THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 155, July 15, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
APOLLO 11, AMERICA FORTY YEARS LATER
By Christopher G. Adamo
HOW REAL AMERICANS CAN BEGIN TO RECLAIM THEIR COMMON NATIONAL CULTURE & HERITAGE FROM THE DISEASED
MOUTHPIECES OF THE ANTI-AMERICAN POLITICAL & CULTURAL LEFT: GIVE PROPER CREDIT TO AMERICA'S REAL
HEROES, STARTING WITH THE MEN OF APOLLO 11 WHO FIRST JOURNEYED TO THE MOON, ALONG WITH ALL THOSE OTHERS
THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY WHO, BY THEIR TALENTS, DILIGENCE & COMMITMENT TO THE GREATNESS OF AMERICA,
DARED TO SEND THE THREE ASTRONAUTS TO THE MOON
FULL STORY:
For some, the decade of the 1960s will be remembered for anti-war protests, flower children, love beads and Woodstock,
along with all of their accompanying societal debauchery. Among others however, a far more glorious aspect of that
tumultuous time will always remain preeminent.
In the midst of the unraveling of the national fabric, an enormous contingent of inspired and dedicated Americans had
committed themselves to doing the impossible. And, at 4:53 p.m. on Sunday, July 20, 1969, the words of Apollo 11
Commander Neil Armstrong crackled back from the surface of the moon across a quarter of a million miles of space to
Houston, Texas, proclaiming to all the world that “The Eagle has landed,” and the impossible had been achieved.
Only a dozen years earlier, the post-World War II optimism of America and the rest of the free world had been
completely shattered by news of the successful Soviet effort to orbit Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. Gliding
silently across the night sky with a menacing serenity, it alerted the West of a serious technology deficiency that many
feared was a harbinger of eventual Soviet dominance, not only in space, but on earth as well.
Of course, the Soviets zealously exploited their accomplishment, shortly following it with the spectacular launch of
Sputnik 2, a much larger satellite, in which rode “Laika,” the dog. Weeks later, an American attempt to orbit its own
artificial satellite ended with the humiliating explosion of Vanguard One. With each passing day, the grim possibility of
Soviet hegemony in space and on the ground increased.
America scrambled to keep apace, finally getting Explorer 1 into orbit in January of 1958. Nevertheless, early efforts to
narrow the technology gap appeared futile. On April 12, 1961, Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became history’s first man in
space, making a single orbit of the earth, before safely landing deep inside Russia. It seemed that the Soviet Union was
destined to dominate the high frontier.
Yet, in retrospect, the United States was only warming up to the challenge. On May 5, less than a month after Gagarin’s
journey, Alan Shepard completed the successful suborbital flight of Freedom 7. And, in a bold move coming on the heels
of that comparatively minor venture, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy presented his famous challenge to America to
land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth before the end of the decade. The space race was on.
Very quickly, it became apparent that once the America of that era set itself upon such a course, little could stop it. By
the middle of the decade, American space technology had far surpassed the Soviets. Worse still for them, a series of
major catastrophes rendered a manned Soviet moon mission, clearly their early intent, to be an impossibility. So, they
changed the rules of the game.
On one front, they made a frenzied effort to return a sample of lunar soil, via an automated probe, to earth prior to the
Americans, stridently promoting the notion that an unmanned mission would be technologically superior and less costly.
Their desperation became glaringly obvious in 1969, as they frantically made two failed launch attempts of their “Luna”
moon probe, one on June 14, and the other on July 13. Either of which, had they been successful, might conceivably
have given their propaganda minions sufficient political ammunition to make claims that the mantle of Soviet superiority
remained within the Iron Curtain.
On another front, they began a propaganda blitz deriding the exorbitant American expenditures required for manned
lunar travel. In this endeavor, and with the help of the increasingly Left-leaning American media, they were far more
successful. By the time Armstrong planted his boot on the lunar surface, many media minions and cultural icons had
taken the bait and essentially became embarrassed over the whole event. America’s greatness had been turned into a
liability. What should have been a day of shining achievement had degenerated into a heated national debate.
