The phrase national decline finally has entered the lexicon of American political thought – and not soon enough.  How much time America has to address its national decline is an interesting question given that the nation’s government has entered a period of stagnation and ideological paralysis.  The institutions of government, paralyzed by the nation’s increasingly polarized and monetized politics, show no signs of being able to put forth strategies to sustain the nation’s future.

Already failing to provide a way forward on the economy, the national government and, increasingly, state governments cannot address the costs of the country’s social safety nets that will continue to vex the economic, political and social future of the country unless they are reformed and restructured and new ways are found to deliver critical services more inexpensively.  The federal and state social programs to which many Americans by law are entitled long have exceeded the nation’s projected tax revenues and are no longer sustainable.

Even so, intense battles of ideology leave little room for collaborative progress or for common sense on how to cut the deficit or restore fiscal integrity to the nation’s budget, and special interests and lobbyists snuff out the remainder of the public’s interest.

Meanwhile, implacable terrorists threaten the nation’s security, and a worried people in response empower authorities at all levels to undermine the fundamental democratic principles of the American way of governance.  The same ragged but committed collection of unwavering enemies has pushed the country into a torrent of anti-immigrant paranoia that tolerates the violation of the civil rights of American citizens who should not be suspect.

In many cases, local and state legislatures are using protection of the homeland to target HispanicLatinos – citizen and non-citizens alike – with new, punitive laws and draconian practices that subvert the very concept of America.  The new restrictions being enacted throughout the country eventually will be proven ineffective but in the time being will do great damage to America, perhaps too much damage for it to have time to recover.  The last group a nation should insult and demean is one of its fastest-growing parts.

Every HispanicLatino in the country – even those living in the tallest condominiums in Florida or the most private reserves in the hills of Texas and California – should be under no illusion that some of their fellow Americans want to take the country back to before 1965, when the civil rights of minorities were easy targets for state legislatures and city councils.  In some states, HispanicLatinos are seeing a return to those days of yesteryear.

Many lawmakers, supported by many Americans – in thinking they are defending the country – seem bent on returning to a time long gone with the wind, and they are instead offending the Constitution when they empower individual law officers to act in wanton disregard for individual liberties.  HispanicLatinos of all political persuasions and social standing should fiercely oppose any attack in whatever form on any part of their community, legal or otherwise.

Having to worry about how much time America has to right itself, HispanicLatinos cannot obsess about the past but they must also prevent any part of it from ever being repeated.

While HispanicLatinos cannot forget the exclusionary history that brought them to this place and time, neither can they engage in its endless retelling if it only validates their lack of progress and provides excuses for minimal achievement.  Instead, they must aspire to greater self-awareness of themselves and their immense personal potential.  They must appreciate the enormity of their current circumstances, and they must understand fully the contours of the impending future – something that America as a whole is lacking and struggling to attain.

Having been outside the mainstream flow of America’s development in its first two hundred years might help HispanicLatinos ensure the country endures another two centuries.

Feel free to forward these blogs adapted from previous writings, with additional thoughts published invariably in between.