The Downfall of America

By Jake Klausner

Far too often, people are introduced to a caricature of the conservative movement before they’ve actually heard what the average conservative has to say. In The Downfall of America , Jake Klausner presents a conservative perspective on the forces currently working to tear down long-standing American traditions and institutions. The book outlines the ways in which the Left has waged war against traditional American values and even reality itself. In an age of emotional appeals, it makes the conservative argument using logic and statistics. The challenge conveyed to the reader is simple, but critical: “Don’t let freedom be extinguished in your lifetime; make sure that it’s still there for your kids and theirs.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 20, 2022
• ISBN: 9781665564359

Jake Klausner

Jake Klausner is a teacher from Lenexa, Kansas. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in math education from Emporia State University in 2019. Due to his background in mathematics, he prefers to focus on logic and statistics when it comes to the issues of the day. He never wanted to be involved in political issues, until political issues invaded nearly every aspect of American life in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic beginning in 2020. In writing this book, he hopes to both outline the perspective of the average conservative American citizen and to inspire others to stand up for what he believes to be the greatest country in the history of the world.

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2022 Jake Klausner. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 07/12/2022

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022913421

ISBN: 978-1-6655-6433-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-6434-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-6435-9 (e)

Cover artwork designed by Kelly Cavner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

For my parents, Chris and Becky Klausner, who shaped me into the man that I am today.

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Why I Care

Chapter 2 The Rise of Secularism

Chapter 3 The Subversion of Science

Chapter 4 The Racial Divide

Chapter 5 The Media Deception

Chapter 6 The Assault on Children

Chapter 7 The Woke Parasite

Chapter 8 Leftist Lunacy

Chapter 9 The Evils of Socialism

Chapter 10 Why You Should Care

Acknowledgements

Works Cited

CHAPTER 1

WHY I CARE

A Line in the Sand

For pretty much the entirety of my life, up until the last couple of years, I was completely apathetic towards politics. I just didn’t care about the vast majority of what was going on in the political sphere. Abortion was the one issue that I actually cared about, and I have always been pro-life. However, because I didn’t care much about most of what was going on in politics, I was egregiously uninformed about the state of our country. Sadly, I don’t think that this is uncommon in America today. I think there are far too many politically apathetic people in this country, and I am writing primarily for them. While I certainly hope that all sorts of different people read what I have to say, I really hope to somehow reach the people who are currently in the position that I was in just a few years ago. The demographic that I can have the most impact on is the people who have recently started paying attention to politics for the first time. These previously politically apathetic people are being constantly bombarded with Leftist talking points in all areas of life, but they aren’t seeing much of the conservative point of view. And even if they are, they are most likely hearing it from big name conservatives who the mainstream media has already falsely labeled as horrible bigots. People delving into the realm of politics are often being exposed to a caricature of conservatism before they’ve actually heard what conservatives have to say. I would hope that hearing a conservative point of view from someone who was also reluctant to engage in politics might allow for people to go in with a more open mind, ready to hear the truth and hear how conservatives respond to different issues.

I do need to make it clear that I grew up in a conservative household. My parents voted Republican, and they weren’t shy about their dislike of liberal policies. Additionally, as I said previously, I have always been strongly opposed to the idea of abortion. Because of these reasons, I certainly leaned to the Right for the entirety of my life. However, there was never much real conviction behind that leaning. I was perfectly comfortable staying out of political issues. After all, political issues had never really bothered me. What was going on in politics did not have any impact on my life as a middle school kid or as a high schooler. Even in college, political groups or individuals on campus could largely be ignored. And I was content with that exchange; I stay away from politics and politics doesn’t have an impact on me. This worked for a long time, but at a certain point, the realm of politics could no longer be ignored. And for me, the line in the sand was the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic broke the parity of me and politics avoiding each other. The government forced the school that I teach at to shut down, although fortunately we reopened quicker than the majority of other schools in the area. The politicization of Covid-19 led to increasingly irrational fears among my friends and acquaintances, fears that completely baffled me. The various policies put in place to combat Covid-19 led people to turn on each other in such a dramatic way. Politics had forced its way into my life, and the lives of many people around the country, and I felt compelled to start paying attention to political issues.