As an omen of the eventual collapse of America’s former recognition of its own greatness, the Apollo 11 episode is
difficult to surpass. Before long, other great achievements and milestones were regularly being assessed from a
completely derisive and negative perspective. It was no longer surprising to hear the most defamatory and biased
coverage of any prominent historical figure or event, from the character of George Washington, to the 1992
half-millennium commemoration of the landing of Christopher Columbus, to the 1995 fiftieth anniversary of the Enola
Gay mission to drop the atom bomb on Japan and thus end the Second World War.
So jaundiced has the media “prism” since become that now, every noteworthy episode of its rich history is predictably
formed and flaked into the public relations advantage for the political Left. Thus, President George Walker Bush’s
carrier landing aboard the Abraham Lincoln, which once might have been cheered by the press and public alike as a
stirring boost to troop morale, was, instead, perversely recast into a major controversy.
Somehow, arriving on deck in the rear seat of a U.S. Navy fighter jet and declaring “Mission Accomplished” to America’s
victorious military troops, as well as to their vanquished enemies, constituted a grave impropriety. In contrast, Barack
Obama continues to receive gushing media accolades for swatting a fly.
Consequently, in 2009, Barack Obama presents America to the rest of the world, not as its great hope of liberation, justice,
and prosperity, but as apenitent former antagonist, regretful of supposed wrongs committed against the entirety of
humanity. Yet, with telling hypocrisy, he studiously ignores the flagrant abuses of human rights regularly perpetrated by
those he seeks to impress with his fawning.
With so much of the nation’s culture and history being evaluated from this warped perspective, it is small wonder that
any celebration of the moon landing, perhaps the greatest technological accomplishment of all human history, will, in
retrospect, be thoroughly eclipsed by something as trifling as the funeral of a notoriously bizarre pop singer. Sadly, few
Americans can even name any of the courageous dozen of their countrymen who have walked on another world.
If real America truly wants to reclaim its culture and its heritage from the diseased mouthpieces of the political Left and
its “useful idiots” of the pop culture, it can start by giving proper credit to its real heroes, starting with the men of Apollo
11 who first journeyed to the moon, along with all those others throughout the country who, by their talents, diligence,
and commitment to the greatness of America, dared to send them there.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Government & the U.S. Presidency:
Presidential Politics & National Leadership
The American Political System:
Politics & Government in the U.S.A.
The American Nation & Its Common National Culture:
Political Culture, Patriotism, & American National Identity:
The Basic Values, Beliefs, & Traditions Characteristic
of American Society & Its Civic Culture
American Nationhood & American National Sovereighty:
The United States of America as a Single Sovereign Nation-State:
Potecting & Preserving American National Independence,
America's Common National Culture & Identity,
& American National Interests
The News & Entertainment Media: Political & Ideological Bias
The American Political & Cultural Left:
Liberals, Statists, Socialists, Marxists, & Other Leftists:
The Democratic Party, Academia, & the Mainstream Media
Liberalism Versus Conservatism in American Politics
-------------------------
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY & POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES:
COMPETING SYSTEMS OF POLITICAL THOUGHT
Conservatism
Traditional Conservatism: Questions & Answers
Conservatism: Attitudes, Types, & Present Status
Constitutional Conservatism: American & British
Liberalism
Classical Liberalism: Intellectual Foundations
Classical Liberalism: Conservative Liberalism
Manchester Liberalism & Social Darwinism
Modern Social "Liberalism": Statist "Liberalism"
Radical & Totalitarian Ideologies
Radicalism, Utopianism, & Totalitarianism
Christopher G. Adamo is a freelance writer and staff writer for the New Media Alliance. He lives in southeastern
Wyoming. He has been active in local and state politics for many years and is a managing partner in Best American Buy
(www.bestamericanbuy.com), an e-commerce business that markets products exclusively made in America. His contact
information and archives can be found at www.chrisadamo.com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity