By DEACON MIKE MANNO
I was a lucky kid. I grew up in a middle class suburb of Des Moines with two great parents; one of whom was a stay-at-home mother. I was sent to St. Theresa Catholic School and Church where I learned the traditional values of the day. It was the ’50s and life was unicorns and cotton candy.
Later, of course, we began to realize that life was not all sugar plums and fairies, that it had some rough edges that we all must deal with, but on the whole life was still good. We lived in the greatest country in the world and we were free to pursue our own dreams and goals and could take on life on our own terms.
For many in my circle of tiny kid friends our first communal disappointment came when we found out that Santa Claus was not real – okay, there was a saint but that’s not who we are really talking about. For some that was a shattering experience; some cried, most were troubled, and some even saw through the charade and only played along to appease their parents. But it was the beginning of learning that things were not always as we had thought or been told or expected.
There were other shocking revelations that came later, all part of growing and maturing, but the early trauma of losing Santa was the opening round in accepting reality over fairy dust.
That feeling came to mind the other day while I was getting ready for a meeting at church as the news broke that the FBI had raided Mar-a-Lago, the home of former President Donald Trump. Back in the day our friends started whispering about the reality of Santa with stories from their older siblings, debunking the myth until we were all forced to admit the truth. The myth had faded.
For me, experiencing the FBI raid means that the time has come to admit the new and horrible truth: Our nation was slowly being sold out and the ideal nation we had believed was now turning into a façade.
Our Santa Claus existence was over and this might not be the great nation in which we had believed. And it became clear that our partisan divide has become so deep and toxic that one side had become obsessed with tearing it down and starting down another path. A horrible path, devoid of any trace of the American idealism that we had come to know.
Our civic engagement was changing, too. One side, propelled by an ideology opposed to our history and culture emerged, wrapping itself in the popular slogans of our history as it denied the same. No longer simply disagreeing with the other side was possible for it was not to be trusted as it was populated by people it despised (basket of deplorables, remember). So much so that the disagreement has turned into hate and, unfortunately, some have tried to use party loyalty to drag their uninformed followers along with them. And along with the hate they have come to the conclusion that those who disagree should be considered enemies who must be completely silenced or eliminated.
The pattern has been building over time, gradually much like our knowledge of the non-reality of Santa Claus, and like that childhood memory it had been resisted at first before finally bowing to reality. And now it is clear for all to see — all, that is, for all who wish to see.
We are now entering into a police state where the polestar is retaining power and control by any means necessary. What we saw happen to the former president can now happen to anyone who runs afoul of our civic overlords who are willing to use the federal police agencies to enforce conformity regardless of what we have considered the “rule of law.”
You can see how easily the lingering “deep state” was used to try to destroy Donald Trump — not just his policies, but him personally. Not only does it try to destroy its enemies, it supports and covers for its friends; think Hillary Clinton, and Hunter Biden, both, as well as several other notable progressive operatives, were protected. Yet Mr. Trump and those associated with him have been attacked, arrested, charged with flimsy crimes in order to get at the man; think Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and perhaps the most egregious of all, Gen. Michael Flynn.
While Mr. Trump’s aides and attorneys had their homes raided, much like Mar-a-Lago, and sometimes hauled away in shackles, the others were given passes. Why? It is because the powers to-be see Mr. Trump and his policies as a challenge to the power grab being foisted on us by the government. They simply stand to lose control.
And if the conduct of the FBI isn’t bad enough, the party in power has just authorized the hiring of 87,000 new IRS agents, too large a number to investigate only the wealthy. At whom do you suppose they will be aimed? And they will be sent to work with the agencies’ arsenal: 3,283 pistols, 621 shotguns, 539 rifles, 15 fully automatic rifles, four revolvers, and over five million rounds of ammunition. Now what do you think the newly constituted IRS – which by numbers will more than rival all other law enforcement agencies – needs with that kind of firepower?
Perhaps some of that will be used to confront wayward parents, the newly defined domestic terrorists, who insist on taking part in their kids’ education with ideas that challenge the new political orthodoxy. You don’t think so? Think again, it is happening with FBI intimidation right now. Don’t dare demand that your 14-year-old daughter not be allowed to shower with the boys after gym class, the Biden administration is already drafting rules to require that.
Our military has already been infected with this ideology – Critical Race Theory, transgenderism, and agnosticism – while our leading celebrities and athletes parrot the same mantra to their adoring masses of intellectually void puppets. Now we are watching the fulfillment of years of preparation by the new anti-American myth busters who have managed to capture the levers of government and turned it against us.
Now instead of an iconic myth we see our republic being torched from within. We have a new Amerika where our Founding Fathers’ words have been reduced to empty platitudes and where the ideals of America, faith, freedom, and family are being thrown from their moorings.
But it is still not too late to stop this total corruption of our land. It will take a lot of prayer and patience as well as political action and voting. Otherwise we might be witnessing our freedoms evaporating, a myth that once rivaled Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.
God save the United States of America!
(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every Thursday morning at 9:30 CT on Faith On Trial at Iowa Catholic Radio.com.)
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