By Felix Veritas*
I postulated a while back that countries may have an established life cycle. Some, of course, last longer than others. However, for a liberty-based republic like ours, there isn’t a lot of case history.
We may be adding some history soon.
For all intents and purposes, the United States – as we know it today – is dead. It’s just a matter of turning off the respirator. Now by “dead” I don’t mean crumbling into the sea like a scene from the movie “2012”; I’m talking about the America we see in July 2018…50 states, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Why do I say that? Let’s examine the patient…
Historically, countries split primarily over cultural differences – Yugoslavia, Ireland, Czechoslovakia, to name a few. Sure, political differences consummate the divorce, but it’s the cultural disparities which spawn the political conflict.
That’s where America is today. Two distinct American cultures currently exist that, long-term, are incompatible.
First, liberals hate conservatives. I didn’t say “can’t stand,” “disagree with” or “grudgingly tolerate.” The accurate word is “hate.” It’s the result of a generation being taught that conservatives – especially Christians — are racist hate-mongers who poison the air and water, want the poor and elderly to starve, and desire as many wars as possible. Basically, a threat to harmonious human existence. Why not hate people like that…they deserve it, right?
That’s why conservative speakers can’t express their First Amendment rights on many college campuses these days. That’s why Trump Administration officials are accosted in public (at the encouragement of elected Democrat officials). And for now, those conservative punching bags are taking it. For now.
For their part, conservatives helped foster the cultural divide. Their unwillingness to challenge the leftist encroachment into educational institutions morphed schools more into indoctrination centers than halls of learning. The right’s meek, invertebrate response to the 30-year propaganda onslaught consistently painting conservatives as living manifestations of evil allowed the caricatures to gain credibility. As Joseph Goebbels said, “Tell the lie long enough and it becomes truth.” Conservatives’ unwillingness to engage the rhetorical battle allowed the leftist lies to be accepted as truth.
And so liberals, evangelized into a faith embracing ends-justify-the-means situational ethics, won’t stop their aggression towards conservatives any time soon. Why should they? They see myriad examples of attacks quelling conservative resistance…if the tactic works, why quit? If anything, it will get worse even as national figures – even liberal Democrat ones – decry it. We’ll move past shouting down speakers or disrupting a quiet restaurant. It will get physical and ultimately bodily harm will occur. Likely sooner than later.
But conservatives will restrain themselves for a while. A large majority of the voting public – save the extreme leftists — sees the festering, violent liberal malignancy for what it is and will reject it. Conservatives will gain future elected positions, thus fanning the leftists’ public-disposition flames to grow ever more confrontational.
In the meantime, expect sporadic reports of private citizens stepping in to shield Administration officials from harassment in public settings, and doing so without violence. But that, too, will end once a spark protestor meets a kindling protector. Once the flame flashes into an inferno, violence becomes the accepted language of political commerce.
It’s just a matter of time now.
Violence will get worse. The conservative desire to “protect their own” will grow correspondingly. The only hope is for either the Left to abandon aggressive, confrontational methods or the Right to capitulate. I don’t see either happening.
Already California started a secession movement that, while lacking significant in-state support currently, will gain steam as American moves more right and conservative voters continue their exodus from the Golden State. Likewise, many Americans outside California would applaud the state leaving the Union as they view its culture (there’s that word again) as contrary to basic tenets of American society. Few tears would fall between the coasts should California choose its own nationhood.
That said, God is still in the miracle business and inexplainable cures happen every day. America needs a miracle today. Otherwise, the patient’s seizures will grow more violent and painful, until a merciful death finally allows the patient peace.
*NOTE: Felix Veritas is a pseudonym for a Mobilian who writes occasionally for this blog. I am absolutely not Felix, and Felix is not me. I do not necessarily endorse his opinions (and am not as pessimistic as this particular column is), but find that he expresses a brand of conservatism to which I sometimes do not give enough attention, but which has plenty of adherents. — Quin
