Dear Friends and Patriots,

I have this friend named Jud Blakely. You can look him up. He’s known. Jud and I correspond regularly and collaborate when we can. We don’t live that far apart and see each other fairly regularly. Jud is like me – a freedom-loving, activist-minded, cynic and curmudgeon of the first order. Suffice it to say neither of us are very happy campers these days.

Jud has an article that bears “1 October 2021” as its publication date. I can’t quote from it because I don’t think it’s out yet, but will give you some impressionistic references to what it’s about.

The article is entitled “The Bright Darkness Of Being Incapable Of Thinking.” In it Jud proposes the world is entering a new Dark Age. We’ve been out of the historic Dark Ages for a few hundred years now. In the past couple of hundred we’ve patted ourselves on the back for being ruled more by reason and science than by the whims of the powerful and popular. But, in more recent times, thanks mostly to the machinations of the progressive movement, our perceptions of reality have begun to change. A new social order is taking hold. The new order believes in equality of outcomes, fairness, and a few other concepts that human nature has never supported. It’s not enough now to be “color blind” and to believe in equal opportunity. No, such thoughts are now relegated to the dust heaps of history and all who still hold such notions are fossils who need to sit down and shut up.

I changed my mind on something. I will include a quote from Jud’s article, at great risk to me, because he might change this before publication. Absorb this:

“As of 12:18 CDT on 9-29-2021 ... the most current version of what All

We (Americans) Can (Must) Be is both equal AND inclusively diverse.

In other words ... the budding despotism of the Biden Regime is based on

turning “E Pluribus Unum,” From Out of Many, One – to “E Unum Pluribus,”

Out of One, Many. I mean...what could go wrong?

I find that a great way to summarize exactly how the progressive Democrats have managed us over the past three or four decades. Their strategy of social segregation by minor interest groups; subdividing and sub-subdividing our society into tiny, whiny and loud special interest groups is very nicely captured. It’s how the progressive are attempting to control us all – by pitting us against each other while declaring US the problem. They create the set-piece of conflict, lure us all in, then blame US for the entire thing. It’s 100% Alinsky tactics as revealed in his Rules for Radicals.

Jud goes on in the article to reference previously great nations, the ancient Greek and the Roman Empires, then sort of laments the truth that few today have any grasp of what those empires were about and the dynamic truths of why they rose, then collapsed. Jud and I both see the parallels, but today’s more modern, progressive-educated subject of Amerika can’t make heads nor tails of it.

Go look for Jud’s article in a day or so. If you have trouble finding it, let me help. I responded to Jud’s offering with the note below, which I share with you all. Perhaps there’s a nugget in there you may find of some value.

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Jud,

You really ended that piece on a high note!

It's all true. It's true because humans are humans. We like to fantasize and dream of otherworldly things. We dream of perfect societies and perfect worlds. We dream of living lives of no responsibility – total self-indulgence – hedonism. But, we all get to watch our parents, and even though most of us grew up thinking, "I'm not going to do like Daddy (or Mommy) did. I'm going to do things better," we learned soon enough that "better" was sometimes a mighty heavy sledge to move. Those of us who think learn to understand our parents and their struggles to do what they thought were best, within their own limitations. Then, we have an epiphany – WE GOTS LIMITATIONS, TOO! That may be the first true sign of adulthood – understanding that ALL is NOT possible, it's just another self-indulgent notion that has to be cast off to be successful as a grown-up.

The hallmark of the left is dwelling in a fantasy or near-fantasy world and believing their way is the way. I refer to them as "the left" only because it's an understood convention. It's not true, and it's not fair. After all, I have an entire left side. If I kept to Jesus' admonition to cast off all that offends me, then I'd be forced to have my entire body cleaved, bisected to rid myself totally of any personal "left." Besides that, there's classic liberalism and libertarianism, neither of which is a threat to anyone, though sometimes bordering on the edge of self-indulgence and idealism.

I've been a libertarian since 1980. I understand there are almost an infinite variety of libertarians, and some are downright despicable people with loopy ideas. But ... that's not me! I'm the best kind of libertarian – I believe in organizations and the order they can bring. In specific, I believe in the infinite value of our Declaration of Independence and Constitution as guide stones of good governance.