As I started looking into the various political issues being hotly debated on the national stage, I began to see just how dire things had gotten in America. I tried my best to seek the truth. I read articles from various sources, to see how different sides of the aisle were presenting the same stories. I looked for actual video footage of different events, rather than focusing solely on the reporting surrounding the incidents, so that I could form my own opinions. Having a background in mathematics education, as I will come back to at several points throughout this book, I focused on finding raw data and statistics, not just the biased interpretations of said statistics. As I sought to find the truth and form my own opinions, I began to see several patterns emerge.

First, I noticed that conservatives were more often the ones arguing for transparency. They were better at referencing their sources to be open about where they were coming from, they played longer and less edited chunks of video footage to provide better context, and they were the ones arguing that we wait to know the facts of a situation before reacting. Second, I noticed that conservatives were the ones who advocated for consistent universal standards. The Left wanted standards to be different for whites and blacks, different for LGBTQ+ people and straight people, different for the elites and the average Americans, different for the vaccinated and unvaccinated, and different in so many other situations. If something is right or wrong for one person, it should also be so for another person in the same situation. However, the Left didn’t agree with that. Finally, I noticed that conservatives were arguing with logic and facts, whereas the Left was arguing with emotions and feelings. This will be a major theme covered throughout the book, and I will cover many cases where the facts back up the conservative point of view. But just to provide the easiest such example right off the bat, look no further than the transgender debate. Their entire argument is predicated on placing a person’s feelings over biological truth. Due to these three patterns that I noticed (transparency, consistent standards, and facts all trending to the Right), it quickly became clear and obvious which side aligned with truth and with my values.

Even though I recognized that conservatives were typically more truthful and useful as sources, I still continued to pay attention to sources that leaned the other direction. I signed myself up for the free subscription to the New York Times, so that I could read a few more articles each month while researching for this book. How many Leftists can say that they ever read articles from the Daily Wire? I would venture to say not very many. While watching conservative commentators, I noticed that they advocated for listening to the other side. Many of them played clips from Left wing activists in full context and provided a rebuttal. Meanwhile, Leftists focused on banning conservative voices from the various social media platforms. This drastic difference in attitude towards the freedom of speech of the opposition made it crystal clear to me that conservatives valued truth and the Left did not.

In some ways, I think that the unconstitutional government overreach during the Covid-19 pandemic was a positive thing. I don’t think that I was the only one who found this to be a line in the sand. I think that was a major wakeup call for a lot of people. And even if that wasn’t directly the wakeup call, seeing the horrendous state of the American education system over Zoom classes might have been. Regardless of when exactly it happened, what’s important is that you recognized that a line, or lines, had been crossed. By virtue of you taking the time to read this book, I am assuming that you’ve had your line in the sand crossed. However, if you have not reached that point yet, maybe my discussions of the forces tearing down our country will get you there. And once you realize just how much is at stake for the future of our country, as I did, I implore you to join in the fight to save America. There can be no going back to political apathy, not unless you’re willing to be a part of the generation that allows the downfall of America to come to fruition.

The Cost of Courage

Rob Smith, an army veteran and openly gay conservative, once said, Honestly, coming out as conservative has been more of an earth-shattering, life-altering move for me, personally, than coming out as gay was. In our culture today, being a part of the LGBTQ+ community is celebrated, and being a conservative is considered to be synonymous with being a bigot. And the reason for this is because the Left, who claims to be so tolerant, views any dissent from their ideology as evil. And they have been so successful at completely dominating the narratives in this country that they have convinced many people that those who disagree with them are evil. Dave Rubin, an openly gay man who describes himself as a classical liberal, had this to say on the matter: Think about your friends on the Left - are they tolerant of people who aren’t for gay marriage? Or of people who are pro-life? These used to be just political differences, and now they are a referendum on what type of person you are and whether you can be in someone’s life at all. Unfortunately, this is the reality that we are living in. There is such a deep divide in our country, and the Left is doing everything in their power to drive us further and further apart, in an effort to force their twisted ideology on all of us.

There is a price to be paid for speaking the truth. There is a cost that comes with having the courage to speak out against the Left. It was not long after I started paying attention to politics that I felt the need to speak out about what was happening in our country. I began posting my thoughts on current events in the country on Facebook, and I started to engage in discussions with people on the issues of the day. And although I feel like I was one of the luckier ones, there was still certainly a price to be paid.

I had a friend at one point, who I had met in high school and had known for around seven or eight years. He was one of the primary reasons that I had a social life in high school at all, as I was a very shy and quiet kid my freshman year. He was one of my closest friends for a long time, and he played a very large role in my life for several years. I never would have expected him to completely turn his back on me over politics, but that’s exactly what happened.

