I want my America back. I want the land of the free and the home of the brave, but what we are fast getting is the land of the oppressed and the home of the cowardly.
When I was a young adult, I did not live in a country without problems, but I lived in a country that was working to solve those problems. People weren’t divided into groups: Asian Americans, African Americans, native Americans, white Americans, Hispanic Americans, Italian Americans. We were all simply Americans. Were there those who were bigoted and racist? Of course. As long as there is sin the this world, there will be those who bear hatred toward those who are somehow not like them. But the number of racist Americans, Americans who would move if necessary in order to avoid living next door to a black family, for example, was tiny and growing smaller by the year. In a global study of 80 nations completed in 2013 by two Swedish Economists, the United States, contrary to what the Democrat Party wishes us to believe, had one of the lowest rates of racism — only 3.8% of the population — of any country in the world.
I would hardly call that “systemic racism!”
I used to live in an America which would not have been surprised at that statistic, a country that was happy to see blacks and other people of color attain every high position in the land from police chiefs, to mayors of major cities, to judges, to members of Congress, to Justices on the Supreme Court, to Secretaries of State, and in 2008, even to the presidency of the United States. It was a country which saw people of all nationalities and skin colors assimilate into our culture and become Americans. None of that happens in a racist country like Jordan, India, or even France where 22.7% of the population would not live next to a person of a different race according to the Swedish study. But the new Democrat Party, in an effort to keep minority groups feeling victimized and thus dependent upon them for help which never comes, has sectioned us into white supremacists (any non-Democrat white American) who are born racist and oppressors; and people of color— all of whom are born oppressed victims of our whiteness. In a country that has striven for centuries to become more and more inclusive, this Party has chosen to divide us, for only by dividing us can they conquer us and win power for themselves!
I used to live in an America that understood that science was theory until it could be proven and that the very basis of science was the constant questioning of theories to test their accuracy. Scientists once believed that the earth was flat. Science was wrong. Scientists once believed that the sun and the stars revolved around the earth. Science was wrong. Science used to decree that doctors should bleed patients to get rid of the bad humors caused by what- ever disease ailed them, killing many from the loss of blood. Science was wrong. But increasingly, the Democrat Party and its followers (I used to say “the left” but there is no longer any distinction) grab onto the weirdest, most unnatural and unscientific ideas, and declare them to be scientific fact. We who question those ideas are deniers and scoffed at as being against science, when in fact it is actual science with which we are attacking their ideas.
For example: Thousands of scientists do not believe that man can make much difference in the earth’s temperature. They point out repetitive historical periods of heating and cooling of the earth that have been cyclical and which often contradict the idea that the burning of fossil fuels causes the earth’s warming. For example, there was a period of warming in Middle Ages which extended the growing season in Northern Europe, allowing people to migrate northward and to live longer in the milder winters. The warmer temperatures and the abundance of food caused an increase in population, which caused an increase in the use fossil fuels for cooking their foods and heating their homes. This should, according to Climate Change Alarmists, have brought about a continuing warming of the earth, but instead it ushered in the little ice age, a period of considerably colder temperatures. No climate alarmist has chosen to explain this or the other historical data that disproves their claims. Yet, to date, none of the hysterical predictions of Al Gore or climate change models have come to pass. Yet the propagandists who wish to control our lives continue to cry wolf and push wind turbines and solar panels upon us.
I used to live in an America where sexual perversion was present but wasn’t celebrated. If a man decided to become a woman, we knew that his DNA was not changed, nor his skeleton, nor his muscles. He was still a man, in long hair and woman’s clothing. We shook our heads and went on with our lives. But now, transgenderism is trendy. Transgender women with penises may look like women until they take their clothes off, but they can’t bear children or even have sex in the manner that a woman can. Likewise a transgender man does not produce sperm and has no way to naturally impregnate his/her wife. How is this natural? In the animal kingdom we have males and females. The new Democrats tell us there are multiple genders from which to choose and the choice of gender is made by the individual, not by God, or by his/her DNA. And they call this science?
I used to live in an America where liberty was important. It was taught to every school child that the thirteen colonies had rebelled against England because they were being taxed without representation in Parliament. They dumped tea in Boston Harbor rather than pay a tax on tea, and they took up arms and eventually defeated the British troops, gaining their independence and the ability to form their own country and make their own decisions. Recently, the left, now the new Democrat Party, promoted a retelling of the history of America in which the actual founding of the colonies does not begin with the first settlers in Jamestown in 1607, but rather with the arrival of the first slaves to be sold in the colonies in 1619. They also argue that the colonies rebelled only in order to keep their slaves which Great Britain wanted them to get rid of. This, however, is patently untrue. A number of Englishmen were actually involved in the slave trade and Great Britain herself was so interested in the production of goods from the colonies that the use of both indentured workers, many of whom were white, and black slaves was to them an economic necessity. It wasn’t until after the Colonies had risen in armed rebellion that the British Governor of Virginia offered freedom to black slaves who would enlist on the side of the British to fight against the Continental Army.
