Kerby Anderson

This last year has been a challenge for our society. But now we can add to those challenges the political challenges that have come against our nation in the last few months. Victor Davis Hanson wonders, “How Much Ruin Do We Have Left?”

The president and Congress are challenging the constitutional order and centuries of custom and tradition. Hanson reminds us that: “A nation’s institutions are its bedrock. Yet, the Electoral College and the Constitution’s emphasis on individual states establishing voting laws are under assault.”

“Already gone is the 176-year-old tradition of a pivotal November Election Day. The 152-year-old nine-member Supreme Court, the 184-year-old Senate filibuster, and the 62-year-old idea of a 50-state union are all being targeted by the New Democratic Party.”

Rewriting the election laws of every state, adding four additional members to the Supreme Court, ending the Senate filibuster, and turning the District of Columbia into a separate state seemed unlikely even a year ago. The political class seems ready to move forward on every one of these issues and much more.

Economic challenges lie ahead because the national debt has now surpassed $28 trillion. After military campaigns in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, our military seems more focused on the sort of people serving in the military. “Some of the politicized top brass seem more worried about the politics of their own soldiers than the dangers of foreign militaries.” And let’s not forget that our nation is being pulled apart by protests, riots, and daily claims of systemic racism.

America is on the brink, and I wonder whether the nation can stand much more.