The Fall and Our Future

The Fall and Our Future by Gary Bauer

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I'll never forget the emotion I felt watching that stark symbol of communism come tumbling down.

Young Germans poured out of their homes and overwhelmed the security guarding the piece of concrete that physically and psychologically separated East and West Berlin. They quickly began demolishing it piece by piece.

The seeds of the wall's destruction were planted a couple of years earlier in 1987 when President Ronald Reagan delivered one of his most famous speeches.

Standing before the historic Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, Reagan spoke directly to the leader of the Soviet Union and forcefully declared:

"General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

While reflecting on this anniversary, I couldn't help but think of a recent poll of millennials. It found that nearly 70% of millennials are willing to vote for a socialist candidate. Even more frightening, a third said they approve of communism.

How is that possible? How can the most highly educated generation of Americans, with Google literally at their fingertips, be so clueless about what life was like under communism?

This is beyond shocking. It's scandalous. It is a damning indictment of our modern educational establishment and the elected politicians who failed to prevent that establishment from becoming an indoctrination enterprise.

Either we haven't taught our children what the Berlin Wall was and why it came down or we have taught them a lie. Sadly, I fear it is the latter.

I suspect most young Americans are being indoctrinated to believe that capitalism and free markets are evil, that America is evil. So evil, that they're willing to embrace economic and political ideas that have resulted in tremendous death and suffering.

My friends, 30 years ago I thought America had won the Cold War. Apparently, the fight against communism still continues. Only today the battlefield isn't West Berlin. The fight is on our high school and college campuses.