Additionally, we cannot afford to take the external threats to our nation lightly. We are at war with genocidal, religious fanatics who are capable of killing American civilians in enormous numbers with nuclear, biological, and chemical attacks on our homeland. The United Nations has become a wretched, corrupt, talking shop that makes the League of Nations look like a model of efficiency and our once great NATO alliance has become a laughingstock.

If Iran isn't stopped from acquiring nuclear weapons, it will create an arms race in the Middle East and will eventually lead to nuclear proliferation around the globe. Remember the very real fear of a nuclear Armageddon that Americans felt during parts of the Cold War? Well, imagine the danger of having 25-30 nations, many of them hostile to the United States, all armed with nuclear weapons.

It has also become impossible to ignore the fact that the cradle of Western civilization, in Europe, appears to be heading into a death spiral. Western Europe is riddled with nations that have stagnant economies, unsustainable social welfare systems, rapidly aging secular populations, and massive problems assimilating new immigrants. It's entirely possible that much of that region, which has long been prosperous and allied with the United States, will be a fast declining cesspool in 30 years.

These are major issues that our nation will have to deal with, today, and in the coming decades. Of course, that doesn't mean we all need to put on "The end is near," sandwich boards and head out to the corner to warn people that we're doomed. To the contrary, Americans have proven time and time again throughout our history that we're capable to meeting any challenge that we choose to take on.

However, we seem to have lost some of the common sense that came so readily to previous generations in our country. We have too many people in this nation who seem to have a minimal knowledge of history and economics, who are ready to abandon the capitalism, independence, and common decency that made this nation into the greatest country this earth has ever seen -- all in exchange for the largely empty promises of demagogues who will "take care of us."

Add to that a heavily partisan, politicized environment where different political parties can't even agree on the most basic facts, much less the issues -- and an incompetent mainstream media that cries wolf on an almost daily basis about something that's going to kill us -- and we're producing a society riddled with people who have extreme difficulty coping with or even recognizing basic threats.

In other words, as a society, we are losing our common sense, our moral compass, and even our survival instinct. For the sake of future generations and for the sake of this country, which has been a gift from God to us and the world, we must do better.