By Tom Klocek

“So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religions and otherwise, to put shackles on sleeping men.” —Voltaire (1694-1778)

Our Constitution begins with the phrase, “We the people.” Its premise is that our nation is founded on a principle of limited government wherein the citizens are actually in charge. After over 200 years, however, the citizens, for the most part, have abdicated their responsibility for running the nation and have allowed a group of elites that has no real interest in the people to rule their lives.

If there were really concerns by those in power about the life and future of the United States, why would they allow and encourage infiltration by foreign nationals into our nation and elite education groups, the buying of our land (including critical farmland and land near major military facilities), unlimited immigration (which includes vast amounts of drugs), and other policies detrimental to our existence? This globalist “leadership” cabal is intent on destroying our borders, enabling other threats to our national existence and identity, while declaring the natural effects of “climate change” and identity politics to be the threats, using them to destroy our economy, our strength, and our position as a world leader and defender of freedom and human rights.

This has resulted in continued “temporary” inflation, loss of our energy independence and reliability, and a decline in our influence and ability to improve the world situation. Even the pope has climbed onto the “existential threat” bandwagon, skewing numbers to make us the bad guy. I wonder, how much of the egregious “per capita energy use” the pope cites is from the elites wanting to restrict our use yet continue to fly their own personal jets everywhere (like John Kerry and Al Gore).

Building on the foundational philosophy of “never letting a crisis go to waste,” the Left has built a culture of fear to promote its policies that are geared to their control of everything. The fear is real, but not due to climate. It is due to America’s refusal to maintain itself as a strong beacon of freedom for the world, especially by not catering to those who plot our destruction, such as Iran and China. The result is devastating. And just when we thought it was isolated to Ukraine and possibly Taiwan, we now have the Hamas invasion of Israel, characterized by mass casualties (including Americans) and atrocities against children.

It’s not just the president and his administration that need to take responsibility, but the Democrat Congress as well that supports his policies and makes excuses for his blunders. They cannot even acknowledge the atrocities that Hamas has enacted. Take, for example, the response of BLM, the love child of the administration for years. “I stand with Palestine.” And now it seems more than just a coincidence that Biden freed up $6 billion to Iran just a short time ago. Iran trains and arms Hamas. Regardless of what the Democrats say, freeing up money in one area for a particular purpose (i.e., with strings attached) does, in fact, free up other money that might have been reserved for that purpose to be used for more nefarious purposes. Money is fungible.

And it’s not just the left — even the Republicans cannot seem to get their act together with the world in crisis.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics report over 500 encounters with persons known or suspected to be terrorists so far this year. They also report about 1.8 million overall border encounters year to date. Of course, no one really knows how many came through the border avoiding CBP, and from various media reports, there are a lot. Those deliberately avoiding CBP are more likely to be unfriendly than those walking right into CBP patrols. We have no idea how organized they might be or if they are plotting coordinated attacks on our population. Furthermore, more and more sanctuary cities are complaining about the damage these illegals are having on their citizens and resources, perhaps finally recognizing the error of this administration’s open-border policies. This in itself is acknowledgement of the invasion these Marxist and globalist elites have fostered and encouraged, to the detriment of real citizens and especially veterans.

And in the process of weakening our nation in several aspects, this administration has made us more dependent on overseas resources. Not very long ago we had achieved energy independence, which allowed us to negotiate from a position of strength. Our Navy has been second to none since the Great White Fleet. Now we are in danger of being eclipsed by China. Already we are decommissioning ships that have only been in service a short time. We are very close to being “in extremis” (extremis is a condition whereby disaster can only be avoided by urgent and extraordinary action). Our services are failing to meet recruiting goals for the second consecutive year.

This administration is so intent on virtue signaling its diversity credentials and advancement of green energy that it has only lately acknowledged the disaster at the borders (according to CBP, more possible terrorists are coming through our northern border than the southern one). It is ignoring the true existential threat to the life of our nation. Several people have declared us to be on the verge of a third world war. The neglect of our military over the past several administrations, especially the Democrat ones, has increased the possibility of a bleak outcome of such an encounter.

The sleeper must awaken. It’s time to stand up for America. We will learn if there is even a stirring of awakening from the complacency of the masses, as Virginia is in a critical election cycle that will determine if the elite or the people will prevail.

Next year is a national election that, if we get there, will have even broader impact on the future. Now is the time to decide how to divert from this path of danger on which we are traveling and work toward reverting back to sanity. The elite don’t care — they are happy with this direction as long as they, NOT YOU, can stay in power. Pray for America.

“When God is forgotten, however, the creature itself grows unintelligible.” —Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes

“The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” —Albert Einstein