This recent column from Victor Davis Hanson nicely sets out the major indicators of impending national collapse. He’s also candid about the absence of an evenhanded rule of law when political questions or prominent politicians are involved in a controversy. He leaves no question about the international consequences of such a collapse. I read it thinking throughout that “this is all ‘previous work.’” I hoped Dr. Hanson, an intelligent and insightful commentator, would have an original set of recommendations for Us the People. However, he concluded this way:
Will we meet these challenges or ensure the ongoing decline?
If what we saw after October 7, or the wild and out-of-control reign of weaponized local and state prosecutors, or what we watch nightly on television at the border, or the paralyses we witness abroad of our military, or the breezy way in which our officials promise groups here and abroad billions of dollars in easy money, continues into 2024, then the country as we knew it will become unrecognizable.
Well, ah, yes…but what are “we” to do about it? When several recent, high-profile elections, including one for the presidency, have been blatantly stolen, is it sane to look to the next set of elections as a corrective? Leaving that to the side, what have the Republicans elected to Congress actually done to halt or reverse the flood of damage? Have we any objective reason to believe that replacing all the Democrats in Congress, plus the president and vice-president, with Republicans would bring about the swift and radical changes required to avert the disaster Dr. Hanson foresees?
Dr. Hanson might understand that the policies and initiatives of the Usurper Regime are deliberate moves to weaken the country. However, he never says so. To do so would lay bare the true challenge before us: the removal of an illegitimate government intent on the destruction of American sovereignty. That regime will not reverse course on its own initiative. Neither will it surrender power peacefully, regardless of the outcome of the November elections.
As it has been to date, our true challenge is to find a method that doesn’t throw the United States into bloody convulsions. So far, no one has proposed any such. Given decent persons’ aversion to confrontation and violence, the search is likely to continue long beyond the point where our slide into domestic chaos and international impotence becomes irreversible.
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If I remember correctly how he wrote it :
“The only thing these people ever understand is a punch in the face”
– Alexander Solzhenitsyn
He was speaking of the communist regime in the USSR, of course. Now, look around, and tell me if our Commie-crats in DeeCee seem even the slightest bit different.
Nearly every person with nominal power in our government is being blackmailed, as well as bribed. They will never speak out against the regime. The most they can do is retire, and leave, but even that is dangerous for them.
NO ONE is coming to rescue us, we are simply going to have to do it ourselves.
Good Morning Francis,
VDH comes from the school of CivNattery and as such, his line of thought will be along the lines of trying salvage whatever is left of our form of government.
I am not a Haruspex by any stretch of the imagination, however I think that he and those who have the same train of thought are whistling past the graveyard with regards to being able to salvage anything of what was our government and also our way of life.
There is a remedy to fix all of this in the Constitution. We all know what it is, but we cannot say it. As a veteran, I never thought I’d live to see the day where my own government looked me in the eye and by virtue of their actions say “We despise you! If we could get away with it, we’d kill you and your entire family right now and erase every last vestige of your existence from the face of the earth!”
I enjoy VDH, but what he and others of his era should be focusing on – for us on the right – is what, in terms of government, comes next.
You may recall that I envisioned this so strongly that I commissioned a cartoonist to draw it a little over 20 years ago, long before the term Uniparty came into more common usage.
I hold myself responsible for lacking the courage to more aggressively substantiate this danger. It could have been made obvious that the threat was a growing reality. It needed to be curtailed while we still had some control over the trend.
The first indication that our republic was being overthrown was the War of Northern Aggression. From there it has been every Amendment since.
Evil Franklin