By Steve Levy
Over the last few decades, America has been engaged on a path that an objective analyst could conclude is nothing less than a form of national suicide.
Observe the actions undertaken by a governing elite riddled with white guilt and obsessed with woke politics to the point where they will codify policies that place the constituency they are elected to represent in both economic and physical peril.
Here are just a few such examples:
1. Purposeful, unrestricted immigration
Since the1986 amnesty bill, both Democrats and Republicans gave a wink and a nod to allow illegal aliens to enter our country with little recourse. Republicans at the time loved the cheap labor, while Democrats believed this new bloc of immigrants constituted additional votes for their party in elections down the road.
But once Donald Trump entered the scene, Republicans rallied around his policy that was preferred by an overwhelming majority of Americans, which was to have rational, controlled legal immigration, as opposed to anyone who comes gets to stay.
The Democrats never relented on their goal to replace the traditional American center-right voter with newcomers they could put on the government dole and control for generations to come.
This was put on steroids in the Biden era when the president himself urged a surge of illegal immigrants at the border, whom he would thereafter feed, house, educate and care for at the expense of the average American taxpayer. These policies are wreaking havoc on the nation economically, especially for the younger, native-born generation, which often finds itself shut out of the American Dream.
2. Discouraging assimilation
The wave of new immigrants, coupled with this tendency to tribalize rather than assimilate, has led many in this new generation of immigrants to huddle up on their own, not as Americans, but as foreigners living in a foreign land called America. Enclaves are developing here as they are in Europe, where religious law such as Sharia is now being practiced in a dominant fashion over constitutionally based law.
3. Importing people who hate you
Perhaps most dangerous to America’s survival is the tendency for the Left to import more and more people from countries that have disdain for America’s government, its values and its people.
We have always aligned ourselves with the liberal democracy in Israel that values free markets and treats women and gays with respect. We have shunned their enemies who effectuate their goals through terrorist attacks, and who are intent on continuing to suppress marginalized groups or anyone who does not believe in their creed.
So it would be logical to seek immigrants from the country who love us rather than hate us, would it not? But alas, we are now doing the opposite, as so many of our nation’s leaders are embracing the terrorists and their intolerance of liberal democracy.
4. Unsustainable national debt
America’s debt-to-GDP ratio understandably skyrocketed during World War II when we were facing an existential threat to our nation, but it was understood by all that, once the conflict subsided, the level of spending would have to revert to normal levels. And indeed it did.
The idea of carrying an annual deficit was a badge of shame until the Reagan era’s enormous defense spending increases wound up creating regular deficits.
The Clinton administration gave a short deficit reprieve, but that was soon erased with the multiple wars and the unpaid-for Medicare expansion in the George W. Bush administration.
Deficits and ever-climbing debt became the new normal, but it was Covid that really elevated the levels to frightening heights. A $4.5 trillion budget jumped to $7 trillion over just a few years and has remained there, unlike the World War II era, when spending came down after the crisis ended.
The debt has climbed to $38 trillion with no caps in sight. This places a burden on our children and grandchildren that may be unfixable. Calls for balanced budget amendments go unheeded.
5. Anti-American racist policies
While the average American will concede that slavery, Jim Crow and other forms of discrimination were stains on American history, they also recognize that the nation has made great strides in leveling the playing field and at least mitigating such discrimination. But there are some within a growing wing within the Left that preaches “anti-racism” — meaning the only way to cure racism of the past is to impose racism now, particularly amongst those in the non-favored classes, such as the White, Christian, heterosexual male.
These blatantly racist policies have the ability to tear our nation apart. We became a great nation because “out of many,” we became “one.” But the new DEI and critical race theory programs preach separation. They conclude there are good Americans who deserve government assistance. These are the “exploited” classes: women, gays, and minorities. They need to be looked at and treated differently by the government than those who were considered the “exploiters.” (See above.)
6. Crazy, self-destructive energy policies
Were it not for Donald Trump’s victory in 2024, America would have continued on its path of self-destruction by seeking the immediate elimination of fossil fuels. It’s a wonderful talking point from the perch of one’s college campus’s ivory tower to talk about how climate change is an existential threat, and that we must spend unlimited funds to replace oil and natural gas with so-called alternative energy, such as wind and solar. This became a religion for the woke Left.
