The following essay by Henrik Clausen has been translated by the author from the Danish version, which was published earlier today by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
Goodbye, America. It was good to know you.
by Henrik Clausen
I grew up with America and lots of good things coming from there. An America with a constitution written by fine people, an America with movies and stories about the Wild West, an America that saved us from the atrocities of the National Socialists. I recall watching the lunar landings on my grandparents’ television, and listened to Doors, Hendrix and Janis Joplin coming out of the old tube radio.
Back in the 1970s, America’s global influence was as remarkable as it is today. The US was entangled in a strange war in Vietnam, with painful accounts of war in the jungle and civilian suffering reaching us. I rejoiced when President Nixon showed that the threat from China was not really that great and that the United States could pull out. OK, so the Chinese had a communist regime. With good alliances with Japan, Korea, etc., the threat was manageable.
Together with my parents, I had the extraordinary experience of living in Iran in the late 1970s, “an island of stability” in the chaotic Middle East. The close ties between Iran and the United States guaranteed stability and the rapid development of the country. However, that lasted only until President Jimmy Carter, under the pretext of ‘human rights’, let down Emperor Pahlavi and opened the gates of revolution for a brutal Islamic regime. A regime that poses a security problem even up to today.
I followed the changes in the 1980s, when a proud and confident President Reagan pulled the United States out of inflation and decay. Reagan had campaigned on the economy as his main issue, but soon realized that the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union was severe, and had to be dealt with. In particular, I recall the Reykjavik Summit in 1986 and praying intensely that they would find a solution to the nuclear tensions. It did not happen there, but a few years later the threat disappeared with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
But darker sides of American foreign policy also emerged. US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger tolerated Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus, where a third of the island is still occupied. President Carter politicized the Olympic Games after his security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski provoked the Soviet Union to send its army into Afghanistan. And President Clinton kept his election promise to bomb Serbia, even though Serbia constituted no threat to the United States.
All of that paled, however, on September 11th 2001, when Islamists attacked America. It was without question that we would stand with America to eliminate the efforts of Islamists trying to spread Islam and Sharia. Here in Denmark, we did our part. Not only with practical military support on dangerous missions, but also by way of art and humor. Danish artists entered the fray for freedom of expression, and despite a massive diplomatic crisis, we stood our ground in our right to mock and ridicule what we find deserving.
Like many others, I used to consume large amounts of American culture. The carefully crafted Disney movies provided unforgettable cinema experiences. The Little House on the Prairie books were devoured quickly, spending only a few days on each volume. Later, I marveled at the subtle family drama of The Godfather, absorbed “Thirteen Days” (about the Cuba crisis) and JFK (the John F. Kennedy), and many other important movies. Even today, driving down an open highway, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Bruce Springsteen move me to tears.
But these days the United States is in serious trouble. The country has fallen into the trap called the “Triffin Dilemma”: Having the dollar as the global reserve currency requires massive trade deficits, and has led to decades of shrinking manufacturing in the US proper, all while finance and services have been expanding disproportionately. It is my personal suspicion that the unrest that has shocked the United States this year may be due more to poor living conditions, not the ‘racism’ alleged by leftist political leaders.
Over time, the United States has also been home to excellent philosophers. Persons with a profound understanding of ‘freedom’ really means, and how the State should play a low-key role in protecting citizens’ freedom. Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson showed in words and action how this can be done for the benefit of all: In particular, it was the US Navy that put an end to a thousands of years of piracy in the Mediterranean, and in doing so sent the Ottoman Empire into terminal decline. A decline that led many nations to regain their freedom and independence.
At the time of writing, the presidential election has not yet been decided. But the greatest loser has been found already: the American democracy. In an election that was marred by poor candidates, rude rhetoric and riots not worthy of a mature democracy. The fact that the incumbent President Trump has systematically expressed his distrust of the democratic process as also cost dearly in terms of public confidence in democratic processes. Whoever wins in the end, the United States has lost the moral right to lecture other nations about democracy.
The United States we used to know has changed irrevocably. Now we must expect the United States to solve its own problems, without the mental of physical capacity to be our Great Protector. And as France has recently shown, we Europeans are able to stand up to our challenges ourselves. And we can still read American philosophers of freedom such as Murray Rothbard, Henry Hazlitt and Rose Wilder Lane (daughter of Laura Ingalls), all while we hope for America to come to its senses again. For I sorely miss the America that I grew up with.
so true, but America began its decline during the “Summer of Love” in 1967. it’s been 50 years since then until Trump was inaugurated but the damage has been done.
nowadays it’s more about winning in the worship of your god which is the agenda that you have been given to support and nurture.
my fave was the moody blues and dire straits with some phil keaggy on the side.
yes, I mourn for the america that I grew up with and came to love. may the consequences of this electoral cabal be visited upon the heads of those who planned and participated in it.
