In these days that in many ways are similar to the years of decadence and blindness foreshadowing the two great wars of the past century, our attentions are focused mainly on internal dangers to the republic. As they gather strength from victory to victory, we are witness to a geometrically accelerating descent of culture, the enthusiastic burial of tradition, an educational system enchained in political cant and sexual claptrap, and a constant tide of attacks upon religion, constitutionalism, individual responsibility and initiative, the free market, and American nationhood itself. The chaos of this sparking decay is reminiscent of what one can see when flying at night over widespread thunderstorms. Distant lightning strikes scattered in the darkness are like fireflies on a June lawn: As soon they light, they disappear as others flash elsewhere. Because each is destructive, disorienting, and part of the same storm, it is impossible to prioritize them.
By the same token, one cannot have a strong defense without a strong economy, which cannot exist for long without the disinterested rule of law, which in this country cannot exist absent constitutionalism, which cannot exist without decent education, which cannot exist in a putrefying culture — this order being by no means a hierarchy but only one thread in a web of interdependency that heretofore has provided Americans, if unevenly, with safety, prosperity, dignity, and purpose. All are necessary and none alone is sufficient.
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