I am in my eighth decade as an American citizen. While America was never perfect, far from it, yet I grew up and lived most of my life happy to be an American and always felt lucky to have been born here.
This was a country steeped in a sense of fairness and justice, morality, compassion and support for individual rights and opportunity, with an economy and a workable, lasting form of democratic government that was the envy of the world. It was never a perfect society, but I believed it was always trying to improve. It was my land and I was proud of it.
Let’s set aside any personal feelings about President Trump and examine what has been the single greatest influence on American politics and culture over the past 50 years.
There has been a deliberate, sustained effort by our institutions of higher education and the broader academic world to undermine America’s foundational principles. Every major aspect of our history, institutions, and culture has been reframed through a rigid “oppressor vs. oppressed” lens — in essence, a Marxist framework that divides society into perpetual villains and victims.
Step onto almost any liberal arts campus today and you’ll see how far left these institutions have drifted. They have largely ceased to be places of open inquiry and have instead become ideological indoctrination centers. Rather than fostering the free exchange of ideas, they actively suppress traditional, classical liberal, or conservative viewpoints. Dissenting professors are marginalized or silenced, and students who refuse to conform face social pressure, bullying, and academic penalties.
These graduates then move into K-12 public education, where they are perfectly positioned to pass these ideas on to the next generation. Children — who lack the intellectual tools and life experience to critically evaluate what they’re being taught — become the most vulnerable targets.
Compounding the problem is the rise of social media and the internet, dominated by platforms whose algorithms and corporate cultures overwhelmingly favor progressive narratives. These tools have unprecedented power to shape young minds during their most formative years.
Have we seriously considered whether handing smartphones to adolescents and mandating tablets in elementary schools might be harming cognitive development, attention spans, and critical thinking skills?
If I had to distill it to its essence, the cycle is as old as history:
“Hard times create strong men.
Strong men create good times.
Good times create weak men.
Weak men create hard times.”
The relative peace and prosperity of the last 50 years have produced a generation of weak men (and women) who now champion utopian fantasies of perfect equity and redistributed outcomes. In doing so, they have left our society soft, divided, and vulnerable.
And into that vacuum steps a far more immediate and determined threat: radical Islam, which has no illusions about weakness and is more than willing to exploit it.
More BS from MEPD. Colleges and universities didn't "drift left", they stopped being dictated to by the old boy network and encouraged people to start thinking for themselves, which always hurts the old boy network. Part of growing and learning is being exposed to all ideas. Now that it's happening more people choose progressive vs conservative paths, as they realize conservatism represents in large part keeping the status quo, i.e. the power in the hands of old white men, and they reject that, as they should.
The Internet has far more right-wing content than left, and WAY more far-right than far-left content.
Social media is the greatest threat to productive citizenry we've ever seen, and algorithms that feed a person's perspective seek only to keep them in their bubble and outraged by fictitious claims, never to be exposed to the truth. People then act like you do, parroting lies from their bubble instead of seeking out the truth. Other than a work site I refuse to participate in social media, as I see it clearly as a threat to factual information and common sense as clearly as Trump is a threat to American democracy- and with his idiotic Iranian "excursion", American national security.
I think both sides of our great political divide can agree that our system has been broken.
It is my belief that the breaking was done by the Democrats. I could give you 100 examples, most of which you would say "yes, sure, but..." and you would find a way to excuse many of the behaviors you are so distressed with today, but weren't so yesterday.
Let's start with the weaponization of the federal government, which started under President Obama, VP Biden, and former Secretary of State Clinton in 2016. Can we agree that the pretext for "investigating" and spying on the Trump campaign was a Clinton dirty trick? Can we agree that Obama knew about this (his meeting with his top "intelligence" aids?) and did nothing to protect "our democracy." Can we agree that the FBI and CIA was weaponized against the Trump campaign and even continued while Trump was President? Can we agree that Joe Biden and his family were utterly corrupt, yet Obama again looked the other way and even campaigned for Biden in 2020?
So when you go off on President Trump without naming him, keep his behavior in context. He was persecuted before he got elected, while he was president, and after he left office. He survived an assassination attempt (others were not so lucky). And the "deep state" continues to go after him to this day.
