A contagion is consuming the country

How can it be stopped?

No, this isn’t about Covid, nor is it about any typical “virus.” A short biology lesson, however, is in order to aid in understanding how this virus (like any other virus) spreads, and perhaps give insight into how we can terminate its treachery and begin the healing process.

Read a variety of biology books and you’ll get conflicting opinions on whether a virus is actually alive or not. The general consensus, however, is that they are not - they are simply mindless self-replicating mechanisms of a parasitic persuasion. They enter a body, hijack the cells, and use the ribosomes to create countless carbon copies that are released from the cell and move on to likewise commandeer the protein-manufacturing machinery of other cells that they too may reproduce at rapid rates. As the process progresses, the body’s normal cells are damaged, and the foreign proteins from the virus wreak all sorts of havoc upon the host’s natural systems. A normally healthy body attacks the viral villains with various defenses - T cells, macrophages, antibodies, etc. Under normal circumstances, the immune system defeats the invaders, obliterating every last soldier of the alien army. Sometimes, the virus is beaten into dormancy, hiding in wait for the individual to show signs of weakness before again rearing its ugly head.

There is a virus spreading through America, one just as mindless and lifeless as any other, one that at times was weak or dormant, but is now engaging with the full force of a plague. This virus is leftism. Throughout history, leftism/socialism/Marxism (select your term du jour) has increasingly insinuated itself into American politics. Sometimes it simply disappeared into the landscape; other times, it caused lasting deformations in the fabric of our society. Several presidents can be cited in this respect - FDR, Wilson, Johnson, among them - as well as representatives in Congress who have launched loathsome legislation beleaguering the people with burdensome regulations and untoward taxes.

Some time during the 1960s or 1970s, this virus found the societal ribosome - the public education system. Through secondary and tertiary learning establishments, the virus of leftism has been propagating and permeating every institution underpinning the cloth of our country. Just as with a physical virus, leftism has major detrimental effects on everything it touches.

Worse, just like a parasite, leftism devours available resources then moves on to another healthy organ/location to begin the process anew. Consider the hordes fleeing their domiciles in failing (flailing?) cities, seeking to escape from New York and escape from L.A. (insert Snake Plissken/Kurt Russell joke here). They have voted for policies that are bankrupting their states, that are driving housing prices and cost of living through the roof, and that are creating unsustainable crime rates and hosts of homeless families. Thus those who are able extricate themselves from the carnage and resettle in states where policies have allowed a far better living situation. Then, in a stunning display of obliviousness, these refugees go to the ballot box and pull the lever for the same policies that devastated their prior places of residence. Then they marvel in wonder that the cities to which they flew become just as debased as the ones from which they absconded. The utter lack of self-awareness exhibited by their inability to connect the consequences of the policies for which they vote with their own voting habits is astounding. They prove themselves just as mindless and parasitic as viruses themselves. They are devoid of the cerebral capability necessary to recognize their complicity in societal decay. As a result of their epic exemplification of cognitive dissonance, these viral vagabonds turn their new homes into the same sort of cesspool from which they sought sanctuary. And so the process continues and these ne’er-do-well nomads are again motivated to migrate only to further spread their sickness to another unsuspecting urbanity. It is a devastatingly self-perpetuating cycle.

The impact of this societal illness has been immense. It has infected government all the way from cities and states to the federal government. Our immunity has grown weak. Parents should have been, despite the downfall of the public schools and universities, teaching their children civics and the responsibilities of citizenship. Constitutional illiteracy is rampant, though every elder should have instilled their offspring with a proper understanding. We must cleanse our schools of this calamitous contagion. Those who know better must find the strength to instruct others around them, start with small groups, and like antibodies to this anarchy, spread and eradicate it. It is up to we the people, any who still have any inkling of our founding principles, to annihilate this affliction. In the long run, if America is to survive, no vestige of this virus may remain. We must rebuild the country’s resistance to the radical leftist lunacy and restore the founding principles of liberty, equality, and justice. Only then will we be able to stand strong and fend off any future fomenting of this formidable foe.