By Ray Cardello for May 31, 2023, Season 19 / Post 46

We have evolved to a place where everything is either Black or White. Our side is right, and their side is wrong. We want less government, and they want more. We believe in sovereignty, and they want to erase our borders. It may be as basic as we believe in God, and they no longer do. There is no gray any longer. It is me versus you. This thinking, this way of existing together, is not sustainable. This way of looking at each other as black or white only widens the valley between us, and it may already be too wide a chasm to bridge.

When did this happen to us? When did we lose our power, or even our will, to compromise, to find some middle ground? I think we had a common purpose and were more unified than we had been in some time after 9/11. We had been attacked, and regardless of party or belief, we looked out for one another and had a common purpose. We were against the terrorists who wanted us exterminated, and we stood together to ensure that would not happen. Unfortunately, that unity was short-lived, and patriotism became an ugly term quickly

I believe the movement towards the opposite corners started with Obama. Not that it had anything to do with race, but Barack Obama was the first President in my lifetime, and I dare say in our history, who did not love and honor the United States of America. Obama’s worldwide apology tour offended many of us who genuinely love this country and embrace our history. These negative feelings were especially true for anyone who served in World War II or had someone in their life who did. No other country in history has done more to protect freedom and democracy worldwide, without being imperialistic, than the United States, and we had nothing to apologize for to anyone or any country. But there was our President, the leader of the free world, bowing to foreign leaders. We never saw that in our lifetimes, and it did not sit well with us.

It was not just the “tour,” but the beginning of a movement in this country away from Capitalism and towards Socialism. Obama showed us with Obamacare that government control was superior to individual rights in his world. Obama was the Godfather of The Squad and the Progressive Wing of the Democrat Party. He spawned and promoted the anti-American belief and worked tirelessly to dispel the thought of us being the greatest country on Earth. He introduced the One World thinking to our youth and the America Second philosophy that we hear from Tlaib and Omar. It is poisonous, and it spreads like weeds. These people, even Obama, are the product of our corrupt and dangerous educational system. These are the first elected people who graduated from our system of indoctrination, not education, and proof that the system started by educators over one hundred years ago to fundamentally change America worked.

That is why there is such intense hatred of Donald Trump; he was a threat to the Progressive Movement. He saw it as dangerous and made progress in four short years to tear it down and renew our love of America. It also is why it was so important to elect Biden. Joe Biden is a feckless individual who the Obamas and Clintons can control. He is a puppet of the Progressives

I believe all these theories and can logically see how it all transpired. I can also see how impossible a task it will be to slow or reverse the trend. The momentum is strong, and the number of believers is too great to overcome. I fear it will take something as catastrophic as 9/11 to give us a reason to come together. Unfortunately, if history were to repeat itself, too many of us might think we deserve what we got and turn the other cheek.

Ben Franklin warned us that this system would work if we could hold onto it. We may be at the point of the rope breaking, but I hope we still have enough to hold onto the short end.