Thankful for a bygone era and new dawn

By Armstrong Williams - 11/25/10 01:53 PM ET

This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for the Soviet Union. I know this sounds strange and dated, but bear with me. I’m thankful for the Soviet Union because without it, I would not have grown up appreciating this great country as much as I do. When I’ve talked to our younger generation, from children to college students, over the past 10 years, I've heard very little pride for being an American.

Growing up, the USSR was the Big Bad Enemy that was out to destroy America and Western Civilization. Because of this ominous and ever-present threat, we as Americans had to remain steadfast to the principles that made America great — Freedom, Truth, Hard Work, and Justice.

The fall of the Soviet Empire created not only a vacuum, but began to subtly provoke the questioning of whether America really was the “Good Guy.” It was easy when we knew who the bad guys were and could consider ourselves the underdog, in a way. We were now the biggest game in town, and as such, we have become the target, culpable for every ill in this world. Africa is poor? America’s fault. Amazon rain forest being razed? America did it. AIDS? Secret American bio-weapon. On and on. It did not take long for those within our borders to take up the refrain. It became to be seen as naive and puerile to be proud of and love America. Everything that had been great about America became anathema. It also led us to slowly give into the tyrannical and socialism policies of our former enemy — torture, foreign wars based on meager evidence, government handouts and bailouts, and world apology tours for the evils of our distant (and not so distant) past.

Without our great antagonist, we began to fall asleep — allowing sloth, moral decay and entitlement mentality to take over our way of life. Rather than act as the bulwark against this putrefaction, our government (both Republicans and Democrats) largely went along with it and even encouraged such behavior.

But this past year, America finally started to wake up to the problems that have crept in over the past 20 or so years. The Tea Party, for all its warts, served as a shot across the bow to all politicians that were weren’t going to allow this great country slip quietly into the wayside of history.

I honestly thought the liberal ideas that Barack Obama and the far left had been espousing were where we were headed, especially in regards to healthcare and their attempts to cosign America to “once great nation” status. But the American people restored my faith in this country by remembering the lessons we held so dear when the Red Menace loomed. Today, I am thankful in seeing "We The People" waking up to a new dawn and recommitting ourselves to the principle ideals of the nation. Freedom! Liberty! Justice!

Thank God I’m an American!

Armstrong Williams is on Sirius/XM Power 169, 7-8 p.m. and 4-5 a.m., Monday through Friday. Become a fan on Facebook- www.facebook.com/arightside, and follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/arightside.