realized that the most effective weapon against this country is the perversion of our own democratic principles. Their first major victory on this front was the Vietnam War. Previous attempts had proven unsuccessful. But there comes a time in the history of any great innovative endeavor when the prize starts getting taken for granted and we of the late sixties generation were a prime target. Not nearly as prime, however, as the typical liberal American of today.
It may take a little effort to remember that the vast majority of Americans who lead the way to our self-imposed defeat in Vietnam were considered fringe countercultural "hippies" until quite late in the game. The self-designated "freaks" who attended Woodstock weren't exactly the student union presidents and valedictorians of the class of '69. They were the dopers and the droppers, the long-haired, bell-bottomed weirdos that often (trust me) got laughed or pushed or punched out of acceptable everyday life in high schools and college campuses across the nation.
But by 1973, a new day had dawned. Long-haired, bell-bottomed weirdness was chic. The President that so proudly we hailed in 1968 and again in 1972 resigned in disgrace and "journalism" had become the enemy of the "establishment." And while I still hold that the housecleaning and transparency that resulted from Watergate have made our nation stronger and better, they also granted our enemies a new avenue of access to the maleable minds of our general populace.
Earlier today, I heard a nitwit proclaim on CNN that Roseanne Barr had opened her eyes to new persepectives on the war in Iraq. I mean, ... what? I can't even think of an analogy absurd enough to emcompass the idiocy of that statement. Whatever Roseanne Barr or any other celebrity may think they know about the war in Iraq, they're in no position to enlighten anyone on that subject. For the simple reason that they, like most Americans, are spared having to burden themselves with such details by the fact that we pay experts, i.e., people who actually do know something about how to wage a war, to do so. For the simple reason that they have access to no more intelligence or information than every other American with an opinion and that some of them (Roseanne Barr being a prime example) are clearly no more qualified to effectively process that intelligence and information than your average barn swallow.
The fact is that, today, the enemies of America are by and large not confined to nations against which we can exercise an effective deterrant strategy. Many of them are individuals who have taken up residence within our shores for the sole purpose of destroying us. Their benefactors, elsewhere, are hard to indentify and even harder to locate. They recognise completely that the freedoms we cherish in this country make our government weak, susceptible of defeat, open to infiltration. They're more than happy to use those openings to their own advantage, and they have, but they have no intention of allowing their own regimes to be brought low in similar fashion once they've succeeded. Why is this so hard to understand?
Those who are using America's principles to defeat America have no respect for human rights, for women's rights, for gay rights, for minority rights, for freedom of religion, freedom of assembly or freedom of speech. In fact, they despise such "rights" as weakness and corruption. This is especially true today, but it's been so for a long, long time. The Fascists and the Communists had little more respect for these rights than the Islamists that are now aligned with the remains of both of those movements do today. And yet we elect government officials in the name of protecting those rights who are ready and anxious to sign our declaration of surrender to those who would obliterate them.
So. Is the American experiment over? Will we prove to the world that freedom and strength can't co-exist? And, if so, how long will it be before some newer, more improved version of democracy dares to rear its head? My guess is, quite some time. I must tell you, I wake up every morning hoping that sense will come to the Democrats in Congress and open their eyes to the threat that's ready to engulf everything they hold dear, everything I hold dear. Or that our President or his advisors will somehow, miraculously, figure out how to effectively articulate that threat. But every day brings more dismal news.
Once upon a time I dreaded what might have to happen to wake America up. And then, on a sunny September morning five and half years ago, something beyond my worst imaginings did happen. But it only woke us up for a few months. In effect, it almost seems to have inoculated us against a healthy understanding of what's to come. Once upon a time I was quite certain I wouldn't live to witness the defeat of America. Today, I'm not so sure.
