The national mood in the mid-twentieth century was very different from now.

• The United States was respected around the world -- even if not necessarily liked.
• Technology was advancing faster than at any time in human history.
• Our cities were mostly orderly, safe, and clean.
• We believed there were few hardships which couldn’t be overcome with hard work. Opportunities seemed endless, as was our optimism.
• We were completely naïve about the danger posed by our own government.

Not everything was sunny. We had problems that needed attention. That is the nature of human existence after all. But when Ronald Reagan said, “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem,” we just thought he was promoting self-reliance and highlighting government inefficiency. As I said, we were naïve.

Along with that naivete, was a belief that our government would never intentionally harm us. It might be incompetent, but we didn’t think it was malicious. Theories of vast government criminal conspiracies were considered delusional. Going to the police and claiming that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by the CIA (as Robert Kennedy Jr. is suggesting), would have gotten one labeled a “conspiracy theory” nut; and more likely would trigger a psych evaluation than a criminal investigation. That was the American worldview before Barack Obama.

Things changed in 2016 when the conspiracies stopped being secret. Government operatives decided they could work with a political party to stop an outsider from playing in their sandbox -- by any means necessary. The FBI, CIA, DNC, and MSM created the Russian collusion hoax to undermine Donald Trump’s campaign -- but he won anyway.

Four years later, the same conspirators colluded to withhold critical information from the voters which likely would have changed the outcome of the election. Seventeen percent of Biden voters claim they would have voted differently had they known about the Hunter Biden laptop. This time the plan worked, and Trump was removed from the Oval Office. But he was still a threat.

When Trump announced his intent to run for office again, the DoJ in collusion with Democrat state and local prosecutors commenced a campaign of lawfare to scuttle Trump’s campaign. They twisted the law, and corrupted any notion of justice to indict Trump using legal theories which had never been tried before. They have identified their target, and are trashing our criminal justice system to get him -- and only him. Lavrentiy Beria would be proud.

Of course, the trials are being held in deep Blue Democrat party strongholds. Partisans in robes -- laughably calling themselves “judges” -- are ensuring that trials by Trump’s “peers” are actually trials by the Trump Derangement Syndrome-afflicted. Conviction seems inevitable.

To make sure the Trump problem is solved permanently, Democrat congressman Bennie Thompson has proposed a bill to strip Donald Trump of his Secret Service protection if he is convicted. Does anyone doubt Trump’s fate if placed in Attica or Sing Sing without his protective detail? Though the bill is unlikely to pass, it does reveal the Democrat mindset. They are perfectly willing to see a political adversary murdered -- so long as they maintain plausible deniability. But sure, Donald Trump is the real danger to our country.

Shockingly, the Democrats aren’t even trying to hide their intentions anymore. Apparently, they consider us too stupid or too powerless to stop them. That’s a rather sobering thought.

As we watch all this unfold, we know that vast government criminal conspiracies are no longer theoretical. There is nothing demented or delusional about believing our government would willingly facilitate the murder of a political threat. The actions of the DoJ in conjunction with the legislation proposed by the Democrats makes that perfectly clear.

The plot to place Donald Trump at the tender mercies of a prison’s “genpop” is not the only evidence of government criminal conspiracy.

The ATF really did traffic guns to Mexican drug cartels to promote gun-control legislation. One federal agent and countless civilians were killed with those guns.

The DoJ sought to remove a duly elected President -- even to the point of the Deputy Attorney General offering to “wear a wire” to record conversations with the President (with cabinet support).

The FBI really did set up some useful idiots to advanced their domestic terrorist narrative (the Governor Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping). It was a classic entrapment scheme in which federal assets planned the crime, and hapless stooges stepped in the trap.

All this is changing our worldview and is causing us to observe our government with a new level of skepticism.

The deaths of Vince Foster, Seth Rich, and Jeffrey Epstein were rather politically convenient for the Democrats. Were they something other than two random acts of violence and one suicide?

COVID was created using our tax dollars in a Chinese lab, and it caused a pandemic that affected the 2020 election. Was it really an accident committed by well-intentioned, but careless scientists -- or something else? Certainly, the Democrats didn’t let that crisis go to waste. Many thousands died. Were they just the broken eggs needed to make the make the election omelet?

A Chinese spy balloon was allowed to cross our continent and collect information from our most sensitive facilities -- apparently with the blessing of the Biden administration. But we’re told that the millions of dollars flowing from China to the Biden family had nothing to do with the President’s decision to leave the reconnaissance craft unmolested.

Two whistleblowers (Gal Luft and Alexander Smirnov) have come forward with evidence of Joe Biden selling government influence to foreign nationals. Conveniently, both have been arrested by the same DoJ which is setting a death trap for President Trump.

Things have changed a lot since the mid-20^th century. The children of the 21^st century have a completely different worldview.

• The United States is a corrupt and impotent international laughingstock.
• We’ve become technically stunted. Replacing the Francis Scott Key bridge is expected to take three times longer than building the Golden Gate bridge almost a century ago.
• Our cities are becoming unlivable post-apocalyptic hellscapes.
• “Living the American dream” is no longer a middle-class expectation.
• We know that fear of our own government is a prudent mindset.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. doesn’t sound so crazy now that the conspiracies are no longer theoretical.

John Green is a retired engineer and political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho. He spent his career designing complex defense systems, developing high performance organizations, and doing corporate strategic planning. He is a staff writer for the American Free News Network and can be reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.

Image: Mike H