America died in November 1963.
okay, and then was buried in the summer of ’67
no it didn’t. nothing to do with kennedy.
Agreed apart from the fact that the Moody Blues and Dire Straits were British bands.
🙂
and Elvis has been seen flyfishing in Scotland.😎
We live in interesting times. I think the decline is a general western one based on the long march through the institutions leading to a lack of confidence in (or learned hatred of) our own cultural homogeneity and national identities. Enforced ‘Diversity’ is a classic symptom of the illness.
America is such a big player in the overall game, all eyes are now on the direction it takes next.
I love that you list two British rock bands (‘The Moody Blues’ and ‘Dire Straits’) among your favourites. Music appears another facet of our culture in decline.
Really, and I agree! I don’t listen to the newer stuff. I never really did like the banging that was typical of the 50s and early 60s. I liked the early Jefferson Airplane because they actually worked to compose. Also, It’s A Beautiful Day was another fave until they were told what to write for their second album which stunk. I have always appreciated classical music and for a while could play it on the piano. I also tried to make my clarinet sound like an Alto Sax (and came close).
Music may very well be how our soul communicates with the Lord. Worship music was cheapened and turned into rock ‘n roll by those who wanted to make a fast buck and then live profligately, and yes, it has taken our culture down the cesspool with them. Sniff! You should check out Phil Keaggy’s albums, “Crimson and Blue” and “220”. If you liked Cream then John the Revelator on Crimson and Blue is a must hear.
THE ONLY way to communicate with the Lord is through prayer directed to Him and not through some dead person.
I agree with John here. It’s no coincidence that I listed ‘JFK’. Nor is listing ‘Godfather’, for related reasons, or ‘Thirteen Days’, for other reasons. I see the “Summer of Love” in part as a consequence of that, a public protest against the brutal Johnson regime. I have also seen some evidence that the Soviet Union made a mental attack on America by pushing LSD on unsuspecting youth. A devastating attack that caused much great talent to burn out in lust and sensual desire. Abandoning love.
It’s no coincidence that I list three great talents that we lost in this way.
Back to JFK. The most amazing account I’ve read is this:
https://www.amazon.com/Me-Lee-Came-Harvey-Oswald/dp/1936296373
The author, Judyth Vary Baker, is actually still alive. She’s applied for political asylum in Sweden (of all places 🙂 ), and is one of very few persons from the circles behind the Kennedy assassination to not have suffered an untimely death. Her book has an aptly named chapter “The Day the Republic Died”, about November 22nd. What I read from this story is that the intelligence service took upon themselves a right to veto who could be President – a right that we saw exercised against President Trump in the whole “Russian interference” hoax.
Sanity returned with President Reagan. Here’s a beautiful book about it:
https://www.amazon.com/Trust-But-Verify-Reagan-Russia/dp/1938883683
America died the minute those commi SOBs in Congress passed the 1964 Immigration Act allowing the dregs of the 3rd world to pour in thus turning us into a Balkanized nightmare where we are now that only force of arms will change. Democracy as we know it dead and gone, too many competing interests, too many minorities screaming about more rights than the rest of us, women in positions of power who base their decisions on emotions instead of logic, reason and bloody common sense and politicians of both parties who sold their souls to make it rich. Trump is our last hope to stave off the inevitable collapse of this whole rotten mess in the US that we made due to our inattention, stupidity and buying into the party line. So it is inevitable that we will come to bloodshed on a massive scale at some point because the current paradigm, history, and human tribal nature leads to this conclusion.
As for you in Western Europe? The same holds true, there will be blood and massive amounts of it in store for you and if you cannot or refuse to see the writing on the wall and have failed to arm up and prepare, you bloody deserve the consequences of being the sheep for the slaughter instead of the Wolves your ancestors bred you to be. You can forget about the sheepdogs being there to protect you, the sheep bleated and said they don’t need them and they are the problem so they are on permanent vacation.
As bad as it seems now and I fully expect America to plunge into anarchy but it will be here when all this madness is over.
America will come out of this and thrive. Worry more about the British Isles and Europe. The envious have always desired to covet our wealth, lands and liberty. Today the “UK” is all but gone under Chairman and liar Johnson.
America was given a lethal injection in 1965 with President Johnsons “Great Society”, when priority was given to immigrants from the third world.
The Arsenal of Democracy will once again flood Britain with arms for the natives who are willing to fight for it. The sheep will get slaughtered by the millions and the Wolves will feast and rule, it is that coldly simple.
