America is reaping from its moral collapse

By Chris Adamo

The liberal Democrat political machine has been in high gear seeking restrictions on gun ownership ever since the December 11, 2012 massacre of twenty young children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut. According to the left, that hideous event constitutes inarguable proof that America needs to rescind the Second Amendment. For the good of everyone, and particularly "the children," the guns must go.

It might seem difficult to surpass such phony liberal sanctimony. Yet during the last days of 2012, as the contrived "fiscal cliff crisis" reached its do or die moment, the same old class envy diatribe spewed forth from the predictable cadre of leftists, starting with Barack Obama, and parroted by his trusty minions.

Meanwhile, the people on Main Street remain in shock over the grim transformation of their country that has been ongoing since 2009, with no end in sight. How could America have become such an alien place, where bedrock principles of the Constitution face imminent threat and the nation's finances careen towards implosion, with Washington oblivious to the scope of the problem? How could an event as horrendous as the Sandy Hook shootings be so shamelessly exploited by politicians who clearly have no interest in addressing its root causes or achieving workable solutions, yet are happy to wield it as a means of bludgeoning their political opposition?

It is as if this nation, fittingly characterized by former President Ronald Reagan as the "shining city on a hill" and "last best hope of mankind," is being systematically dismantled, and in its place a far less promising or hopeful society put into place. Yet no marauding army from across the sea can claim credit for this transformation. As humanity has been warned on too many occasions, a nation as great as the United States once was cannot be overcome from without until it has been destroyed from within. And on multiple fronts, our once great United States is proceeding down that desolate course, and has actually been doing so for some time.

Prominent Democrats jubilantly trumpet the ongoing debt crisis and mass tragedy in Connecticut as proof that America needs an ever greater dosage of their liberalism. This of course is primarily driven by their willingness to callously exploit any crisis (Never forget the words of Rahm Emanuel) in service to their political cause. But although the issues are admittedly tied to each other, it is for reasons that the left would not want America to contemplate. In many ways, the hysterics from liberal Democrats during the past four weeks have been motivated by an intense fear that the nation might ever reawaken to the real root cause of its escalating problems.

Tuesday, January 22 2013 marks the fortieth anniversary of the infamous "Roe vs. Wade" decision by which the United States Supreme Court concocted a "constitutional" provision legalizing human abortion across the nation. Intellectually honest legal scholars must concede that the court's decision was a blatant departure from its proper role of maintaining the integrity of constitutional principle in the nation's governance. Nevertheless, the moral implications of that horrendous episode of judicial activism vastly eclipse any mere concerns of an overreach by one branch of the federal government.

By virtue of that single cataclysmic moral failure, the entirety of the U.S. Government at its highest levels rendered the priceless "right to life" enumerated in the Declaration of Independence inconsequential. In the wake of that official sanctioning of indescribable evil, should anyone now be surprised that "liberty" and the "pursuit of happiness" would not long withstand the onslaught of a soulless and self-serving state?

Of course liberals and the counterculture have skillfully avoided full disclosure of their unconscionable denigration of all human existence. Invoking such terms as "choice" and "reproductive rights" to give their gruesome cause a veneer of legitimacy, they hysterically attack and accuse any who would dispute the worthiness of their cause.

The latest such effort is to deceitfully mischaracterize pro-life efforts as a "war on women." If, according to pro-aborts, "war on women" mean slowing the rate at which expectant mothers exterminate their unborn children, then conservatives are indeed guilty. But if that "war" is defined as a concerted government effort to destroy the opportunities of all citizens, including women to live a better life and access open doors by which to provide for the children they do have and raise, then it is clearly the statist Democrats who have waged a cruel and incessant war on women, minorities, and all of Middle America.

Long before Roe, the time-honored ideal of private property ownership had also been under assault. It was during the administration of Franklin Roosevelt that the concept of one citizen being legally entitled to sap the earnings of another became popularized. And to the degree that America accepted the notion, it began its long, expensive trek down the slippery slope of socialism and the "nanny state." Eventually, as forewarned by numerous historians, the consuming masses, rife with the sanctimony of their "entitled" status, are demanding more than can be produced to satisfy them. The economic doldrums of the past four years are only a harbinger of something much worse to come.

Nevertheless, the ethical downfall represented by America's drift into collectivism under Roosevelt must be considered in conjunction with the wholesale societal annihilation of traditional morality undertaken by the American left during the 1960s, which has only worsened since. It is the dismal repercussions of these societal changes that have become so glaringly apparent in recent weeks.

An alarming portion of America's youth no longer possess any remnant of conscience. And although the actual number who will resort to violence is much smaller, focus groups and discussions amongst the nation's young reveal a frightening departure from any true understanding of right and wrong, since those concepts have been supplanted by the perverse and disjointed premises of "political correctness." Concern for "the environment" and minimizing ones' "carbon footprint" have replaced the quaint notions of kindness or compassion. Similarly, expectations that the state will ante up on "entitlements" thoroughly obscure any concern for the burden such programs may place on others.

Thus the nation slips ever further from its high place of justice, opportunity, and freedom on the world stage. In response, the political left deflects blame by intensifying the tone and shrillness of its accusations against those who, with a firm dedication to the Judeo-Christian ethic, once forged this nation in its greatness, and whose work and principles made it a bastion of optimism for the rest of civilization.

For unless such noble achievements are expunged from the nation's collective memory, Americans might recognize the dire cause and effect relationship between the empty promises offered by liberals, and the disasters that have actually ensued from their policies. If that day arrives, the American people will reject the bitter poison that has brought down so many nations throughout history, and has demeaned them to this current sad state of affairs.

Then they can commence the rebuilding of their tattered nation on the bedrock of goodness that was bequeathed to them from its founding.

© Chris Adamo