American Government Breaking Down Because ‘Our Values Are Breaking Down’

Behind the headlines of innumerable legal battles over the last several years lies the story of America’s crisis of faith, as the nation loses its conception of itself and what the nation stands for, one of the country’s top legal experts told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins.

Perkins moderated a panel with state Attorneys General Dave Yost of Ohio and Steve Marshall of Alabama, both Republicans, at the 2024 Pray Vote Stand Summit at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., last Saturday. As the Biden-Harris administration has tried to implement radical policies nationwide, states have stood as one of the last lines of defense. State attorneys general have pushed back against the Democratic administration’s efforts to censor online speech, transfer student loan debt from its borrowers to the American taxpayer, and to foist transgender guidelines on the nation’s public schools and universities. The Founding Fathers intended states to use the doctrine of federalism to defend constitutional prerogatives — but the fact that they have to do so hints at a breakdown in American identity.

“The reason our civic order is breaking down is, because our agreement about our values is breaking down,” said Yost. “There are people that no longer believe in free speech, if you’re saying things they disagree with. There are people that don’t believe that freedom of religion should be part of our bedrock.”

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“Who would have ever thought we’d be fighting over who’s a boy and who’s a girl? Did we expect that to be a fight? No,” agreed Marshall, who has led legal fights over the issue of transgender clinics in his state. “It’s interesting: We led the charge early on in my tenure to beat back an effort to revive the” so-called Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), a 1970s constitutional amendment that critics said could have required federal funding for abortion and forced women into the military draft. Although the measure failed to attain the needed number of state ratifications before the deadline lapsed in the early 1980s — and several states have subsequently withdrawn their support — Democrats during the Biden-Harris administration have tried to act as though the controversial amendment has been approved and is part of the Constitution.

The ERA allegedly argued for “equality of the sexes,” said Marshall. “But when they were debating that amendment years ago, there was no doubt that both the proponents and opponents understood sex meant your gender defined at conception, not your state of mind at a particular moment.” That consensus has frayed in recent years. While most Americans reject the notion that anyone can change sex, the Democratic Party has embraced extreme transgender identity in toto.

The two have suffered for taking their strong stance. Dave Yost had the SWAT team erroneously called to a nonexistent crisis at his home. Similarly, radicals protested outside, chanting, “If abortion is not safe, neither are you.”

“When my wife heard there were going to be protesters at our home, she baked chocolate chip cookies” and set them out for the protesters to enjoy, Yost noted.

“I think mine would have been tempted to get the shotgun,” said Perkins.

“That’s my job,” replied Yost.

Yost does not see a quick and easy solution to the underlying, spiritual problem. “What I’m gearing up for is a much longer battle — not just a legal battle. We have to reconstruct the foundations of our agreement on what America is about. And the church, I think, has an important part in that,” insisted Yost.

The November presidential election will answer the question, “Are we on offense or are we on defense,” Marshall told Perkins. “There’s no doubt that if there’s a change in administration, there’s going to be a wholesale change in philosophy of what government looks like.” He noted that over the last four years, state AGs have used their offices to push back against the Biden-Harris administration. “There would clearly be that effort by AGs on the Left to do the same thing to a Republican administration. And so, our mission at that point is defending the policy changes that are going forward.”

And if Kamala Harris wins the election? “If, in fact, the current administration stays intact, all of these fights that we’ve talked about and more will continue to be front and center for us over the next four years,” said Marshall.

“Y’all, we’re going to be mighty busy.”

LifeNews Note: Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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