Article by Steve McCann in The American Thinker
Will Election Day see Americans forfeit our heritage of liberty?
I have had a love affair with this country for nearly 70 years. It began on a cold misty morning in 1951 as I stood alone at the railing of a U. S. Navy military transport ship ferrying displaced persons from refugee camps in post-war Europe.
Having known only the miasma rampant in decimated cites, refugee camps and orphanages, I began to sense an aura of confidence, optimism and a can-do spirit as the ship made its way through New York’s Upper Bay and past the Statue of Liberty. As I was perhaps seven years old, I did not know that I had been welcomed to the nation that had rescued me and untold millions from the shackles of Nazism. I knew nothing about this nation’s founding, its people or its governing philosophy but I instinctively knew the United States was a special place.
After being adopted and learning English, I immersed myself in this nation’s history and creation. With the backdrop of my life’s experiences, I was profoundly moved by the philosophical underpinning of America’s founding as expressed in the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among them are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.
The Constitution, which gave structure and meaning to those words, is as William Gladstone described in 1878, “The most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.” It was and remains mankind’s most powerful testament and governmental blueprint for individual liberty and freedom while being a guide to peacefully correct the inevitable imperfections of society.
I experienced this first-hand in late August 1963 while waiting for classes to begin at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. I attended the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom which featured Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Later, as I participated in various marches and voter registration drives to once and for all undue the ravages of institutionalized racism, I was never more proud to be a citizen of the United States and watch as one by one barriers fell and equality became a reality for all Americans.
I also realized while the nation’s founding documents provided the framework for these changes it was the people of this country, of all races, religions and ethnic backgrounds, who were determined to right a century old wrong that made this a truly unique country. Regardless of ancestry or country of origin we were, first and foremost, a people bound by a common philosophy and love of liberty and freedom.
Over the years as this nation experienced unprecedented peace and prosperity, a faction imbued with the mindset of societal dominance and an unbridled determination to overthrow the Constitution and control in perpetuity the halls of power began their inexorable march with little or no opposition from the political class. Their foundational belief that the American citizenry are mere chattel to be manipulated and deceived as well as their ultimate goals and ambitions mirror their despotic counterparts who perpetrated incomprehensible death and destruction in the continent from whence I came.
This cabal is now on the cusp of achieving their goal of permanent dominance. Using the vehicle of the Democratic Party and a senescent and compromised presidential candidate, the American left is about to achieve what seventy years ago would have been unthinkable. Confident that they have succeeded in manipulating the American people, they are openly declaring what their intentions are and what their strategy is to achieve their ends, such as packing the Supreme Court and eliminating the Electoral College.
This election is a defining moment for this country. Have the American people been so duped and propagandized that they will succumb to the siren call of the those determined to sail this nation onto the rocks? Or will the citizenry rally behind Donald Trump as he is now the modern day Horatius at the Bridge single-handedly thwarting the barbarians at the gate?
As I am approaching fourscore years on earth and thus am in twilight of my life, I hope that I do not live to see the downfall and dissolution of the most influential and benevolent nation in the history of mankind. If so, then as long as the human race exists on this planet there will never be another United States of America.
