Don’t Cry for Me America

• “We have decided to embrace the values of the West.” (Javier Mili)

An interesting thing happened along the way to the orchestrated demolition of Western values, traditions, and governance: someone didn’t think to tell the Argentinian people that America was already throwing in the towel in defending all of that anymore. 

During his recent visit to the US, Javier Milei, the newly elected president of Argentina, is making it no secret why he prevailed in the election runoff against Sergio Massa. It seems the man—identified variously by the news media as far-right or right-wing libertarian—not only understands why, he doesn’t hesitate in saying it. He is turning to the values of America’s Founding Fathers to save his country.

Milei recently met with Ben Shapiro, editor emeritus of The Daily Wire, and he spells out what is now happening and why. “We have decided to embrace the values of the West,” Milei explains in a wide-ranging interview with him. “And embracing the values of the West means embracing the Founding Fathers of the United States.” [https://www.dailywire.com/news/javier-milei-tells-ben-shapiro-the-ideas-of-americas-founding-fathers-will-save-argentina?topStoryPosition=3] He reminded Shapiro that Argentina—and the original Argentine Constitution—was fashioned after the US Constitution and our country in the 1880s.

Milei is onto something: a strong constitutional republic—a nation of democracy and laws that can only re-emerge when people will simply mature.

He likens the Argentinians to now “putting on their long pants.” He also tells us that Argentina became a leading world power after “having been a backwater.” History proves this. According to Wikipedia, “Argentina possesses definite comparative advantages in agriculture because the country is endowed with a vast amount of highly fertile land. Between 1860 and 1930, exploitation of the rich land of the pampas [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pampas] strongly pushed economic growth. During the first three decades of the 20th century, Argentina outgrew Canada and Australia in population, total income, and per capita income. By 1913, Argentina was among the world’s ten wealthiest states per capita.” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_Argentina] A military coup in September of 1930 brought the collapse of the constitutional government and initiated the long sequence of weak democracies, punctuated by coups d’état and military dictatorships, that remained the cardinal feature of Argentine politics into the 1980s. 

Then Milei, (pictured) raised as a Catholic who converted to Judaism, made this unexpected observation during the interview: “Without doubt, the greatest freedom hero of all times is Moses. This is why it’s so important to understand the link between freedom and Israel.” Then, after searching for the right words, he said, “[Israel] has achieved a synthesis between the spiritual and the material.”

There are a lot of reasons why Israel must defend herself, and just as importantly, America must commit to assisting her in that defense. America once embodied the synthesis of the spiritual and the political to the benefit of many generations. A Jewish Argentinian seems to understand the genius America is letting slip away.

For many of the leading thinkers I regularly follow, there is a growing optimism among many, that religion—specifically Christianity and Judaism—is becoming increasingly desirable, worthy of serious consideration. Putting aside the “Cultural Christianity” Richard Dawkins [https://answersingenesis.org/christianity/dawkins-the-cultural-christian/] yearns for, there have been, and now are, a growing number of atheists who are turning to Christianity, as they awaken to the notion that their godless religion has failed to provide an explanation to what they have observed, and which materialism no longer offers any persuasive argument. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_converts_to_Christianity_from_nontheism]

It’s with this development in mind that I make this observation of my own: there is a form of awakening—not a revival mind you, as that demands that one was once “vived,” is growing in the West. I’m speaking of the hope that intellectuals, scientists and philosophers, a few political leaders, and even those that some would call “thought leaders” are forming a renewed interest in God and beyond the material world. Many are saying the quiet part out loud, that this is likely because we must first usher out the old and usher in the young.

The irony is that America is watching someone they were told in 2020 was going to unite the American people—and bring transparency and honesty back to the presidency. Of course this is nonsense, and the reason has become increasingly clear. He appears to be in some stage of dementia, and reliant on either exceedingly poor advice, or is simply being manipulated. Most importantly, he is dithering on defending the state of Israel, while trying desperately to appease the state of Iran. Likely, the latter is to protect the disastrous decision by his former boss, Barak Obama, to provide Iran nuclear armaments. We now see how that’s working out.

You may wonder why I’m speaking of an awakening when there is a bumper crop of end-times predictions and prophesies bandied about. In and of itself, there is nothing wrong about studying Christian eschatology. Indeed Christianity has by far and away the most to say about the science and understanding of the last things. But I also think Christians must step up the pace in advancing the Kingdom of God—Christendom—in the here here and now through evangelism and discipling; something in which I fear we’re failing. I wonder if God will use an Argentinian economist-cum-president, to encourage us.

If Andrew Klavan’s analysis is correct, and it is, we are at the point where this era is ending, and the new one is preparing to emerge. While this election is unusual for a former president facing his successor, it’s not unique. “John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson faced off twice for the presidency. The first time was in 1824, when Adams prevailed, and the second was in 1828, when Jackson became president by beating the incumbent Adams.” And then there is Grover Cleveland—who so far “is the lone president in U.S. history to serve two non-consecutive terms. He successfully pulled off what Trump is now attempting—winning back the White House from the opponent who took it from him.” [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/the-biden-trump-sequel-isnt-the-first-u-s-presidential-rematch]

Whatever we might say about either man, America’s electorate is looking at the end of an era where the oldest generation is leaving to the younger, a nation as sharply divided as any time in history since the Civil War. Now the younger generations must put on their long pants and put aside the notion that socialism has ever succeeded at anything… except to usher in corruption, incompetence, suffering, and shame. They are being set up to inherit either blessings or the whirlwind.

• In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:11-12 ESV)