Our leaders supported ridiculous globalized proposals that would hammer the Western world and its ability to grow, while giving a pass to the dirtiest polluters in the Third World and to our mortal enemy, China, which seeks to surpass and destroy us.
At one point, President Biden banned the U.S. from exporting natural gas to our European allies in order to virtue signal to the climate zealots in this country, while, at the same time, signing off on a natural gas pipeline from Russia to the Western allies. This is almost too crazy to comprehend. An American president cut off the jobs and revenues to our nation, and protection for our allies by banning the sale of natural gas to them, while at the same time allowing our political and military foe in Russia to get filthy rich off these fossil fuel sales. You can’t make this stuff up.
7. Dumbing down our educational system
The American educational system was once the envy of the world, but, over time, due to liberal influence, the concept of merit became a pejorative, and equity — meaning equal results rather than equal opportunity — became the goal.
If some students were scoring lower than others, it had to be because they were victims of racism or a lack of funding. It was deemed to be a psychological assault on the child to have to live with a lower grade than others. The remedy was to no longer seek to improve the grades of those on the lower rungs, but rather, to lower the passing grade so no one would fail. The answer to the problem in New York of some scoring higher than others on the Regents exam was to simply scrap the Regents exam. The answer to solve the problem of more minorities being disciplinary problems was to stop disciplining any child.
As a result, America, which spends more per student than any other country on earth, has now sunk to the middle of the pack when measuring test scores amongst students in western democracies. We are turning out such poorly educated students that a large chunk of freshmen in our colleges, even in elite Ivy League schools, are forced to take remedial classes because they were able to graduate high school without learning these basic skills.
It’s a competitive world, and when it comes to turning out engineers and math wizards, China is eating our lunch. But too many of our leaders are less concerned about that than they are pandering to the teachers’ unions to continue the gravy train of political donations that flow to them from this special interest.
Charter schools and school choice show amazing promise in reversing this trend, but we continue down our suicidal path in blocking the advancements of choice and charters in blue states.
Meanwhile, our universities are turning out a new generation that hates their country. Our colleges are teaching anti-American courses funded by illiberal nations, such as China, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
In K-12 education, there are now up to 4,000 schools teaching the 1619 Project, which claims that America was founded for the purpose of expanding slavery, rather than to create a free society by those who came here to escape religious persecution.
The idea of teaching basic civics and a love of democracy, free markets and an appreciation of our constitution, as espoused in President Trump’s “1776 Project,” is frowned upon by the liberal teachers’ unions.
8. Purposely unleashing crime and homelessness on our citizens
After the George Floyd murder, social justice protesters pressured American leaders, particularly on the left, to scrap traditional prosecution and imprisonment of violent criminals. Jails were closed. New laws were put into effect that prohibited judges from keeping dangerous criminals in jail pending trial. Legislation was passed to allow murderers aged 16 or 17 to bypass traditional punishment and go instead to Family Court to get a slap on the wrist and be back out on the streets.
Funding was removed from our police department.
The police were targeted as the enemy, while violent criminals were considered the victims.
The mentally ill were released from institutions, free to roam the streets.
It was an onslaught of the decay of our national cities.
Just as suicidal were the efforts of Democratic leaders to oppose help offered by federal law enforcement to crack down on the rapes and murders. They would prefer innocent people to die and our cities to be in turmoil rather than having a politician of the opposite party perhaps get credit for bringing crime down.
Leftist leaders also promote an environment that encourages drug addicts and the mentally ill to set up in camps in our public parks, sidewalks and subways. Some leaders actually gave addicts more drugs to continue their habits.
It got so bad in California that the government itself instituted a poop meter, which warns residents about which areas of the city have the highest concentration of human feces collecting on the street. If there were ever a signal of the American way of life decaying, this would be at the top of the list.
Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev once boasted that the Communists would prevail over the western liberal democracies, not by military means, but rather by infiltrating America and its free allies from within. He suspected we would commit our own suicide.
It’s certainly not inevitable, but it sure is trending that way.