What happens when the shining city on the hill becomes a tale of two cities? In one city, there is freedom and family, church and community, and patriotism and order. In another, there is anarchy and isolation, wokeism and tribes, and hatred and violence. These two cities exist all over America. One city thrives in some states, while the other city succeeds in others. Americans are choosing their favored city by voting with their feet and migrating. They’re seeking better horizons. Democrats, champions of an open border and the suffering of others, are indifferent to the plight of their own citizens. In fact, they seem to enjoy the suffering of their people — if they even view American citizens as “their” people.  Subscribe to The American Spectator to receive our fall 2024 print magazine, which includes this article and others like it. The news media and talking heads on X portray the Biden–Harris years as good. According to them, Americans are stupid and just don’t see how great this administration is. The cognitive dissonance this take induces is almost hallucinogenic. People are being asked to disbelieve their own eyes — their “lived experience.” Americans have grocery bills that aren’t 20 percent higher than four years ago; they’re 100 percent higher. Their salaries haven’t increased in this time, and so, for four years, thanks to inflation, their income has gone backwards. Everyday living becomes an anxious slog. Homelessness, suicides, loneliness, and despair are on the rise. This article is taken from The American Spectator’s fall 2024 print magazine. Subscribe to receive the entire magazine. On the world stage, there are wars and persecutions. Christians are being killed on every continent, and the media says nothing. Thousands of young Russian and Ukrainian men have died over the last few years, and for what, exactly? Israel and her surrounding neighbors sit on dry tinder as world leaders walk around them with lit matches. Art by Bill Wilson No one seems at all aware of the consequences of their provocative actions. The carelessness seems intentional. But how can that be? Who would want a collapsed society? Who would want a world war with the devastating technology that now exists? Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, and the Democrats seem immune to understanding human nature, policy, consequences — anything. They barrel along, drunk on power, stumbling into the ditch of debauchery, disease, drug abuse, and anti-family gender policies designed to foster lifelong sexual despair. A feckless Republican Party is nearly as bad: mute on what matters, divided, majoring in the minors, and on the take. It has ever been thus. In this issue, Daniel J. Flynn leads with his discussion of the coming reckoning. So it falls to Donald Trump.  Who is Donald Trump and what does he stand for? Does he recognize the culture-gutting consequences of unfettered immigration? Does he have the strength of character to resist the worldwide war machine? Does he understand that protecting the unborn is fundamental to protecting all human rights because it means being a voice for the voiceless? The shining city must prevail, or there will be no sanctuary anywhere for anyone. How is it possible to once again have no idea how Donald Trump will govern after four years in office and four years out of office to define himself and his policies? Perhaps by the time you, dear reader, find this magazine, more will be clear, but it is unlikely that the media will help you. The media specializes in theater and distraction, not in conveying truth or information. It strives to be the ultimate paid influencer. Which brings us to influencers and aliens. This inane topic seems ubiquitous now, with intelligence officers talking in conspiratorial tones about things they saw or heard other people say they saw. Nonsense. Demons? Angels? Sure. Hillary Clinton is a lizard person? Possible. But the alien thing is a diversion away from the real threat to civilization. The true enemy isn’t out there. It’s here. It’s within. It’s spiritual. In a republic, it’s in the heart of every citizen. A republic rises and falls on the character of her people, and Americans are compromising too much of their souls for expedience and pleasure. Americans and the West are like a lonely only child in a divorce: rich in material wealth but deprived of soul connection. Now, however, the material wealth is dwindling, as the parents have squandered their riches and the leaders have raped the public coffers. Can Donald Trump be the humble servant leader that the United States and the world need to stop this madness? Does he have the strength of will to dismantle the administrative state? Does he have wisdom borne of experience to choose staff thoughtfully and intentionally? Does he have the ability to discern between friend and foe, or is it to be yes-men and sycophants? Ronald Reagan talked about “A time for choosing.” After Biden, and assuming Trump wins, America will face another time for choosing, but America is not the same. It’s more diverse and not in a good way — Americans have become married to their identities of race, culture, country of origin, and sex. In some cases, they’ve married themselves. They divide themselves along their petty narcissisms. They betray their vows. They choose addiction over connection.  America is consumed by a radical individualism mixed with unassimilated immigration, and it has left too many people adrift with no real sense of family, community, or common purpose. America is fractured into shards of DEI glass, and anyone who tries to reassemble it will cut himself. This problem didn’t exist in the time of Reagan. Yes, there was the similar economic malaise, unstable world, and conflict fatigue. Yes, there was crime and racial tension and drug wars. But Americans still cohered around certain principles: they were still overwhelmingly God-fearing and Christian, they were still connected on a human level as it was before distracting technology took hold, and they still valued family and home over the superficial and material. America has changed, and not for the better. The task before Trump and American citizens is monumental. One fears that failure to succeed in this last-ditch endeavor to make America great again will be fatal and final. Americans need to face the pain induced by carelessly printing money. They need to face the fact that the young have been sacrificed on the altar of the comfort of the older generations. This is immoral and a travesty. It will take great political will for Trump to look into the dentures of these older voters and do what is right for the future of the country, not just what is expedient now. In short, Trump is going to have to be a clarion voice championing personal responsibility and community cohesion. He will have to talk about the importance of God and family. He will have to be all that is good about masculinity: resolute, self-sacrificial, courageous, and disagreeable. He will have to bring order and impose structure in a world ruled by out-of-control feminine chaos. The bureaucracy is essentially feminine and suffocating. She needs to be checked. The shining city on the hill needs to be rebuilt. Will Donald Trump be the hero that Gotham needs? Whether Trump wins or loses, whether he takes this mantle or sells out, conservatives have been making solid gains against the dark tyranny taking hold in the West. They’re taking the fight to DEI, porn, and many other social ills. They’re going back to church. They’re reclaiming their masculinity and femininity. They’re seeking communities that share their values. They’re getting married and having children — these days, a radical act. The solution to the current darkness is within each American. Each citizen must have a personal revival, as Scott McKay writes, and together, and with momentum, both conservatism and the culture can transform for the better. A house divided cannot stand. The two cities at war within America must, for the sake of Western Civilization and the world, stop warring. The shining city must prevail, or there will be no sanctuary anywhere for anyone. There will only be violence and drugs and despair and fear. Venezuelan cartels will rule, and Chinese drugs will fuel the downward spiral. Without a shot fired, America will become a nonentity as evil advances around the world. Let’s hope that Donald Trump wins and, should he win, that he has what it takes to make America great again. More importantly, let’s hope Americans have the will to fight for their country. Let’s hope the shining city shines again. Subscribe to The American Spectator to receive our fall 2024 print magazine. The post Making the Shining City on the Hill Great Again appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.