Professor Victor Davis Hanson, a classical scholar and military historian who is a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, wrote in the English-language Epoch Times on Thursday (April 22) that the Constitution, customs and traditions that have made America great and hundreds of years old are under intense attack. The left is shaking the foundations of America from all sides in order to stay in power, depleting the vast and generous legacy of our forefathers.
Professor Hansen’s article is translated below.
As Americans know from their own glorious history, the well-being of any nation depends on only a few factors. Its prosperity, freedom and overall stability depend on its constitutional and political stability. A secure monetary and financial order, as well as a strong military, are also essential.
Perhaps most important is a first-rate educational system. Of course, it is impossible without overall social tranquility (which usually depends on a respect for the past) and border security.
The ability to produce or have easy access to food, fuel and critical natural resources ensures a nation’s independence and autonomy.
Unfortunately, in the past few months, all of these age-old notions of confidence in American strength and resilience have been painted with a question mark.
The challenges are not only from foreign enemies such as Communist China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. The bigger problem is within us as we erode the traditions and strengths that made us unique both physically and spiritually.
Now we are witnessing intensive attempts to change the constitutional order and the customs and traditions of the last hundred years. The left believes that since most of their current platforms are unpopular, this is the only way to keep their transitional power.
A country’s institutions are its cornerstone. However, the Electoral College system and the Constitution, which emphasizes each state establishing its own voting laws, are under attack.
A 176-year-old, key election day in November is no longer available. The 152-year-old nine-member Supreme Court, the 184-year-old Senate “filibuster” and the 62-year-old 50-state coalition have all been targeted by the NDP.
With a hotly contested last presidential election, a slim Democratic majority in Congress, and an unenthusiastic Supreme Court, the left is trying to change the rules to stay in power rather than tweak its unpopular policies.
While our national debt is approaching $30 trillion, we are still running huge deficits of trillions of dollars a year. More worrisome is the sophomoric way our elites justify their spending because they think debt is irrelevant or that inflation and stagflation are relics of the past, even as prices are now soaring.
After suffering costly strategic stagnation in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, our military is now beginning to fix itself. Some politically biased senior figures seem more worried about the political leanings of their own soldiers than the dangers of foreign troops.
Our public schools and universities have systematically watered down elite curricula and replaced them with ideological, racial and cultural litmus tests. Gender and race are now commonly used as quantifiable grades for student admissions. The First and Fifth Amendments, which address free speech and due process, have disappeared from most college campuses.
The year 2020 was one of the most destructive riots in American history. Yet, very few looters, arsonists and thugs were ever prosecuted. Most are never arrested.
Whether the government arrests violent demonstrators, or people who rally, and quarantine in isolation depends on the ideology of those people.
The private monopolies that control most of Americans’ written speech censor speech exclusively on the basis of political leanings.
The modern Jacobins (Jacobins) seek to erase our founding in 1776. Mobs remove statues and destroy monuments with impunity. Names of schools, institutions and streets were erased overnight without uniform justification.
Our officials at the Department of Justice and the United Nations will not or cannot defend the history and reputation of their homeland.
Record natural gas and oil production has consistently provided affordable heating, cooling and transportation for the population. Energy self-sufficiency has saved the United States from fears of war in the Middle East and foreign oil embargoes. The more we produce our own natural gas, the cleaner our air and the smaller our overall carbon footprint.
Yet in just 100 days, energy prices have skyrocketed. The Biden administration canceled the Keystone XL pipeline, restricted energy leasing on federal lands and threatened to end oil and gas self-sufficiency in just a few years.
In the drought-stricken West, critical irrigation water is still being diverted from farms to the ocean. Billions of dollars in farm aid is distributed based on race. And the promised new regulations and estate taxes could kill off the remaining family farms.
When it comes to successful nations, Adam Smith (known as the father of economics) said they have a lot of “ruins. What he meant was that a generation that is debauched, laid back and lacking in historical perspective is bound to squander its vast inheritance of generous wealth before it runs out.
We are seeing how much of our ancestors’ legacy will soon be preserved. And the rest of the world is watching us – some with glee, others with horror.
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