If we can agree that the top Democrats are corrupt, then we can talk about Trump's faults, of which he has many.
His war in Iran is not one of them. Just Google the US Presidents who vowed that Iran would never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. Only Trump took decisive action to prevent this formerly inevitable outcome (one that was allowed by Obama after 15 or 20 years, by the way.)
No G, we cannot agree with your fantasies about Biden, Obama and Clinton.
Trump was caught up in wiretaps of criminals, which is what happens when you're a criminal consorting with criminals. They weren't wiretapping Trump.
The government, the FBI and the CIA were not weaponized against Trump, they were investigating his crimes. Crimes he was allowed to get away with by the Supreme Court, who willingly helped him run out the clock on crimes he was clearly guilty of by delaying his cases again and again.
No, the Biden family was not "utterly corrupt". After scouring thousands of e-mails the hilariously incompetent Republican House Committee found ZERO proof of any transgressions, much less any crimes. Juxtapose that with Trump's rampant graft, corruption, bribery and blackmail.
Trump wasn't persecuted, he was prosecuted, and rightfully so, just like he was rightfully twice impeached. Only because Republican Senators put party before country was he not convicted when he was obviously guilty both times, with evidence including recordings of phone calls that amply showed his guilt.
We had a treaty with Iran they were complying with about limits of enriched uranium that would preclude their development of nuclear weapons. Trump pulled us out of it, creating the current situation, proving once again his complete incompetence in foreign policy and diplomacy. Trump pulled out of it solely because of his jealousy of Obama, whose intelligence, grasp of complex issues and humanity, among many other traits Trump completely lacks drive Trump crazy with jealousy.
In this case his jealousy led to yet another stupid, irrational, poorly thought out action that is now biting him in the you-know-what in the most spectacular way possible. He was warned Iran would shut down the Strait of Hormuz, but his malignant narcissism doesn't allow him to listen to people more knowledgeable (everyone) than him.
With a thoughtful, intelligent president in place as the treaty Obama negotiated was due to expire, we would have been able to negotiate another treaty to continue to preclude Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Instead, we have a cartoonish buffoon bumbling around starting a war in the Middle East, where wars are interminable, and revenge is guaranteed to motivate people for centuries, and the consequences of his idiotic actions will hurt not just millions of individuals around the world but the global economy as well.
Sorry MEPD, I live in the real world. It's already very clear that Iranians are not going to rise up and throw off the shackles of their government. It'd be damn near impossible anyway since they live in a surveillance state where it's almost impossible to attain firearms.
A non-nuclear Iran is already the status quo. Obama had the treaty to keep it that way, Trump bungled us into this situation by withdrawing from the treaty.
There is no way the Iranians that have lost family members to Trump's attacks aren't going to seek retribution, even if it takes decades. Middle East history is rife with this type of thing. They don't let things go.
There's no way short of imperialism to get Iran to do what we want. Trump said again and again on the campaign trail we're not to be the world's police force. Now that he's drunk with power after kidnapping a head of state however, he's all for it.
The dollar already is the global trade currency.
Gas and oil prices would already be low if not for Trump's idiotic actions.
Trump does not seek peace and harmony in the Middle East or anywhere else, he seeks hegemony for himself by misusing our military power.
We have many times in the past behind the scenes engineered or assassinated leaders that didn't suit our wants or needs, but no president has said out loud the things Trump keeps saying about how other countries should install someone favorable to HIM. Not our country, HIM. That's what it's all about.
There is no winning in Iran. Even if they toppled the theocratic government there will be radicals coming after us for decades due to these attacks.
Why do you think we have the right to dictate to other countries what they do or how they govern? Trump has plenty of problems to contend with on the homefront; he should be focused on those instead of self-aggrandizing grandstanding that will harm our security in the long-term.
By the way, my degree is in History, and I fully admit no one is ever going to get all the factions in the Middle East to co-exist peacefully, so that doesn't make Trump different, he's just set a more disastrous course than others.
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(6) comments
Let’s set aside any personal feelings about President Trump and examine what has been the single greatest influence on American politics and culture over the past 50 years.
