If I had to pick the precise moment that soul was cut out, I’d say it was the legalization of pornography. The left made the case that pornography was speech and thus protected by the 1st amendment. The right acquiesced in the name of fairness (not wanting to have a “rules for thee but not for me” situation).

Now the left is in charge and they’re perfectly happy having rules for us but not for them and as you say, the soul of the nation is gone.

It’s hard today to believe that both Reagan and Nixon won with huge majorities. We never should have given an inch on the issue of pornography. Freedom of speech is about expressing ideas, and there’s no particular idea being expressed in pornography. But that was the first step on the road to hell