The following is not intended to criticize anyone truly liberal or who keeps an open mind. It is aimed at those who pretend to be liberal but are in fact allies of the Left, which makes them Marxists. Quotation marks on the word “liberal” separate the meaning of the word from its contrary practice.

“Liberal” reporters used to be fond of pointing out that the death of John F. Kennedy marked the end of this nation’s “age of innocence.”

Those “liberal,” more astute and mature observers than all others were in fact obscuring the reality that progress toward excellence in the social, political, and cultural life of America was sliding downhill after that fateful event.

What they would not report, after JFK’s assassination, was the mounting evidence of intellectual and moral decline in America, the likes of which has no record in modern times.

Those not deep asleep in the last several decades have noticed minimum standards of education drop, enduring values crumble, Christianity mocked, the family wounded, and a taste and appetite for cheap entertainment blossom into a multi-billion-dollar entertainment industry.

So, did Americans simply “evolve” into a slumping mental and moral condition? Were the growing changes in culture “inevitable”? “Liberals” would say 'yes.'

But those who were awake knew that Americans were succumbing to a cultural blight being spread by activists of the Left whose leaders saw in the mushing of minds and morals a way to bring about a brave new Marxist world. [A hint here.]

Like their counterparts in the first quarter of the last century, today’s fake liberals feed on Marxist notions of justice, woefully behind the times they wish to change. Most of today’s “liberal” reformers are unaware of the campaign of their Marxist predecessors to make America a socialist nation, ready for the next step to communism. But conscious or not of their Marxist inheritance, they continue to perpetuate the myth that democracy is an evolutionary tool of change instead of a system of governing aimed at increasing not reducing, people’s freedom. Of course, it is their notion of what we should all “evolve into” that must guide us. For fake liberals, this is the definition of democracy, a rabbit hole into which a great many have fallen.

In reality, fake liberals are stalwart illiberals who don’t actually care what democracy is, as long as it can be used to advance a Marxist agenda. If the process is in fact undemocratic, what of it? If the Constitution needs to be ignored or trashed, what’s the problem? “Progress” must not be restricted.  

Progress toward what? The Left’s essential definition of the word gives it away: whatever advances their power over society justifies their political of and social reforms. If it requires a total contradiction of justice regarding human beings, if it turns people into slaves of a ruling class instead of participants in government, what of it?

The mental and moral decline in mainstream America has helped such “progress.” After more than half a century of dumbing, of trashing American culture, of feeding gullible Americans platitudes of “social justice” pulled out of Marxist doctrine – e.g., the oppressed class versus the oppressor class – the “woke” now accept practices and behaviors that their forebears would have condemned as criminal.

I’ll be blunt: The woke among us have exposed themselves to a class of elites whose sense of justice is like that of wolves.

What possible justification can there be for this reversal of human justice and wellbeing? The following suggestion is one that I’d place in the list of alleged benefits. Our “liberal” brethren want all to believe that their advocacy and activism has made us more mature than our forebears in that so-called “age of innocence” before the 1960s. For example, promiscuity and abortion are now normal, we don’t distinguish between men and women anymore, children copulate at a much earlier age, excellence and quality are meaningless criteria of achievement, authority comes from moguls of power whose demands must be met or be faced with “cancellation”. . . the list of advances is long.

But can anyone with a true concern for human progress find increasing maturity and growing wisdom in any such evidence? There are a few key questions that must be answered honestly before accepting the claims of “liberals” for advancing human progress. Who in woke society are headed for a healthier and saner life than the rest of us? Who are, instead, on a trip back to pagan times? Why, after countless years of human development, should we be wiser because luminaries like Karl Marx, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong and – speeding for brevity past all illustrious Marxists – Barack Obama “enlightened” everybody?

I strongly suspect that the source of brilliance among current “liberals,” like that of their forerunners, is the dread of people rejecting the Marxist variety of dictatorship.

The obvious mess the world is in needs something much deeper and more substantial the political and social sciences. Theories come and go. A tentative science may be endured but a tentative society must face chronic failure. A finger in the shadows of modern life keeps pointing to the spiritual deterioration of current society. Even among those who profess to be religious, God is awash in their beliefs, a stranger in many congregations today. In such a spiritual wasteland, what path can be found to a fuller life and for the needed wisdom of leadership?

By default of washed-out morality and mindless actions, this country has permitted cultural vandals to take it over and rule the inhabitants. Whatever their label (“liberal,” for example), cultural bandits continue to prove their ineligibility to govern America by declaring God irrelevant, His Creation worthless, and the accrued wisdom of ages nonsense. Such appalling ignorance and insanity has stirred enough Americans into speaking out and acting to expose the nonsensee from phony liberals.

As we move in a world overflowing with the products of high technology and the promise of universal well-being, the principal point of life is missed. It’s been said many ways. One that I think expresses it well is that we are put here to grow and flower into our best selves, not just for ourselves but for the society we are part of.

This from-the-bottom-up definition of human progress flies over the heads of fake liberals. But as a top-ranking purpose in life, it is implicit in our having been born. It may be hard to pursue. It may call for sacrifices. It may offend others. But the health and welfare of society and of a nation permit no alternative. Yes, it demands perpetual vigilance against false prophets, among them fake liberals, obsessed with driving everyone to the gate of hell.

In concluding, I must express my deep gratitude for the countless many who have sacrificed, fought and died for America, a land blessed by the hand of God. And I am grateful for the countless many who, in the face of the madness in this country and in the world, bless each life they touch.

Anthony J. DeBlasi is a veteran and longtime defender of Western culture.

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