Ben Franklin famously said, "You've got a republic, if you can keep it."  That warning is particularly haunting now, because we seem on the verge of losing it — not from foreign invasion, not from revolution, but because we stopped caring about it.

America was founded on the principles of individual liberty and equal treatment under the law.  These are the foundational principles required for equality and prosperity.  Yet we've been creeping away from those principles for many years.  In the last 12 years, that creep has become a sprint.  The world's beacon of freedom is dying, and we're acting as if trading liberty for "safe spaces" is a great deal.

The press has become the propaganda ministry.  These people no longer report the news.  Instead, they craft narratives.  Many of those narratives seem designed to create civil unrest — playing Americans against one another.  Apparently, hatred and riots are good for ratings.  Consumers of this "news" no longer have an accurate picture of what's happening in politics or society.  They're simply pawns playing their parts in the script.

Our schools have become little more than re-education camps.  They're no longer preparing our children for adult life.  Math, science, and reading have taken a back seat to Critical Race Theory and intersectionality indoctrination — and our children's test scores show it.  Schools don't teach critical thinking or value differing views.  They're demanding conformity with their chosen ideology.  The generation that is just now approaching adulthood, doesn't understand the importance of individual liberties and doesn't seem to care.

Our Legislative Branch has stopped debating.  Speaker Pelosi would rather tear up speeches than have an open discussion with those she disagrees with.  Her priority is insider trading of Tesla shares, not actual leadership.  Maxine Waters would rather encourage the rioters than talk about the root causes of societal issues.  When it comes to legislation, we're simply told, "We have to pass the bill to find out what's in it."  Our rulers just want us to shut up and accept whatever they intend to do.  They're no longer representing their constituents.  Yet somehow, they all manage to become wealthy after a few years in office.

The Executive Branch is now used as a weapon against those it's supposed to serve.  The CIA and the FBI colluded in an attempt to swing an election.  When that failed, they continued the collusion in an attempted coup.  Not to be left out, the IRS targeted conservative non-profits in an attempt to influence an election.  Even the Justice Department is now using prosecutorial discretion to target political enemies and protect political allies.  How else can one explain the treatment of the January 6 protesters versus that of Black Lives Matter or Antifa?

A SWAT team raided Paul Manafort's home in the middle of the night, for money-laundering.  Hunter Biden illegally obtained a firearm and then lost it.   Even though we're told gun control is a crisis, there aren't any charges against Hunter.  The FBI and Secret Service may have even tried to hide the evidence.  That's some equal treatment under the law.

The Supreme Court is putting in overtime to invalidate the Constitution.  Via penumbras and emanations, the Constitution now means things that aren't written in it and doesn't mean things that are.  The justices spend so much time with twisted interpretations of the Constitution, they've forgotten their oath to defend the Constitution.  When election integrity is highly questionable, they're not interested.   When freedom of speech and religion are under assault, they're silent.  Renegade judges are twisting the rules to achieve their own desired outcomes (looking at you, Judge Sullivan).  When rules are ignored, due process is nonexistent.  Court rulings have inevitably become capricious.  If the meaning of laws changes at the whim of a judge, the laws mean nothing.  Citizens can't be law-abiding if the definition of law-abiding may shift at the discretion of individual judges.

Our democratic republic is becoming a banana republic before our eyes:

• The politicians are protecting their graft
• The bureaucrats are amassing power
• The judges are posing for pictures in their robes
• The teachers are demanding conformity
• Every intersectionality group is maneuvering for advantage
• The press is creating anarchy
• Half the country is only worried about who'll win American Idol

Without a course correction, history will know Barack Obama as the man who corrupted the Executive Branch.  Nancy Pelosi will be the woman that made congress a "graft and sleaze" clown show.  John Roberts will live in infamy as the man that made the Constitution irrelevant.   Finally, we'll be known as the generation that followed these fools down the rabbit hole.  However, this is a warning — not a destiny.  They can't win if we won't surrender.  It's time to get mad, not accept despair.

Even though the leftists appear in control, we conservatives still hold the advantage.  Those with conservative values have always outnumbered those with socialist values in America.  At least 75 million of those conservatives are highly energized (thank you, Donald Trump).  That number is the floor, not the ceiling.  With every radical move the left makes, those numbers increase.  Did opening our borders strengthen the conservative or the leftist movement?  How about mandating bathroom and locker-room access to gender fluid people?

The media (news and entertainment) have worked in conjunction with tech oligarchs to control us with propaganda for years.  However, in the past four years, their propaganda has become so over-the-top that it's obvious to everyone who's paying attention.   The thing about propaganda is that it ceases being effective when everyone knows it's propaganda.   In the 1980s, how many Soviet citizens actually believed what they read in Pravda? 

Our response to COVID, and the remote learning it created, exposed parents to the actual lessons that their children were learning at school.  The indoctrination being given to our children was laid bare for all to see.  It never occurred to teachers that locked-down parents were listening in on their children's lessons.  In recent months, stories about the ideological training our kids receive have become legion.  It's not because the schools are doing more of it this year; it's because the parents are seeing it for the first time.  Now that parents know what's going on, they're paying attention.

Finally, Republicans control the majority of state governments.  States have the power to push back against overreaching federal mandates.  State and local government officials have begun making proclamations that they will not enforce unconstitutional laws or regulations.  Further, Article V of the constitution gives the states the ability to work collectively to amend the Constitution.  This little known clause in the Constitution has never been successfully used, but it's still available.  Even the late Justice Scalia was an advocate of an Article V convention as a means to reign in an out-of-control Federal Government.

If you don't believe that these tactical advantages provide what we need to take back our country, just look at the Democrats.  Are they telegraphing confidence or fear?  Are they working to pack the Supreme Court, federalize elections, and create new (predominately Democrat) states because they are faithfully representing the citizens and expect to be rewarded at the ballot box?  They didn't put a fence and armed guards around the Capital because they're doing the peoples work.  They did it because they fear the people.  They're scared because they know they only have two years to fortify their position, and that's probably not enough time.  Tactically, they gave up too much ground in their fight against Trump.  Now they're fighting from a weakened position — and they're acting like it.

We have the advantage, though we don't have time to dawdle.  We need to talk politics with our children.  I discuss politics with my ten-year-old granddaughter.  She is shockingly open-minded and perceptive.  We need pressure on our local governments to push back against federal overreach.  Make it our personal obligation to get others out to vote.  Elections have consequences.  It's incumbent on us to make everyone else understand that.    Shame people for not voting.  Impress upon them that it's their duty to understand the policies they're voting for.  They can go back to Jimmy Fallon after the polls close.

If we don't use the next two years well, we'll become subjects living on the scraps granted us by our rulers.  Our twilight years will be spent on the porch with our grandchildren, pining about what America once was.

John Green is a political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Star, Idaho.  He is a retired engineer with over 40 years of experience in the areas of product development, quality assurance, organizational development, and corporate strategic planning.  He can be reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.

Image: Chris Dodds via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.