“Those who say the blood of uh, the, thee, the blood of patriots, you know, and all the stuff about how we’re gonna have to move against the government. Well, the tree of liberty is not watering a blood of patriots, what’s happens is, that there never been, if you wanted to think you need to have weapons to take on the government, you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons.” — Joe Biden, mangling Thomas Jefferson’s quote while threatening nuclear civil war, 6/23/21

“On the issue of Critical Race Theory … I do think it’s important, actually, for those of us in uniform, to … understand white rage, and I’m white, and I want to understand it. So what is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building [on January 6]… What caused that?” — Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, supporting Marxist indoctrination in the U.S. military, 6/23/21

To what depths has America’s leadership fallen in less than 250 years — from George Washington, General and President, Father of our Country: first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen. Now we have Biden and Milley, a President and General who are first in war against the Constitution, first in defunding the peace, and first in calling the hearts of their countrymen racist.

It is symptomatic of the danger we’re in. We are in the fight of our lives, a fight for our storied nation’s continued survival as founded. Those of us who love America recognize she is under heavy bombardment. The institutions and traditions that have made our country great are under lethal assault. They are being dismantled. The cultural guardrails are crumbling.

The arts, the sciences, the academy, entertainment, the government agencies, federal, state, local bureaucracies, corporations, the financial sector, many churches, and yes, the military — long bastions of stability in the United States — have been deeply infected with creeping socialism. The law, journalism, sports, nearly every private enterprise, have all gone woke and anti-American. Traditional morality, family values, basic statements of fundamental reality like “there are two sexes,” are all called hate. Reason, logic, evidence, the notion of discoverable truth, are all seen as marks of “privilege” or “supremacy” or the intersectionality of badness. Elected officials and the entire apparatus of government are corrupt, and reckless, and shallow, and ignorant — totally unmoored from our foundational greatness.

Have we reached the point, as Ronald Reagan warned, that “If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under”? Are we going under? Truly, it seems, things are falling apart, the center is not holding, anarchy is unleashed. Anyone who sees the state of American society that way is not wrong.

But here’s the rub. This isn’t new. The forces against liberty are always attacking, always provoking, always bent on our destruction. It is out of this very battle that we were born as a republic.

Why do you suppose the Founders’ language was literally steeped in war — not just militant rhetoric, but a lived experience infused with the fight to the death for freedom? Why are our revolutionary founding documents seasoned with the suffering and sacrifice of patriots? Why do you suppose our national anthem credits “bombs bursting in air” as giving proof to show the flag as it truly is, miraculously still there? Why do you suppose our national celebration every July 4 echoes a night sky at war?

In July 1776, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail: “I am apt to believe that it [Independence Day] will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

And so it has been done — and will be done even more so this year, as we renew our determination to party like it’s 1776, after more than a year of abusive political lockdowns. (Which must never be permitted to happen again.)

But Adams didn’t end there. The quintessential American Independence Day “games-sports-guns-bonfires-and-illuminations” we now enjoy as an annual summer night’s outing came via enormous pain. As he put it: “I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will triumph.”

And there, once again, is the stark battle for the Republic, the very real conflict we have always been destined to wage from our inception: dark to light, the flash against the night, freedom versus her enemies, the very reason for America on earth.

Yes we are the Founders’ posterity, in whom they placed so much hope and for whom they paid so dearly, yes we will triumph, and yes dark forces will fight us (and our posterity) every step of the way, with extreme prejudice. We must expect this battle forever.

But we do not fight it alone. As Rush said not long ago:

We really are a nation blessed by God. I firmly believe that. I believe that after having studied elements of American history, the true story of the first Thanksgiving, so many absolutely unique, wonderful things had to happen. There’s a book by Catherine Drinker Bowen called Miracle at Philadelphia. It’s about the writing of the Constitution, how it came together. It is a miracle. No other time in human history has anything like the United States ever been attempted. The Constitution has never been attempted anywhere but here, and it worked, and it continues to work, despite efforts to undermine it that are coming from within.

Our founding documents remain a powerful threat to the left. Rush added:

The reason for George Washington’s first Thanksgiving proclamation was largely about thanking God for the newly ratified Constitution. Everybody who participated in the Constitutional Convention realized how unique it was, how special it was, how privileged they were to be part of it. And remember the phrase, “Lives, fortunes, sacred honor.” People sacrificed everything to create this nation. The 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, many of them, lost everything. Including their sons who were taken prisoner and tortured. They were told their sons would be released if they would renounce the Declaration of Independence. They didn’t renounce.

This is what leftists don’t get: the pricelessness of American liberty. They don’t have the first clue why we treasure it, our flag, our patriotic songs, our shared experience — including our history’s pain and error — and our love for the American way of life. In the vast majority of the country, that is absolutely intact, and it is what strengthens us now. The Spirit of ’76 remains in our dna.

So now, defending America is our battle. It is the same battle of the republic described in a haunting lyric and melody from 160 years ago, which begins, “Mine eyes have seen the glory,” and ends like this:

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,

With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me:

As he died to make men holy let us die to make men free,

His truth is marching on. Glory, glory, hallelujah!

It’s for this purpose we are here. Gird up.

Fireworks photo ©2021 Shutterstock; Type Illustration ©2021 Christopher Hiers for The Limbaugh Letter