There has been a deliberate, sustained effort by our institutions of higher education and the broader academic world to undermine America’s foundational principles. Every major aspect of our history, institutions, and culture has been reframed through a rigid “oppressor vs. oppressed” lens — in essence, a Marxist framework that divides society into perpetual villains and victims.
Step onto almost any liberal arts campus today and you’ll see how far left these institutions have drifted. They have largely ceased to be places of open inquiry and have instead become ideological indoctrination centers. Rather than fostering the free exchange of ideas, they actively suppress traditional, classical liberal, or conservative viewpoints. Dissenting professors are marginalized or silenced, and students who refuse to conform face social pressure, bullying, and academic penalties.
These graduates then move into K-12 public education, where they are perfectly positioned to pass these ideas on to the next generation. Children — who lack the intellectual tools and life experience to critically evaluate what they’re being taught — become the most vulnerable targets.
Compounding the problem is the rise of social media and the internet, dominated by platforms whose algorithms and corporate cultures overwhelmingly favor progressive narratives. These tools have unprecedented power to shape young minds during their most formative years.
Have we seriously considered whether handing smartphones to adolescents and mandating tablets in elementary schools might be harming cognitive development, attention spans, and critical thinking skills?
If I had to distill it to its essence, the cycle is as old as history:
“Hard times create strong men.
Strong men create good times.
Good times create weak men.
Weak men create hard times.”
The relative peace and prosperity of the last 50 years have produced a generation of weak men (and women) who now champion utopian fantasies of perfect equity and redistributed outcomes. In doing so, they have left our society soft, divided, and vulnerable.
And into that vacuum steps a far more immediate and determined threat: radical Islam, which has no illusions about weakness and is more than willing to exploit it.
More BS from MEPD. Colleges and universities didn't "drift left", they stopped being dictated to by the old boy network and encouraged people to start thinking for themselves, which always hurts the old boy network. Part of growing and learning is being exposed to all ideas. Now that it's happening more people choose progressive vs conservative paths, as they realize conservatism represents in large part keeping the status quo, i.e. the power in the hands of old white men, and they reject that, as they should.
The Internet has far more right-wing content than left, and WAY more far-right than far-left content.
Social media is the greatest threat to productive citizenry we've ever seen, and algorithms that feed a person's perspective seek only to keep them in their bubble and outraged by fictitious claims, never to be exposed to the truth. People then act like you do, parroting lies from their bubble instead of seeking out the truth. Other than a work site I refuse to participate in social media, as I see it clearly as a threat to factual information and common sense as clearly as Trump is a threat to American democracy- and with his idiotic Iranian "excursion", American national security.
I think both sides of our great political divide can agree that our system has been broken.
It is my belief that the breaking was done by the Democrats. I could give you 100 examples, most of which you would say "yes, sure, but..." and you would find a way to excuse many of the behaviors you are so distressed with today, but weren't so yesterday.
Let's start with the weaponization of the federal government, which started under President Obama, VP Biden, and former Secretary of State Clinton in 2016. Can we agree that the pretext for "investigating" and spying on the Trump campaign was a Clinton dirty trick? Can we agree that Obama knew about this (his meeting with his top "intelligence" aids?) and did nothing to protect "our democracy." Can we agree that the FBI and CIA was weaponized against the Trump campaign and even continued while Trump was President? Can we agree that Joe Biden and his family were utterly corrupt, yet Obama again looked the other way and even campaigned for Biden in 2020?
So when you go off on President Trump without naming him, keep his behavior in context. He was persecuted before he got elected, while he was president, and after he left office. He survived an assassination attempt (others were not so lucky). And the "deep state" continues to go after him to this day.
If we can agree that the top Democrats are corrupt, then we can talk about Trump's faults, of which he has many.
His war in Iran is not one of them. Just Google the US Presidents who vowed that Iran would never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. Only Trump took decisive action to prevent this formerly inevitable outcome (one that was allowed by Obama after 15 or 20 years, by the way.)
No G, we cannot agree with your fantasies about Biden, Obama and Clinton.
