I believe we are at a turning point, on the cusp, that the Bush Presidency is a reprieve only and that if we as a nation do not wake up, and grow up, the abyss awaits. 9/11 was Wake-Up Call #1. Will there be another? Do we need another? It is the future of our children and grandchildren that is at stake and I share your deep concern. For them, not for myself. "Things as they are", "normancy", the way we believe things "always have been and always will be" could change quickly. For the worse. I agree that we must act.
I absolutely agree, Phaedrus. And did we ever need a wake-up call! Life in America was getting positively unreal; "progressive" (read: totalitarian socialist)rhetoric -- "spin" -- trumped reality. Inevitably, a good dose of reality was needed; and we got one.
I just hope it didn't come too late to do us any good.
JimRob is absolutely right: The Left does want to destroy the Constitution. It is a crystalization of a theory of man and of values that the Left despises. Unfortunately, I think that Plato was right: even the "best constitution" cannot suffice to maintain a decent, just social order for a people who hold virtue in contempt. The Framers knew this all too well -- hence Franklin's comment to the lady who inquired what sort of government the Framers had wrought in Philadelpia: "A republic, my dear -- if you can keep it."
The political order the Framers bequeathed to us is premised on the widespread, general exercise of civic virtue. Moral relativism is the antithetical idea of both personal and civic virtue. Thanks for the ping, Phaedrus -- and thank you JimRob for your outstanding post.