Second Press
Second Press Podcast
The Front We Are Losing
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The Front We Are Losing

Ken Ohanian
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         It is said that hard times create strong men, or perhaps such times simply eliminate weak and foolish men. After seven years and over fifty-three thousand American deaths, those who survived the American Revolution had learned some hard lessons about human nature and the world. Then that same generation only thirty-six years later would face the same hardships again in the War of 1812, and fifteen thousand more Americans would pay the ultimate price upon the altar of freedom. Tyrants in power will not suffer opposition. The greedy in power will not suffer losses to their assets. Bullies never really go away, and most often the only language they understand is a bloody nose and some loose teeth. America had earned its place in the world, and for the next century it would attract the brightest minds and hardest workers looking for a better future. The great experiment in democracy blossomed, and the autocratic rulers of the old world hated everything it represented. For the first time in major world history a government by and for the people grew more influential and powerful than any other, and the model of some divine right of one to rule the many would be forever broken.

The new nation would continue to face its challenges, from the Panic of 1873 to World War 1. From the Great Depression to World War 2. America had to be strong, our ethic and faith in our just cause had to be true. America questioned its place in the world many times, our leaders debated time and again what we as a nation stood for, and what we were prepared to sacrifice. In the name of God, freedom and democracy, almost ten million Americans would die on foreign soil, with millions more wounded in body and soul from war. Every American knew families who had lost a father, brother, daughter or son. Everyone knew on a personal level what happens when tyranny was allowed to rise and spread. But on a deeper level it meant more than that. Everyone knew why good had won over evil (excluding perhaps the painful lessons of Vietnam); At the end of the day strength, moral fortitude, intelligence and pure grit would accomplish what tools and equipment could not. Our greatest heroes like Henry Johnson, Audie Murphy and Simo Hayha shocked and inspired the world with their feats of impossible bravery and achievement, we will remember their names for as long as history is recorded.

July 27, 1953. The Korean War is over and America’s soldiers come home. There would always be unrest in the world that America would try in one way or the other to help in, but the days of epic battles of uniformed soldiers fighting for God and country were for the most part over. The new norm would be everything America did embroiled in politics and social debate. America’s attention would begin to turn inwards as it grappled with civil rights and social equality. Different heroes would rise to lead and inspire like Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis, but the issues they faced would never be allowed to find a conclusion. Today, the norm is to fight. Civil debate about any issue is virtually impossible, and to see any issue break down into shouting matches, protests and rioting is viewed as not only normal, but sometimes acceptable! And why not? The US Senate and the House have devolved into partisan fighting pits of virtue signaling and name calling. Everyone is calling out everyone on the other side of the isle for slights, actions and stances real or imagined, and they barely seem to care how it looks as long as they’re pandering to the right people. The presidency is in complete incoherent chaos, and no one is leading the American people. Not since the 1960s has our society been in such upheaval, and in our supposedly enlightened modern times there seems to be no end in sight.

Look deeper. In 2012 Engel v. Vitale the Supreme Court officially put an end to prayer in American schools. Say what you will about religion and ethics in the public school system, but now neither are acknowledged. Philosophy argues that morality is subjective, so what’s to hold kids (or anyone) to a higher moral standard in the absence of the God who calls us to be our best selves? I won’t go into when this began or where it started becoming prevalent, but it is undeniable that the American public school system is now more concerned with social issues, virtue signaling, and even political agenda than academics. Lessons involving critical race theory (CRT), LGBT issues and “white supremacy” now take up more time in some classrooms than anything involving mathematics (accused of racism), history (accused of white supremacist ideology), or science (which “science?” Is often asked). No need to research that very far, these “woke” teachers post their agendas and ideology openly on social media. Several school districts across the US are now adopting a new grading standard, based on race. Minority children will no longer be docked for issues regarding attendance, missing assignments, poor test grades or even behavioral issues all in the name of social equity. Academic merit and effort now seem to be of mediocre importance. Things only get worse in the university level, where gender studies, feminism, and a majority of progressive ideology are teaching American youth that America is racist, sexist, unequal, and evil. Again, I won’t go into detail (a quick search on a few internet sites or the universities themselves will tell that tale clear as day), but my point is that this is happening. Parents fought against it in West Virginia (amongst other places thankfully), and now we are finding out from whistleblowers in the US Department of Justice that many of those parents are being quietly investigated as potential domestic terrorists. Few if any of them have criminal histories, but no warrants have been issued for any of these investigations. This is all public knowledge, not even difficult to find.

