Veterans Day 2010 – Perilous Days in America

In early October, I realized it had been forty years since I was discharged from the Air Force; a generation ago in Biblical terms. I was 22 years old. Over the years I have learned something: (1) being in the military does not make you a man. It hardens your heart in some ways; softens your hearts in others. Being a man means we have to do things we do not like to do. It’s not a matter of “feeling” it is a matter of leading a principled life.

The second thing it teaches you is that there are two kinds of people the decent and indecent—sinners all. I borrow the names of those two groups from Dr. Victor Frankl, a WWII concentration camp survivor.

Before I went into the service, my social experience was limited to people of Northern European extraction with a sprinkling of Native Americans. In the military I interacted with all groups; among them, I found the decent and the indecent, but sinners all.

I returned from overseas in April 1969. I walked into the San Francisco Airport at 4:45 in the morning to be greeted with cat calls and the occasional rotten fruit being thrown our way. Welcome home American soldier. The war protestors manned the entrance to the terminal 24 hours a day to sling venomous words and the occasional rotten fruit.

Many of the protestors and activists of the 60’s and 70’s have risen to become the ruling elite of our day. Scum does usually rise to the top.

Professor Angelo M. Codevilla, professor emeritus of International relations at Boston University, wrote an article entitled American Ruling Class—and the Perils of Revolution. Many of the bi-partisan ruling class today were subversives of the past and are to this day. They come from both sides of the political isle, Democrat and Republican. The ruling class is the West Coast and East Coast elites and the rest of us are the poor bastards who fight their wars. (Don’t take my word for it, read Professor Codevilla’s well documented article.)

Speaking of our Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), Codevilla said in part:

“After all, Republicans had been happy enough to approve of similar things under Republican administrations. Differences between Bushes, Clintons, and Obamas are of degree, not kind. Moreover, 2009-10 establishment Republicans sought only to modify the government's agenda while showing eagerness to join the Democrats in new grand schemes, if only they were allowed to. Sen. Orrin Hatch continued dreaming of being Ted Kennedy, while Lindsey Graham set aside what is true or false about "global warming" for the sake of getting on the right side of history. No prominent Republican challenged the ruling class's continued claim of superior insight, nor its denigration of the American people as irritable children who must learn their place. The Republican Party did not disparage the ruling class, because most of its officials are or would like to be part of it.”

Yes, they see us as irritable children. Take note:

“Today, few speak well of the ruling class. Not only has it burgeoned in size and pretense, but it also has undertaken wars it has not won, presided over a declining economy and mushrooming debt, made life more expensive, raised taxes, and talked down to the American people. Americans' conviction that the ruling class is as hostile as it is incompetent has solidified. The polls tell us that only about a fifth of Americans trust the government to do the right thing. The rest expect that it will do more harm than good and are no longer afraid to say so.”

Are these the seeds of revolution?

"The two classes have less in common culturally, dislike each other more, and embody ways of life more different from one another than did the 19th century's Northerners and Southerners -- nearly all of whom, as Lincoln reminded them, "prayed to the same God." By contrast, while most Americans pray to the God "who created and doth sustain us," our ruling class prays to itself as "saviors of the planet" and improvers of humanity. Our classes' clash is over "whose country" America is, over what way of life will prevail, over who is to defer to whom about what. The gravity of such divisions points us, as it did Lincoln, to Mark's Gospel: "if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand."

If you want to see how they really feel, Codevilla adds:

“Its attitude is key to understanding our bipartisan ruling class. Its first tenet is that "we" are the best and brightest while the rest of Americans are retrograde, racist, and dysfunctional unless properly constrained. How did this replace the Founding generation's paradigm that "all men are created equal"?

In light of all of this, “what did we fight for?” If we think the Republicans or the Democrats are going to save our country from this peril, wake up. Almighty God himself is our only hope.

Pastor Steve Brown says “The world drinks to forget and Christians drink to remember.” I think I’ll get a drink and do a little of both. Remember and forget for these are perilous days in America.