Mourning the death of the American dream

 I had intended to submit an article on the State of the Union address and the Republican response. Instead, I will just summarize that fact checkers (Breitbart, USA Today, CNN, Fox,…) have pointed out that many of the claims made by President Biden were, at best, misleading. Checks that rated some of his statements “mostly true” went on to explain how the statements were subjective or lacked important context. Many were rated as “completely false.” Sarah Huckabee Sanders did not make many statements of fact, but one was rated as “objectively true,” which they explain means that her statement depends on the criteria that is used to define a subjective result. In other words, they couldn’t say she lied, but they refused to say she told the truth. Instead of discussing two speeches that I felt were highly partisan, I am going to expand on a recent statement I made online.

I have tried to be a voice for freedom, liberty, justice, and reason. I love the ideals that America has striven to achieve since its original founding. I believe in freedom and liberty for all people and limited government that is responsive to the people. I have concluded that most people are either too lazy, stupid, or partisan to care or even listen to my warnings that these ideals are under constant assault from our own government. We have allowed the two-party monopoly of power to corrupt the system and build an almost impenetrable barrier dividing the electorate. This monopoly has created a bloated bureaucracy that is overbearing and unaccountable. There are occasional voices that momentarily rise above the noise of the machine, but they are usually slapped down quickly or dismissed as fools. The electorate has been efficiently divided into three major groups: Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. Sadly, the last group has enough power to push one of the other two groups to a win, but not enough to give a third-party candidate a win.

The insanity and disfunction of our current political state could not have been fathomed by the likes of Orwell, Vonnegut, Rand, and Huxley. We have long surpassed the horrors that they imagined and feared. I dedicated my life, health, and 21 years of faithful service to an ideal and dream that has been cast out of the land of its birth. This land has become a haven for greed, corruption, entitlement, and victimhood. America was never perfect, but we aspired to achieve the ideal. Today, many only acknowledge the imperfections and have branded the ideal as unattainable.

I am mourning the death of that America and the apathetic or ignorant attitudes of so many of my countrymen only sharpens the pain. Liberty’s voice has never rung from the halls of government. It has always emerged from the mouths of the people. When an apathetic and neutered population becomes so enthralled by trivial and inconsequential matters that it no longer recognizes the chains of real oppression and subjugation, it deserves its fate. I hope future generations will embrace the lessons we ignored that were left by those who came before us. Maybe future generations will get it right, but I doubt it. You can call me an alarmist or a fool, but I am not blind, and I refuse to be silenced while I still have a voice. I know that there must be others out there who are not baptized in the Kool-Aid of the Democratic or Republican parties. There must be others who are pulling their hair out and screaming for the madness to stop. I am addressing those few. I feel your pain and understand your frustration. If you too, have accepted the inevitable, accept my condolences. If you still believe that it is not too late, you have my pity. If you are reading a political opinion, you cannot be totally apathetic. Take the next step and think for yourself.