By DAVID EASTMAN

“In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.” — Mark Twain

If you were waiting for a signal to get right with God, let July 13th’s foiled assassination be that moment. There is nothing more important.

With the passing of each minute, history marches slowly on, but the progress of individual nations can unfold at a truly alarming pace. We are currently experiencing such a time in America.

It has now been a full 15 years since Barack Obama promised to “fundamentally transform the United States of America” and Michelle Obama declared “we’re going to have to change our traditions, our history; we’re going to have to move into a different place as a nation.”

That “different place” is now coming into focus. Based on the recent guilty verdicts against Trump, Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz believes it to be somewhere in the vicinity of South America. He may not be far off.

Likewise, Michelle and Barack’s public commitment to “change our traditions”, once abstract, is now as tangible as the bag of cocaine found at the White House, the classified documents found in Joe Biden’s garage, and the certain knowledge that no one will ever be prosecuted for either crime.

Fifteen years on, Washington, D.C. now looks a lot more like the place that Barack and Michelle Obama called home just before moving into the White House. As it has for many years, Chicago continues to rank first in public corruption convictions per capita. In addition to being the place the dead go to vote, Chicago will soon be home to a presidential library. No less than four of Illinois’ last ten governors have served time in federal prison, most of them from Chicago.

When Michelle Obama spoke in 2008 of the need to change “our history“, only a few Americans envisioned the toppling of George Washington statues, the removal of national monuments from places like Arlington National Cemetery, and the cancelling of Memorial Day Ceremonies that have been faithfully observed there for more than half a century. Our history is under attack by the left today precisely because it is this history that ties us to the words of the Declaration of Independence; both at the outset of the American Revolution, and again at the close of the Civil War.

After World War I, President Calvin Coolidge gave fitting homage to the Declaration of Independence with these words:

“If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people.”

We have, for a time, been moving backward as a nation, away from these seminal truths. It is time we made an about-face.

Crossing the Rubicon

On January 10th, 49 BC, Julius Caesar flaunted Roman law by publicly crossing the river Rubicon and marching his legions into Rome itself. For more than a century, Roman law checked the ambition of any Roman general who might be tempted to use the Roman military against the city. With that single fateful act, Caesar made clear that he was no longer a military general subordinate to the Roman Senate, he meant to rule it.

Despite the unparalleled power of serving as commander-in-chief of the most formidable military force in human history, no U.S. president has permitted himself to be seen as supporting the arrest and prosecution of another party’s presidential nominee, or denying them adequate protection—until now. It takes the breath away, or should, if we stopped long enough to reflect on where we are in the story of our nation. Let’s not mince words. A government that stakes its legal authority on decisions made by an individual who cannot be legally prosecuted (due to his declining mental health) is—by definition—above the law.

Our justice system now functions as a weapon with which to wage political war

It was from Danbury Prison that Steve Bannon, former White House Chief Strategist under Trump, learned of the most recent assassination attempt against President Trump. I spoke with Bannon after his conviction. His focus was on the nation and not on himself. He is a patriot at a time when it costs you dearly to be one. Former White House trade advisor, Peter Navarro, also learned of the assassination attempt from behind bars at FCI Miami. Both Bannon and Navarro were imprisoned by the Biden Administration at the behest of the January 6 Committee.

Former White House National Security Advisor, General Michael Flynn, was to have been locked up as well, until it was discovered that he only cooperated with the charade because the deep state had threatened to put his innocent son in jail unless he went himself. The documentary of what happened, Flynn, is top-notch and should be required viewing for every American. It is pivotal to understanding the threat that America currently faces from Washington, D.C.

Of course, Donald Trump wasn’t supposed to be in Pennsylvania on Saturday either. He, too, was supposed to be in prison by now, after having been indicted more than 16 months ago. All told, he was indicted on more than 90 charges, and has now been convicted of 34 felonies. Not long ago, Americans reading the headline “Former U.S. president convicted of 34 felonies” would look to see whether the trial had taken place in North Korea or Iran, or some place even more obscure. Not today.

Author Naomi Wolf pulled no punches in her recent op-ed “What time it is: The imprisonment of Steven K. Bannon“. One of the loudest dissident voices against the Biden Administration, the host of Bannon’s War Room, is now legally permitted phone calls of no more than 15 minutes, and totaling no more than 5 hours each month until his release, timed to coincide with the November election. Other dissenting media voices such as One America News, The Gateway Pundit, and Free Speech Systems are currently facing legal assaults designed to shut them down. That place you and I were hoping we would never get to as a nation; we’ve now arrived. This is a point of no return.

No Neville Chamberlain or other politician looking to appease the left will be able to lead us through the current storm. Many of our current political leaders rose to prominence in a system that rewarded their every effort to pacify the left. The days ahead now call for exactly the opposite. As that early American Samuel Adams declared in his own day, for those who cannot make this transition, who love wealth better than liberty, “go from us in peace.”

We now need men and women who are willing to be, in the words of Mark Twain, “brave, and hated and scorned.” We are going to need our Trumps and Bannons and Navarros and Flynns and many others like them whom we do not yet know. The current storm has left us no other choice.

David Eastman is a state representative for Wasilla House District 27.