It is very possible that, some time this century, America will have to fight an Islamised Europe.
Watching what France is doing, I disagree. We are doing reasonably well against Islam these days. The US just doesn’t understand the threat from Turkey. France does.
France had election fraud just like the US just had election fraud, to bring in another pro-islam president who will import them by the millions then when they start getting out of control, cry crocodile tears and take actions to rile them up without actually getting them out of the country, as if removing them from the country is easy in the first place.
Many of us within the US know of the threat from Turkey, but our leaders either don’t care or are selling us out due to corruption from within. If we can’t even have a legitimate election though it doesn’t help us winning the next step of saying no to certain third world hordes of West-haters.
Would anyone know how to reach Matt Bracken?
France sent warships against Turkey, and declared NATO to be ‘braindead’. Turkey is obviously a clear and present danger, which only brainwashed ‘intelligence’ agencies fail to identify. France got it right, and takes action.
Yet they sat doing nothing until they had 9% Muslims in their country past the point of no return. They properly see some of the outside threats but play pattycake with the internal threat.
Americans will send arms to you Europeans by the boatload for you to help yourselves, nobody is going to save you but you. The European man, underneath that thin veneer of western civilization lies the DNA of Conquer and kill, it just takes a matter dire circumstance to kick them into gear. That day is closer than you can possibly imagine.
Grim situation for sure. I appreciate the problem when the President cases doubt on the election process, but from what we are now seeing, it looks like he was right. The courts ruling fairly and flagging cheating where it happened will to a long way to restore confidence.
I think the big problem in the US is that it has lost its spiritual core. It needs a rebirth as a Christian nation. That may be possible, but only with a Trump victory.
I have followed the fraud allegations with concern, but am not really able to pass judgement on the validity and magnitude of those. If it turns out to be significant enough to overturn the result, I’ll rejoice!
If you just look at the 6,000 vote flipping in Michigan with the Dominion software, for whatever reason it occurred the fact that it occurred should require an audit or autopsy of the voting systems used nationwide. Whether it is the bug is the feature, human error, a real software glitch or illegal remote access, the fact that it was possible for it happen and did happen indicates massive problems are possible and they are not always obvious that there is a problem. The system should prevent human error at the very least by not accepting the vote and either indicate the issue or leave it for the person to resolve it and this should be tested and confirmed prior to the election. Only because the County Clerk (I think) questioned the voting anomaly did they dig deeper. All elections that used those machines should be audited. I had heard in another county the vote was accurate with those machines. Because it is confirmed possible to get the machine to flip vote they all should be audited.
Hey! We are praying (overtime) for America’s spiritual rebirth and return to Christ from Whom we’ve wandered away from.
So have I…
Ned, thanks for picking great illustration! In particular the Mo-toon and the Banana Republic are graphics that I thought of already, but dind’t mention.
Everyone takes in this current media psyop designed to cause mass depression before the election result is finalized!
Actually things went wrong long ago, and it has just been brought to light now! It is only a new phase of the war when the Deep State is getting exposed and therefore can finally be fought — even if Kamala gets in power.
The War for Freedom is not over. More fighting spirit, folks!
Greetings from Hungary.
It’s not over, but if Trump is not in as he was voted to be, everything becomes ten times harder to make progress. In a nation of endless “corona shutdowns”, renewed hostile immigration policies, bald faced election fraud and similar things all handicapping those who love freedom we will be sliding more than we are progressing.
Does anyone know how to reach Matt Bracken by email?
America is not just the President, nor the House, nor the Senate, nor even the Supreme Court… It’s thousands of institutions, and millions of people, many of whom still love their country, and freedom…
What’s most important is not who’s in the White House, but what’s in our hearts. What are our values, what are we willing to stand up for and defend? And if Americans are willing to stand up for their values, and for their country, then America will survive…
So let’s not get too downbeat about the likely downfall of a very flawed man, but start living the future, and fighting for it. If we do, we may find we’re stronger than was expected, just like Trump did when he became president, and when he beat Covid.
Other comments put the death of America within living memory (if you can remember the 1960’s).
But I think the death of America, and of all countries where freedom exists, is the day non tax payers are enfranchised.
From that moment onward, there is no way to stop socialism.
Look at the UK. Even the right wing parties support tax payer funded healthcare for all, no questions asked.
In the USA no republican politician even dares suggesting social security needs to be dismantled.
Those things are ruining western countries. But there are millions more benefiting without paying than there are tax payers.
And because the left positioned itself as the champions of welfare, they manage to push all the other crap too, because people will accept all the degeneracy if they can keep their welfare.
