It is unsettling and sad to witness what is happening in our great country today.

Never in my lifetime—and I’m older than Methuselah in dog years—have I ever witnessed such a sprint to socialism by an occupant of the White House.

What bothers me about Joe Biden’s distressing embrace of socialism is how compliant the left is in its capitulation to an ideology and form of government that has failed in every nation it has been instituted.  Just as disconcerting is Biden’s submission to identity politics rather than the rational and intelligent liberal ideology that once defined the Democrat party.

When I was young, what attracted me to the Democrat party was its issue-oriented, logical approach to dealing with the nation’s social and economic problems. I can still remember a time when voting for a Democrat didn’t mean you were embracing socialism and, by definition, extreme loathing and disgust for anybody who was not a Democrat.

Sadly, those days are gone, given the Democrat party’s apparent embrace of socialism and identity politics.

What do I mean by identity politics?

It means that each of us belongs to a sub-group defined by race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc. For example, let’s look at the behavior of the Democrat Party in the last couple of Presidential elections. Instead of focusing on broad issues such as jobs and income growth, Democrats catered to members of different sub-groups, promising to give them power.

Did Hillary Clinton offer the middle class an agenda for which they could vote? No, she catered to sub-groups hoping that they would coalesce enough to send her to victory. It didn’t work.

Unfortunately, Joe Biden is continuing that strategy. In just about every speech he gives, he refers to America’s “systemic racism,” white supremacists, and “domestic terrorism” (code for conservatives who support the policies of Donald Trump). He promised to “reunite” the nation and bring people together. Instead, he drives a wedge deeper and deeper into the American psyche, pushing people further apart into their separate and segregated communities.

In essence, what Joe Biden and the Democrats apparently want is to divide us into competing tribes, each with its own agenda, its own set of grievances, and its own view of what America should look like.

The problem with that is this: if one or two tribes win, then the others lose. The result is a country that is tearing itself apart, ripping away the very fabric of our nation, and destroying the exceptional idea that makes America unique in world history.

Look at what it says on the nation’s Great Seal: “E Pluribus Unum”—Out of Many, One.”

Think about what that means. Out of many peoples, races, religions, languages, and ancestries has emerged a single people and nation.

We used to talk about America being the great melting pot—a fusion of different cultures, ethnicities, and nationalities.

That is no longer politically correct. Today we are taught there is no need to assimilate, to “become an American.” Instead, we each have our own identity: African-American, Mexican-American, Transgender, LGBTQ, Muslim, Evangelical, Jew, Democrat, Republican, etc.

This is neo-tribalism, in which we are identified by what sub-group or tribe to which we belong. We are no longer “Americans.” We are something else, something I no longer recognize.

Many on the left, especially leaders in racially minority communities, talk about the “browning of America” as though it is some holy crusade. The traditional white majority will be relegated to minority status. When that happens, it will be “payback” time for whatever sins and transgressions–real or perceived–that were committed by the nation’s white majorities of the past. If that is indeed the goal of minority gurus and kingpins, we are headed down a dark and dangerous path of disunity, division, and perhaps even violence.

It means instead of thinking about the whole and the many, we will think about ourselves and what sub-group we belong to first and the country last, if at all.

It means that instead of allowing reasonable debate about issues, those who belong to a sub-group JUST WANT TO WIN. Debate is no longer a means to a solution. In their minds, violence, rioting, burning, destroying property, shouting down those who disagree with them, and ignoring freedom of speech is the new modus operandi.

Concepts that we were once taught to respect and cherish, such as freedom of speech, the rule of law, the nuclear family, patriotism, adherence to religion, and belief in God, are under dangerous assault by a profane and secular left.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson has said it very well:

“At the outset, we were fortunate to have a group of people write essential documents that gave us a good deal to think about.  And I think that a lot of the higher quality of American discourse, when it has been high, is out of respect for the fact that these are valuable things that impose respect for people of other views.

“And, at this point, things have deteriorated to the point that it is morally wrong to have an attitude of presumptive respect toward someone you disagree with. That’s just bizarre, and it’s obviously not a formula for civilized society.”

I am saddened when I hear those on the left say that our Constitution is no longer germane, that our traditions are not noble, that our Bill of Rights is irrelevant, and that we do not live in an exceptional country.

I remember listening to what President John F. Kennedy said during his 1961 inauguration speech. It still resonates with me today. (I saw that speech on TV, and I would have voted for Kennedy were I old enough to vote back then).

“My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

I took those words to heart. I joined the U.S. Army and served four years gathering intelligence for the National Security Agency. Others joined Kennedy’s Peace Corps and went to third-world countries to help people produce clean water, build decent housing, and eliminate illiteracy.

I am proud of my service to this country. I hate seeing it ripped apart today by self-centered politicians, race hustlers, Marxists, socialists, and others who put their political dogmata and themselves before the country, who feel it is acceptable to use a deadly global pandemic to score political points, and who want to use any means possible to cancel and destroy those with whom they disagree.

That is exactly what we saw in 2020 when Democrats howled for Donald Trump’s political lynching—which is what impeachment is.

I hear some political operatives talking about doing the same thing to Joe Biden should Republicans gain control of the House in 2022–and maybe the Senate.

As much as I would love to see Joe Biden shuffle off into obscure retirement in one of his multi-million-dollar homes before he turns the country I love and served into a socialist sewer, the proper way to remove a president from office is with the ballot, not by decree, violence, or a political coup d’état.

Most of all, I hope that the malevolent ogres seeking to divide and control us are exposed for the America-haters they are and are forced to slink back to the grubby lairs from whence they crawled.