From one.. many…the legacy that could lose a war… and the Western World

The United States is now engaged in two wars. The first is the one with Iran. But, the second is a war for the soul of America. It is the one we are losing. And it may lead to the loss of the first.

From the election of George Washington through the term of George W. Bush, the soul of America was best described as one dedicated to chasing the goals of tolerance and respect. Sure, there were people who were intolerant and even hateful. There was slavery, religious bigotry and the subjugation of Native Americans. But the driving ethos of the American people was a “more perfect union.” With its blood, the nation strived to make practical the “self evident” nature of mankind… that “All ‘men’ are created equal.”

An almost forgotten indication that America was reaching its moral goal occurred in 1928. Obscured by Southern lynchings and just 38 years after the Massacre at Wounded Knee, Charles Curtis, a full-blooded American Indian, was elected Vice President of the United States. Just six years previous, President Warren Harding died in office. So, the election of Charles Curtis as Vice President was a serious matter. His election proved that even in the midst of social turmoil, one United States of America was possible.

In 2004, before Barack Obama became President, he declared: “There’s not a Black America and White America… There’s the United States of America.” Surely the nation was at the top of its game.

The election of Barack Obama was supposed to be the “crown jewel” of American unity. It topped off well over a two-century struggle. A nation that could elect as its President a member of a race which a major part of the nation previously enslaved could now hold itself out to the world as being one which truly recognized equality among all its citizens.

But, in 2008, as Obama glided into his 2009 inaugural, he suddenly switched sides. He pledged to “fundamentally transform America.” He and his “policy successor” (albeit not his immediate successor) Joe Biden then placed into motion a series of programs and actions based on inequality. That started an internal war that America has not yet finished.

Obama’s election was a “jump the shark“ moment.* It signified the pinnacle of the American struggle for equality. After he took office, the only way was down.

Suddenly, “equality” was not enough. “Critical race theory“ began to take root. The idea that a society ought to be “colorblind“ was abandoned. It became racist to treat everyone the same. Everyone had to be viewed through the “lens of race.” Hence, it was “racist” not to be “racist.”

Certain races were deemed to be oppressed and therefore better. White Christians and Jews were the oppressors and therefore a “lesser breed.” So, “some [had to be] more equal than others.” Segregated colleges and segregated scholarships became commonplace. Donald Trump’s first term somewhat slowed this momentum; but, as Joe Biden came on the scene and the Black Lives Matter movement gained ground, everything from eligibility for government programs to sentencing for crimes became dependent on race. Racism was re-institutionalized. “Systematic racism,” a condition the left claimed to oppose, was exactly what the Biden-Obama Doctrine tried to make permanent.

Contrary to the 2004 declaration of Barack Obama, his legacy did not create one America. It created several. Today, there is a separate Black America whose leaders believe that White America, its oppressors, “owe them.” Sadly, in response, a small, but growing movement for a White America was re-galvanized. Most Caucasians previously thought that through a civil war and a bloody civil rights movement, for the most part, race was made irrelevant. But, the emergence of the new Obama-Biden racism only “transformed” a formerly tolerant White America into a less tolerant community.

Nick Fuentes: “It’s always the Black man” (1.3 million followers on X)

Sadly, too many White Americans are now revisiting their segregationist past. Followers of Obama and Biden established the current race-based “supremacy of the oppressed” by extinguishing the dream of individual equality. It was a bad decision.

All too many White people abandoned the goal of equality. For these people, minority supremacy spurred by critical race theory justified the White racism of the Nick Fuentes crowd. Both sides then justified mutual antisemitism. As such, the ethos of equality was weakened. It ended two and a half centuries of progress.

Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carlson- Racism and Antisemitism Join Forces

Nor is it all simply a Black and White dichotomy. In the Balkans that America became, a recruitment contest began between Black America and White America. Will the Hispanics join the Democrats? Can the Republicans peel off the Cuban Hispanics or Asian Americans? Which group will show enough open antisemitism to persuade the Islamic vote? Race, ethnicity, religion and tribalism have made America a nation preoccupied with hate and notions of revenge. It is all surreal when placed against the backdrop an American military asked to fight a shooting war in the Middle East.

Personally, I do not oppose that war. I believe it is necessary to protect Western Civilization. Yet, given America’s internal discord, I do not know whether today’s divided nation can win such a war.

Sure, America has enough bombs and bullets. The American military has the ability to transform Iran first into ashes and then into dust.

My concern is that the hate which Barack Obama and Joe Biden injected into the American ethos will create an insufficient resolve to do what is necessary in order to vanquish America’s external enemies.

Those enemies are now seizing on that disunity. They believe that, like the theory of the atomic bomb, more power comes from implosion than explosion.** Exploiting America’s implosion is Iran’s real nuclear weapon. That weapon cannot be “obliterated” by a B-1 bomber.

With the current war in Iran, the fate of the Western World rests on the ability of a once proud nation to get its house in order and fulfill its promise to create “out of many, one.”

Robert M. Levy

* “Jump the shark” refers to an episode of the T.V. show Happy Days. While on water skis, “The Fonz” flew over a shark. After that episode, the TV show slowly lost its audience and never regained its popularity.

** Simply described, a crude atomic bomb is first triggered first by an implosion which then creates enough pressure to explode the fashionable material.

Robert M. Levy

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Robert M. Levy grew up in Moore County and graduated from Pinecrest High School. He earned a BA in history and sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where his honors thesis on the Wilmington Rebellion of 1898 became part of the university’s library collection.

Admitted to the California State Bar in 1978, Levy practiced law for 40 years in California and Maryland, focusing on family and criminal law, including work with juvenile offenders and abused children. His writing on affirmative action appeared in the San Fernando Valley Law Review, and he authored Divorce: A Cynical Experience. He later earned a North Carolina teaching certificate from UNC Charlotte and taught high school social studies across Moore County.

Levy has served as chairman of the Moore County School Board, president of the North Carolina Electoral College, chairman of the Moore County Republican Party, and a columnist for The Pilot in Southern Pines. He lives in Pinehurst with his wife, Linda, and they have three children and four grandchildren.

March 29, 2026

Republished with permission.

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