I used to live in an America where most Americans honored our history, loved our country, and recognized its exceptionalism. It was understood that slavery, while despicable, was not unusual in the years during which it flourished in the U.S. and, in fact, still flourishes in many countries around the world. This exceptional country, the United States, managed to eliminate slavery less than one hundred years after it declared its independence from England, and gained the power to make its own decision about slavery. Thus we can look at George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, and other early leaders, honoring them for the good they did for this nation while understanding that they were men of their times and with faults as are we all.
In the America I used to know, members of the FBI, the IRS, the DOJ, and the CIA were not used by one administration to prevent members of the opposite party from participating in electioneering, nor to spy upon the campaign of the other party’s presidential candidate. Even Richard Nixon only covered up the one time break-in of some of his supporters to the opposition’s office, a despicable cover up for which he was forced to resign. But the Obama administration and the Democrat presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, did far worse. They used governmental agencies to listen in on Republican campaign plans and then on the new Republican administration for months before they were detected. And they have never been called to task for those very un-American moves!
I used to live in an America where the Party not in office was known as the “loyal opposition.” They had different ideas of how to do things, but were willing to negotiate with the Party in power for the good of the nation. That is no longer the case. The Democrat and Republican parties have such differing views of what is good for America that little cross-the-aisle work can be done. Democrats are anxious to promote abortion at any time during a pregnancy despite the fact that most Americans don’t want unrestricted abortions, to do away with the use of fossil fuels regardless the cost to American families, to so highly regulate business that small companies cannot operate and close their doors, to give free money to those who choose not to work or who choose to go to high tuition universities instead of to less expensive local colleges, to impose user taxes on drivers according to the miles that they drive which will disproportionately affect those not living in large cities with public transportation (Republicans). All these things will be paid for by the half of Americans who actually pay taxes every year. The new Democrat Party wishes to equalize income, a socialistic idea which really means that those who work give to those who choose not to work until everyone is equally poor! Margaret Thatcher famously said that socialism works until you “run out of other peoples’ money.”
I used to live in an America where we could trust that regardless of which news channel we turned to or which newspaper we read, we were going to get the basic facts, perhaps, especially in a newspaper, with some political leaning. But we felt confident that we were hearing the truth. As it happens, we were not always hearing the truth. During the Vietnam War, for example, the Tet Offensive, an attack on multiple cities by the North Vietnamese, was pushed back and Hanoi defeated by the American-led South Vietnamese. Yet, the way the Tet Offensive was portrayed on television in the U.S., led most Americans to believe we had lost and deepened the desire to end the war. Today, the mainstream media, both television and print, is highly partisan. Only 7% of journalists are Republicans. And those journalists who donate to liberal causes, donate largely to Democrats. The Center for Responsive Politics found that 65% contributed to Democrats in 2010. MSNBC found that 87% donated to Democrats in 2008, and the Media Research Center discovered that 94% contributed to Democrats between 2008 and 2016. That may be a free press, but it is certainly not one that can be depended upon to deliver unbiased facts to the American populace.
I used to live in an America where we believed in the freedom of speech. We used to chant as children, “Sticks and stone may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” While that is not entirely true, it does have much merit. Kids made fun of other kids who had freckles or red hair or dressed differently. Teachers stopped it when they learned of it, but usually we didn’t run to the teacher crying that someone had hurt our feelings. We toughed it out. We learned that there are always going to be those in the world who do not like you for some reason, and if they say something that offends you, you just need to shrug it off and go on. But the new Democrat Party has chosen “words which shall not be spoken” and deemed them hate speech and therefore not covered by the Constitution. However, here is what the Constitution says:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
I used to live in an America where the Second Amendment to the Constitution meant what it said: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” A well regulated Militia does not mean the National Guard, but rather the assemblage of citizens who might be called upon to protect themselves against tyranny. Thus, the Constitution states, the people’s right to keep and carry guns cannot be infringed! Yet in the 21st century both local and federal governments have begun to regulate the type of guns that citizens may have, how they may carry or “bear” them, and how they must register those guns with the government so that it knows who has what guns. These regulations are contrary to the expressed right “to keep and bear arms” as noted in the 2nd amendment and as supported numerous times by Supreme Court decisions:
In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court affirmed for the first time that the right belongs to individuals, for self-defense. This was the first time the Court had ruled that the second amendment guarantees an individual’s right to keep a gun for self-defense.
In McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010) the Supreme Court ruled that state and local governments are limited to the same extent as the federal government from infringing upon this right.
In Caetano v. Massachusetts (2016), the Supreme Court reiterated its earlier rulings that “the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding” and that its protection is not limited to “only those weapons useful in warfare”. In the America I remember, all of these Court decisions would not have been necessary.
In today’s America, these freedoms apply only to the new Democrat Party and their propaganda arm, the mainstream media. Others are harassed, beaten up, shot, fired, or at least publicly shamed for not toeing the Party line.
This is NOT my America anymore! I want my America back!