Ben Stein Dreemz


What Happened to Our Amazing America?


A


typical sunday morning. Dreadful pain from medical issues. For most of my life, I could address this nightmare with meds.


Today, thanks to the draconian “War on Drugs,” which is really a “War on the Elderly,” I am immobilized for hours at a time and made to drink gallons of herbal tea. This latter was a tip from my supersmart sister. Then off across to the east side


to see a movie at the American Cinematheque, far off to what was once a chic corner of Los Angeles. Now, not so much. Block after block is filled with


empty storefronts. And why not? Why drive across town past this depressing landscape when I could go online to Amazon and buy whatever I want? Yes, it makes for lonely life.


But it also makes for saving time and money. When my pal and nurse and I got


to the theater, we met up with my real estate agent, Anya, and settled in to watch a classic I first saw about 45 years ago — Kanal, a Polish word for sewer. It is a black-and-white drama


about Polish resistance fighters, who in late 1944 rose up against their Nazi captors. At first, they drove out most of the German tormentors. Joseph Stalin’s Red Army was


massed just across the Vistula River from Warsaw, where most of the fighting took place. The insurgents and the Brits thought that Stalin would help the Polish liberation army to finish off the Nazis. At least he would help the Poles


My fellow shoppers smiled and told me how much


they love Ike. He had an infectious smile and everyone loved him. Now, it’s about 70 years later and it’s a different America. Now, we take our lives in our hands by smiling.


by allowing them to receive large amounts of British and American arms and men. It did not happen. Instead, Stalin allowed the Nazis to be reinforced. They


also allowed the Luftwaffe, the German air force, to dive bomb Warsaw and the Poles.


38 NEWSMAX | NOVEMBER 2025 In about six weeks it was all over. The remaining


Poles were under 100 men, hiding out in the kanals. Despite the stunning courage of the Poles, it was a slaughter. Depressing as hell. It tells us all too much about


Stalin and Russia and communism. How is it that I knew this sad


story when I was about 8? Today’s young Americans don’t know anything about it. They think there is such a


thing as “new communism” that is humane and kind. Terrifying. After the movie, we went to lunch


at my usual lunch spot, the Beverly Hills Hotel Cabana Cafe. I only got a chocolate milkshake, my Pop’s favorite food. I was approached by dozens of men


and women who wanted to thank me for my “work” and for wearing my antique “I Like Ike” campaign button from 1952. Americans still love Ike. Why not? I speak at length to anyone, male


or female, old or young, who speaks to me. I ask about their lives. I’m a journalist at heart and I am an empath. So, I learn about my fellow Angelenos. I learn about my fellow humans. Sometimes they yell at me for being a Republican. It’s all right. I like learning. Then, off to Pavilions supermarket


to buy salmon for my wife’s nurse, a superwoman name Carol. Again, my fellow shoppers smiled


and told me how much they love Ike. He had an infectious smile and everyone loved him. Now, it’s about


70 years later and it’s a different America. Now, we take our lives in our hands by smiling. What an amazing world. In the sewers of Warsaw,


freedom fighters lost their lives for each other. Now, my smile will probably get me hated. What the hell happened?


PHOTO VIA SMITH COLLECTION/GADO/GETTY IMAGES


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