Saturday, January 14, 2023

D.L. Gardner: What Has Happened to America?

 Last week Victor Davis Hanson wrote, “A Country We No Longer Recognize, a Coup We Never Knew,” carried by The Daily Signal, a publication of The Heritage Foundation. Hanson, a classicist and historian in the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, asked no fewer than 52 questions beginning with “Did someone or something seize control of the United States?” and ending with “We are beginning to wake up from a nightmare to a country we no longer recognize, and from a coup we never knew.”

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/01/06/a-country-we-no-longer-recognize-a-coup-we-never-knew/


In case you missed it (ICYMI), during the 2-year pandemic governing authorities at local, state, and federal levels not only disregarded our laws, but unilaterally instituted “emergency” laws of their own that violated our Constitutional and God-given rights and freedoms. If you thought our First Amendment rights were still protected by law, you likely haven’t expressed opinions against politically correct woke dogma in the workplace.


Via recent Twitter dumps of emails and records of communication between Twitter and federal law enforcement as well as intelligence agencies, we know the FBI, CIA, and the White House have suppressed and even censored “free speech” for purely political gains, including rigging elections.


To make matters worse, corporate media have been complicit with these authorities that have appointed themselves arbiters of the truth, and they are parroting their “truths” without any challenges. We are no longer a nation of laws. Hanson’s questions destroy any defense we are ruled by law and not by whims of governing authorities.


Times are darkest when those in power rule arbitrarily for their own agendas and against any dissident opinions. Powerful authorities have always ruled as tyrants until “we the people” rebel against totalitarianism and rampant lawlessness in the streets. 


Two-thousand years ago kings and tyrants ruled the whole world as they had for millennia. In those days Jesus Christ proclaimed truth, freedom and eternal life for any who believed in Him. They crucified Him. He rose from the dead, and those who trusted Him were also persecuted and executed for spreading the same message. 


Dictators have always tried to dictate their own truths to keep the people under control. If the government is supposed to hold the government accountable, but the government does whatever leaders want to do with impunity, is there any other group who can hold the government accountable? 


If the people disagree with the government, and government leaders declare that disagreeing with the government is insurrection or even terrorism, who can defend the people?


Hanson asked, “When did we assume the FBI had the right to subvert the campaign of a candidate it disliked? Was it legal suddenly for one presidential candidate to hire a foreign ex-spy to subvert the campaign of her rival?”


He also asked, “Was some state or federal law passed that allowed biological males to compete in female sports? Did Congress enact such a law? Did the Supreme Court guarantee that biological male students could shower in gym locker rooms with biological women? Were women ever asked to redefine the very sports they had championed?”


What about today in America? Has there been a coup by the woke LEFT? Are the consequences of their authority inevitable to the point that they alone adjudicate all truth without lawful authority? What has happened to America?


Daniel L. Gardner is a syndicated columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at PJandMe2@gmail.com.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

I’ve read about a dozen of VDH’s books, and he is still one of my favorite historians.

But he lost his mind and became a populist authoritarian during the reign of the Orange Cult.

Then again, The Claremont Institute was a respected conservative think tank not long ago. So many people made a business decision (Ben Shapiro, Mollie Hemingway, Erick Erickson were all never-Trumpers in 2016,) and ditched their principles. Throwing outrage bait to the poorly educated rubes (Trump loves them, remember) is much more lucrative than advocating traditionally conservative principles.

Anonymous said...

What has happened to America is that instead of making good decisions based on the best available facts, people like DL, assume all the worst case scenarios and dismiss or maligned the sources if any evidence or confirmable facts facts that support the better options. Those like DL lie in ignorance or deliberately lie,lump apples with oranges (as if assault and murder are the same) and ignore any context of actual behavior or events.
Worse, DL is using religion and denying actual history to do it. He seems to think " Thou Shall Not Bear False Witness" require being an actual witness and being sworn in a courtroom. It's about not lying or making up stuff,or speculating without actual knowledge.

DL is about getting everyone to choose up sides before the other side of the story can be told or evidence presented.

Of all his " posts" this one takes the cake for vague accusations and misinformation.

Partisan politics puts one's soul at risk but it is possible to still keep it ...both Carmichael and Winter come to mind. But,few do and most of you commenting who,like DL claim moral and religious superiority as Christians should keep that in mind. Sorry alone doesn't do it nor do redeeming acts if you don't acknowledge and repent(atone) your sin and "sin no more". The Bible isn't ambiguous about lying being a sin or how to return to a "state of grace".
Only the corruption of our churches by politics is more disastrous than seeing the GOP defend the likes of Trump, Castro and Marjorie-Taylor Greene to the point of giving them power.
You will not like the whirlwinds you have reaped.

Anonymous said...

What a scared old man.

Anonymous said...

Just when you thought we had all this past us.
Everybody knows but also knows it's best to keep our mouths shut.
Wonder why?
Stupid. So, so very stupid.

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the party. What could have possibly tipped you off?

Creeping Communism said...

Joe McCarthy was right, but it has taken longer than predicted.

Anonymous said...

@12:10pm
Crawl out from under your sanctimonious cloak whilst trying to blend neo-Christianity with RINOism? Which Castro did the GOP defend? Drop to your knees and thank Gawd President Trump served our country righteously. Then give us 25 push-ups for your penance.

Anonymous said...

I blame all of the problems we have seen in recent years in our country on one thing. It is simple when you give it a little thought. Putting warning labels on everything has destroyed the country. Back in the history of our country there has always been a way to thin out the heard. Most of the people knew not to eat clothes washing soap and those who didn't know enough to try it didn't last long. Now we give them a warning. A few will still try it but those on the fence about eating soap will read the warning and not eat it. Our country has been taken over by those who would be soap eaters if we would not put the warning labels on everything. They are even having babies.

