THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # 132, July 21, 2010
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
AMERICA'S DECLINE FORTY-ONE YEARS AFTER APOLLO 11
By Christopher G. Adamo
NASA'S ROLE IN AMERICAN PROGRESS PERVERTED & DIMINISHED BY THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: NASA
ASSIGNED A ROLE MORE TO THE LIKING OF THE AMERICAN POLITICAL & CULTURAL LEFT -- DEGENERATION OF NASA INTO
A PROP FOR "CLIMATE CHANGE" PROPAGANDISTS & THEIR MODERN DAY WAR AGAINST FREE ENTERPRISE CAPITALISM &
CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY -- NASA DEMOTED FROM REPRESENTING AMERICA'S GREATEST SCIENTIFIC RESOURCES TO
SERVING AS A REPOSITORY OF FRAUD & POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM & AS AN INSTRUMENT FOR APPEASING MUSLIM
COUNTRIES & THE GLOBAL ISLAMIST MOVEMENT -- OBAMA & HIS LEFTIST COHORTS REPUDIATING AN IMPORTANT PART
OF THE AMERICAN NATIONAL HERITAGE
FULL STORY:
This week marks the forty-first anniversary of one of America’s crowning
achievements, the first manned landing on the moon. Apollo 11 astronauts
Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, riding on the shoulders of thousands
of engineers, technicians and manufacturers, touched down on the Sea of
Tranquility at 4:53 pm on Sunday, July 20, 1969. During the next twenty-one
hours, they walked on the surface of the moon, planted “Old Glory” there,
and finally lifted off the next day for their return to earth.
This brief foray on another world marked not only the triumph of American
space technology, it represented a pivotal moment in the simmering life or
death struggle for Western Civilization known as the “Cold War” and World War III. The
necessity of American supremacy in space was rightly perceived as a critical
component of American military dominance, and thus reflected its ultimate
ability to employ high-tech means in order to defend itself against
aggression from the Soviet Union.
Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, the space race was
clearly the dominion of the Soviets, who had not only surpassed America by
orbiting Sputnik I, the world’s first artificial satellite, but successfully
put the first human into space a year before the Americans. Unquestionably,
both nations recognized the importance of trumpeting their technological
prowess, and to no small degree, their competing philosophies of Marxism-Leninism and Constitutional
Democratic Capitalism as the driving force behind their achievements.
Of course, once the tide turned against the Soviets in the middle of the
decade, they were compelled to totally shift their public relations campaign
from the former self-aggrandizing of early space milestones, to a complete
disparagement of America’s ability and willingness to spend enormous sums of
money on the moon landing. This has always been particularly ironic, since
right up until Armstrong’s announcement that “The Eagle has landed,” the
Soviets never truly abandoned their efforts to garner some comparable
success, such as the unsuccessful last minute unmanned flight of Luna 15,
with which they hoped to upstage Apollo by returning a sample of lunar soil
to earth.
Hedging their bet, however, they engaged in a public relations campaign that
vehemently denigrated the twenty-four billion dollars spent on the Apollo
program. And, in predictable lockstep, the American political and cultural Left joined in, parroting
Soviet criticism of American technological pursuits. This was particularly
hypocritical and outrageous, since America’s Leftists were among those
crowing the loudest only a few years earlier during the brief period of
Soviet space superiority.
Of course, the Soviets knew they could count on their fifth column of
ideological allies among American Liberals. At no time in history, have those
on the Left been willing to extol the worthy and honorable achievements of
this nation. And the moon landing was not going to be any exception. Rather
than lauding the great accomplishment of Apollo and all of the good that it
represented for humanity, Liberal/Socialist critics lamented that its funds
were squandered in a meaningless quest, instead of being used to “improve”
the lives of people on earth by enslaving them to the public trough.
In the four plus decades since Apollo 11, this nihilistic mindset has only
worsened. Rather than hearkening back to it every July as a shining monument
to American greatness, the moon landing has either been totally ignored or
somehow relegated to an inconsequential status. Few people of the present
day exhibit any awareness of the event at all. And, in a manner much like the
history revisionism that is so pervasive in America’s public “education”
establishment, the last year of the 1960s has since been entirely
defined by riots, anti-war protests, “Woodstock,” and LSD.
Likewise NASA, which once carried the torch of America’s determined effort
to decisively win the Cold War, has since degenerated into a prop for
“climate change” propagandists and their modern day war against free
enterprise and liberty in general. Rather than being an organization
representing this country’s greatest scientific resources, it has become a
repository of fraud and agenda-driven eco-extremism, or political environmentalism.
So, it was really no surprise last month, when NASA Administrator Charles
Bolden proffered the notion, at once dangerous and imbecilic, that, per
Barack Obama, a principal function of the organization is now to “find a way
to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim
nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science,
math, and engineering.” And, though the firestorm of public outrage has since
caused the Obama administration to backtrack, the fact that Bolden would
make such an absurd statement proves how far this agency, and the government
that it represents, have been diminished from their former greatness.
It has been only five months since Barack Obama publicly announced his
intention to cancel NASA’s Aries program, by which it had planned to return
human beings to the moon on a grand scale. It may be fine to squander
trillions of dollars to subjugate America under a system of Euro-socialist
styled “healthcare,” and eagerly lavish similar amounts on every other
decrepit Leftwing social pipedream, but Obama cannot abide the expenditure
of a tiny fraction of that amount on a program that could rally and inspire
the nation, while ensuring its continued standing at the forefront of modern
technology. So, he has disgracefully consigned NASA to more “politically
correct” purposes.
Nevertheless, real flag-waving patriots, who love their country and have not
forsaken their birthright, stand against this effort. Irrespective of the
Liberal political/media establishment, they laud the true heroes and deeds
of greatness. And, on the day when the ravages of Leftist ideology and
governance are relegated to what Ronald Reagan properly termed the “ash heap
of history,” the America which spawned the world’s great inventors, from
Bell, to Edison, to rocket pioneer Robert Goddard, will once again celebrate
its noble heritage.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Outer Space & U.S. Public Policy -- Space Projects & Space Travel:
Tecnological, Military, & Political Significance
American Politics, Political Competition, & the Control of
Public Policy: Elections, Political Parties, Political Factions,
Ideologies, & Special Interest Groups
American Government & the U.S. Presidency:
Presidential Politics & National Leadership
The American Political & Cultural Left:
Liberals, Statists, Socialists, Marxists, & Other Leftists:
The Democratic Party, Academia, & the Mainstream Media
The American Political System:
Politics & Government in the U.S.A.
Christopher G. Adamo is a freelance writer who has been active in Wyoming
politics for many years. Contact information, along with his archives, can be found at
www.chrisadamo.com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity