George Washington, the father of our country, warned against many different threats to America. Of utmost importance in his day, he warned of the Illuminati, a subversive force that had infiltrated the Masonic lodges of Europe—and which today is the subject of what the media call “conspiracy theories.” But it was a real organization, and Washington knew it. He wrote about it in several letters to clergymen.

Washington was a member of a Masonic lodge in Virginia and was also a Christian, and he made sure the dangerous tendencies in the Masonic lodges of Europe were excluded from the structures of the new nation.

What’s important to know is that Washington acknowledged the existence of evil forces that could undermine the American experiment. He was not only a great general who led our military forces to victory, but was aware of evil ideologies that undermined the Christian morality he depended on for guidance.

Responding to a letter from a citizen, Washington declared: "It was not my intention to doubt that the doctrines of the Illuminati, and principles of Jacobinism had not spread in the United States. On the contrary, no one is more truly satisfied of this fact than I am." But he insisted that "none of the [Masonic] Lodges in this Country are contaminated with the principles ascribed to the Society of the Illuminati." He made it one of his purposes in the life of the young nation to make sure America didn’t turn out like Europe.

The impact of the Illuminati has become a bogeyman for Catholics, some of whom think George Washington was somehow tainted by his membership in a Virginia Masonic lodge. They cite the opposition of the Catholic Church to Freemasonry. What they don’t understand is the major break which occurred between the lodges in Europe and America. Washington personified that break.

These Catholics tend to believe in the kind of state church that the American revolutionaries fought to depose. That’s why so few Catholics were among the founders. They also find it objectionable that Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, put together the “Jefferson Bible” of the moral teachings of Jesus Christ and excluded references to his divine nature. This was Jefferson’s way of trying to reach Americans of different religions with a moral message that could unite them.

Our founders looked for ways to unite Americans of different faiths and viewpoints behind the American nation. It worked. It was a great success.

What Catholics and non-Catholics alike have to realize is that our founders, most of whom were Masons, objected to a state church based in England or the Vatican in Rome. In that sense, they were humanist or even secular. They wrote into the Constitution a ban on a religious test for public office. They believed passionately in religious liberty.

The threat then was the Illuminati. Today, of course, it’s Marxism, of the economic and cultural varieties.

In this regard, Washington can be viewed as a strong opponent of Cultural Marxism. General George Washington himself authorized the court-martial and expulsion of a gay soldier. He needed all the bodies he could get, but he drew the line at homosexuals.

The Army envisioned by General Washington—with character, integrity, and morality at the forefront—is today hanging by a thread. Consider Joint Chiefs Chairman Army Gen. Mark Milley, who defends Marxist indoctrination of our soldiers and presides over a force that includes gays and transgenders.

Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier was demoted for writing a book, Irresistible Revolution: Marxism's Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson characterized Milley as “a pig” and as "stupid” for defending Marxist training in the military. As a military strategist, Milley deserves to be called far worse. Milley has presided over thousands of deaths and trillions of dollars wasted on no-win wars in the Middle East.

Yet, by contrast, the United States has spent a paltry $3 billion on the anti-communist government in Ukraine, fighting for its life against Vladimir Putin’s Russian military, KGB, and GRU. Joe Biden just approved a Russian gas pipeline giving Vladimir Putin economic control over Europe.

Remember the days when the Democrats called Donald J. Trump a Russian agent? Joe Biden is acting like the real Russian agent.

Not to mention the KGB tactics used by the FBI to go after conservative “extremists” in the public.

It all makes you wonder why a West Point Cadet, Spenser Rapone, was photographed in 2018 with the phrase “Communism will win” in his cap and was then discharged. Perhaps he will be rehabilitated and promoted to the highest rank possible.

Nothing would surprise me.

In today’s military, George Washington would be branded an “extremist” and demoted or kicked out.

Our only hope is to maintain our nuclear weapons, so that in a final act of self-defense, even somebody like Milley would propose to the president that we use them against China and Russia. That deterrence alone may save us.