Inextricable linkages are defined as something that is impossible to unravel or separate from something else. In yesterday’s world, there was an inextricable link between the United States and being an American.

Our unique system of Government has become compromised and politicized. Politicians have

weaponized the term “Democracy”, saying that it is under threat. Few seem to understand the difference between a Democracy and a Constitutional Republic. Even fewer know that our Founding Fathers intentionally left the word Democracy out of our Constitution. A democracy with strict majority rule and no minority rights has no correlation with our Constitutional Republic.

All government and military officials swear to support and defend the principles of our Constitution based on “We, the people”. That is the fundamental difference between our United States Constitutional Republic and other forms of Democracy. Lately, few seem to understand the level of commitment required when taking that oath. Governance ‘by the people’ is becoming an internal war against governance ‘by an elitist Government’.

Foundational pillars captured in our Constitution and taught in our schools are disappearing. Mutual respect for the balanced separation of Judicial, Legislative and Executive powers and a government founded on human rights and the pursuit of happiness are now being openly challenged by the top echelons of the individual branches.

Perhaps most concerning is the ongoing attacks by the leaders of the Executive and Legislative branches on the Judicial Branch. Warring parents have never had positive effects on the family that depends on them.

Our United States and the concept of Patriotic Americans are no longer one and the same. That inextricable linkage is now being tested at the weakest point in the chain that binds us. Further pressurizing that weakest point is the combination of mass migration, election fraud, unfettered crime and divisive hate taking place within our social systems. It has become the domestic threat the Founding Fathers warned us about.

This sudden movement from good to evil has defied common sense in the eyes of most patriotic Americans.

As a nation, we have survived a Civil War to end the ravages of slavery only to witness the emergence of a new racial divide in the form of identity politics.

Remember when becoming an American required assimilation into our culture and embrace of our ideals?

We are now allowing a migration invasion without assimilation into what it means to be an American. In fact, we are encouraging non-assimilation. The flight of migrants to sanctuary states contributes to further assaulting that inextricable linkage between the United States and being an American.

For some reason, we are now tolerating an open attack on our election integrity processes. The COVID pandemic modifications allowing mass mail-in voting, ballot harvesting and relaxation of deadlines offered a plethora of fraud opportunities. Now those COVID exceptions refuse to be retired. The influx of millions of new migrants offer further challenges to our election integrity with census impacts and the elimination of voter ID. Red lights should be flashing for anyone concerned with the compromise of free and fair elections.

When did we decide that the unfettered increase in crime and the new tolerance for criminal activity for the masses was ok? When did we decide that the invasion of women’s sports by men was ok? Perhaps the most damaging of all, when did we decide it was ok to make our military the petri dish for social change?

Is anyone surprised that our retention and recruitment, critical to maintaining the world’s most capable military force, are both seeing historic lows? It is becoming very clear that you may not eliminate the national embrace of a new ideology through military action but you may eliminate the military by embracing an ideology that ignores the value of their contribution to the freedoms we all enjoy.

So…when did Americans vote for this new definition of America? The answer is that they didn’t. As we look at the state of our nation, there is no yesterday, there is no tomorrow, there is only today…..it is time to take back America.

Mr. Burbage is a Naval Academy graduate, former Navy Test pilot and industry leader. He is working with a group of like minded individuals concerned with the ongoing movement to fundamentally change the focus of our military and specifically our Service Academies.