Facing Up to Corruption in Modern America

John Balzar’s April 23 commentary, “Corruption Eats Like Rust Into Society’s Mettle,” asks important questions about the state of decline of our society. At the end of the piece he reminds us that America ultimately responded to the previously worst-case era of decline, the “Gilded Age,” with a sociopolitical revolution called the Progressive movement. Since that day in 2000 when the Supreme Court essentially appointed an illegitimate president, I have watched America beginning to experience a deep decline, both morally and economically, and I can’t help but feel there is another revolution beginning to simmer in response.

If revolution is coming, none of us knows exactly how it will play out. But one thing seems certain: Those of us who are patriotic believers in the vision of the founding fathers and the Constitution they gave us will not tolerate the incredible corruption and lawlessness of the current administration for very long.

Bruce Albertine

Port Hueneme

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Re “Freedom, American-Style” (Commentary, April 23) and Balzar’s commentary: Wow! Such deft pessimism. Such apt rapture over our national decline! Have we done anything right? I guess not. We never saved Europe, never helped Japan and South Korea become leading economic powers. Nor have we become such a compassionate, creative, liberal and productive power ourselves.

We’ve been so horrible. What a bunch of bums we’ve all been, tolerating all that corruption. I guess I’ve been fooling myself all these years. I thought I still lived in a great country. Oh, how wrong I’ve been. Boo-hoo, boo-hoo. I guess we’ve just got to crawl into a collective hole and die. And all this time I thought we were special. Time to be like the rest of the world, I guess. Hello, France. Hello, Russia. Hello, China.

W. Clifford Vining

Santa Ana

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Balzar hits a sensitive note, as the subhead states, “In our powerlessness, we tolerate those who debase our values.” The immediate issue then becomes “whose values”? That has been the transformation of our “progressive” society. Whose values? Who judges?

Ayn Rand might have the answer: “The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it” (“Atlas Shrugged,” 1957). America has lost the value of respect and added the value of toleration. Progress? I don’t think so.

Roy A. Fassel

Los Angeles