There was a time when the enemy was the Axis Powers. Then it was communism. Most thought the enemies were on the outside. After all, we were the United States of America. The most stalwart because we had a mighty military and a citizenship united in making us better tomorrow than were yesterday. We had freedom with our rare democracy granted by the U.S. Constitution and its necessary amendments along the way to improve the collective us.

Let’s hope we haven’t been too late in identifying the manifesting enemy from within.

The onset of the downfall is arguable, but the country’s present condition is not.

At some point a leftist progressive movement was born and fostered. It’s as strong as either of the two main political parties. “Progressive” sounds chic and denotes a sense of “positive,” but the end results after 50 years prove otherwise.

Earlier progressiveness yielded activists who hated America so bitterly, they built bombs to destroy government buildings, police stations and police cars – anything seen as the “establishment.” Murdering innocent people was unimportant; it was solely about their wants.

These same malcontents became America’s college professors in place to foster tainting our youth. They remain deeply embedded and are hailed by leftists.

The same mindset rewrites the content of earlier history books. Educating the population of the historical bad as well as the good is a valuable tool to measure a country acknowledging its negatives and accomplishments toward eliminating them. The yardstick defines the betterment and grants credibility.

Progressives cannot afford that transparency because the good must be smothered for them to fulfill their mission. Such lucidity is toxic to the plan of garnering societal victims.

Their mission is simple.

Select sects of people using a designated set of criteria such as race, creed, gender or economics and convince them America and the “other people” loathe them; therefore they are oppressed and cheated. Telling them they are “disenfranchised” is the ticket to ride the victim train.

Recently, University Of California President Janet Napolitano commanded printed handouts for training at “Faculty Leadership Seminars” themed as “microagressions,” i.e, “subconscious racism” – and apparently, subconscious sexism. Two handouts were “Tool: Recognizing Microaggressions and the Messages They Send,” and “Tool for Identifying Implicit Bias.”

Some mandates on the forbidden teachings list are:

* “America is the land of opportunity;”

* “I believe the most qualified person should get the job;”

* “Everyone can succeed in this society if they work hard enough;”

* “There is only one race, the human race.”

Boasting of a student’s accomplishments is prohibited because raising the bar is “elitist.”

This injurious educational system disallows teaching American exceptionalism.

Chaos is a progressive’s must-have. Decades of porous borders disintegrated into a mere blurred line that abolishes America’s sovereignty and most certainly our safety. Cultivating an overwhelming flood of illegal entries reaps instant pandemonium and provides opaqueness for any sensible solutions.

Rahm Emanuel, from both the Clinton and Obama presidencies, said it best: “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that – it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

Laws are in place for good reasons. Absent them, chaos ensues, followed by confusion. Leadership that selectively enforces laws yields both destructions, rendering the U.S. Constitution impotent.

All of this mayhem is front and center with an approaching presidential election.

Many are clinging to Donald Trump’s coattails. They venerate his outspoken, I-can’t-be-bought and I’m-beholden-to-no-one themes.

The words are tantalizing to a population starved for leadership. Non-leftists are tired and fearful of the ongoing damage.

That viewpoint is appreciated, but it is realistically dangerous.

The plot is uncomplicated to decipher.

Bill Clinton is undeniably a master politician. He simply picked up the phone and urged Trump to run. Clinton played the egotistical Trump like his saxophone. Clinton knew Trump’s immeasurably narcissistic, pompous self-image couldn’t resist the ostensible compliment.

It worked. Who’s Trump attacking? Not Hillary.

Trump wrote “The Art of the Deal” but doesn’t grasp the art of the presidential deal.

That deal means three equal branches of government and a Constitution. Trump is explicit: He needs neither of the other two, broadcasting he’s a tyrannical Demander-In-Chief.

Trump’s dangerous message is that “I-Me” will take care of everything. That creates peoples’ complacency because they then relieve themselves of any pro-action, believing he’ll do the heavy lifting.

We got that feel-good White House occupant twice, much to the detriment of the United States of America.

Let’s not make it a trifecta in 2016.

Betty Arenson has lived in the SCV since 1968 and describes herself as a conservative who’s concerned about progressives’ politics and their impacts on the country, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She says she is unashamed to own a gun or a Bible, couldn’t care less about the color of the president’s skin, and demands that he uphold his oath to protect and follow the Constitution of the United States in its entirety.