I'm not at all crazy about what our politicians have done with the expressions of either document over time. As a class of humans politicians are train wrecks. They've always sold us out and let us down, with very few exceptions. They're a sly and devious lot, they are. They give laws innocuous or catchy names that hide their true intent. They use vague wording attached to huge sums of money in order to rob us blind without any accountability. They rig the game so they can always win, whether The People do or not. As a class of criminals, I'm in the same camp as Samuel Clemens. I, too, believe politicians are America's worst fundamental criminal class, and as such, they are world-class. That, too, is entirely human. Understanding history we can draw an almost infinite number of parallels between modern American politicians and some of the worst who ever existed. The Bible has some great stories that validate that as fact.

The 20th, and now 21st century experiences of American politics have demonstrated precisely how a nation can become great, even as the seeds of its death are taking root. When the progressives started out America was a budding power. We were noticed and we were respected (somewhat feared) but we were not great. The sun had not yet abandoned the British Empire, and nations like Germany, France, and even imperial Russia thought of themselves as greater and more powerful than we. It wasn't until all those nations experienced Americans at war that they learned there was something different about us. It was something they didn't much like. They all understood they would one day stand aside and have to acknowledge us. That came to pass in 1945, but the poison that will eventually kill us was already coursing through the veins of our national institutions. It's not that it was undetected. No, it was known, but because of our peculiarly institutionalized biases, fed by things like our Bill of Rights, we treated the poison as a minor nuisance, like an ant bite. We thought American exceptionalism and what came to be known as The American Way would eventually reveal the conspirators and the conspiracy as just an aberration of our history, not a significant force.

We knew the labor movements were communist-led, but we didn't worry. We watched as communists and socialists invaded the campuses of almost all big colleges and universities across the nation, but we didn't worry. We watched as F.D. Roosevelt staffed his cabinet with known socialists and communist sympathizers and established new bureaucracies to "fix" what was only broken due to a financial cycle that would soon self-correct if tended to according to the normal rules of economics. But, we didn't worry. We watched as China fell under the spell of Mao, but we didn't worry. That was China. They were too backward to be of any real concern. Let the Chinese deal with Mao. We have cars, chrome, jets, TVs, Rock & Roll, and new electric appliances to occupy our thoughts. What was there in China to worry about? We watched racial turmoil build throughout the 1950s without realizing it was something that should be tended to then, not later. In dawdling on the matter we made openings the progressives took advantage of. They became the unseen force behind the Civil Rights movement. After all, it was a new crisis – why let it go to waste?

And the beat goes on. I can prattle on all this for pages and pages, but it would only bore you. You already know all of it. The pity is the vast majority of Americans don't. What's even more of a pity is – THEY REALLY DON'T CARE! They only want things fixed. How they got out of whack doesn't interest them in the least. One of the great successes of the progressive movement is in recreating Americans. Yes, I believe we are a subspecies of humankind now. Americans used to be hardy, freedom-loving, intelligent, hard-working, success oriented, and independent to a fault. We believed in our and our nation's greatness. We believed no power on Earth could defeat us. We believed in God. We believed in Jesus. We believed it didn't matter what deity another person believed in because it was their right and none of our business. We believed in being good neighbors and in having neighborhoods where everyone looked out for each other. But the progressives have systematically changed Americans. What we once were, we no longer are. We have become our own opposite. And, we will pay dearly for that.

Progressives, communists, socialists, Malthusians, Fabians, and others may be the dark forces behind the creation of "new" Americans, but it was human frailties that caused us to re-brand into what we now are. We replaced our American ethos with something vastly lesser, all the while denying we were doing it. Today's American may not be worth saving. That leaves one question on the table – What about the rest of us, that tiny population of cognizanti, the ones who understand what happened, but were powerless to do anything about it? What of us? What do we do now? Do we yield? Do we fight? Is it time to decide, or just a bit too early to tell?

Only one thing is certain – we are far nearer our deaths than anything of greater significance. If I were 20 again that thought would unsettle me greatly. Instead, I do find some comfort in the truth of it. I reflect on my own father's death. He was just days from his 87th birthday. He died early in an election year – 2008. It was good timing for him. He thought G.W. Bush was a pretty good President. He never caught on to the Bush family as stealth progressives, and he never once heard of Barack Obama. If he'd lived a couple of more years I think he'd have been praying for his immediate demise. He would have recognized Obama for what he was and would have considered his rise to be symptomatic of how diseased our society had become. It's only grown sicker since. In fact, I have no reluctance in declaring America a walking corpse. God may yet save us, because man no longer has the will.

In Liberty,

Steve