What Went Wrong with the American Experiment and When?

I was going to write about Donald Trump, but then I saw this post at Adrienne’s Corner and was intrigued by her answer to the post’s title question.  She snagged the idea from Conservatives on Fire who was writing in response to a Frankenstein Government post.  I can give you a hint at what these fine posts offer as the answer to what went wrong with the American experiment–an innately-flawed human nature, apathy, and cowardice, but do read the entire posts.  I can’t disagree with any of these assessments, actually, but I can’t use the same “fatal flaw” they each used, so I decided to talk about how Americans who make up that famous “silent majority,” those of us who didn’t get involved, who sat on the sidelines, who voted our conscience but never spoke out against the incipient threats to our great nation, we are culpable in many ways.  Our silence is indicative of the fact that, despite what we’re told by leftist nut jobs, we’re too damned nice, far too tolerant.  So much so, that we lost ourselves somewhere along the way.

I’ve written previously about the role of both God/religion and  patriotism in our national identity–the chipping away of both, I believe has contributed to the current crisis in which we find ourselves, so I won’t repeat myself (at least not precisely) for this contribution.  Instead, I will discuss what I think paved the way for, indeed spread welcoming rose petals on the path of, the near-failure of the American experiment (I won’t accept defeat.  Not now, not ever).  Make no mistake, we’re on dangerous ground here, the near-collapse of all that we hold dear, so discussing this is vital.  How’d we get here?  What happened?  Where the heck were we, the people, when it was all happening?  I’ll tell you where: trying to get along, trying not to appear to be or not to be called vile names like “RAAAAACIST” or “intolerant” or whatever else the leftist Alinsky sheep threw at us.  We were not complacent so much as trying to accommodate the views, opinions, and wishes of the very people who sought, and still seek, to destroy us. 

So we heard that black people are treated unfairly, that God and the flag are offensive to some, that women aren’t equal, that guns kill, that . . . well, you name it, really.  We heard that people didn’t like certain words, certain jokes, certain phrases, terms, iconography, symbols, and we said to ourselves, well, gee, we don’t want these people to be offended or to feel slighted.  And we remained silent as steps were taken to eliminate offensive language, even thoughts.  We stood mute as any mention of God was removed from our schools, our entertainment media, our lives.  We didn’t like it.  But we didn’t object.  Heck, we didn’t really even talk about it . . . for fear of being seen negatively by the very people who thought so little of us, our beliefs and culture and religion, that they were happy to wipe it away in the name of tolerance and inclusiveness.  Seems silly now, even stupid, but that’s what happened.  For decades.

The silent majority was so silent that we couldn’t even think our own thoughts without filtering them through the politically-correct (totally intolerant, absolutely ex-clusive) worldview of the far left.  We absorbed the message, and we chided ourselves for thinking that things like affirmative action and welfare were actually harming the people that they were supposed to be helping.  Well, we’d say, maybe some people are being helped, and that’s good.  We want people to be treated equally, to be helped, and if these damaging programs seem to be lessening standards, defeating American exceptionalism, well, maybe we’re just wrong.  Maybe it is better to stop thinking about us all as Americans and equals, to think instead of various separate (but “equal”) groupings (or “communities”).

So we didn’t have much to say about lawsuits that banned religious displays at Christmas, that banned the Ten Commandments from court rooms, that eliminated religious after-school groups (well, only Christian ones, but if we noticed, we remained silent), that worked to demonize religion (well, only Christianity, but if we noticed, we remained silent), that sought to make the American flag a blight and shame–something that was to be hidden, even burned.  We didn’t like it.  Oh no, we felt uncomfortable, outraged, but still we said nothing, did nothing.

Silence has long been America’s enemy.  When good people are cowed, ridiculed, marginalized for expressing their beliefs, worldview, ideology, we aren’t being tolerant, we aren’t being inclusive.  We’re simply living a lie, not being true to ourselves or to our God or to our country.

That seems to be changing now, and I hope to God that it’s not too late.  For America to survive and thrive, we, the people, the silent majority, better speak up, make our voices heard, push back.  I do not mean that we need to become the lunatic fringe.  To stay true to ourselves, our God, and our country, we cannot stoop to the lowest level of the leftist onslaught, we cannot allow ourselves–fueled by decades of repressed anger and outrage–to become the thing we despise.  And we’re not.  We’re protesting peacefully, we’re finally making our voice heard, and we’re making a difference.  The American experiment hasn’t failed, and if we continue our peaceful resistance, our refusal to be dismissed as “extreme,” “terrorists,” “RAAAACISTS,” “fascists,” or any of the litany of false accusations leveled at us, we will prevail.  For that to happen, we must be courageous.  We are still the majority, but we can no longer be silent.  Nor allow ourselves to be silenced.

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Update: Old Bob has added his contribution (in two parts) to this project and talks about the way that socialist progressives infiltrated our religions.