Brett Stevens, American Renaissance, July 10, 2014

Across America there are signs of discontent. There is growing dissatisfaction with the path America has taken since the end of the Second World War.

We used to console ourselves with the belief that Americans live better, freer lives than anyone else. And yet, a recent poll finds that the number of Americans who think they enjoy real freedom is declining. In 2006, 91 percent thought they had enough freedom to decide what to do with their lives; by 2013 that figure had dropped to 79 percent.

In 2006, Americans considered themselves freer than just about anyone else. Now they are outranked by 35 countries–including Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates–whose people are more likely than Americans to say they are satisfied with how much freedom they have.

According to USA Today, it takes an income of $130,000 a year for a family of four to live what could be called “the American dream”–except that only one in eight households make that much. It’s no wonder 52 percent of Americans think the next generation will be worse off than their own, and only 21 percent think it will be better off (the rest expect it to be about the same).

Trust in Congress is at a record low. In 1973, 42 percent of Americans trusted it “a great deal” or “quite a lot.” Today only 10 percent do.

Gallup finds that 79 percent of Americans think government corruption is widespread–this is up 20 percentage points since 2006. In 2009 a senior FBI agent even warned that corruption is the number one criminal threat to the country.

Our media are also corrupt. Only 7.1 percent of journalists report that they are Republicans, down from 25.7 percent in 1971. The media routinely slant the news, especially when it comes to race.

Third-world immigration lowers wages for natives, which makes them more compliant. “Diversity” means social chaos, which gives government another excuse to increase police powers and further control our lives.

Americans are angrier than ever, but it is dangerous to criticize the direction our society has taken lest it be seen as a critique of equality and diversity. Instead, Americans retreat into distraction. A recent study found that most men would rather give themselves electric shocks than sit alone with their own thoughts.

One of any regime’s greatest fears is dissent. If dissent is public, people see that the State does not control everyone. As more dissenters speak out, even the strongest regimes, such as that of the Soviet Union, collapse because people stop believing the lies that control them. Any act of defiance harms the regime.

A lone protester facing down a column of tanks shook the Chinese Communist government. When Mathias Rust landed his small plane in Red Square in 1987, it showed that the Soviet Union was not all-powerful.

We are approaching such a moment in America. Protests against illegal immigration continue in Murrieta, California. The protesters are ordinary people, not “activists.” They do not have the backing of non-profit organizations or political action committees. They have simply decided to show up and defy their government. Just as it did in the face of protesters at the Bundy Ranch, the government backs down when citizens stand up against it.

Our government has become so ideologically rigid and power hungry that open acts of civil disobedience could bring it down and liberate the American people once again. For decades we have been mentally controlled by an ideology that says diversity is right and those who oppose it are bad. We have given total control to this lie, but as the lie begins to kill us, people are fighting back with civil disobedience.

If we want to save our country before it descends into Third-World corruption and tyranny, we must act now. Raised voices that deny the regime’s legitimacy also deny its ideology. With the loss of its ideology, it crumbles. We are past the point of compromise and bipartisanship. We must retake our country before the lie destroys us.