Ask any American who remembers what life was like twenty-five or more years ago, and he or she is likely to say that in the most important areas, life was significantly better.
People were free to talk and exchange ideas. Common sense was common and provided a basis for shared values and sound judgment. Relationships, courtship, marriage, and family formation were more successful. Culture was more positive and uplifting because it was shaped by recognition that virtues were worth upholding. American heritage was a source of national pride. History was worth preserving to learn from and to honor those who came before on whose shoulders we stand. And humor was alive and well in all its varieties, particularly in prompting people to laugh at themselves.
Today, there are so many cultural crosscurrents and so many societal levels of demoralization and division that most cannot fathom where to begin to unravel things and undertake a course correction. It’s a complex mess.
But getting things back on track of recovery and improvement is not complicated. It hinges on two related basics: truth and trust. Unfortunately, the critical importance of these two biblical imperatives has been lost on a secularized contemporary America. The administrative state—powerful unelected bureaucrats operating across government agencies such as the State Department, DHS, CIA, FBI, CDC—have manipulated and controlled information and public opinion by using portals to the mainstream and social media to censor and cancel information that runs contrary to government narratives. This is of course a major violation of the people’s First Amendment rights. President Joe Biden revealed himself to be the deceiver in chief when he lied to the America people three dozen times in his recent State of the Union address.
The American government and its many federal agencies have been deceiving The American people about almost every important issue affecting them: the southern border and migrant crisis; that state of the economy; the alleged CO2 emission risk and climate change; Covid-19 and the effects of associated vaccines; the cause and status of the Ukraine War; nationwide public school curriculum pushing race, class, gender division and confusion; U.S. Defense Department DEI programs demoralizing the U.S. military rank and file and causing dramatic military recruiting shortfalls: the war on the police and law enforcement;the two-tiered justice system; the alleged J6 insurrection; and reckless government spending that will bring on a national debtand currency collapse within a decade.
Let this sink in: If these issues that preoccupy the federal government agenda, are based on lies, deceit, and half-truths, it is axiomatically impossible to produce policy solutions. The way the system has become warped, politicians don’t need to solve the peoples’ problems when they can perpetually use those problems to raise money for election campaigns. And when legislative bills become law that requires funding, it will come in large part from deficit financing. So, when the system does produce legislated solutions, it is often a double fleecing of the American taxpayer—borrowing money for wasteful programs that often do more harm than good.
The way forward and first step is to stop government censorship and allow freedom of thought and the competition of ideas to reveal the truth of each problem so that policymaking can actually solve problems. And that will begin to rebuild trust.
What has happened in Middle East reveals just how imperative trust is. The U.S. dollar was the unquestioned world reserve currency for nearly fifty years, from 1973 to 2021 because of the agreement with the Saudis to trade OPEC oil in U.S. dollars in exchange for the U.S. guarantee to protect Saudi Arabia’s sovereign security. When Biden botched the military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, causing abandonment and breach of trust with U.S. allies serving there, the Saudis also lost trust in the United States. That led to the Saudi decision to join the BRICS nations and trade oil in multiple currencies. This is one of the more visible omens of the end of theU.S. dollar hegemony and reserve currency status. Barring change, the dollar faces devaluation—making imports more expensive, causing domestic inflation and a diminished standard of living.
Just as trust between countries is the key to preserving alliances, trust is also the key to America’s domestic governance. Restoring trust between the government and the people requires ending and replacing corruption in government with honesty and truth. To achieve that, the American people need to be unwavering in their conviction to vote for law-and-order candidates at every level who are committed to the U.S. Constitution. That foundation came out of Christianity and its recognition than man’s sinful nature requires government to be structured with multiple and layered diffusion of power to check and mitigate corruption.
The Constitution’s First Amendment is the cornerstone that facilitates governance based on liberty and truth—protecting five critical unalienable freedoms:
Together, these five guaranteed freedoms are what made Americans the freest and most prosperous people in the world. This has defined the U.S. from the beginning and fueled the fastest growth in affluence in all human history. It turns out that freedom is what protects truth, trust, and relational integrity. Seems simple, so why are we in such bad shape?
It may be that just as God allowed the Babylonian captivity of the Israelites because of sin, idolatry and faithlessness, He is allowing us to pass through our darkest and most corrupt period of dishonest and deceitful rule to awaken and convict the American people to seize the day and commit to restoring truth and trust—the surefire path to recovery of prosperity and happiness.
Scott Powell is a member of the Committee on the Present Danger China and senior fellow at Discovery Institute. His timeless book, Rediscovering America, was a #1 Amazon new release in history for eight straight weeks.
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