Why did we stop going to the moon?
Well, the short and most direct and correct answer is liberalism.
The early stirrings of "Woke."
The miracle of Apollo, as envisioned by the great American exceptionalist and anti-communist John F. Kennedy was to beat the Russians to the moon, but also to go on to the planets and the stars. He said so often.
Which meant not just going to the moon once but multiple times.
Manifest Destiny has always been a part of the American ethos.
This belief originated in the 19th century was for Americans to spread republican government, freedom, and free markets into the West.
This philosophy then included the waterways and oceans, then the skies and finally the heavens beginning with low earth orbit then expanding to the moon . . . and beyond.
We easily justify it because American Exceptionalism is superior to any other way of life.
It has been 50 years since the last Apollo mission, named "America" for the command module and "Challenger" for the lunar module, landed and astronaut Gene Cernan took note of the last mission, saying, "We leave as we came, and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind."
Federal budget cutbacks by liberals in congress eliminated Apollo 18, Apollo 19 and Apollo 20. All missions had audacious plans including landing on the dark side of the moon.
So liberals, in their borderline wisdom — just as we were perfecting missions into space including to the moon — cancelled our program and severely cut NASA's budget.
Liberals used — as they always use — the "priorities on Earth" argument.
Yet 50 years later we still have the poor among us, we still have the homeless among us.
NASA then in the 1970s kick off one of the inanest space programs ever, "Misson to Planet Earth."
It involved sending into space Skylab, which was essentially a giant grain silo where astronauts took more and more useless pictures of planet Earth, like some weekend tourists vising the Mall in Washington.
It was the ultimate in naval gazing.
They observed ants in space but in reality, the ants were probably watching the
hapless astronauts instead.
The organization also changed it logo, from the retro but also inspirational blue one representing the best of Americanism to an antiseptic "NASA" as if it was a sign giving directions in a hospital ward.
Liberals were also to blame for the disastrous Columbia shuttle mission, when super frozen insulation smashed into the wing of the spacecraft, dooming the astronauts on reentry.
Radical environmentalists had complained about the previous insulation, (which was safe) claiming it polluted the Everglades.
Fifty years of space exploration have been wasted because of liberals and their hatred of American exceptionalism, but that "the sun is setting on America" false argument governing our space program is over.
A new dawn is cresting for America, and our space program is finally back on track because of a new American exceptionalism, coming from President Donald Trump.
American patriotism is fashionable again thanks to him.
America's can-do spirit it back.
And we all feel happier again as we have left behind the dyspeptic era of Joe Biden, surely the worst president in American history.
Godspeed America! Godspeed our new astronauts!
Presidential Historian and Reagan biographer Craig Shirley is a prolific author and has written many articles and essays on politics, and the conservative movement. Read more Craig Shirley Insdier articles — Click Here Now.
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