In the middle of the summer 2020 Black Lives Matter riots, I was posting on social media and speaking out against the destruction of people’s communities. In one instance, I made a post about the shooting of Rayshard Brooks which occured that June in Atlanta, Georgia. This was a case where I watched the video footage for myself, rather than allow the mainstream media’s reporting to make decisions for me, and I would recommend that you do the same if you are unfamiliar with this case. I argued that it was wrong for the officer involved in the shooting to be charged with felony murder; I pointed out that it looked to me like the D.A. caved to the mob. Rayshard Brooks made the wrong choice at every turn. He was passed out drunk in a Wendy’s drive-through when the police arrived. He chose to assault the officers, rather than allow himself to be handcuffed. He chose to escalate the situation by starting a brawl. He chose to steal an officer’s taser and attempted to flee the scene. He chose to fire the taser at the officers. Based on his poor choices and his behavior posing a very real threat to others, I believe that the officer in question was justified in his use of lethal force. The officers appeared quite restrained and waited until every other option had been exhausted before firing a gun. And they attempted to provide immediate medical assistance for Brooks, before he died.

My friend tried to argue in the comments that because drunk people don’t make the best decisions, Brooks didn’t deserve to be killed. While it is certainly true that drunk people make poor decisions, it is necessary to realize that it is a choice to reach that level of blackout drunk. And it is an extremely poor choice, which in cases such as this one, endangers the lives of others. My friend then attempted to put words into my mouth and accused me of being racist. In a similar instance, he posted a video about examples of systemic racism. In the comments section, I pointed out that practically all of the policies that the video claimed were evidence of systemic racism were put in place by Democrats. And I suggested that if he didn’t like all of those policies, then the logical solution would be to stop voting Democrat. However, I also made a comment about the positive impact that Donald Trump’s policies had had on the black community, and that did not sit well with him. He launched into the typical Left wing orange man bad tirade that accompanies the mention of his name. I responded to every single claim that he made, agreeing with him on some things that he said about Trump and disagreeing with others. Yet, he made no response whatsoever to the points that I made about Joe Biden, about the policies that he’s supported, or about the positive effects of Trump’s presidency. It felt like I was trying to have a discussion with a wall, and to make matters worse, the Trump debate completely derailed the original point that I was trying to make. I was trying to point out that the policies that he was upset with were all Democrat policies and that there’s no actual backing behind the good guy narrative that the mainstream culture has pushed for them. But that got completely lost in the discussion because of the mention of Donald Trump.

Within a short amount of time, this friend began removing me on all forms of social media, including leaving all group chats that we were both involved in. When I texted him to find out why he’d decided to passive aggressively delete me from his life, rather than have the decency to tell me to my face that he didn’t want to be friends anymore, that turned out to be the final conversation we ever had. He effectively told me that he’d outgrown me as a friend. He gave the impression that because I was voting for Donald Trump, he felt that he was morally superior in some way. At least, that’s what it sounded like to me.

And I’ve had numerous other people cut me out of their lives since I started being open about being conservative. I’ve had all sorts of things said about me. From being told I’m ignorant to being called a living piece of shit, I’ve pretty much heard it all. But the one that hurt the most was when this particular friend threw away a seven year friendship solely over our political differences. And he didn’t even have the respect for that friendship to tell me that he didn’t want to be friends. I found out that that was how he felt because of him removing me on all forms of social media. I never would have thought that he could be that intolerant of someone having a difference of opinion, but sadly, I was wrong.

Despite being cut out of a number of people’s lives and losing friends, I still consider myself to be one of the lucky ones. There are several reasons for this. First of all, speaking out against the Left didn’t cost me my job, like it has for many people. I feel extraordinarily blessed to have the job that I do, teaching at a Catholic school with such a fantastic community around it. Secondly, losing the friends that I did actually turned out to have a lot of benefits in the long run. It showed me that these people weren’t the kinds of people that I needed as friends anyways. It led to me reconnecting with several old friends, who I hadn’t talked to in a while and who agreed with the things that I was saying. And it led me to start being more discerning about the people who I choose to be friends with. Finally and most importantly, my search for truth ultimately brought me closer to God than I had been in a while.

