By Col. Bill Connor ——Bio and Archives--October 7, 2024
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During my lifetime, the great downturn I’ve seen in America has been the collapsing national unity. During the 1960s and early 1970s, America suffered divisions but wasn’t divided like it is now. The year I was born, 1968, saw race riots after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and turmoil over the “Tet offensive” in Vietnam (leading to President Lyndon Johnson deciding not to seek reelection).
After we left Vietnam, and much racial division subsided, the country reeled again. Gas prices skyrocketed while “stagflation” strangled the economy. Iran took 50 Americans hostage for over a year, while simultaneously the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Ronald Reagan was sworn in as President in 1981 and, despite being vilified by the left, he sought to bring down the Soviet Union and it appeared to many nuclear war was coming. Despite all these tough challenges, the nation remained unified compared with now. Families weren’t breaking apart over politics as now. The Democratic Party didn’t vilify political opponents (and even supporters of opponents) as dangerous threats to Democracy. Though America faced an existential threat in communism, it wasn’t in danger of falling apart in disunity. Now it is.........