Freelance Comment Of The Week: If Dwight Eisenhower Could See Us Now…

Speculating about what George Washington, were he alive today, would think of what his nation had become, commenter Sgt. Joe Friday over at Ethnocentrist of the Blogosphere writes,

George Washington? Hell, imagine Dwight Eisenhower surveying the scene only 53 years after he left office:

Then: Operation Wetback.
Now: Repeated amnesties for illegal Mexican border-jumpers.

Then: The Gemini project, first manned spaceflight.
Now: Paying the Russians to put our stuff into orbit.

Then: Single motherhood strongly stigmatized, low rate of illegitimacy.
Now: Single mother a sort of secular saint, high rate of illegitimacy and climbing.

Then: Blue collar manufacturing jobs plentiful and well paid.
Now: Manufacturing jobs shrinking.

Then: Homosexuality considered abnormal.
Now: “You’re a homophobe.”

Then: Immigrants expected to make an effort to assimilate, learn English.
Now: “You’re a racist and a xenophobe.”

Then: Own a small business and you’re a respected member of the community.
Now: “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that! Somebody else made that happen!”

Then: Traditional gender roles the norm, most believe men and women have different, biologically hard-wired natures.
Now: Women can do anything men can do, and do it more capably.

Then: High levels of trust between unrelated strangers, low rate of crime.
Now: Declining levels of trust more common, crime rate brought down through a combination of fudging the statistics, high rates of incarceration, and the rise of a “surveillance society.”

Then: Being in need of government assistance a source of embarrassment and shame.
Now: Gimmedat.

Then: Virginity or at least a minimal number of sex partners the ideal for women. Low threshold for being considered “damaged goods.”
Now: Promiscuity is praiseworthy; the idea of “damaged goods” is antiquated and misogynistic.

You get the idea.