America is still full of intelligent moral people; The majority is politically and ideologically centrist according to most polls and surveys. People just want to live the promise of the US Constitution: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But there is a very active, vocal and relentless part of our society that will not stop or rest until they achieve what they believe is right, facts or others’ opinions be damned. Remember how I mentioned earlier in this piece how the autocratic rulers of the old world hated everything the new American democracy represented? Their kind hasn’t gone away. Intelligent people greedy for wealth and power are as prevalent now as they ever were, their titles are the only things which have changed. Kings have become CEOs, Emperors have become oligarchs, and royal dynasties have evolved into those who attend events like the World Economic Forum. Normally not too many people would care, let the rich and social elite do whatever they’ll do. Until those people start telling the rest of the world things like, “In the future, you will own nothing. And you will be happy.” These people have found great opportunity in modern social movements, it’s no coincidence how big tech industry leaders tend to have progressive leftist views. Birds of a feather… Except those rich and elite flocking together seem to be moving as one to turn the rest of the world into a subservient lower class bereft of equal standing. Academics in America are failing, our society is slowly collapsing as each tribe and ideology fights (sometimes literally) every other, and our leadership is not leading us except in the example of how to divide, suspect, and malign each other. As our own government divides and weakens us, we must ask how has it gotten this far? Why are our own youths being turned against our nation, each other and even their own prior generations? In this kind of social climate, nothing is sacred and literally anything can and will be attacked for any sensical or nonsensical reason. I remember when I was growing up, we had idiots and extremists too. But we told those people to shut up and go away, no one listened to them. Now it seems they’re amongst the loudest voices we hear on media, screaming about racism, voting inequity and white supremacy. Dividing us against each other. What changed, and how did it change this fast?

For now, those Americans who believe in the US Constitution and the rights it bestows and protects are holding the line in most places in defending it. But no matter who you are, you can see the infringements and maligned “interpretations” slowly chipping away at it. Big tech corporations are being caught openly censuring free speech on their platforms. Foundations funded by big money corporations are constantly pushing governments at all levels to infringe and outright ban the second amendment, and most people in America just seem to be watching them do it. But worse, it is the next generation these entities have been aiming at for decades now, and it seems the conservative majority of America is just catching onto this.

“Give me just one generation of youth, and I’ll transform the whole world.”

-Vladimir Lenin

If the political extreme left in America has a majority presence in our public school systems, our universities, the big tech corporations which control social media, and the legacy news media which constantly seems to be propping up only one side of the political isle, you see what’s happening more clearly now. The next generation is already reaching voting and legal adulthood age. They have been taught more about gender identity, the history of American racism and systematic inequality than the core sciences, history or mathematics. Sit down with anyone aged 18 – 24 and listen to their views on gun rights, free speech and socialism. If you love America, want the US Constitution untouched and its rights to apply equally to every American citizen, and believe in meritocracy over equity, you are on the losing side.

The older generations knew what hardship, sacrifice and patriotism truly was. They understood that liberty and freedom are not guarantees, but hard-earned treasures. They knew that constant vigilance protects rights, and any government could turn bad if not held accountable. The current generations – excluding the minority who served in Afghanistan - reaching adulthood have never experienced a war, never been threatened by a tyrant obsessed with world domination (though the communist Chinese government could change that in a couple decades), never experienced racial slavery or a true economic depression, and have been told that everything they are experiencing in American society is “the worst it has ever been.” In short, they have never had to fight for the freedoms, liberties, and opportunities they enjoy today, so they have little to no understanding of how valuable those are… or more importantly how easily they can be lost. Immigrants from Russia, communist China, Venezuela, Ethiopia, and other places which experience true tyranny are sharing their experiences with those in America who will listen, warning us that what we are seeing in America today is disturbingly similar to how they lost their liberties in their homelands. But all the knowledge, experience, and hard learned lessons of America’s past won’t change what is happening in the present generations unless people today hear them from people they can trust.

How does this happen? The answers aren’t easy, but they are simple. First, if you’re a parent and you’re not talking with your kids of any age about what they’re learning from their teachers, friends, and news media of any kind, you’re doing it wrong! Those who care about the America of tomorrow had better be talking about it today with those who will be running it! Our children are the leaders America will get one way or the other, as parents you have the opportunity every day to counter what your kids are hearing and being taught. Second, approach everything with the lens of reason, unbiased fact, and logic. If you show those around you how to find the truth instead of depending on questionable sources to tell them what the truth is, together we will see change almost immediately, because… Third, extremists depend on skewed narratives, therefore every time they are challenged on their beliefs their arguments fall apart from lack of logic, reason, and facts! Patriotic ladies and gentlemen, you have the truth on your side and it will utterly defeat extremist messages and ideologies nearly every time! Teach your kids, your friends and family, that person you’re getting coffee with to think for themselves, challenge what they are told and research unbiased facts. No one should be told what the truth is because honestly this is next to impossible, that’s just indoctrination. But when someone finds verifiable truth apart from any narrative, that is enlightenment.

This is the answer to the social upheaval and distortion happening now. It’s up to all of us to get truth finding and reason out there as much, as loudly, and as confidently as those who want to see America in its Constitutional form fall. Free speech censorship arguments fail when compared to governments which employ it. Gun control arguments fail when compared to governments which enforce it. Extremism is exposed for the false toxic ideology it is when facts and reason are applied to examine it. But it’s all on those who care to turn the tide, because make no mistake we are losing the battle for America’s society. If that happens, it won’t matter what progress we have made in protecting American liberties because the next generation in their ignorant delusions will destroy what they’ve been told to.

"To disarm the people...[i]s the most effectual way to enslave them."
- George Mason, referencing advice given to the British Parliament by Pennsylvania governor Sir William Keith, The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, June 14, 1788

Or said in another way, “To disarm the people of intellect as well as means is the most effectual way to enslave them.”

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