Doesn’t sound very nice – it’s worse when you put it to the music of the Jackie DeShannon hit. It hurts to hear the truth sometimes – but accepting the truth is the first step to recovery and you can’t accept what you haven’t ever heard.

Political corruption, lying media and international incidents are what set off the Mexican American War (1846 – 1848). Barely makes the history text books these days but it was big news back then – it was in all the papers. It was just one of the four wars the US engaged in during the 19th Century. During and in between those wars the US had all manner of scandals, controversies and major internal bruhahas – in many ways the relative calm of the last thirty years has lulled us in to a false sense of maturity. America is still a very young nation and still getting the hang of this ‘self-governance’ thing.

There’s all manner of hysteria in the media nowadays made so much worse by the 24/7/365 nature of news access. We think we know all about a situation before even half the evidence is in and jump the gun, repeatedly. Remember the Maine! Whatta ya mean, boiler explosion? – that same kind of media frenzy is now on steroids.

America grew up on turmoil – it’s her usual breakfast. And it sometimes shows in our attitude – we prefer the term ‘plucky’. But even for the US which has at least two big quarrels before bedtime every day there is a tipping point beyond which the turmoil that is normal politics becomes dangerous. We are fast approaching that point – and we’re dragging the world along with us.

A more realistic view is that we are both dragging and being dragged – yes, international relations is a lot like a fight with your sister over a toy – but at the moment, we’re the bigger kid with the stronger grip. The result is that our internal brawls become international issues – and sometimes international issues become our internal brawls. See? Just like fighting with your sister, only with real weapons.

The C19 Panic is touching off crises worldwide as populations revolt against draconian measures and many are waking up to the reality that they don’t have the protections of their rights and freedoms that Americans enjoy. They are having their own tussles with their own siblings – but many are turning a sideways glance at the US to see who’s winning. Many are looking to the US for leadership in the one thing the US is best at – freedom.

What they got instead is the shock of Afghanistan. US world leadership is a mantle Americans both love and hate – but it’s an essential mantle to have the US wear in order to safeguard the relative peace and security worldwide that have allowed the world to flourish economically. You can’t have global trade in the middle of a world war – or even in between a bunch of little wars. US might provides security both for us and for everyone else – but only when the US is also a Boy Scout.

No one sane seriously expects perfection from the US – but the world does need our consistency and our integrity. We may not ever make Eagle Scout – but the rest of the world relies on the fact that we do what we say we’ll do and we aren’t out to do them harm.

Now look at the Biden administration through the international lens – would you trust us if you were them? Decades of goodwill coupled with the history of our successful if messy changes in administrations means we haven’t yet lost the world’s trust – but Biden has put a serious dent in it.

Biden is just the figurehead for the Democrats – it’s past the point where any serious student of American politics or person with a brain believes that Biden is actually leading anything other than naptime. Much of this dumpster fire is of their making – a lot of the philosophic underpinnings coming from European Leftists originally but the Democrats are in full ownership now. Remaking society is tough – gotta scramble a few eggs – but maybe they shouldn’t have scrambled Reason along with them.

Whatever, the proverbial cat is out of the bag, scratching and hissing. Truth may take her time getting her proverbial boots on, but she does eventually catch up. Only those who really work hard to not be aware of the political world and the Democrat True Believers ^(TM) are not aware that there’s something wrong with the narrative – and something very rotten in Denmark.

This is a dangerous state of affairs. Not all the kids in this kindergarten play nice – China will beat Taiwan black and blue if they think the US won’t do anything about it. Russia is still going on about buffer zones against extremely unlikely invasions – Russia kinda has a complex about that – and it’s throwing its weight around as it is. And there are plenty of little kids that would love to kick the snot out of each other and even bigger kids if the US just stops getting in the way. International relations is very much a kindergarten with modern weaponry – hysterical to watch and very dangerous to play.

But all those creepy kids are beginning to think the US doesn’t care anymore. Worse, the kids that usually play nice but secretly want to be bossy are starting to push around their own people because if the US can have unconstitutional lockdowns and mandates, they can, too.

We’re the only nation on Earth with anything like the First Amendment that protects the rights of everyone to speak their own minds. If we don’t live up to that standard, no one else will. The results will look a lot like what happens when nation-states become socialist – it’s all fun and games until the economy craters and there’s no way to bring it back. The empty toilet paper aisles are nothing in comparison to what a decade without American freedom will look like. Poverty, not prosperity, is sure to follow.

Frankly, the US has survived one of the nastiest civil wars in history and we can and will survive the Biden administration. But even we can’t long survive the out of their minds and out of control Democrats if they stay in power or even close to it.

The party collapse seems inevitable. But if we want a world where we can order the latest cool thing from where ever in the world it’s made, we Americans have to see it through. There will be another party to take the Democrat Party’s place – and it will be better and more responsive to its constituents than the decrepit one we have now. Changing party systems is like changing horses midstream – usually someone gets wet. But no one drowns and sometimes, you just gotta do what needs doing right here and now.

And what the United States and the international community need most is for the Democrat Party to get off the stage.