Boiling frog nation

www.americanthinker.com

I almost feel sorry for leftists. Almost. But I don’t. The reason is simple: so much of what they say and do runs counter to the core principles on which this country was founded.

Over the years, I’ve challenged dozens of left-leaning friends and acquaintances to name the top ten things the political left has done in the last quarter-century to make America safer, stronger, more prosperous, or more united. I have yet to receive a substantive answer. One person offered a list that included ObamaCare and the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA). A quick review shows that, like many Democratic initiatives, these created more problems than they solved.

What makes me almost pity the left is that most leftists I know personally are decent, pleasant people -- so long as the conversation stays light: weather, movies, or sports. Venture into politics or culture, however, and the discussion turns surreal, like chatting with the Mad Hatter.

These individuals consider themselves well-informed. They read the daily papers, watch network news, and never miss 60 Minutes. They speak of Rachel Maddow as if she were a close friend and dismiss Fox News out of hand. Yet they’ve never heard of journalists like John Solomon nor outlets like the Epoch Times. It rarely occurs to them to seek out differing perspectives. “Garbage in, garbage out,” as the old saying goes.

Søren Kierkegaard observed that there are two ways to err: to believe what is not true, and to refuse to believe what is true. Leftists frequently demonstrate both. They linger on stories long after those stories have been debunked, while major developments that threaten our country and culture receive little or no attention.

Consider a recent example. Legacy media devoted intense coverage to algae growing in the reflecting pool on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. One might think it was a national emergency. The reporting largely blamed the new blue liner and warm, shallow water. What it downplayed were the reports of vandalism that damaged the recently restored pool in the first place.

Meanwhile, far more consequential stories are ignored. Tulsi Gabbard’s declassification of documents credibly alleging that Anthony Fauci’s agency helped fund the Wuhan lab, misled Congress about COVID-19’s origins, and overstated the effectiveness of vaccines, masks, lockdowns, and social distancing drew almost no mainstream coverage.

Conservatives have repeatedly labeled certain events “the scandal of our time,” only to watch legacy media minimize, distort, or bury them. The list is long: Benghazi, the Skolkovo technology transfer, Hillary Clinton’s emails, ObamaCare’s structural failures, the Russia collusion narrative, the surge of illegal immigration under Biden-Harris-Mayorkas policies, the murders of American citizens by illegal immigrants, the trafficking of hundreds of thousands of children, the rise of Islamism and socialism in American institutions, routine urban violence, questionable election irregularities, politically motivated prosecutions, and repeated calls for violence that have contributed to an emerging assassination culture.

These stories surface in conservative outlets, receive brief attention, then fade as the next crisis erupts. The public’s attention is constantly reset.

The kettle is simmering. The frog is growing restless. In much of Western Europe and the United Kingdom, citizens have watched their cultural foundations erode with little effective resistance. America still has time to choose a different path.

True justice demands accountability. When the guilty face no consequences and the innocent continue to suffer, trust in institutions collapses. A nation cannot endure indefinitely if a large portion of its citizens -- perhaps a third to half -- work actively against its founding ideals.

The solution is not despair, but renewed commitment: to demand transparency, support independent journalism, engage in civil debate, and vote for leaders who uphold the Constitution and the rule of law. Only by insisting on truth over narrative can we repair what has been damaged and secure a stronger future for the next generation.