In this supercharged political environment, the source of the distress facing our nation can be hard to discern. It’s easy to see though, that in many ways the American experiment is on life support.
How did we get here? How is it possible that this “land of the free,” this “shining city on the hill” appears on the verge of embracing socialism as the solution to our problems?
After all, America won the cold war and defeated Communism, right?
Coming from Romania as a religious refugee in 1987, my first taste of America was spectacular. The kindness of its people, the tolerance, the opportunities, the beauty of its nature and its cities left me speechless.
Over the last three decades, much of the bipartisan decency, the understanding of the importance of freedom, and the commitment to common values has been decimated.
When I roamed about the country then, I didn’t hear much complaining about the Constitution, belittling of the founding fathers, denouncing of the free market or undermining of the Judeo-Christian foundations of our society.
Until recently.
So, what happened? After all, most people in the United States are above the average standard of living compared to the rest of the world, the economy is stable if not booming in spite of the pandemic and the shutdowns, we’ve had relative peace and even where some scores had to be settled, we fared quite well.
Enter the left.
The left in this country, aided and abetted by socialists elsewhere, are waging an ideological war against the American people.
They can’t win though without taking over three essential building blocks of our society: education, entertainment and the media. In nearly every country that’s fallen to Communism, these were the first casualties.
In Romania for example, socialists redefined success, labeling affluence indecent and exploitive. Entrepreneurs and landowners were portrayed as parasites and thieves. Intellectuals were dismissed as dishonest mercenaries of the Capitalistic system and Religious people were considered a threat to the state for supposedly keeping people enslaved to fear and mysticism.
As Conservatives were busy building the American civilization, Liberals were busy taking charge of schools and universities, poisoning the minds of countless children and young people, making them believe that Capitalism is failing, the roots of our existence are rotten and the basic, elemental spirit at its core is greed and ignorance.
The entertainment industries were hard at work shedding all pretenses of morality and decency, demeaning the value of family, faith and sound structures, things that once held this American wonder together.
The media bombardment was relentless: everything negative about America blown out of proportion, everything good ignored or, at best, brushed over.
The only things now standing in the way of a socialist takeover are the Constitution and elections. And the mantra of Marxism is that the takeover needs to be hostile and violent, the opposition has to be exterminated – physically – and the reality has to be replaced by controlled perception.
In the middle of the most prosperous years of the Romanian Monarchy, bar the Second World War, Communists tried to make the Romanian people believe they were living a nightmare. They were not successful because Romanians knew better and were always skeptical of Bolshevism. It took the Soviet army forcefully exiling the King, deposing the Government, confiscating private property, changing the currency and plunging Romania into decades of suffering and misery.
In America, it’s taken Socialist many more years of planning and conniving, but they are now at the door, working to convince the masses that the American Dream is really a nightmare
We must be suspicious of every word they say and every action they take. We must speak out and proclaim the truth, and we must ensure all of those we know and love understand what is happening and are stirred to take action.
We can still reverse this course, but it will take a commitment, steadfastness, courage, and faith equal to the very greatest generations of Americans, along with the intervention of Divine Providence, to save this place we love from a disastrous divergence from freedom.
Cristian Ionescu is Senior Pastor of Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church in Chicago
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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