Trump was caught up in wiretaps of criminals, which is what happens when you're a criminal consorting with criminals. They weren't wiretapping Trump.
The government, the FBI and the CIA were not weaponized against Trump, they were investigating his crimes. Crimes he was allowed to get away with by the Supreme Court, who willingly helped him run out the clock on crimes he was clearly guilty of by delaying his cases again and again.
No, the Biden family was not "utterly corrupt". After scouring thousands of e-mails the hilariously incompetent Republican House Committee found ZERO proof of any transgressions, much less any crimes. Juxtapose that with Trump's rampant graft, corruption, bribery and blackmail.
Trump wasn't persecuted, he was prosecuted, and rightfully so, just like he was rightfully twice impeached. Only because Republican Senators put party before country was he not convicted when he was obviously guilty both times, with evidence including recordings of phone calls that amply showed his guilt.
We had a treaty with Iran they were complying with about limits of enriched uranium that would preclude their development of nuclear weapons. Trump pulled us out of it, creating the current situation, proving once again his complete incompetence in foreign policy and diplomacy. Trump pulled out of it solely because of his jealousy of Obama, whose intelligence, grasp of complex issues and humanity, among many other traits Trump completely lacks drive Trump crazy with jealousy.
In this case his jealousy led to yet another stupid, irrational, poorly thought out action that is now biting him in the you-know-what in the most spectacular way possible. He was warned Iran would shut down the Strait of Hormuz, but his malignant narcissism doesn't allow him to listen to people more knowledgeable (everyone) than him.
With a thoughtful, intelligent president in place as the treaty Obama negotiated was due to expire, we would have been able to negotiate another treaty to continue to preclude Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Instead, we have a cartoonish buffoon bumbling around starting a war in the Middle East, where wars are interminable, and revenge is guaranteed to motivate people for centuries, and the consequences of his idiotic actions will hurt not just millions of individuals around the world but the global economy as well.
So here's my question for you, Mikey;
What if Trump's actions in Iran should accomplish the following?:
-A non-nuclear Iran.
-An Iran where its people will be able to breathe freely once again, without the specter of tyrannical Islam.
-Peaceful stability in the Middle East.
-Finally, removing Iran's grip on the Strait of Hormuz.
-Strengthening and restoring the Dollar as the currency of global trade.
-The eventual lowering and stabilizing of gas prices.
Will you come back to these pages and make a full-throated apology and recognition of Trump's accomplishment?
Somehow, I doubt it.
I know if this becomes another Iraq, I'll be the first to call it out.
Sorry MEPD, I live in the real world. It's already very clear that Iranians are not going to rise up and throw off the shackles of their government. It'd be damn near impossible anyway since they live in a surveillance state where it's almost impossible to attain firearms.
A non-nuclear Iran is already the status quo. Obama had the treaty to keep it that way, Trump bungled us into this situation by withdrawing from the treaty.
There is no way the Iranians that have lost family members to Trump's attacks aren't going to seek retribution, even if it takes decades. Middle East history is rife with this type of thing. They don't let things go.
There's no way short of imperialism to get Iran to do what we want. Trump said again and again on the campaign trail we're not to be the world's police force. Now that he's drunk with power after kidnapping a head of state however, he's all for it.
The dollar already is the global trade currency.
Gas and oil prices would already be low if not for Trump's idiotic actions.
Trump does not seek peace and harmony in the Middle East or anywhere else, he seeks hegemony for himself by misusing our military power.
We have many times in the past behind the scenes engineered or assassinated leaders that didn't suit our wants or needs, but no president has said out loud the things Trump keeps saying about how other countries should install someone favorable to HIM. Not our country, HIM. That's what it's all about.
There is no winning in Iran. Even if they toppled the theocratic government there will be radicals coming after us for decades due to these attacks.
Why do you think we have the right to dictate to other countries what they do or how they govern? Trump has plenty of problems to contend with on the homefront; he should be focused on those instead of self-aggrandizing grandstanding that will harm our security in the long-term.
By the way, my degree is in History, and I fully admit no one is ever going to get all the factions in the Middle East to co-exist peacefully, so that doesn't make Trump different, he's just set a more disastrous course than others.
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