Following WWII, the Greatest Generation came home to raise America to be the most productive and prosperous nation on earth. This happy state had its ups and downs (the Cold War, Vietnam, and the Gulf Wars come to mind) but this new Golden Age lasted until the advent of a new Dark Age with the election of Bill Clinton in 1992.

Recall, the tenures of President Ronald Reagan, Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, and President George H.W. Bush resulted in the end the Cold War on December 26, 1991. Earlier, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990. our military, rehabilitated after Vietnam by Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, destroyed the world’s fourth-largest army in only 100 hours of combat.

Doesn’t it seem strange that President George H.W. Bush, a highly decorated World War II naval aviator hero, a Cold War and Gulf War I leader, was denied reelection by an admitted pot smoker, known serial womanizer, Oxford dropout, and Vietnam draft dodger? Surely, George H.W. Bush did not lose reelection simply because he broke his campaign pledge to never raise taxes. Politicians routinely make that same pledge and then go on to raise taxes and be elected or reelected. No, it had to be something else to cause a seismic shift away from a distinguished Eastern Establish scion like George H.W. Bush to a Bubba from a relatively poor, rural, southern state.

Recall, the birth rate of the Baby Boom generation (1946-1964) caused an unprecedented upward spike in the number of young people. And History tells us young people are more than willing to test conventional norms and customs. Which they did in the Swinging Sixties when the availability of penicillin and the Pill dropped the traditional barriers to extra-marital sex.

The Boomers were mostly interested in trendy fashions, rock and roll music, getting high on marijuana, and avoiding any kind of public service that included any personal inconvenience; especially, military service. And thus, the stage was set for the likable Bill Clinton and his Saul Alinsky-devotee wife, Hillary.

Recall, during his eight years in the White House, Bill Clinton is notable for spending the “peace dividend.” — given to us by the blood of our troops — on social welfare programs, and notable for multiple sexual scandals and, more importantly, notable for Clinton’s repeated failures to kill or capture Osama bin Laden. Failures for which Americans are still paying in blood, and treasure, and still suffering under the President George W. Bush-enacted Patriot Act than empowered the FBI and the Intelligence Community to run roughshod over our civil liberties.

Then, President Obama took us deeper into a New Dark Age by his efforts to take America down a peg or two. Efforts continued via the Deep State through President Trump’s term and on with Obama’s control over Biden’s* first two years in office.

So, is there a forward way out of this New Dark Age? Yes, the victims of the first Dark Age (476 A.D. to 1000 A.D.), rediscovered the sage writings of the ancient Greeks and early Romans. Likewise, America must rediscover its founding documents and live by them. Not by the writings of Marx, Lenin, Mao, Alinsky, and Obama.

Suggested reading: A World Lit Only by Fire, by William Manchester, 1992.

©2023. William Hamilton. All rights reserved.