When the Founding Fathers began the process of escaping the tyranny of the British Government in 1776, they wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence, which included these words:

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 these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Today, these core principles are under an assault so intense that America as we know it might soon be on the brink of disappearing.

Public education has played an outsized role in bringing our country to this point of crisis.  Over the last 30 years or so, American history has been largely taught in our public schools from the viewpoint of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.  Zinn's writing focuses on telling anecdotes of various people groups who were negatively disadvantaged as the United States grew in size and influence.  Zinn pays little attention to any larger historical context, with the result being generations of young adults who do not understand how unique and special are the founding principles of our Republic.  Ignorant of American history and predisposed to be guided more by emotions than logic, folks under the age of 40 tend to see America as racist, misogynistic and exploitative.

Public education no longer creates graduates who can think for themselves.  Students do not study great literature, and great thinkers are ignored as well.  Examination of fundamental historical milestones like the Magna Carta, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and nearly all of Western History has vanished from America's classrooms.  This suppression of history is so pervasive that rare is the student who understands that some structures of government and commerce will produce far better outcomes for the average citizen than others.  No wonder most young adults seem unwilling or unable to recognize today's versions of Cuba and Venezuela for the hellholes they are.

Over the past several presidential elections, roughly half the voters voted for the Democratic nominee.  Since most of the leadership of the Democratic Party is actively opposed to the principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence, it is unsurprising that our country is in turmoil, with seemingly little left in the way of a shared middle ground.  To further understand this momentous crisis in America, taking a brief look at some of the concepts contained in the Declaration will provide some valuable insights.

The second paragraph of the Declaration begins with "we hold these truths."  Well, "we" has fallen out of favor today because it is one's minority identity that is crucial to the radical left, which includes the Democrats and most of the media and education complex.  The left's wholesale adoption of identity politics requires that emphasis be placed on our differences instead of what we have in common.  "We hold these truths to be self-evident" is a discarded principle because truth is no longer a widely believed set of agreed upon facts.  Postmodernism has decreed that all truth is relative, so your truth may be very different from my truth.  Continuing our analysis, the concept that "all men are created equal" is the principle that brings us to the heart of America's crisis.  We are told by the leftists that we are no longer allowed to say, or think, or, heaven forbid, work together toward a society where all lives matter equally.  "Created" is a vile concept to the left, because it brings God into the conversation, a direct challenge to the left's cherished ideal that political power is the most important force in the universe.  The left insists that God be completely removed from public life.  If God is allowed to remain visible in American society, the left realizes that what will also endure and remain viable are the God-given "right[s] to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Unsurprisingly, the left's attempts to remove these God-given rights from American life are fueled by some of the major donors to the Democrats.  For example, Planned Parenthood, which is dedicated to the removal of "created lives," donated nearly 25 million dollars to the 2016 presidential campaign, nearly all going to Democrats.  The teachers' unions, which gave approximately 30 million dollars to the Dems in 2016, are the people responsible for removing the teaching of nearly all U.S. history from public schools over the last 40 years.  Students are never taught to understand the great principles of freedom, honor, patriotism, and courage that our Armed Forces members defended with their lives on the battlefields of the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and WWI and WWII.  Consequently, we are beginning to see that liberty can indeed die in the darkness of forced ignorance.

The pursuit of happiness stands opposed to the left's ideal that the individual should be wholly dependent on the government, which the left believes is to dictate how an individual is to live.  This dependence on the government is fostered by the public schools, especially in the Democratic-run inner cities, which fail to equip young people with what used to be basic math and reading skills.  And if that wasn't enough, our public school educators have recently been active in normalizing all kinds of well outside of the mainstream sexual lifestyles, targeting young and defenseless children.  This is a subversive attack designed to cripple the American family's role in passing along a legacy that teaches children that in America they have the right to choose their own life, to follow their own dreams, however lofty they may be.

Instead of lofty dreams, the left relies upon political correctness and cancel culture to force complete adherence to its radical vision for America.  Leftists' drift toward totalitarianism has recently accelerated, evidenced by the grossly overextended lockdowns occurring almost exclusively in cities and states run by Democrats for generations.

Obviously, the left is not going to suddenly change and start to provide opportunities for Americans to pursue life, liberty, and happiness in the way they would choose for themselves.  We are at an impasse.

So how can America heal and go forward from here?

The answer, I believe, was shared at the Republican National Convention Wednesday evening by Jack Brewer, self-described as a lifelong Democrat, who quoted 2 Chronicles 7, verse 14:

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

For some of us, maybe a healed land seems to be too much for America to even hope for, so let me encourage you with a quote found in Matthew 19, verse 26:

With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

Image: Jeff Turner via Flickr.