The only non violent solution would be massive population exchanges. Americans wanting to be socialist go to Europe, Europeans wanting to be free (there are a handful of us) go to America.
That is not practical. So nothing short of civil war will solve the problem.
Civil war is coming, it is now inevitable and now way out of it now. The bloodshed and body count will be massive.
I dont agree that it’s inevitable. It has been set up to be inevitable. Yet those things could be rolled back if there was political will. Is there?
Indirectly related, Trump won by a landslide but the lying media created the narrative that Biden actually won by a landslide or/and it was a knife edge election. (it’s either one or the other yet I see both pushed in different places, ie drudge report flipping and such) This is the setup to “civil war” because even if the supreme court votes Trump in, then the ‘other side’ feels justified in saying “in 2016 you ignored our having the popular vote, now we had both the popular vote AND the electoral vote and had things taken away by a court of white people!” which is gasoline on the fire.
Trump could still prove he won by a landslide and disarm some of this, pointing out 31% of blacks voted for him, even 30% of Muslims by what I saw, why are more and more minorities turning to his way of thinking? Because they see the alternative from the extremist left is even worse.
There are alternatives to creeping socialism, just like there are alternatives to every other aspect of cultural takeover which the USA is the target of. Socialism, cultural takeover, importing minorities to gerrymander the culture to vote for socialism etc etc all of this is intertwined together. The question is can anybody even give those ideas any traction when we live in an era of engineered fake news and big tech suppression? If Trump cant even win the election he was voted to win, does it matter whether people have better solutions than ‘socialism’?
Directly related to this, does anyone know of a way to reach Matt Bracken by email or preferably even something like protonmail? Or to know if he could be directed to read posts here or given my email to contact.
I am afraid I must disagree with your assessment my friend , it hasn’t been set up for civil war, what the so called elites and their leftist useful idiots/3rd world invader savages who actually truly believe we will be led like sheep to their one world socialist utopia without a whimper much less a fight, they completely forget about human nature and our ability, especially those of European and Slavic extraction, to go from nice peaceful peoples to absolute ruthless conquerors with a bloody vengeance. White European peoples are being disenfranchised as we speak and we don’t like it, but the elites keep pushing because so far there hasn’t been a response, but they are about to get one because despite socialisms wretched march through our institutions, the following equation always is true, Diversity/forced 3rd world Multiculturalism = Balkanization = Massive Bloodshed, without exception.
1+1=2
Teddy Kennedy lied about the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.
I am aware that europeans have the potential to turn nasty on a dime, but I still dont fully understand your dismissal of my comment. I dont see everything as inevitable, I see many things as self fulfilling prophecies. If two groups of people tell themselves they cant get along, well guess what, they cant. It’s also plausible that i’m in the wrong (i’m reading here so clearly I accept the likelihood that some people CANT get along with the west) however I try to follow the example of Jesus the peacemaker. If nothing else, at the minimum, a person has to be sure they have exhausted absolutely all other alternatives to feel right in what they are forced to do, that is what motivates me wanting to see if there are alternatives.
At the same time i’m aware that for every savage on my block, there is some politician who opened the door to bring them here and I consider those politicians more of a problem than the people here because until the door is closed the hordes wont stop anyway, so I have to ask whether political solutions are even possible first.
—
PS i’d still love to try contact Matt Bracken or someone with some traction to publish some ideas that might help Trump’s last 70 days hopefully become his next 1400 days instead, but it’s not appropriate for me to publish whole essays here in the comments (someone else’s got filtered I see). The best way to avert 4 years of civil war is possibly 70 days of peaceful civil disobedience and I HAVE to believe the latter is preferable to the former!
At least Reagan spoke against it. But why people like him do not succeed is not known to me. For your kind attention:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYrlDlrLDSQ
G’Day Ned. I posted a positive comment (a story from Ireland ) regarding President JFK’s assassination several hours ago in response to Henrik Clausen’s comment in same regard. I wrote it 20 years ago – it resonates with me continually. It has disappeared. I will post it again. A America loving Irish Rebel Abroad.
Certitude
When was your last moment of Certitude? Mine was crushed forever [remainder redacted]
[NOTE FROM THE MODERATOR: This comment (and the one that preceded it that I deleted) is far too long. Please post your essay on your blog, and leave a link here. Or figure out a way to make your comment MUCH shorter.]
This summer was the first time I felt sincere pity for the United States of America. A house divided against itself cannot stand, and this was the time it became clear to me that the US was a house much divided. Its divisions may easily pull it apart, at least if it is governed by people like Biden or Harris.
“United we stand, divided we fall”. Now, it seems the US is going to fall. And its fall will be great.