THE TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICA: DO OUR ENEMIES SENSE WEAKNESS?

In his Escape from Freedom, Erich Fromm refers to a symbiosis between authoritarian leaders and individuals who, owing to their inability to reconcile the challenge of individual freedom to their inability or fear of coping with reality, bond themselves to autocratic personalities  as a mechanism of fleeing from accountability.  To say that this process has been a factor in recent U.S. political history is to affirm a certainty.

The last five years in America have been dominated by a determination to effect a radical transformation of society.  The primary vehicles chosen for this metamorphosis have turned out to be the oddly named Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and a full-court press to stir up the enmity of class warfare through the issue of income inequality.  Sadly, too  many of our fellow Americans, unwilling to function to any appreciable degree of autonomy, have willingly surrendered their futures to what they assume is a benevolent central government.

Nevertheless, there are signs that there is finally realization dawning that these developments have not been to the advantage of the nation.  The incompetence of an administration inextricably wed to a hackneyed and stale ideology of statism has been laid bare for all to see.  And, with each day, there is further evidence that domestic failures have complemented an accompanying diminution of America's capacity and energy to execute an effective foreign policy.  

John Bolton, former ambassador of the United States to the U.N., has stated forcefully that, since 2009, American policy has been sacrificed to domestic policy, despite the irony of a multitude of errors and miscalculations on the home front that have branded the present administration as one of the weakest and incompetent in American history.

In taking stock of America, our enemies are undoubtedly rejoicing at the rudderless direction the country has taken and the uncommonly divided state of our body politic.  For all practical purposes, we are now in the hands of a lawless executive branch.  Congress has forfeited its charge to make the laws to the executive branch, a prime example being the 27 changes arbitrarily made by the executive to the ACA.  Furthermore, the president's flamboyant threat to rule with "a pen and a phone" only serves to undermine the American Republic and to take us further down the path of disunity.  The ineptitude and arrogance now shown in the White House is not worthy of a great country.  Rather, this is the type of behavior that one would expect of tyrannical figures holding forth in a Third World setting in the Southern Hemisphere.

And, as for any sort of grand strategy for enhancing stability in the world, there is absolutely no indication that there is or ever has been such a strategy during the last 5 years.  Wherever we turn, there are signs of tattering alliances.  Erstwhile friends and allies are scrambling to reevaluate their relationships with America and are seeking more reliable partners.  In the Middle East, statements about drawing nonexistent "red lines" have not only been an embarrassment but have also shown that ill-advised words have a way of revealing the weakness behind bravado.  And, to further underline how unimportant security for America is to this president, the recent proclamation that those with "limited terrorist ties" would be allowed entry to America has shown that safety for American citizens palls when it comes to radical transformation.

That Vladimir Putin comes off as a forceful and competent leader in comparison to the current American chief executive is a sad commentary on just how far we have fallen.  And, dear readers, if you think that declining American economic, military and political power has no consequences for you, then think again.  When American power is naught, there will be no one available to pick up the slack, and the world will be a much more dangerous place.  The world is an increasingly complicated place and to fail to act gingerly and with resolve is to abandon the field to those who who would like nothing better than to see America as a debtor country chained to a political and economic system of entitlement, unable to protect its liberties and freedom from the dark forces of repression and tyranny.

Deo Vindice!

God bless Texas, and may the Lone Star State remain forever red!