From 2017 to 2020, our Nation witnessed firsthand a
leader, President Donald J. Trump, and his administration that fought for the American people. Giving up
was never an option. Instead, driven by fierce tenacity, our
country experienced unprecedented success:
- We
achieved the lowest unemployment rates in decades for women, African
Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans,
veterans, individuals with disabilities, and those without a high school
diploma;
- Delivered
a national security policy that accomplished peace through strength;
- Secured
our Nation’s borders;
- Saw
violent crime rates fall for 3 years in a row;
- Experienced
an incredible economic boom that benefitted those from every walk of
life;
- Achieved
American Energy Independence and became the number one producer of oil and
natural gas in the world;
- Eliminated
8 regulations on American businesses and workers for every 1 regulation
adopted;
- Put
more money in the pockets of hardworking Americans by removing burdensome
government barriers and regulation;
- Lowered
prescription drug prices for the first time in 51 years;
- Provided
much needed financial relief to low and middle-income households by
eliminating the Obamacare individual mandate;
- Prioritized
innovation and established the Space Force;
- Inflation
was a mere 1% keeping the cost of gas in the car or food on the table low
and affordable;
- Took
historic action to protect the unborn by reinstating the Mexico City
Policy and protecting the role of faith based adoptions;
- Unequivocally
stood and fought for religious freedom, not just in America, but around
the world, holding countries accountable for religious persecution;
- And
so much more.
In the past 365 days, we watched it all unwind.
Today,
the Biden Administration’s failed border security policies have resulted in the
worst self-inflicted crisis on our Nation’s southern border ever. Their
failures on the world stage have imperiled Americans’ security, diminished
America’s credibility and standing, and destabilized the world in unprecedented
ways.
In addition, they took a steadily rebounding economy and have left
American workers in the dust and American families struggling with high
inflation._______________
RELATED
ARTICLE
Is America Heading for a Systems Collapse?
BY VICTOR DAVIS HANSON
| P J MEDIA
AP Photo/David Goldman
In modern times, as in ancient Rome, several nations have
suffered a “systems collapse.” The term describes the sudden inability of
once-prosperous populations to continue with what had ensured the good life as
they knew it.
Abruptly, the population cannot buy, or even find, once
plentiful necessities. They feel their streets are unsafe. Laws go unenforced
or are enforced inequitably. Every day things stop working. The government
turns from reliable to capricious if not hostile.
Consider contemporary Venezuela. By 2010, the once
well-off oil-exporting country was mired in a self-created mess. Food became
scarce, crime ubiquitous.
Radical socialism, nationalization, corruption, jailing
opponents, and the destruction of constitutional norms were the culprits.
Between 2009 and 2016, a once relatively stable Greece
nearly became a Third World country. So did Great Britain in its socialist days
of the 1970s.
Joe Biden’s young presidency may already be leading the
United States into a similar meltdown.
Hard Left “woke” ideology has all but obliterated the
idea of a border. Millions of impoverished foreigners are entering the United
States illegally — and during a pandemic without either COVID-19 tests or
vaccinations.
The health bureaucracies have lost credibility as
official communiques on masks, herd and acquired immunity, vaccinations, and
comorbidities apparently change and adjust to perceived political realities.
After decades of improving race relations, America is
regressing into a pre-modern tribal society.
Crime soars. Inflation roars. Meritocracy is libeled and
so we are governed more by ideology and tribe.
The soaring prices of the stuff of life — fuel, food,
housing, health care, transportation — are strangling the middle class.
Millions stay home, content to be paid by the state not
to work. Supply shortages and empty shelves are the new norm.
Nineteenth-century-style train robberies are back. So is
1970s urban violence, replete with looting, carjackings, and random murdering
of the innocent.
After the Afghanistan debacle, we have returned to the
dark days following defeat in Vietnam, when U.S. deterrence abroad was likewise
shattered, and global terrorism and instability were the norms abroad.
Who could have believed a year ago that America would now
beg Saudi Arabia and Russia to pump more oil — as we pulled our own oil leases,
and canceled pipelines and oil fields?
Our path to systems collapse is not due to an earthquake,
climate change, a nuclear war, or even the COVID-19 pandemic.
Instead, most of our maladies are self-inflicted. They
are the direct result of woke ideologies that are both cruel and antithetical
to traditional American pragmatism.
Hard-Left district attorneys in our major cities refuse
to charge thousands of arrested criminals — relying instead on bankrupt social
justice theories.
Law enforcement has been arbitrarily defunded and
libeled. Police deterrence is lost, so looters, vandals, thieves, and murderers
more freely prey on the public.
“Modern monetary theory” deludes ideologues that printing
trillions of dollars can enrich the public, even as the ensuing inflation is
making people poorer.
“Critical race theory” absurdly dictates that current
“good” racism can correct the effects of past bad racism. A once tolerant,
multiracial nation is resembling the factionalism of the former Yugoslavia.
The culprit again is a callous woke ideology that posits
little value for individuals, prioritizing only the so-called collective
agenda.
Woke’s trademark is “equity,” or a forced equality of
result. Practically, we are becoming a comic-book version of victims and
victimizers, with woke opportunists playacting as our superheroes.
Strangest in 2021 was the systematic attack on our
ancient institutions, as we scapegoated our ancestors for our own
incompetencies.
The woke have waged a veritable war against the
233-year-old Electoral College and the right of states to set their own
balloting laws in national elections, the 180-year-old filibuster, the
150-year-old nine-person Supreme Court, and the 60-year-old, 50-state union.
The U.S. military, Department of Justice, FBI, CIA,
Center for Disease Control, and National Institutes of Health until recently
were revered. Their top echelons were staffed by career professionals mostly
immune to the politics of the day.
Not now. These bureaus and agencies are losing public
confidence and support. Citizens fear rather than respect Washington grandees
who have weaponized politics ahead of public service.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, Attorney
General Merrick Garland, former FBI heads like James Comey and Andrew McCabe,
retired CIA director John Brennan, and Anthony Fauci, head of the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have all politicalized and vastly
exceeded their professional purviews.
They sounded off in public fora as if they were elected
legislators up for reelection. Some lied under oath. Others demonized critics.
Most sought to become media darlings.
This governmental freefall is overseen by a tragically
bewildered, petulant, and incompetent president. In his confusion, an
increasingly unpopular President Joe Biden seems to believe his divisive chaos
is working, belittling his political opponents as racist Confederate rebels.
As we head into the 2022 midterm elections, who will stop
our descent into collective poverty, division, and self-inflicted madness?
https://pjmedia.com/columns/victor-davis-hanson/2022/01/20/is-america-heading-for-a-systems-collapse-n1551120?utm_source=pjmedia&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&bcid=97dcba5b3836df02659d13cdaaceb7725e0831d49eea234e5b9b5647e5a46308&recip=28551147
