Speaking before the American people in his 2002 State of the Union address — which was his first following the 9/11 terrorist attacks — President George W. Bush shared his strategy for how the American government would respond to the new threat to liberty created on that tragic day. In his speech, he identified three primary sources to this threat: North Korea, Iraq, and Iran. And he labeled these governments an “axis of evil.”
“Our second goal is to prevent regimes that sponsor terror from threatening America or our friends and allies with weapons of mass destruction.
“Some of these regimes have been pretty quiet since September 11, but we know their true nature. North Korea is a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while starving its citizens.
“Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people’s hope for freedom.
“Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax and nerve gas and nuclear weapons for over a decade.
“States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil . . .”
In the face of this very real threat, America responded to Bush’s call “to prevent regimes that sponsor terror from threatening America or our friends and allies with weapons of mass destruction” — although, liberty also died in many ways that day.
Sadly, as the passing of time leads us to forget that terrible day, the resolve to defeat the axis of evil is waning, and the threat to freedom is returning with a vengeance from these same nations. As we come ever closer to history repeating itself, the words of Winston Churchill during the time leading up to World War II ring true:
“When the situation was manageable it was neglected, and now that it is thoroughly out of hand, we apply too late the remedies which then might have effected a cure. There is nothing new in the story. It is as old as the sibylline books. It falls into that long, dismal catalogue of the fruitlessness of experience and the confirmed unteachability of mankind. Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong—these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.” (Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 2 May 1935 – Emphasis mine)
As real as the foreign threat to our God-given liberty and freedom is — although Joe Biden thinks white Americans are a greater threat — there is another danger facing us that’s just as insidious but even more devious. It has been at work for over a century and has intensified over recent decades, yet it has gone mostly undetected until recently, primarily because it has been at work from within the system.
It is our very own government.
Like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, this new axis of evil has been stealthily at work within the three branches of American government — Executive, Legislative, and Judicial — to bring us the greatest threat to liberty and our existence in American history.
Thomas Jefferson declared in the Declaration of Independence that every American is “endowed by their Creator” with the inalienable rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” But in piecemeal fashion, government has been an axis of evil working to destroy this constitutionally guaranteed truth.
From the American Revolution to wars in the Middle East; from Communism to Radical Islam; from the federal government to state government; the three branches of American government created by the Founders to protect and preserve liberty and freedom has been working from within to destroy liberty and our God-given rights.
Like any terrorist organization, there are factions or groups working within the new axis of evil: we call them Republicans and Democrats.
There’s simply no difference between the two parties any longer. Republicans have have become the party of Nationalism, which is warmed-over Democratic Socialism with an “R” attached to it, to advance a plethora of pro-socialist/anti-Constitution ideals. And the duopoly turned the last two presidential elections into a “lesser-of-two-evils” exercise of choosing between Dem and Dem-er in 2016 and Tomayto/Tomahto in 2020.
Other factions operating within the new axis of evil are state and local government. The destruction of liberty at the hands of these bit players reached its zenith over the past year when, in the name of “safety,” governors, mayors, and state and local bureaucrats issued their dictatorial edicts in response to coronavirus hysteria.
And let’s not leave out the judiciary. From the local magistrate to the Supreme Court, these black-robed tyrants have single-handedly destroyed liberty via their judicial activism. And when the judiciary looks to be going in a contrary direction, the other two branches in the new axis of evil look for ways to stack the deck to ensure the liberty-killing outcome they seek.
Let there be no doubt: the new axis of evil has destroyed the America we once knew, and our God-given liberty has been changed forever. We see it in Washington’s repeated attempts to expand programs to make it easier for government to spy on us. We see it in the barrage of attacks on the Bill of Rights. We see it in the explosion of socialism.
The new axis of evil reminds me of one of the stories of Jesus. When he was preparing his disciples for ministry, he warned them that preaching the Truth would be so controversial and unwelcome that “a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household” (Matt 10:36).
Why would Jesus make such a statement? He wanted his followers to know the true order of things. In this life, there will be those who hate truth and love lies so much that even members of their own family will hate them for loving truth and rejecting lies, so much so that they will become enemies to their cause.
Our government hates the truth that God is the source of liberty, and it loves the lie that government has the power to determine what liberty looks like. As a result, government has become our “enemy” from within, figuratively speaking, destroying liberty as a result.
Or to put it another way, our government is the new axis of evil.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable and promotes conservative principles over political parties.
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