Can a society without certitudes, without norms, without a generally accepted code of conduct survive? Yes, but survival is not the issue. A society that is fundamentally transformed may retain its name and geographic boundaries, but at its cultural core it is different.

Thus, the greatest danger the American Empire faces is not war with ISIS, or China, or Russia. And it certainly is not manmade global warming, which is nothing more than Gorified fiction. The real danger America faces is from the manmade secular-progressive war that is becoming increasingly bizarre and destructive.

Transgender bathrooms … a fictitious war on women … the legalization of illegal immigration … an insistence that bloody acts of terror are “workplace violence” … blaming black poverty on “institutionalized racism” rather than the breakup of the black family unit caused by left-wing politicians … repression of free speech … and a general hatred of all things civilized.

Perhaps never before has the crumbling of America’s once-civilized foundation been more apparent than in two California cities — Costa Mesa on Thursday and Burlingame on Friday — at two Donald Trump events. Young hoodlums who are devoid of both knowledge and purpose succeeded in forcing DT to have to be escorted by police through a back-door and hop over a fence in order to escape unharmed.

The media likes to refer to thugs like those in Costa Mesa and Burlingame as protesters, but a more correct (but politically incorrect) term is “criminals.” However, the rioters/criminals are not the worst of the problem.

The real problem is that authorities are so intimidated that they’re afraid to engage in swift, mass arrests. And even if someone jumping up and down on a police car is arrested, judges are afraid to send a message to other lawbreakers by giving such a social misfit a maximum jail sentence.

But perhaps the worst problem of all is the media. About an hour ago, my jaw dropped when I heard Fox News’s resident idiot, Juan Williams, argue that the rioting was Trump’s fault because he engages in “divisive” rhetoric (a.k.a. “free speech”).

Forget that tens of millions of Americans — who don’t jump up and down on police cars — agree with most of what Trump has to say. It’s a basic tenet of the radical left that all dissent must be quashed by any means necessary. (Suggestion: Read up on Marx, Lenin, and Alinsky.)

Most of the troublemakers appear to be of college age, which means they’ve been taught to engage in envy and hatred rather than critical thinking. And it’s these same non-thinkers who are now able to vote, which doesn’t bode well for a return to a civilized society any time soon.

But … hey … you know what the mayor of Baltimore says: Give space to “those who wish to destroy.” A cute thought, madam mayor, but my take is a little different: I say more arrests, more serious jail time, and, above all, raise the voting-age requirement to twenty-five.

Whoever wins the presidency for the Republicans (and, barring an “emergency” extension of Obama’s second term, a Republican will win) should make his first priority winning the culture war against the secular-progressive hate mongers. If you win that war, everything else falls into place.