There is a price to be paid for having the courage to speak out against the Left. For me, that price was losing many friends, including one of my closest friends. There are multiple people that I hardly ever hang out with anymore, who I used to spend almost every Friday night with. Lots of people have broken off contact with me entirely. For speaking out against the Left, you will likely have to pay a similar price. However, I am here to tell you that it is worth it. Even though I have lost a lot of friends, I feel much happier now than I did then. Standing for truth and good values has given me more happiness than having those friends ever did.

Why This Book?

Writing a book has been a dream of mine for a very long time. When I was in middle school, I once asked my ELA (English and Language Arts) teacher if she would give me extra credit for writing a book. Of course, being a middle school kid, I didn’t have the conviction to devote the necessary time that it would’ve taken to write a book. And I definitely didn’t have the typing capabilities that I would’ve needed. It would have taken an eternity to type up a book using the chicken pecking typing style that I kept trying back then. I am still not the fastest at typing, but at least I actually know how to type correctly now. For several years in a row, I made it my New Year’s resolution to write a book, but I never got farther than about 25 pages or so. I once tried to group write a book with one of my friends from high school, and we spent several hours just on the character development of the villain. But we never actually wrote more than a chapter or two of the book. When I was in college, I took a creative writing course where I wrote the first chunk of what I’d intended to possibly turn into a book later, but I never came back to it. I have tried over and over again to write a book; it’s always been something that I wanted to do. I feel like I have enough creativity to tell an interesting story, and I would like to one day finish writing a fiction novel. But never in a million years did I expect that the first book that I wrote would be a nonfiction book on current affairs in America.

If someone would have told my younger self that I would one day write a book about politics, current events, social issues, and the like, I would’ve thought it a joke. While I’d always had the goal of one day writing a book, I certainly didn’t set out to write this book. So the question is, how did this book come about?

It didn’t take long after I’d started paying attention to politics to start speaking my mind openly as to what my thoughts and opinions were. Even through the difficulty of having many Left leaning friends cut me out of their lives, I continued to speak the truth. And I started listening to a lot of leading conservative voices, watching their shows and reading their books. It didn’t even have to be books specifically about politics; I have very much enjoyed reading Dennis Prager’s Bible commentaries for example. Then I found out that Will Witt’s book tour would be bringing him to my hometown.

I was really excited to get to hear Will come and speak in person. I ordered his book How to Win Friends and Influence Enemies: Taking on Liberal Arguments with Logic and Humor and brought it to the event to get signed at the book signing afterwards. I really liked hearing what he had to say in his speech, but what stuck with me most actually came when I met him at the book signing. As he was signing my book, I told him how the school that I teach at was actually allowing the parents to choose whether or not their kids had to wear masks, by allowing them to sign a mask exemption form. And he told me how great he thought that was, and he said that we were fighting the good fight. For whatever reason, that comment gave me pause. I realized in that moment that I could be doing more to fight the good fight. I was incredibly blessed that my school was giving the parents the decision making power that they deserved, but I didn’t personally have anything to do with that decision. All that I, personally, was doing to fight was talking to a few friends about the issues of the day and posting my thoughts on the state of the country on social media. I realized that I wanted to do more to fight the good fight. It was shortly after that event that I decided to start writing this book.

My hope is that I will actually be able to reach more people through writing this book and that I will be able to clearly demonstrate the dire situation that we are in as a country. I knew that I could be doing more as soon as Will said that I was a part of fighting the good fight. And I wanted to be doing more. Over the course of the following months, the pages compiled here came to fruition. This was the first book that I started writing that I actually put enough effort into to finish. And that is because the contents of this book have an added layer of significance to them. I have genuine concern about what the Left is trying to do to this country, and I worked diligently to demonstrate why this should be a cause for concern among all Americans throughout this book. I hope that my quest to stand for the truth is clear throughout this book, and I hope that you will join me in this quest.

Why I Care

Once I started to pay attention to politics, there was no going back. Once I saw how infectious and destructive the Left’s ideology really was, I couldn’t turn a blind eye. Once I saw how the Left was living in a fantasy land, I knew that I needed to be a part of the conservative movement in standing for truth. Once I experienced firsthand the intolerance towards differing opinions emanating from the Left, I realized that America was truly being torn apart. Once I began to realize that the downfall of America was at hand, I knew that I had to do something. I couldn’t just sit by and watch as the greatest country in the history of the world was destroyed. I knew I had to do my part, whatever small part that may be.

