Townhall.com
John Hawkins
April 21, 2018

I was interviewed by a mainstream media reporter yesterday. I thought he wanted to talk tech issues, but we actually spent almost the entire conversation discussing the feeling that many conservatives have that America has gone off the tracks and is headed toward dissolution or alternately, a civil war one day. Obviously, this would be a terrible thing and ironically, twenty years ago, it would have been laughable. Today, the joke isn’t so funny because we are a deeply unhealthy society with a dysfunctional government and for all our money, success and storied history, we seem to be on an increasingly dangerous trajectory.

1) A Post-Constitutional Era: Liberals don’t believe in the Constitution. Typically they deny this, but that’s exactly what a “living” Constitution means. You make it up as you go along. The Founders foresaw the instability and danger that would be created by this approach, which is why they wanted us to be a constitutional republic, not a democracy. Unfortunately, America has in many ways already become a post-constitutional democracy and we’re one liberal judge away from abandoning the Constitution altogether. Once we get to that point, America just becomes the representation of that old saying, “Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner.” Of course people are not lambs and when large numbers of them believe they aren’t being treated fairly, they do have the option of getting away from the wolves.

2) Tribalism: The “you only have to listen to people you already agree with” nature of social media has dramatically ramped up the level of tribalism in the United States. The Right has gotten much more tribal since Donald Trump rose to prominence and the Left has taken tribalism into hyper-drive. Increasingly, liberals treat a range of opinion between Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton as legitimate while everyone else is viewed as a white supremacist Nazi primitive that must be driven down into the gutter for society to move forward. This makes any sort of dialogue or cooperation nearly impossible. When every issue is a zero sum war where one tribe must win or lose, a lot of people quite understandably ask, “What do we gain by staying allied to this other tribe?”

3) Federal Government Too Powerful: Federalism is a safety valve on the American pressure cooker. As long as people in San Francisco can, for the most part, live the way they want to live while the people in rural North Carolina can, for the most part, live the way they want to live, it’s much easier for everyone to get along. When people are unnecessarily forced to live under rules they find abhorrent because the federal government has become an octopus that has inserted its tentacles into every minute crevice of American life, it creates discontent on a wide scale. If most Americans wanted to live like people in San Francisco, they’d live in San Francisco.

4) Moral Decline: As Samuel Adams once noted, “A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.”

A large number of Americans HAVE LOST their principles, manners and virtue and it shows through from the sort of politicians they elect, to their rudeness online, to the sort of shallow hedonism and fame whoring they find appealing. Americans are increasingly becoming a soft and decadent people which is problematic because the challenges may change, but we can be certain that Americans will face future challenges every bit as difficult as the ones past generations had to tackle. This is frightening because if you look at the “principles, manners and virtue” of Americans today, they don’t seem capable of dealing with monumental events like the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Depression or World War II. Most people in their twenties probably couldn’t tell you why all those events were such challenges in the first place. When America faces a challenge bigger than we can handle because of ineffective politicians and our “amusing ourselves to death” population, there are no guarantees our republic will survive.

5) The Debt: America is a freight train heading toward a cliff, but because we’re not moving toward the edge at lightning speed, no one seems all that concerned. However, the fact of the matter is that a reckoning is coming. At some point, probably within the next decade or two, we will face a debt-driven economic collapse; borrowed money will stop flowing into the United States and Medicare/Social Security as we know it will fall apart because we will not have the money to pay it. If and when we get to that point, all bets are off because if regions of the country see an advantage to splitting off from the United States at that point, they will do it.

6) Lack Of A Shared Culture: There has never been a time when American culture was more fragmented than it is today. By that, I mean that there are legions of people with millions of fans or followers on the Internet that the vast majority of Americans have never heard of in their lives. We don’t have that shared love of anybody or for that matter, anything. Conservatives and liberals disagree on economics (capitalist/socialist), religion (friendly to Christianity/hostile to Christianity), the Constitution (support/believe in a living Constitution i.e. no Constitution), etc., on and on. The average conservative and the average liberal disagree on 95% of the issues and in the few limited cases where they do look at things the same, they won’t support a proposal by the other out of sheer tribalism. Over the long haul, there has be something more to hold a country together than, “We wear Nikes, like pop music and play golf.”

7) Gun Grabbing: Liberals have fallen in love with the idea of ignoring the 2nd Amendment and confiscating all firearms. The logistics of doing this in a nation with hundreds of millions of guns (many of which are off the books) when many police departments and tens of millions of Americans would not cooperate is seldom discussed. Another thing that seldom seems brought up is that large numbers of conservatives would see this as a prelude to the government’s use of force against the citizenry. When it is discussed on the Left, there seems to be an assumption that lone resisters might get into firefights with dozens of police or soldiers, as opposed to ganging up with other formerly law-abiding Americans to waylay gun confiscators, politicians and anti-gun activists at THEIR HOMES in guerrilla actions that would be silently applauded and supported by hundreds of millions of Americans concerned about their freedom. Confiscating guns is a dangerous and stupid idea that could in and of itself end our republic if a serious attempt were ever made to implement it.

Link

It's not a "Civil War". It is the Second War For Independence. And it will be fought within the next 50 years.

The article makes many valid points. Most people don't understand or care about what the constitution provides for.

Jallen, nicely written and I believe you are on track with your points.
Thanks for sharing.

quote:

Originally posted by Cousin Vinnie:
Jallen, nicely written and I believe you are on track with your points.
Thanks for sharing.

Don’t blame me!

I don’t write these things. I read them, written by others, and share ones I think might spur discussion.

I’m inspired by Benjamin Franklin who told about a preacher who attracted a large following in Philadelphia, for his uncommonly excellent sermons. It was discovered that he didn’t write them but taken them from other preachers. Many were disgusted and quit the congregation. Franklin continued, saying he thought it better to have good sermons from others rather than mediocre ones from that preacher.

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:
It's not a "Civil War". It is the Second War For Independence. And it will be fought within the next 50 years.

Praying for the bloodshed to be as near to nonexistent as possible.

Thanks for sharing the article.

Hawkins' observations make for worthy conversation with my fellow curmudgeons, with coffee and donuts.

Point 1 and Point 7 are, in my mind, the same.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
Point 1 and Point 7 are, in my mind, the same.

I would conversationally, disagree.

Point 1 discusses the Constitutional.
Point 2 discusses an Amendment to the aforementioned Constitution.

I do read into your post that the two are connected.

I ask my similarly aged friends, when was the last time any of them read, or have read, the Constitution, let alone the Amendments?

I see it is one force with seven fronts. That force is Leftism.

I know you would disagree Jallen ( ), Point 6, Lack of Shared Culture, I might suggest public schools are a main source of fertilizer for such. Social Justice means focus on and magnify your differences, not your commonalities; the fruit of which is to deman founding American values.

quote:

Originally posted by darthfuster:
I see it is one force with seven fronts. That force is Leftism.

+1

Communism, Liberalism, Socialism, Progressivism, National Socialism, New World Order Globalist, the United Nations and the American 'Democratic' Party's.... 45 goals to destroy the United States.... largely achieved.

“The Naked Communist” 45 goals, by Cleon Skousen.
Communist Goals (1963)
http://www.freerepublic.com/fo...f-news/1272893/posts

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:
It's not a "Civil War". It is the Second War For Independence. And it will be fought within the next 50 years.

Praying for the bloodshed to be as near to nonexistent as possible.

Depends on who is doing the bleeding if you ask me.

A good read, if you can find a copy - “Unintended Consequences” by Ross.

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:
It's not a "Civil War". It is the Second War For Independence. And it will be fought within the next 50 years.

I'm in, and soon, I ain't getting any younger.

Of all these issues--and I agree with each one--I think the takeover of the public schools by Leftist ideologues the most dangerous for the survival of our Republic. It fosters lack of knowledge of history, lack of respect for the constitution, and drives the values of children away from that of their parents. This is an intentional, deep, decades-long "long march" through the institutions of learning, with schools of education and social studies being probably the main forces behind it.
If the public schools do not teach the consensus values, they are the enemy of the people.

quote:

Originally posted by apf383:

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:


Praying for the bloodshed to be as near to nonexistent as possible.

Depends on who is doing the bleeding if you ask me.

There is already plenty of bleeding. Visit any urban center and see for yourself. Or read the news, it being safer even if inaccurate.

The clash of cultures is easily seen in the inner cities. Many don't want to work and yet they enjoy their free shit. And they rebel against any suggestion they contribute. To many, the country they see is block after block of the same inner city. They can't even imagine what its like to work for a living or why the rest of us don't change to their way of life. They know whitey is the enemy because they're told that by their leaders. They see the injustice of white rule every time a Michael Jackson or other poor misunderstood youth is killed. All he was doing was standing up to the white police.

Yet 40 miles out in the country, almost any direction, the white police officers parents don't understand why he thought it was right to stand up to the police.

So right now we've got bloodshed. The leftists demand white suburbanites disarm. The white folks in the outlying areas won't do that. The big question is will the snowflakes join hands with the free shit crowd. They aren't armed but wouldn't mind others doing their dirty work for them. It'll be interesting. Me, I plan on dying before it gets going.

#7 would surely plunge the nation into civil war. With hundreds of millions of guns in private hands, the only “gun control” measure that the left will ever be satisfied with is a repeal of the 2A and an attempt to confiscate all firearms. That will be the ugliest day in American history.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
Of all these issues--and I agree with each one--I think the takeover of the public schools by Leftist ideologues the most dangerous for the survival of our Republic. It fosters lack of knowledge of history, lack of respect for the constitution, and drives the values of children away from that of their parents. This is an intentional, deep, decades-long "long march" through the institutions of learning, with schools of education and social studies being probably the main forces behind it.
If the public schools do not teach the consensus values, they are the enemy of the people.

While I agree a there are many liberals in education and they tend to push their agenda, in the school I work teachers pushing their ideologies is very frowned upon. The problem I see is lack of parenting and values being taught to the kids at home. We are given kids who have not been taught the basics of being a functional person, parents expecting us to to their job for them, and then blame the teachers when their kids who have not been taught any kind of work ethic or expectation of personal responsibility fail because they refuse to do the work. It wears on many good teachers and they decide it is not worth the fight and either concede to rewarding a standard that isnt even close to mediocrity, or just leave education all together. It starts at the top. We have actually been told by a superintendent to listen to the students' struggles/stories rather than hold them accountable for their behavior that blatantly does not meet the standard expectations that administration/school board put in their own student code of conduct. At the point the admin/school board/parents refuse to hold the children to a standard, what can the good teachers do? The answer is not much. While I appreciate your opinion, I have to disagree with the notion that the entire problem is the teachers. That is a relatively small percentage of the problem...

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:
It's not a "Civil War". It is the Second War For Independence. And it will be fought within the next 50 years.

Praying for the bloodshed to be as near to nonexistent as possible.

Then that would not change a thing.

There has to be winners and losers for things to change.

If the liberals keep doing what they are doing now, it will be in the next 10 years. Hence gun control . They are pushing very hard. They are very afraid.