Unless drastic course corrections are made, the republic known as the United States of America will cease to exist in the near future. There might still be a country with that name; it might still have a red, white, and blue flag and a bald eagle for its symbol; and certainly politicians will pay lip service  to ideals like freedom. But living here will be an entirely different experience than what our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents enjoyed.

I offer the following parable as an analogy, to help get across the point I want to make:

Ike the Idealist learned about fighting in kindergarten.  Not only did he learn how to do it, he learned about how not to do it. Basically, he learned that the only honorable way to fight was by Marquis de Queensbury rules.  Kicking was cheating. Biting, scratching, and pulling hair were how girls did it, which was out-of-bounds. Eye-gouging was unheard of. And, of course, using a weapon was cowardly.

Through elementary, middle and high school, these rules were reinforced. Any time Ike had to fight, he did so honorably according to these mores. He considered any departure from this combat etiquette to be despicable.

Then one day, as an adult, Ike surprises some dirtbag in the process of stealing his car. Ike asks what’s going on, and the car thief replies by throwing his dent-puller, hitting Ike in the face, breaking his nose. Then the thief closes the distance between them. Ignoring Ike’s attempts at civilized discourse, he proceeds to beat Ike about the head. Eventually, Ike realizes that the thief can’t be reasoned with, and violence is in order. He assumes the classic pugilist’s pose and punches back.

The dirtbag knees him in the crotch, stomps on his foot, and pulls a knife. While Ike reels from the pain, and shock from such heinous disregard of the rules, the dirtbag stabs him repeatedly. Ike could have kicked the knife out of his hands, but kicking would violate his principles, so that was unthinkable. He peppers the dirtbag with jabs, hooks, and the occasional right cross.

The dirtbag tackles him and they both go down. Ike grabs the wrist of the hand gripping the knife, so he won’t be stabbed again. At one point that hand is right in front of his mouth, but Ike just can’t bring himself to violate his principles and bite it. Meanwhile, the dirtbag gouges out an eye with his thumb. Ike doesn’t know what to do, because grappling around like this is most undignified, and he just doesn’t want to engage in such distasteful behavior.

With sober, reasoned dialectic, he protests the dirtbag’s flagrant violation of Ike’s ideals.  The thief slips on a pair of brass knuckles with his free hand and, between those and his elbow, breaks Ike’s jaw and knocks him out. He drives away in the car with barely a minor bruise or two, leaving Ike bleeding out in the street, half blind, with multiple injuries. Most likely, Ike will die right where he lays.

But at least Ike the Idealist can take comfort in the fact that he never sank to the enemy’s level.

I started confronting this dilemma after the election of President Trump when he promised to use Executive Orders to undo some of Obama’s damage. The Executive Order has been abused, beginning in earnest with the Clinton Administration. Obama used it to the point that the USA became a de facto monarchy. All legislation is supposed to originate in the House of Representatives. That is part of the law that all elected officials swear to uphold and abide by. By principle, Trump should not use this dictatorial outflanking tactic to reverse Obama’s illegal actions against our country.

It’s the job of Congress to chop down these treasonous hedgerows. But of course Congress has proven repeatedly that it will not do its job. Make themselves rich at our expense? Yes.  Help unelected bureaucrats destroy our country while arranging golden parachutes for themselves? Yes. Do their job? You must be a crackpot for even asking.

That’s why I didn’t protest Trump’s use of Executive Orders to bypass the obstruction of the Deep State and plug some of the holes the last four Administrations drilled through the bottom of the boat.

In America of the current year, the full half of the glass is that the left’s stranglehold on the flow of information is slipping. Millions of people are aware of the globalist Deep State actively working to destroy the republic. They are aware of the utter corruption of the lapdog (“mainstream”) media, Hollywood, the music industry, etc. And a significant portion of those people are not happy about the betrayals and deception we’ve suffered for generations at the hands of those whores and traitors.

But instead of embracing the fundamentals that made our republic the most prosperous country in history, with unprecedented individual liberty, the wakening masses are instead seeking the answer by fetishizing “muh Westurn Civilizayshun,” and embracing identity politics. It’s truly disturbing how fast middle America seems to be becoming as race-obsessed as the minority subcultures have been since the 1960s.

