I have certainly been thrilled with many of the things that Mr. Trump has done in the first several months of his administration. There has been an obvious uptick in America, moving the country in a positive direction in several ways. The problem, of course, is how long does it take to clean up four years of sewage? More than that, if you include the Obama years and all the decades the Left has controlled America’s culture. That can’t be swept under a rug or wiped clean in a few months. Can America turn it around and become the great nation it once was? Or is the rot too deep?
“Society,” of course, means the people in a given “society.” There is no “society” without its people. And when people become increasingly decadent, a “society”—such as the United States, obviously degenerates. And as that happens, more and more people become less trustworthy, and thus cynicism tends to rise among those who understand history and what is happening. A nation must either possess the strength and integrity to continually, ceaselessly exalt excellence, or it will decay into mediocrity, and then worse. When it lets itself go, a nation will always slide downhill.
Although the Left will deny it and will scream to high heaven when it is mentioned, American society, because of them, has been degenerating for several decades now—and more rapidly in recent years. Abortion, crime, sexual perversion, rising divorce rates, weakening of the nuclear family, high illegitimacy rates, dependence on government, transgenderism, government corruption, dildos on basketball courts, people of whom the only adjective they know is the “f” word—and a host of other foul features. The list is virtually endless. All of this is symptomatic and illustrative, not of progress, but of societal decay and disintegration. How can a society that does not respect the lives of the most innocent human beings be said to be “progressing”? How can a culture that doesn’t know the difference between a man and a woman, what a family is, that doesn’t protect its borders, that turns its most savage constituents loose to walk the streets, whose public servants are among the least trustworthy members of that society—this is not a “society” that is elevating itself, that is moving forward, that is creating excellence among its people.
And the problem is that the people in America are the ones who are doing this. Women are murdering their babies. Sexual perversion and promiscuity are rampant, accepted by a majority, not hidden as in times past. Criminals no longer fear the law. Tim Walz lets his city burn. The Democratic Party nominates Kamala Harris, the people of California elect Gavin Newsom, the citizens (and maybe non-citizens) of New York City are probably going to elect a Marxist ideologue as their next mayor. These politicians—most politicians—are neck-deep in this decadence, but it takes the people to elect these politicians.
It isn’t happening inorganically or by chance or spontaneous generation. These are choices people make. People choose to be decadent, and, of course, all the while denying it and cursing (or killing) those who tell them they are. People lie, cheat, and deceive, and are proud of themselves for doing it as long as they think they are winning an argument by doing so. Truth has died in the streets. And the true horror is, so many people don’t know any better and actually think all of this is normal, rational, progressive human behavior.
This is not good.
Who in Washington, D.C. do you trust?
I’ve been a cynic for a long time, and I find my cynicism rising, not falling. Of course, as a historian, I understand that what is happening in America is common—the rule—in world history. Empires rise and fall. There always is a “remnant” in every empire, or society, of good, decent, God-fearing people who try to save the day. But, it’s just historical truth that they always, eventually, are swamped by the rodents and barbarians, and lose. Jungles grow if not frequently pruned. Ultimately an uneaten apple rots. Devolution, not evolution, is a more accurate description of this earthly existence, especially when it comes to human societies and morality. They fall and often disappear completely. How many Babylonians and Assyrians do you know?
Pardon my cynicism. But viewing history, it’s hard not to be a cynic, and I trust very, very few people anymore.
But, to try to be positive for a moment, history can only tell us what has happened, not what will happen. Babylon had a great period under Hammurabi, declined for a millennium, then rose again for a short time under Nebuchadnezzar. Ancient Egypt and China had their ups and downs. Occasionally, Judah had a good king that elevated the society for a while, though apparently it was only skin deep (read Jeremiah 3 about what the people were like under the great, godly king Josiah). Usually, it takes a while, maybe even several centuries (as with Babylon) to clean out the rot and prepare the people for greatness again. But things do move more rapidly today. Maybe America…
We have a tremendous amount of filth and garbage in America today—the Left, the Democratic Party, moral sewage—and they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Mr. Trump is doing many good things, but he is getting fierce opposition from the decadent elements of society. How far he can swing the nation upwards again is impossible to tell; he might make America a solid economic power again, but the true problem, the moral rot in the people, the rising and spreading barbarian class in America—turning this around is problematic, at best. AOC and her followers are not going to change, and their name is Legion. And many of them are young.
It doesn’t take much cancer to kill the patient. We can never quit fighting. Evil never gives up.
My substacks are a little unique. Not just current events, but history, our Founding Fathers, what America was meant to be, and Biblical exegesis. Check them out. “Mark It Down! (mklewis929.substack.com), and “Mark It Down! Bible Substack” (mklbibless.substack.com) Both free. Follow me on “X”: @thailandmkl. Read my western novels, Whitewater , River Bend, Return to River Bend, and Allie’s Dilemma all available on Amazon.