HOW PATHETIC – AT 9:44 A.M. ET:  How do nations die?  Unless defeated in war, the death of nations  and civilizations often comes slowly, bit by bit.  When people start mocking their own heritage, that's a bad sign.

A story told by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is instructive, and we should contemplate its implications for our own society.  From Britain's Daily Mail:

He famously didn’t do God while in power.

But Tony Blair has revealed he had once wanted to finish a speech while he was Prime Minister with ‘God bless Britain’ – until concerned aides told him ‘this is not America’.

The former premier said the idea of using the rhetorical flourish that echoed the U.S. presidential sign-off ‘God Bless America’ cause consternation among aides.

He said:‘I had to do some address to the country when I was Prime Minister.

'You know the American president finishes an address to the American people by saying “God bless America”, Mr Blair said

‘I had the idea of finishing my address by saying “God bless Britain”. This caused consternation in the whole system.

'A committee was convened, and we had to discuss it.

'I remember we had this debate on and off but finally one of the civil servants said in a very po-faced way “I just remind you Prime Minister, this is not America” in this very disapproving tone, so I gave up the idea.

'I think it is a shame that you can’t since it is obviously part of what you are.

COMMENT:  Pretty pathetic, isn't it?  The British civil service is particularly notorious for its contempt for its own country.  An MP told me that British officers must come to work at the Ministry of Defence in civilian clothes because some of the civil servants object to uniforms.  In the Ministry of Defence.  I'm not kidding.

And yet, we see the same thing here, don't we?  Our kids go to the "best" colleges, where they're often taught by the intellectual leftovers of the 1960s.  Many of our schools have been turned into left-wing propaganda factories.  Many of our journalists seem to have a contempt for the very nation that protects them with a structure of freedom.

I don't want to see us becoming like Britain and Europe.  That's why this election is so critical. 

May 15, 2012