For the good of our country we need to remove all warning labels. At least give our country a chance.

Anonymous said...

It happened in the late 90’s and I personally noticed it around the time of the lefts “Lord and Savior” 2010 rule. They went from critical thinking and questioning to let’s do and believe everything the government says from there you now have the current moron and the rest of the identity politics hires, to keep the low information left voters happy. You hear the right complain about caving to the left, well the left always complains caving to the right, It’s quite funny! Remember you can mock Orange Cheeto, but you can’t mock “Our Lord and Savior Obama” otherwise they will come after you. Trump’s vax was bad! Biden’s was good! Remember Bush 2 bad! Bush 2 good now! I just wish the left could think again instead of being a cult of OBEY! They can convince those idiots to do anything and yet they cry about the Orange cult.

Anonymous said...

Right on Obama saved us from the perils of the Bush economic melt down. Trump took Covid personally, he could never figure out that no one blamed him. He did the best he could. If we want to be honest none of them are perfect.

Anonymous said...

Interesting theories you got there, @1:56 and @2:51. George F. Will used to date the US’s decline to the installation of the designated hitter rule in the American League, so there’s another perspective to ponder.

Anonymous said...

We are big to place labels on people and things, today. To self identify as this or that, or someone else as this or that. In so doing this, we have quit being Americans.

The unity killer of identity politics is slowly choking the life from the last true chance of freedom. The old tactic of divide and conquer is placing the power of the people against each other, when their power should be focused against those that cause this division. This tactic is working very well.

I don't have the words to convey the seriousness of this situation. I don't know how to awaken my fellow Americans to see the way we are being played, as fools. May GOD have mercy on us.

Anonymous said...

Nothing has 'happened to America'. The only thing that's changed is the degree to which lost principles are publicized. That's due to social media.

It's always been and will always be true: There are two things, a whiff of which, will either drive you insane or control you (or both) for the rest of your life. One is money.

Anonymous said...

How interesting that those who claim to love Victor Davis Hanson forget that, like Cruz and McCarthy and McConnell, he didn't like Trump at all...until he became the dictator of the GOP.
I can only guess these men sold their souls to self-interest and potential to protect or increase their wealth or keep their jobs.
As an Independent, the excesses and the extremes of the Democratic party and their hypocrisies are not lost of me.
Nor is it lost on me that not all autocrats in history were awful...some were benevolent. That is not true of the party of Trump.
That in an age of great advances due to science, it is surprising that anyone argues that "truth" no longer exists and cannot be found...that lies cannot be recognized.
If someone lies to you repeatedly, how is it that you still believe them?
And, I haven't missed that Christians, including ministers, seldom quote The New Testament ( other than John) and never Jesus' words from The Sermon on the Mount.
You don't hear about " a camel through the eye of a needle" or being "puffed up" or cautions about the Seven Deadly Sins from the Christian right these days...even in too many "mainstream" denominations.
There is no nostalgia for the small churches that are abandoned when the new mega church replaces it and brings its entertainment features. There is little hope that you'll be "ministered" to individually in times of crisis unless you've "deep pockets" or labor for the mega church.You don't see how alike your fundamentalist religious beliefs are like Sharia law either.
Oh, yes,the vision of our Founders is now destroyed. I'm pretty sure we have crossed the Rubicon. You won't like the outcome. You fantastical image of your improved status will not be reality. But the result will be an unhappy one and already too late to change it.
I'm glad I won't be alive for the worst of it, but grieve that my children and grandchildren will suffer from man's ego, ignorance and inability to see anything but that his "glass half full" and he only has himself to blame. And, I feel sorry for the women who don't know that their "privilege" to inherit, spend or control money or property or who they marry will be their father's, husband's or son's again. That you loved " the Ayatollah" won't help you.
Or maybe it's as a Muslim man from Egypt once said to me, the worst of governments come from the support of men who can't get women to want or love them and see money or power as their only hope to get laid.

Anonymous said...

January 15, 2023 at 10:17 AM, that's like your opinion, man.

Anonymous said...

"the worst of governments come from the support of men who can't get women to want or love them and see money or power as their only hope to get laid."

There might be some real truth to that. Al Pacino said it plainly in Scarface: "First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the women."

"[Self-proclaimed] Christians, including ministers, seldom quote The New Testament (other than John) and never Jesus' words from The Sermon on the Mount."

I think that's often true as well. These days, we love to beat the hell out of each other with the Old Testament law.

Anonymous said...

Anyone who wrote a book entitled “ The Case for Trump “ has no credibility in my opinion.Hanson is a buffoon parading as a “ scholar. “

Kingfish said...

I bet you think William F. Buckley was barely literate.

Anonymous said...

Nothing new under the sun. Empires cannot learn from the past, have followed similar patterns since recorded history in last 3000 years. The USA empire had great struggles and ambitions to be established. Enjoyed great benefits from being the world's superpower at it's peak. The USA has been in decline. The decline seems accelerated which gets the focus. The decline is always from within. Ask the Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, Spanish, British, Arabs...

Anonymous said...

1:56 is one of the dumbest things I've ever read

Anonymous said...

@ 10:17 - Thank you for the manifesto. We will wait patiently for you to wind up as a lead news story.

Anonymous said...

1:56 is one of the most intelligent things I've ever read.

Zorek Richards (Not anonymous) said...

Daily Signal is always good for a laugh.



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