Sniveling Cowards

Recovery or no recovery - it depends on who you listen to. Even bad numbers can always be worse. I honestly don’t know any more. If Obama is such a disaster, how come roughly half the country still supports him?

There are people who I respect that continue to believe that Obama is leading us along a proper path. They acknowledge that there will be pain in the short run, but are confident that Obama has what it takes to lead us out of the woods - if those pesky Republicans just would let him do it.

Obama has yet to confess outright that he is a communist (or a Muslim) who wants to reduce our nation to ruins. Without that confession it’s hopeless I’m afraid. People no longer trust what they see. Any criticism of the president is seen in significant quarters as extreme, racist, homophobic, fringe.

The major media certainly is buying it. Case and point: Attendance at Glenn Beck’s Washington rally was either in the tens of thousands or upwards of a million. Not counted, of course, are the millions who wanted to but could not go.

We no longer trust numbers. Even science has been perverted. Everything is a lie. We’re flying blind.

Clearly, I remain of the old school. Aside from the numbers, I don’t see how centralized autocratic government can work. History has taught me that much. But history is being rewritten as we speak. The young are taught a different history than I was. They believe they are right. They trust their teachers. They trust their teacher's excuses, their misdirection, their lofty claims.

So, no matter how bad it gets, they’ll always have an out. The entirety of American history has brought us to this point. The chickens have come home to roost.

In my heart, I believe that most people believe as I do. But I can no longer be sure. It’s the ’sitting on the fence’ types that’ve got me stumped. Bill Clinton introduced the concept of ‘triangulation‘. By triangulating he sought to appear as being above the fray.

I don’t think this will work again. Either the Left or the Right - along with the triangulators - will be swept from the pages of American history. The time will come when triangulators will be asked to declare themselves. Those who refuse to, will be left homeless. High principles involving moral equivalence (or neutrality) will not save them. They will be despised by all sides as the sniveling cowards they are.

Piñata Republicans

Debate has been effectively shut down in America. Every position on any issue is routinely bifurcated and assigned either to the Right or the Left, and then bifurcated again to engender intra-partisan squabbles. The ultimate winner is determined by which side is able to keep its choir from heading for the exits.

Any suggestion of disagreement with the Left is immediately met with accusations of racism, homophobia and fascism. Any suggestion of disagreement with the Right is immediately met with accusations of Marxism, radicalism and anti-Americanism. At that point debate invariably grinds to a halt and we don’t talk anymore.

With serious intellectual debate on the ropes, the ultimate arbiter becomes raw power. This paradigm is unlikely to change with Republicans at the helm.

Should Republicans win overwhelmingly in November, they will continue to be attacked mercilessly. All the power that has accrued to the White House since Obama has been in office is likely to preclude any significant improvement in our overall situation. Judging from past instances when Republicans have been in the majority, they are unlikely to wage the battles that actually have the potential to count for something. Expect no roll-back of existing policy; expect no movement toward impeachment. Instead, expect piñata Republicans merely to occupy a lower branch on the tree as to make them even more accessible to the stick-wielding children that comprise today’s media hoard.

Declare the Wearing of Glasses a Crime

You can always count on Bill Maher to say something stupid. His appeal (if it is that) is not in what he says; it is in how he says it. Also, never forget that one of the reasons ‘W’ ran into so much trouble politically was because many of his supporters thought he was not conservative enough. In other words, that he caved in too much to Democrats.

The Left's complaint about POTUS is just that. They feel he has not been radical enough. He has allowed talk radio to dominate the narrative; he has bailed out the rich and famous on Wall Street; he has not closed Gitmo; he has continued Bush’s wars; etc. The hard core Left in this country is basically a destructive and vengeful force. They’d likely see happen what Pol Pot did in Cambodia: clear out the cities and drive people out into the countryside; erase any vestige of human history; declare the wearing of glasses a crime (for it means that one might be inclined to read books). They shun education, technology, art and free individual expression in general. To the extent that Obama has failed in this, they proclaim him a failure and he, who is essentially of a similar mindset, recognizes his shortcomings.

Mention that the Democrat party also does not speak with one voice, though it may seem so. What is clear is that the extreme left wing is calling the shots, while the moderates are being shunted out. It’s the same with Republicans. This makes for fascinating drama. Left and Right politics are irreconcilable – because they are essentially one and the same. With the middle forcibly hollowed out, the shell is bound to collapse.

For now it makes for good political talking points to blame Big Oil. It’s quite superfluous to dig for the truth behind the explosion. We might actually have to face the fact that there are people out there who despite our good (communist) intentions are determined to bring us to our knees – which is actually quite alright with the Pol Pots among us who envision Utopia as an endless system of gulags.

Hopenhagen (sic)

Again, this is turning out to be a proxy fight for the fundamental issue confounding the world: Right vs. Left. Rule by the will of the people, or rule from the top down. And even this is a proxy, for the bone of contention has always been raw 'power'. Clearly the West has wielded immense influence and power for the past half century. Now, it is being challenged by those who think of themselves as being equally worthy.

The one thing that has lifted the West - especially America - above all the others was liberty. As our government grew, costing us more and more of our liberty, we also lost our advantage. Now, we're just like everybody else. Knock us over with a feather; knock us over with lies; knock us over with promises; knock us over with threats; knock us over with guilt; knock us over with anything you've got. We've become so corrupt; this ship of state is no longer seaworthy.

For one thing, we've begun believing in our own dystopian tales: The world as septic tank; the world as rat-infested tenement; the world as home to starving war orphans; the world of jihad and nihilism; the world of rising sea levels; the planet as hockey rink. And it's true, without a way to transcend appearances it's difficult to go on. Many of us have robbed ourselves of the tools needed to survive: religion, family, hope - the Left more so than the others.

Actually, we on the Right can sit back and relax. The Left has already won. The food fight we see is exclusively among those on the Left. Plays for power are notoriously destructive; they leave victims in their wake. This was the big idea of allowing Iraq and Iran duke it out for so many years. We didn’t really care who won as long as both sides were diminished. In the same way, the Left will diminish itself. The Right will grow stronger in comparison. Let’s hope we won’t overreach as the Left is doing; as every amateur gambler in Las Vegas is tempted to do.