Throughout the course of this book, I will discuss the issues that I believe are directly leading us to the downfall of this country. It all starts with the rejection of God and the resulting rise of secularism. Every rejection of the truth coming from the Left ultimately stems from the secular intellectual crowd. G. K. Chesterton once said, When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything. This is exactly what has happened. Truth and reality are being rejected in favor of foolish beliefs such as the ludacris idea that men can give birth. And this is because of the lack of wisdom in today’s society, resulting from a rejection of God and the Bible.

Science has been subverted. It has taken on elements resembling a religious cult, in an attempt to fill the void left by the Left’s rejection of religion. Americans are being divided by race. More and more people are rejecting Martin Luther King Jr.’s ideal that people should be judged by the content of their character, rather than the color of their skin. Race is important to only two groups of people: racists and the Left. The media is deceiving people. They are more interested in pushing ideologically driven propaganda than finding the truth. Children, who will be our future, are being inundated with Leftist ideology. All of our culture has been infected by the woke parasite. The Left can’t have any realm in which their ideology does not reign supreme. The Left is full of complete and utter lunacy, devoid of actual logic and reality. The truths of history, particularly the evils of socialism, are also being denied. Leftist ideology has taken a strong hold over our country, and we risk the downfall of America if we don’t stand against it.

So why do I care about all of this? I care because I don’t want to see America continue on this path. In Boy Scouts, I was taught that I should always try to leave a place better than I found it. When we went camping, we were expected to clean up the messes and pick up the trash, even if it wasn’t something that we left there. This is how I feel about America right now. My generation has been left a substantial mess. The Left has corrupted most of the institutions in this country, and the Left holds most of the power and influence. The Left is out to destroy America piece by piece. The values that we once held dear as Americans are under duress. There is a battle between truth and ideology going on all around us. Someone has to stand up and clean up this mess. We need people who are willing to stand up for the truth, whatever the cost may be. And I want to do what I can to help make sure that we leave this place better than we found it for the next generation.

Luckily, our founding fathers made it pretty difficult for the Left to fundamentally transform America. However, American society has nonetheless changed quite drastically, even during the relatively short amount of time that is my life so far. Over the course of this book, I will be focusing on the areas where the Left is actively working to dismantle American values and culture. Seeing all of these things happening in our country is incredibly disheartening. The downfall of America is a reality that needs to be faced. I won’t sit idly by and watch as the country regresses further and further into Leftism. And I hope that, through reading this book, you will join me in standing for truth. Just know that if you don’t stand for the truth now, you may not have the option to do so later. The downfall of America can only be prevented if enough people push back against the destructive Leftist ideology plaguing our country.

CHAPTER 2

THE RISE OF SECULARISM

The American Experiment

America was not made for a godless people, and this is a reality that cannot be ignored. The Declaration of Independence states the following: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. America’s founding was unique in many ways, but this was especially profound. The Declaration of Independence established unequivocally that rights come from God, not from man. As a result, the founding fathers also made it clear that individual rights cannot be taken away by the government, since it was not the government that bestowed said rights. As Samuel Adams, signer of the Declaration of Independence, explained, The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave. Benjamin Franklin shared a strikingly similar sentiment, saying, Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature. The influence of faith in God on the founding fathers had far-reaching effects on the creation of the United States of America, going well beyond solely freedom and individual rights.

As James Madison, the country’s fourth president and the father of the Constitution explained, We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions … upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves … according to the Ten Commandments of God. Madison knew that the system of government that they had designed for the country was meant for a God-fearing people, who lived by the moral principles of the Bible. George Washington, our nation’s first president, echoed this idea, saying, It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the bible. Even Alexander Hamilton, who notably did not speak on God in the Federalist Papers, had this to say following the 1787 Constitutional Convention: For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system, which, without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests. He too recognized God’s presence in the founding of the country.

Arguments from the Left against the premise that America was not made for a godless people completely miss the mark. For example, in a 2015 article for Huffpost, journalist Jeff Schweitzer made the claim that the nation’s founding documents – the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Federalist Papers and the Constitution – unambiguously prove our secular origins. Let’s examine that claim. However, as I pointed out, the Declaration of Independence established the idea that rights come from God, not from man. Schweitzer also claimed that Great Governor of the World was the only reference to God found in the Articles of Confederation and that there were zero references in the Constitution. So we’re just going to gloss over the fact that both documents end with stating the year of our Lord… followed by the date? I mean, if you cut out the closing lines, then there is no reference to God, but that hardly seems intellectually honest. And both Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, two of the authors of the Federalist papers, spoke in clear terms about the connection between God and the founding of the