Aside from the fact that constitutional rights were trampled, one of the reasons the Left’s many abuses over the last half-decade are cause for worry is what happened last week — specifically, China’s hypersonic test. These abuses, not to mention left-wing hate speech and left-wing indoctrination, are very dangerous in large part because they distract from important concerns.

For example, substantial parts of our national security and military needs have not been taken seriously for at least the last 30 years.

Furthermore, what might a person be driven to do after being inculcated with a constant bombardment of propaganda to hate the “not woke” (at the very least) or, worse, to view the United States of America itself as an abhorrent aberration steeped in racism? Could that indoctrination motivate someone to sell secrets? Or could it lead to other forms of drastic action?

This is why one of the biggest worries for the nation isn’t just the material strength of our Armed Forces as measured by The Heritage Foundation, which its news arm, The Daily Signal, notes is “marginal” overall. We didn’t get this incredible shrinking military overnight — there was a foolish “peace dividend,” errors of omission at the start of the War on Terror, and Barack Obama’s reckless budget axe.

Oddly enough, the material shortfalls are the easy part — a heavy lift in terms of spinning up the production facilities, for sure, but it’s still possible to design and build the planes, ships, tanks, and other modern systems. The hard part is getting the personnel, and right now, the pool of potential personnel has been slashed.

It may seem unrelated, but childhood obesity has skyrocketed, and that means fewer fit recruits. Even then, the left-wing indoctrination in our schools has led many to believe that America isn’t worth fighting for. Or, more accurately, those who go through our schools get a drumbeat of propaganda that the threats to America come not from the genocidal Chinese Communists, the fanatical Iranians, or jihadists, but instead those who don’t buy every aspect of the Left’s agenda.

Why is this a crisis? Keep in mind that the person who commands one of our aircraft carriers today graduated from college around the time The Patriot Post was founded 25 years ago. Then think across the other military services.

As “wokeness” has spread, we’ve seen brave warriors like Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller get drummed out of the service for demanding accountability over Joe Biden’s dishonorable debacle. We’re seeing the top leadership pretty much tell those who don’t buy into the “woke” mentality that their services are not wanted in the military. We’ve seen this approach elsewhere, but if leftist gatekeepers are kicking out the “unwoke,” and the “woke” don’t want to sign up, then who will serve? Will there be a generation of American Marranos?

The harsh reality is that dealing with the Left is important, but we also must prevent China, Iran, Russia, and others from taking advantage of our present state. Exactly how that will be done will require a lot of thinking … and it may already be too late to avoid paying a fearful price.