Bret Stephens wrote a very important column in the New York Times on Colin Powell on Oct. 19–I read it in print on Wednesday. Among other things, like whether Powell should have run for President in 1996–Stephens sure thought so–he noted that “Powell came of age at a time when American systems worked.” But by the time Powell had finished serving as Secretary of State in 2005, things were different.

Here is the key observation: “But things went badly wrong with America’s systems between the time they had shaped Powell on his way up and the time he had a hand in shaping them from the top. Immigration processes became incoherent. Public education deteriorated. Social mobility stagnated.”

As Stephens knows, a lot else went wrong as well.

Stephens thinks that things would have been better all round if Powell had run and won in 1996. But what he really means by this is, “whatever happened to the sensible and capable country we once had?”

Well, a lot of people would like to know the answer to that question–on both sides of the aisle. But Stephens really doesn’t know. No one does for sure. But a lot of what passes for trying to answer that question is actually just description of it.

As readers of Hallowed Secularism, both here on this website and on the earlier blog website, know, I have an idea of what went wrong–The Death of God Came Home to Roost, a whimsical title for a deadly serious event. That is Part I of The Universe Is on Our Side. Soon you can read it.

Oh, and there is something we can do about it. That is Part II of the book.