“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” — George Santayana

The above quote is attributed to Spanish political philosopher George Santayana. However, many of us recall Sir Winston Churchill’s 1948 speech where he paraphrased this quote, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” No truer words have been spoken, but one could argue that the original assertion of these quotes came from the great and wise King of Israel, Solomon in Ecclesiastes 1:9 (New International Version), “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

This week we will witness events that could signal the demise of our Constitutional Republic. We are approaching another debt ceiling dispute, while the debt of these United States of America breaches $32 trillion. We are also watching the end of the national sovereignty of our Republic as hundreds of thousands await storming the gates to gain illegal entry into America.

When one studies the factors which brought about Rome’s collapse, and I dare not advance the idea that America is an empire, we see them being repeated here. There were three prominent contributors to Rome’s demise.

First, Rome no longer was a place of production, they outsourced more and more of its productivity to its outlying provinces. Sound familiar? The fact that America has outsourced so much of its production to our number one geopolitical foe, should be quite disconcerting. A case in point: my little grandson Jaxton will turn two next week. I thought it would be great to get him a trampoline for his birthday. Doggone, the rascal was made in China. At least I can boast of living in Garland, Texas, which is the cowboy hat capital of the world.

What also led to Rome’s demise is that they outsourced their military service to subjects in the provinces, fewer Romans actually served. Remember, in the movie “Gladiator” Russell Crowe’s character General Maximus Desmus Meridius was from Spain. America is already suffering from a lack of meeting retention and recruitment goals for our military.

Perhaps there is a reason why there are tens of thousands of single, military aged males and females lining up to illegally enter America this week . . . and already have.

Secondly, Rome devalued its currency and faced massive economic disaster, not much different from us in America today. We cannot continue to attempt to print money to resolve the issue of abysmal fiscal policy. Our economy is artificial, due to Federal Reserve “quantitative easing” manipulation,” especially the manipulation of interest rates to cover for the failing economic policy, and dangerous levels of federal government spending. Our debt is cresting $32 trillion. Our last quarter GDP read was 1.1 percent resulting in a debt to GDP ratio of nearly 130 percent. We are way past redlining our economy, and the resulting failure of three regional banks, Silicon Valley, Signature, and New Republic are indicative of such.

There is a popular quote attributed to Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero, which some say is an amalgam of several sources that include him, “The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt.” The provenance of the quote is of less concern than its prescient veracity, and relevance for America.

Lastly, as we have alluded to earlier, Rome did not protect its northern border and eventually the Visigoths, a Germanic tribe, led by Alaric sacked Rome in 410 AD. In just two and a half years we have seen between 6-7 million illegally enter America across the southern border. Reports are that another 700K-1 million lie in wait to rush our border. No one is enacting the policies to stop this invasion: not Joe Biden, nor Texas Governor Greg Abbott. With all that we are facing in America at this point, being overrun at our southern border which is operationally controlled by a transnational narco-criminal terrorist organization does not bode well.

Andrea Widburg recently wrote a very good article for American Thinker titled, “A Constitutional Amendment Could Help Fix Our Broken Border.” She points to the misuse and abuse of the 14th Amendment “equal protection under the law” clause. First, we must remember that the purpose of the 14th Amendment was to provide citizenship and protection to the recently freed slaves of the 13th Amendment. The 14th Amendment today is being used as a catch-all, especially for the ideological agenda of the progressive socialist left.

Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, often cited as the equal protection under the law clause, states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law that shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

The question of open borders and the 14th Amendment is the lack of clarification to those illegally within the jurisdiction. That distinction is not explicitly affirmed. Regardless, how can we offer constitutional rights and protections to those whose first act to enter the United States was unlawful? America is a sovereign nation, a Constitutional Republic with borders that are to be regarded, and laws that are to be respected. Anyone failing to do so should not be afforded equal protection under our laws! If that ends up being the case, then America is relegated to just being a piece of terrain by which anyone can illegally occupy . . . the leftist, and global elitist belief is rooted in the concept of no borders, no wall, no USA at all.

The echoes of Rome are sounding off in stentorian volume, shall we heed them? We here at the American Constitutional Rights Union will fight for the constitutional rights, freedoms, and liberties of Americans, citizens and those recognized as legal immigrants. Yes, we respect the human race, but our rule of law, and our sovereignty demand respect as well.

Steadfast and Loyal.