If our public servants in government would just do what we pay them for, most of our problems would rapidly fade. But, as a rule, they’re not going to do anything that will  slow our descent into a 3rd world police state. We’ve let a ruling class take power who see us as their subjects, and will break or ignore the laws they swore to uphold in the maniacal quest to accumulate more wealth, control, and power for themselves.  They’ve infiltrated both parties and turned them into enemies of our freedom. We can’t vote them out because there are so few true alternatives, and there are so many people voting who approve of what they’re doing. Just a few more years of unchecked immigration, and the America-hating Marxists will have every election sewn up for however long elections are still held here. Evidently, even President Trump doesn’t have the guts to stop the invasion and send enough invaders back home to keep this from happening. If the wall ever does get built, it will be too little, too late.

They’re stealing our car. They’ve backstabbed us multiple times and gouged out our eye.  And mainstream “conservatives” (whatever that means) are fighting back by drafting statements of support for the police and military. Wow–congratulations. That might have been a courageous stance to take during Vietnam (half a century ago).

If the people would rise up against the traitors and put them out of office, by whatever means necessary, it’s possible we could clean house, drain the swamp, and restore some of what we’ve lost. But that’s not going to happen, either. The government schools have done their job in spreading ignorance. And where ignorance runs out, apathy takes over.

That’s not to say civil war (or revolution, depending on how sloppy your semantics are) isn’t coming, because it is. But a significant component of the bloodshed to come will be racially motivated. Race will be the idol of every side. Preserving or restoring a representative government designed to protect individual rights will not be a priority for anyone with a voice loud enough to be heard. Look around–it’s already not. Attempts to educate simply inspire mockery from the bovine, low-IQ lemmings who surround us.

When the war comes, there is no fence you can safely sit on. We’ll have to pick sides. You can bet that I, for one, will not align with the Globo-Homo Hive Mind. But who does that leave me for allies? Generally, guys who have forgotten how to perceive anything beyond “muh Magic DNA.”

It shouldn’t be this way. It didn’t have to be this way. But it is.

Neither me, nor any other American idealist, can shout loud enough to derail this suicidal zeitgeist. So what do we do?

Some people believe the Income Tax is unconstitutional (hence illegal). Most of them pay it anyway. Some of us recognize random roadside “papers, please” checkpoints by law enforcement to be a violation of our rights (rights that law enforcement officers swear an oath to protect). But if you need to keep your job, don’t want to go to jail and be railroaded by the weaponized “justice” system, you grit your teeth and play the game.

Increasingly, I have to swallow ideals simply to provide for my family and retain what personal freedom I still have. Does that make me a hypocrite, or merely a pragmatist? Inside, I still cherish my ideals, and lament their abandonment. But who cares?

Nobody who matters. (Or, at least, not enough people who matter.)

When it comes to swallowing ideals, I suspect we ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

I don’t want to associate with folks who blame Jews for everything wrong in the world, or value skin color over content of character. But what choice do I have in the conflict taking shape around us? Demographic groupings which are already consumed by identity politics, and already consider me their enemy–that’s who. Demographic groupings which are 80-95% sold out to anti-American causes (and BTW: what choices do the 5-20% outliers of those demographics have, in the brewing conflict?). Demographic hive minds which only care about what they believe will advance their collective interests. Their “radicals” are already demonstrating their willingness to rape and murder. Their “moderates” have no problem cheating  and stealing. Their “liberals” are already in the habit of lying to advance the agenda they think will shepherd them to Utopia.

That’s how it stands now. How much worse will it be when bullets are flying and they face the threat of starvation or true oppression?

How important will my ideals seem when my choice is to be shot on sight by that side, or perhaps survive another day by holding the line with the side that shoots them on sight?

No, it’s not that bad.

Yet.

But we’re fast running out of options for a peaceful solution.

If I was a Five-Star Admiral in World War II, there’s a good chance I would be bent out of shape about all the losses suffered at Pearl Harbor. But as much as I wished I still had those ships and sailors, I would have to accept reality. And my strategic planning would have to reflect that reality. The debacle at Pearl Harbor could have been avoided in a dozen different ways. But it wasn’t. And lamenting it would not restore my Pacific Fleet to what it was before.

That’s where American idealists are right now. We’ll have to set our course according to the reality we face, and not dwell on what we’ve lost and how avoidable it was, if only _________ or __________ or __________. Frankly, I don’t know how successful I’ll be at this from day to day.