Long Live The Republic

For over two hundred and thirty years the Republic has weathered wars, epidemics, hostile neighbors, worldwide conflicts, economic disasters, internal struggles, and competing ideologies. Its birth was a long and desperate struggle for independence against the strongest and most advanced military in the world. In the War of 1812 its capital was burned to the ground. It suffered the growing pains of expansionism against hostile natives as well as unfriendly claims and competition by Spain, France, Great Britain, and Mexico. It suffered through a tragic and horribly bloody civil war that helped to define the idea of federalism at the expense of states rights and ended once and for all the national shame of slavery. It endured the rigors of industrialization and eventually emerged as the most technologically advanced nation the world had ever seen.

The Republic weathered the stock market collapse and a national drought that sent tens of millions into poverty and many thousands into starvation. And it emerged from its humble origins to proclaim ‘manifest destiny’ and smash the Spanish Empire, German imperialism, Japanese militarism, Italian fascism, the horrors of National Socialism, and eventually the corrupt ideology of Soviet communism. Its armies have faced the Chinese, the Mexicans, the Spanish, the Germans, the Italians, the Japanese, the North Koreans, the Vietnamese, and the petty tyrants of dozens of smaller countries and hot spots. Today it faces the international enemy of Islamic fascism and jihadist fundamentalism.

America has admittedly suffered imperfections and committed many mistakes and miscalculations along the way. For all nations, like people, suffer shortfalls. But through it all the United States has been a beacon of hope helping to point the way towards personal freedom and opportunity. It has freed more people from tyranny, been more generous monetarily, eliminated more evil, created more representative governments and hope, championed more human rights, and been a shining example of what can be right and true than any other nation or people has ever done in the history of the world. It has given women more freedom and opportunities than they ever had before. It ended the evil of slavery and championed the revolutionary ideals that all men are equal before God. This country has provided more opportunity, more hope, more peace, more wealth, and more freedom than any other has dared to contemplate.

America continues to struggle forward into a new century. It faces many challenges and hurdles and a host of enemies which increasingly attack and undermine it from within. Multiculturalism and Political Correctness, massive legal and illegal immigration, cultural disintegration and decadence, globalism and statism, and the abandonment of traditional morality and the family structure are all controversies that it must face. Change is not always progress, and the foundational principles of the Republic should never be cast aside.

Thank you for posting.

Coincidentally, a Russell Kirk Essay from many years ago was recently rediscovered and bears a new look. Believe his wisdom then sheds some light on what is happening now to the "Republic."

Kirk's concluding paragraphs, as excerpted below, are especially pertinent:

"Restoring Religious Insights

In conclusion, it is my argument that the elaborate civilization we have known stands in peril; that it may expire of lethargy, or be destroyed by violence, or perish, from a combination of both evils. We who think that life remains worth living ought to address ourselves to means by which a restoration of our culture may be achieved. A prime necessity for us is to restore an apprehension of religious insights in our clumsy apparatus of public instruction, which -bullied by militant secular humanists and presumptuous federal courts-has been left with only ruinous answers to the ultimate questions.
What ails modern civilization? Fundamentally, our society's affliction is the decay of religious belief If a culture is to survive and flourish, it must not be severed from the religious vision out of which it arose. The high necessity of reflective men and women, then, is to labor for the restoration of religious teachings as a credible body of doctrine.
"Redeem the time; redeem the dream," T. S. Eliot wrote. It remains possible, given right reason and moral imagination, to confront boldly the age's disorders. The restoration of true learning, humane and scientific; the reform of many public policies; the renewal of our awareness of a transcendent order, and of the presence of an Other, the brightening of the comers where we find ourselves such approaches are open to those among the rising generation who look for a purpose in life. It is just conceivable that we may be given a Sign before the end of the twentieth century; yet Sign or no Sign, Remnant must strive against the follies of the time." - Dr. Russell Kirk

Its birth was a long and desperate struggle for independence against the strongest and most advanced military in the world.

Uhh, not exactly. The British had indisputably the best navy at the time, but their army was comparatively small and not particularly efficient relative to continental powers. The best army of the time was either that of France or Prussia, in all likelihood.

In the War of 1812 its capital was burned to the ground.

Only because of incredible incompetence on the American side. The British landing party was intended only for a raid, and should have been much too small to reach DC.

Madison, whatever his talents as a builder and promoter of constitutions, was indisputably the worst America war president.

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