My country, ‘tis of Thee,
Sweet Land of Liberty
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims’ pride,
From every mountain side
Let Freedom ring.

—"America,“ Samuel Francis Smith (1831)

This song still brings tears to my eyes, much like Francis Scott Key’s "The Star-Spangled Banner” (1814) and Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” (1984). The first time I heard Greenwood’s song was at church while praying for service members in Operation Desert Storm, and it still makes me cry today — especially the chorus’s third and fourth lines: “And I won’t forget the men who died / Who gave that right to me.”

I have many painful memories of friends dying on jungle trails and on open rice paddies in Vietnam. They fought to keep communism from spreading to our shores, paying for it with their lives.

I wonder how many Veterans who fought communism in Southeast Asia or radical Islamic terrorists in the Middle East feel today seeing those two ideologies joined together to destroy our nation from within.

Having made 20 trips back to Vietnam, I am convinced that what America tried to do there was the right thing. I’ve met with many, many Vietnamese civilians and former soldiers who wished that America had not given up. I’ll repeat what I’ve said many times before: Our warriors didn’t lose the war. Democrat politicians quit and cut funding to ensure the fall of a nation that we spent far too much of America’s blood and treasure to defend.

Abandoning Vietnam also meant abandoning Laos and Cambodia (the combined loss of life could be as high as three million). Ever since, we have sent our warriors into combat to fight the battles, only to have our politicians (Democrats) lose the war!

Republicans are not without blame for getting us into wars that were not adequately thought through — and there are many Republican politicians who need to explain why they do not have the moral courage to stand up to the radical ideology spreading across our country right now.

It was shocking a few months ago to see communist flags flying openly in protests across the country. Now we’re seeing far-left progressive candidates campaigning to completely dismantle the greatest country on the face of the planet. They want to open the borders — again — and give citizenship to all illegal aliens. They want to eliminate the Senate, pack the Supreme Court, defund the police and the Pentagon, and open the prisons. What could possibly go wrong?

Have we really come to the place where any of these ideas sound like a good plan — ideas such as no police, no military to protect our shores, and no illegal-alien criminals being deported? And you know that if radical leftists take control of our government, they will come for our guns, leaving us defenseless. That’s how they will gain societal control over us.

I refuse to believe that will happen in this country. Millions of us still love our freedoms and this country, and we will not go quietly into the night — we will not just roll over and surrender — because we still hold to the truths of the Declaration of Independence.

Let me be crystal clear: This is a spiritual issue. Politics is a reflection of the moral depravity of the nation, and millions of Americans have been blinded by the god of this world, Satan. They believe the lie that they can be their own gods. Unfortunately, millions of “church attenders” have also been deceived and are fearful of speaking on our nation’s moral and cultural issues.

The result is corruption in every aspect of our nation, politics included. Nevertheless, it’s not too late to pray, register, and vote your convictions.

Something to pray about!
Semper Fidelis