The problem

America is becoming unsafe.

Current expanding jeopardies include our health, economy and culture. One is tough, three at the same time is a percolating disaster. Hold on to your hat if a major hurricane, earthquake or China clash is added to the mix.

We shouldn’t be surprised. Decades of carelessness have set this table.

It matters, because without safety, nothing works – absolutely nothing.

How did it happen?

The liberal-progressive-socialist movement – curator cult for the former Democrat Party – has led the charge.

The why and how is easy. A party power platform based on the promise of something for nothing has to continually up its game. It took years, but one little tasty promise at a time has created a class of people as addicted to their rights, needs and government largess as they are indifferent to their responsibilities.

Where accountability disappears, safety dies.

Propaganda as information

American journalism is an oxymoron. In today’s climate of bias, the search for truth has been replaced with a search for that which affirms preconceived notions. For most local and national news outlets, the liberal view frames those notions.

Our schools, colleges and universities have similarly confused the worthy goal of imparting a liberal arts education with indoctrinating our young to be liberals. That reality is confirmed by one simple conformity stat – the supermajority of educators in all settings self-describe as liberals.

Meat-eaters don’t buy vegetarian cookbooks.

Death of the rule of law

Big chunks of America are increasingly run by those who believe in the rule of personal preference. That means instead of laws that guide us toward commonality, we’re encouraged to assert our own subjective selfishness.

Societies without the rule of law lose their glue, humanity and fairness. When we are no longer bonded, care for one another and operate in equality, safety is an illusion.

What sounds good versus what works

One of the cons being played out in Asheville and other hyper-liberal cities is that we must replace “bad” things with “better” things.

The trend toward historical monument removal, police defunding and victim entitlement initiatives stand as fatally flawed examples.

Removing monuments will do nothing for black Americans but serve to aggravate an intentionally magnified racial divide having not even a musty connection to slavery. Defunding police is like removing the bars in a lion’s den to expand a petting zoo. Reparations robbing one set of pockets to fill another violates a critical sociological premise – one can’t be a victim and equal at the same time.

Destruction of free speech

A growing number of people in America are good with free speech as long as what’s said fits their filters. That’s not free speech – it’s dogma – and dogma makes us dumb.

It’s the ironically illiberal left that’s leading the charge toward verbal and physical violence when they encounter speech or anything else they don’t like. It’s not conservatives tearing up Asheville, Atlanta, Washington, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis and other Democrat-run cities.

When one group gets the power to stop another from expression – try wearing a MAGA hat in Asheville – social unity leaves the building and despotism comes to stay.

If we can’t communicate civilly, we will not be able to live together safely.

What were they thinking?

It’s been famously suggested that those who don’t read history are doomed to repeat it. That also means those few who do read history are doomed to watch the majority who don’t make a mess.

History tells us some important things: It’s not possible to get to good places through bad means. One can’t sincerely uplift some by tearing down others. Dogma is dogma no matter by what pretty title it’s called, and dogma is always dangerous. Color has never been a reliable measure of ability, whereas our choices, culture, convictions and character have always been. People who fail to adapt reliably fall back on a passion to destroy.

In recent decades, a gazillion newcomers have moved to Asheville. That should be a good thing. But instead of building upon the blessings they found, too many have done their level best to turn us into what they left. The insensitivity to and assault on WNC’s traditional values has been breathtakingly toxic.

Behind fake masks of “social justice” and “progress,” city leaders and a host of enablers are betraying Asheville’s unity, charm and economy.