For the past 40 years – roughly the period of time that Democrats have been an unserious confederacy – Republicans have grown used to a certain smallness in chief executives from the opposition party. Jimmy Carter gave us a sense of malaise. With Bill Clinton, it was a kind of repellent amusement. All things considered, it was hard to feel too threatened when there was a through-the-looking-glass quality to the man in the Oval Office.

Not so Barack Obama. Talk to conservatives throughout America and you’ll hear two emotions: fear and sadness. Fear because many believe that the president’s agenda represents an inflection point in the nation’s history. Sadness because there is a lingering suspicion that once down this road we can never turn back.

The Obama Administration has trapped even healthy banks in the spider’s web of the TARP program, refusing to let them leave until an ineffable standard of “systemic health” is met. It has presumed to devise business strategy for the American automobile industry – perhaps a fitting symbiosis since Detroit and Washington are the nation’s twin cities of institutionalized failure. It has suggested it should have the authority to unilaterally seize industries it deems “too big to fail.” It has fired corporate executives, set rates of pay and threatened to embarrass or exterminate those who stand athwart it. This is how a society gives up its economic liberty.

Obama has proposed a budget that will send the U.S. debt level to 80 percent of GDP (the equivalent of making $60,000 a year while carrying $48,000 in credit card debt). He has advanced a cap and trade proposal that would cost nearly 3 million jobs in the manufacturing sector and drain the American economy of nearly $5 trillion – while having virtually no impact on climate. And he has proposed raising taxes by $1.4 trillion. This is how a nation chokes off its engines of prosperity.

As of this week, federal revenues have become the primary source of income for state and local governments. And that money comes with strings attached. For example, states that accepted funds from the President’s stimulus package were required to permanently expand their unemployment benefits, driving a stake through the heart of the welfare reform that was the signal social policy achievement of the 1990s.

The few governors who stood up to Washington’s attempt to usurp state authority were labeled obstructionists and opportunists. Shortly thereafter, a report from Obama’s Department of Homeland Security labeled as “right-wing extremists” those who “… [reject] federal authority in favor of state or local authority.” This is how the 10th amendment’s limits on the federal government – long fading – become dead parchment.

Obama has proposed to rescind protections for medical personnel who choose not to participate in procedures such as abortion because of moral convictions – this despite the fact that America’s Catholic hospitals have said they will close before being coerced into violating their convictions. If this comes to pass, an administration ostensibly devoted to health care will have shuttered 13 percent of the nation’s hospitals overnight.

The former community organizer also proposed to lower tax deductions for donations to charities and non-profits – a move that would take billions of dollars out of the hands of those on the front lines of volunteerism. And his administration has made clear that the health care, energy and education sectors will be run according to the dictates of Washington, not the will of consumers. This is how civil society – the truest expression of the phrase “self-government” – is devoured by the state.

As Iran prepares nuclear weapons with the explicit purpose of finishing the work that Hitler began, Obama sends them a videotaped New Year’s message. As the proliferating regime in North Korea tests long-distance missiles, he gives a quixotic speech in a European capital about a nuclear-free world. As Pakistan is threatened with its nuclear arsenal falling into the hands of Islamic extremists, the President’s functionaries drone on about the Asian nation’s need for judicial reform and bilateral trade agreements. This is how a proud and strong nation shuts out reality.

Freedom, prosperity, limited government, a vibrant civil society, a strong national defense. Each is an essential part of the American experiment. And Obama is certainly not the first occupant of the White House to do them violence. What sets this administration apart, however, is that never before has any assault on these core values been so fast, so focused, and so potentially irreversible. That which government once touches – be it the private economy or the rights of the states – tends to be in its embrace forever. And certain defeats – nuclear-armed terrorists or an Israeli genocide, for example – can’t be offset by future victories.

The United States of America is, thus far, the most successful experiment in human history. In only a few centuries, this nation has generated more prosperity, liberated more people from tyranny and created a bigger sphere of human freedom than any country that has ever existed. But a liberal society – particularly one that leads the world – is a difficult endeavor to sustain. Affluence can descend into indulgence. A noble ambition for peace can be perverted into an inability to see gathering threats. And crumbling self-confidence can lead a people to permanently mortgage their liberty. This is how civilizations die.

Every generation of Americans is responsible for preserving the national inheritance and ensuring that such a dire fate never befalls this great land. In an hour when our founding principles are under attack, it’s time to renew our commitment to that patriot’s covenant. That is how a nation endures.