The State of our Pilgrim Journey

               Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 9/18/20

 Former U.S. House Speaker Tip O’Neil famously declared, “All politics is local,” but that was before his party embraced the so-called progressive agenda, moving from socialism-lite to doctrinaire socialism, from law and order to the defense of lawlessness, from scientific facts to individual “preferences,” from religious freedom to government telling churches what they can and cannot do. Today politics and news point to the state of our union. Our nation and liberty itself are at center stage and also at stake.

 America is at risk. How did we lose the rugged individualism of our founders and of their pilgrim predecessors who risked their lives on 3,000 miles of unsure waters? How could we, a once hardy frontier people, become so fearfully tolerant of anarchy?

Since 1607 from every corner of the earth have come pilgrims to a land that would allow them to pursue happiness. Emma Lazarus’  “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” have not ceased to come. We were and are a nation of pilgrims, simply desirous of freedom and plenty.

 But we have met the enemy and he is us. Compare the leadership of our past pilgrim leaders to today’s mayors and governors who evidence no appreciation of the American spirit.  Consider the vision and leadership of Jefferson, Patrick Henry, FDR, Martin Luther King, JFK, and Reagan, all of whom eschewed fear as they espoused freedom.

Today Americans are fearful. How could those who came of age in the last decade not be? Their universities became therapy centers. Their college presidents assured them that the college they chose would be “supportive,” “safe,” and “nurturing.” Their parents now fear that rioters will move to the suburbs.       

 Modern college-age pilgrims from other nations, particularly Africans and Asians, are appalled when they observe the ideological confusion of their American classmates. But what produced that confusion? Ironically, their educators. Not all educators, but those who whispered Freud and Marx into their young charges’ ears. The result has been the triumph of therapy and collectivism, the waning of self-determination, and the chipping away of freedom.

Since politics is downstream from culture, we should be able to understand what is happening on the streets of Portland and other Democrat-run cities. Portland is in the great Northwest. Brave were those who first headed there. Gutless are the mayors and governors who now refuse to protect their people from thugs. Negligent were the parents who never switched the thugs when they were children. Now lawlessness prevails. The bad fruit of fatherlessness lies everywhere.

At least five things are at stake in America today and all five are issues in the November election. One, laissez-faire capitalism is on the scaffold. The broad and deep influence of Bernie Sanders on our nation’s youths is dangerously transformative. With Sanders being Biden’s alter self, the November election will decide whether America will stick with Adam Smith or do a sure turn to Sanders and his idol, Karl Marx. We’re talking the fate of free enterprise and limited government.

Two, law and order is now considered racist. If those who govern us will allow 100 consecutive nights of vandalism because “rioters are expressing their frustrations,” we have no future except that of lawless, failed nations that we formerly only read about in the newspaper. The charge of “racist” scares corporations, NFL owners, and Democratic politicians, so they cave to fake protestors, inhibiting the enforcement of law.

Three, Judeo-Christian culture is pummeled for being exclusive, even though all religions are exclusive.  American culture has not been informed or primarily influenced by Islam, Hinduism, or Buddhism. Its roots are in the Jewish and Christian ethic, specifically the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. If by design or by sheer default we let go of this undergirding ethic, we shall see the results, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Judeo-Christian ethic has been our moral and ethical mooring for over two centuries. If changed, we change.  

Four, education continues to move toward indoctrination.  Like corporations, colleges are forsaking the traditional for the trendy, promoting group-think: not thinking per se, but what to think – about same-sex marriage, transgender “studies,” diversity, abortion, and alas, America. Embracing “think as I think,” liberals have abandoned the classical liberalism that ended slavery.

Finally, America’s place in the world is at stake.  If America continues leftward, we are finished as a city on a hill and Lady Liberty will beckon other pilgrims to … what? Venezuela North?  California?

Americans have a month and a half to choose what kind of future they desire. One of those choices will end, for certain, our storied pilgrimage. America will be “re-imagined.”

God help us!

 

Roger Hines

9/15/20