There's never been a time when America did not face keen challenges. How those challenges were met and overcome was as much a testimony to the character of the people, and their values at the time. Those responses run the gamut from cataclysmic narcissism leading to the Civil War, to heroic sacrifices winning World War II. In everything then and in between, how Americans responded was determined primarily by what they valued most.
A group of wealthy planters decided that the expansion, not merely the preservation of slavery, mattered more than the lives and property of their entire society. Foolish arguments were used to wrap up an ageless narcissism in flowery sentiments of "states rights" and other self-serving nonsense. On the polar opposite side of the scale of morality and purpose, the Greatest Generation weathered the calamity of the Great Depression and then embarked upon mankind's greatest crusade against evil, and vanquished fascism in Germany, Italy, and Japan. And in that effort belatedly saved the lives of the two million surviving European Jews, preventing them from joining the other six million that Hitler's evil minions had already murdered.
What kind of challenges America faces today are not half as critical as how they will be met. In that measure, we will teach posterity who we were and the values we held most dear.
America is suffering from ruinous public policies foisted on select areas of the nation, to advance a leftist agenda, one that lacks as much in common sense as it does in morality. People sick in New York didn't need solar panels; they needed ventilators. People in retirement homes didn't need virtue signaling; they needed protection from a deadly disease. A public ravaged by violent anarchy didn't need surrender in the face of violence; they needed good law enforcement to control the situation.
Four evil cops conspire through act or indifference to murder a subdued suspect in police custody, and tens of thousands of people immediately seek to riot, loot, vandalize, attack, and burn on mass scale, in cities throughout America. In all times, when martial law is declared, people who engage in such criminality are subject to "shoot on sight" authority. Such legal authority reflects the fact that looting and arson during emergencies, or carried out on a mass scale, are actions just below that of outright civil war. The damage to local areas is often just as severe and deadly as the aftermath of open warfare. Therefore, the societal response has to be in keeping with defending itself against acts of war. Good police work arrests the ring leaders early, at the first overt sign of violence, preventing events from spiraling out of control.
It is entirely in this context that Donald Trump tweeted, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." How some have chosen to react to this stern warning reveals a very disturbed set of values. Contrary to the shrill statements of a select number of leftist politicians, protest isn't anarchy, and speech isn't arson. There is nothing at all in our Constitution that bestows a right to destroy property or attack people. We can destroy at the ballot box and in our courts. And one of those four cops is already indicted for third degree murder, and the other three likely to face their own criminal charges. We don't need mob rule.
People who should know better immediately labeled Trump's warning indicative of racism, as though the crimes of looting and arson somehow contain a racial component, vice being merely criminal deeds. For his part, Trump felt inclined to issue a follow-up tweet, reading, "looting leads to shooting and that's why a man was shot and killed in Minneapolis on Wednesday night -- or look at what just happened in Louisville with seven people shot."
Frankly, no follow-up was needed. The initial tweet was plain enough. It was just that due entirely to politics, some decided to mischaracterize Trump's warning, and dry to draw some perverted political benefit from it. To these people, the sick truth is that they care more about politics than they do human life. There are a lot of Americans who have chosen to hate based on political objectives, vice a fair evaluation of words, actions, and desires. MSNBC reporter Ali Velshi stood before his camera in Minneapolis two nights ago, using privately owned businesses engulfed in flames as a backdrop, and told his audience that, "This is mostly protest. It is not, generally speaking, unruly, but fires have been started, and this crowd is relishing that." One wonders today whether he thinks differently of the latest attacks on the CNN headquarters building in Atlanta, that was just vandalized by an angry mob. Will it take seeing his MSNBC building razed to the ground by an angry mob before this stupid reporter appreciates the difference between protest and arson!
Political myopia comes in more flavors than this. Worse, deliberate implementation of leftist policies have mired many metropolitan areas in huge financial debt, neutered law enforcement, and shortchanged vital public services to favor politically trendy virtue signaling. Want proof?
The debt that cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago face today due to unfunded pension liabilities have forced them to raise taxes to such a level that middle class citizens have chosen to flee to other more fiscally responsible areas of the country. Today, Florida has more population than does New York state, 21 million vice 20 million, but a state budget that is almost half that of New York state, $177 billion vice $348 billion. California has seen the largest exodus of population of any state in the nation. Texas is the fastest growing state in the nation.
More proof?
Two nights ago, a police precinct in Minneapolis was attacked by arsonists and looters. Vice defend their precinct against attack, the mayor ordered the police to literally abandon their post, and surrender the publics' police building to a lawless mob, who proceeded to destroy the building. Rule of law was literally abandoned in favor of mob rule, and the police, who's sworn duty it is to prevent such anarchy, were ordered by their mayor to stand down, flee, and let it happen. After being allowed to destroy an entire police precinct building, do you think these criminals are now satisfied, or more likely than ever to unleash hell on other privately owned buildings and people? Thugs are not subdued because they tire of too much burning and looting, but only by good law enforcement, arresting them before things get out of control.
More proof?
In a city and state already ravaged by financial debt, New York's governor chose to prioritize trendy green energy projects vice acquire vital medical supplies like ventilators, which his own state experts years ago warned him was under supplied. So, when the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, the state of New York was deliberately under prepared. Vice take responsibility, the governor pointed fingers at others, including those who supplied his state with the needed ventilators, as well as more than enough hospital beds to make up for shortages in that area, again caused by myopic public policies that limited the number of available hospital beds. New York state had tough laws that made it illegal for even a private entity to build a hospital, or increase beds in an existing facility, without approval by the state. Too often, the state denied that permission.
The corrupt public policies went beyond these outrages. Cuomo then issued a politically correct executive order making it illegal for a retirement home to refuse people who were diagnosed with COVID-19. This was issued on the premise of preventing discrimination, as though keeping deadly disease out of an acutely vulnerable population is somehow the equivalent of Jim Crow laws. Entire floors of retirement home elderly were killed within weeks as COVID-19 was brought to them on gubernatorial order.
Now, we learn that the same Andrew Cuomo has issued another executive order that insulates these retirement home corporations from being sued in civil court for reckless endangerment. That would be fine if the governor at the same time publicly accepted the blame for the ruinous order he issued, and invited those law suits to be filed against New York state, and him personally. But, that would be asking for Cuomo to do something honest, and that's asking for too much.
There's a lot more proof, but what's provided is sufficient to make the case.
America is suffering from ruinous public policies foisted on select areas of the nation, to advance a leftist agenda, one that lacks as much in common sense as it does in morality. People sick in New York didn't need solar panels; they needed ventilators. People in retirement homes didn't need virtue signaling; they needed protection from a deadly disease. A public ravaged by violent anarchy didn't need surrender in the face of violence; they needed good law enforcement to control the situation.
When politics become more important than life, then we know what the problem is. The problem isn't a lack of money. It's a lack of morality. What remains to be seen is whether enough Americans are tired of these leftist outrages, and will use the ballot box to carry out a political revolution against those who implemented these stupid policies. Many Americans already have seen enough damage. Let's hope enough now see it to devastate those responsible, and reverse the damage they have caused. There's still a beautiful country to save, but it's time we get on with the rescue.
-- Ken Stallings
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