The question is one that every American military member has to literally ask himself or herself when signing up. Is America still worth fighting for?

Increasingly, this question hits closer to home for Americans who still believe in the idea of American exceptionalism, that this country’s unique system of government, combined with God-given freedoms protected by nothing more than the parchment of the Constitution and the deep commitment of Americans themselves, is the one exception in a world otherwise ruled by kings, fascists, tyrants, elitist oligarchs, and dictators. They believe that America is the only thing in the world that stands between tyranny and basic universal human dignity.

Throughout its relatively short history, America has been under attack, yet despite that it has not only risen to be the world’s most dominant superpower, but thanks to the strength of its people, their enterprise and innovation, it has changed the world in countless ways.

The country’s Founders had to put their lives on the line, and in many cases sacrificed them, to create a nation committed to the “ideals of liberty, equality, natural and civil rights, and responsible citizenship,” to create a new political order, according to the American Revolution Institute.

America as Founded Unleashed Human Potential

By giving the people power and freedom, the American system unleashed human potential. While the Founders had no idea at the time what would become of their newborn nation, the words of their founding documents indicate that they saw limitless possibilities, and for that reason, their venture was worth fighting for.

On April 12, 1861, the ties that loosely held the young nation together snapped when the Confederate states of the South fired the first shots of the Civil War on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. The bloody war tore the country apart and was only resolved four years later, preserving the Union at a cost of 800,000 lives on both sides.

Politically, Americans have fought, oftentimes bitterly, over issues and matters that would come to shape the country, leading to new amendments to the Constitution, like the 13^th Amendment that enshrined an end to slavery, and the 19^th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

To be sure, the nation itself may have not started out perfect, but its system allowed for a people to aspire to something greater and over time realize some of that greatness.

Through the First World War, the Great Depression and then into World War II, the American people had come to realize that what this country built was so exceptional that it was vital to humankind. The adversity faced by generations, through sacrifice, war and turmoil was the price to be paid for something bigger.

That spirit carried on through the Cold War, marked by the constant threat of nuclear holocaust, ending in the late 1980s with America able to declare victory without firing a single shot.

America’s Achille’s Heel

While America became good at defeating clear geopolitical foes, it has struggled with complacency and apathy among its own people. It has struggled with enemies from around the globe and within its borders who would use America’s own system against it. A long and slow rot from within that, hidden from sight, has taken hold in academia, in the justice system, in the country’s education system, in local, state and federal branches of government, in the press, in commerce, and in popular culture.

The same country that defeated true fascists in Hitler and Mussolini, which outwitted Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, that opened the frontier of space to mankind, and which gave the world information technologies that transformed culture itself, now struggles to come up with a definition for “woman.”

America is now in a fight for everything it has stood for since its founding, and just as in 1776, there is no other country that would save it if it won’t save itself.  Decay has penetrated society so deeply that there has been a normalization of: 

• Open borders;
• The transgenderism lie which allows men in girls’ bathrooms and to compete against them in sports, to groom minor children into consenting to a process that ends with permanent self-mutilation before they even turn 18;
• The murder of pre-born babies up until birth;
• The elimination of merit systems in academia, in the workplace and throughout society;
• The emergence of a victimhood hierarchy where society’s so-called victims are given preferential treatment in the name of equity, not equality as written into the Declaration of Independence;
• The censorship and suppression of freedom of speech and the practice of religion;
• A ruse currently called “Climate Change” that is used to attack business, industry, commerce, Americans’ very quality of life, farming, agriculture and even the food that sustains the population;
• And a persistent campaign to confiscate citizens’ arms as protected by the 2^nd Amendment of the Constitution.

 America is Under Attack

 Americans are under attack from every angle every day by a sometimes visible foe, but all too often by an enemy that hides in the shadows. 

In 2020, America saw what it looks like when a candidate can refuse to campaign and largely be considered unpopular, but magically amass the number of votes needed after 2 a.m. on election night and over the next several weeks to be declared the winner of the election. 

It has seen how an incumbent and now former president can be the target of a collective mutiny by the deep state and become the subject of politically-motivated impeachments, indictments, fed raids on his home, prosecutions and lawsuits, and other orchestrated maneuvers, all to “save our sacred democracy.” 

On September 11, 2001, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card was the one who broke the news to President George W. Bush that two aircraft crashing into the World Trade Center in New York were not an accident. In full view of the traveling White House press corps and a class of teachers and young students, Card leaned over and whispered to the president: “A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack.” 

In some respects, the country changed in that moment and has never fully returned to what it was before that day. But now, over 22 years later, those words resonate in a wholly new way. Only this time they are directed to you, an American who loves this country as founded.

America is under attack. You have no choice. The fight is here. The fight is now. There is nowhere to hide, and the country’s future as a free nation hangs in the balance. If you so choose, you have to fight in such a way that if conservatism does not win in this election there very well could be no serious national elections again.

Tim O'Brien is a veteran corporate communications consultant and crisis communicator who operates O’Brien Communications in Pittsburgh.

Image: Archives Branch, USMC History Division