The fear of losing the country

President Obama and members of his administration assure us we have nothing to fear when it comes to terrorism. Whether you accept this, or not—and opinion polls show a majority do not—there is another fear that in large part is behind the phenomenon known as Donald Trump. It is the fear we are in danger of losing America.

Speaking as a member of a group that will in this century become a minority in America, I don’t fear minority status. What I do worry about is those who will soon make up the majority and what they believe about America. I’m concerned that they will not embrace the values and traditions that have built and sustained America through wars, economic downturns, and other challenges to our way of life.

America’s not perfect, of course. Slavery and discrimination are jagged scars on the body politic. But our founding principles, even if not always followed, allowed America’s flaws to be addressed and corrected by their posterity. What an ingenious design. But as Ronald Reagan famously warned: We are just one generation away from losing it all. That’s because democracy and equal rights are not the norm in the world. They must be fought for and maintained if we wish to pass them on to our descendants.

Yes, we want immigrants to come to America, but we want them to come as full participants, with respect for our laws, our language, our history, and our values. Earlier immigrants showed the way. They became fully American without hyphens, and left behind ideologies and agendas that do not promote the general welfare. They invested in America through taxes, blood, and sacrificed lives. New immigrants will benefit from those investments and sacrifices and should respect them enough to make investments of their own to preserve what they admire and what has drawn them here.

But I’m seeing two forces at work that undermine our foundations. One is apathy and the other is a determined assault on the beliefs, traditions, practices, and faith that once characterized America. It seems the people who embrace and practice our historic beliefs and traditions are in retreat, fearful of being called names by the forces of political correctness. But traditionalists don’t have to play defense. They have only to remind Americans of the mess the secular progressives have made.

There is barely enough time to begin repairing the damage. The 2016 election is only part of the process. “We the people” remains the most powerful force among us. But we must first win the argument before winning the next election.

© 2015 Tribune Content Agency LLC.

Listen to Cal Thomas’ commentary on The World and Everything in It.