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A Happy Warrior?
I want to be a happy warrior.
I’m greatly troubled by the state of our country. I know that I’m not alone in this. I’ve found it easy to lose hope, at least briefly. But I worry that if I give in to the counsel of despair, I won’t be able to find the motivation to make whatever small contribution may be within my power.
I think that there is reason for hope. Sure, we have a pretty bad president. On the bright side, he’s not very competent and may even be slipping into senescence. Sure, the opposition controls both houses of Congress. On the bright side, their majorities are thin, and they haven’t been able to pass much of their agenda. Sure, we may see another bad decision out of SCOTUS at any time. On the bright side, we have the strongest conservative majority in my lifetime. Even if we put the sometimes unreliable chief in the middle, the count is currently 5-1-3.
More importantly, I see reasons for hope all across the country. I haven’t seen them in person, but I’ve read reports from many of you and in the news media. We see employees refusing to comply with an unwise vaccination mandate. We see parents and others taking action against critical race theory in the schools. We see President Biden’s approval rating plummeting — from around +9% just four months ago to around -8% today.
I recently saw one small positive sign in person. I went to a local convenience store about a week ago. We don’t have a mask mandate in the Tucson area, so the customers were unmasked, but the employer apparently was requiring its employees to be masked. There were three ladies working in the store at the time, all wearing masks.
All three of their masks had somehow fallen down below their noses. Oops! Sorry, boss, my bad!
Then there’s the hilarious “Let’s go, Brandon!” That has to be the meme of the year, maybe the meme of the decade.
While it sometimes seems that the last election was just a few weeks ago, we have another one coming up in barely more than a year. I think that the Republicans have good prospects in 2022. I think that there’s a chance of giving the Dems a real pasting.
I think that this outcome is much more likely if we can put aside some of our differences on the political right and resolve ourselves to act optimistically, even if we don’t always feel it. I want to see all of us acting like happy warriors, starting with me.
I don’t know how to get there from here. I’m going to start trying to be more positive and less argumentative. I’m going to try to stop relitigating the past and focus on moving forward productively. I’m going to focus on finding consensus with good folks like you, rather than dickering over minor areas of disagreement.
I don’t think that this will be easy for me. Jon Gabriel may be the King of Stuff, but I may be the King of Dickering. [And yeah, I know that I’m opening myself up to someone using the strikethrough function there … ]
I did appreciate some of the things that Chris Christie said in last week’s podcast. I was initially disinclined to listen to him, but I overcame this and gave him a chance. He said a couple of things that annoyed me, but he also had some good points, in my view. I was particularly impressed by his leadership in a group trying to counter the sort of electoral “dirty pool” that the Dems used so effectively last time around. I don’t think that I can do anything to help that effort, but maybe some of you can.
I think that we still have a shot at turning things around. Even if I’m wrong about this, I don’t see how it can hurt to try. So for my part, I’m going to put despair on the shelf until election day 2022.
Happy warriors unite! Eeyore delenda est! :)
Published in Elections
The 2020 election was the canary in the coal mine.
The 2022 election will be the bellweather.
Let us hope… and act.
There’s a Group for this.
Can’t tell you how much I like this. I think it’s exactly the kind of thing we need right now.
(Jerk.)
Ah, the triumph of hope over experience.
Just supposing the Republicans do win a majority in the House, despite Democrat trickery (which they do very little to nothing about) and new gerrymanders in Illinois and other Democrat-held states (California may gut Republican held seats in the central valley; Oregon is getting a new House seat that is guaranteed to go to a Democrat), what are the prospects for any part of “Building Back Better” to be repealed?
Probably about the same as when Republicans promised to “Repeal and Replace” Obamacare.
Getting in is a little tricky….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIZoVO8ZyyQ
The time to be a Happy Warrior was several years ago. I’m afraid that we’ve entered the “warrior” phase of events.
I have a request of those with a more pessimistic view, including those who have commented already and any who might do so hereafter. Could you provide an alternative course of action?
Two occur to me, but there may be something that I haven’t considered.
The first is to prepare for revolution (or maybe secession). I am not on board with this one.
The second is something like a secular version of Dreher’s Benedict Option. I’m not sure what this would entail, exactly.
My suspicion is that such options will not seem feasible or productive, when carefully considered, but maybe I’m wrong about that. What I would hate to see is pessimism becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. If some significant proportion of conservatives, say 10% or 20%, withdraw from the process and perhaps don’t even vote, this could make the difference between winning and losing in 2022. That would be a shame.
You may be aware of this, but, in 2015, Charles Murray wrote a book called We the People, subtitled “Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission.” In retrospect, it appears the book was ahead of it’s time in the sense that people were not prepared to follow some of its advice, and, admittedly, the book was a bit outside of Murray’s usual domain. I think Murray and his publisher might be well-advised to re-release it updated. The reference to The Benedict Option brought this to mind.
I have brought myself to the place where I truly believe, despite how bad things seem, they have to get much worse before they start to get better.
That acceptance has been freeing. I’m happier not believing salvation is just an election away. So, Trying to focus on growing my food storage systems; getting my youngest son the medical treatments he needs; and football. You know? The things that matter.
check the date
I’m old enough that I hope to die before all comes to fruition. I guess I’m no warrior at all.
And I’m having huge boxes delivered from Sam’s Club almost every day.
Let’s say (hypothetically) that it wasn’t just that illegally cast or counted votes exceeded the Biden margin of victory in swing states. (Confirmed in GA, and plausible arguments in NV, AZ, and PA such that I’d estimate the probabilities it happened in those places at around 70% to 90%.)
Let’s say (hypothetically) that the distribution of Trump/Biden votes was such that that illegality flipped those swing states.
Let’s say (hypothetically) that thousands of individuals working in an uncoordinated fashion and, with few or no conspiracies involving more than two or three people, cheated where they could in corrupt or incompetent places like Chicago, Philadelphia, and Fulton Co.
Let’s say (hypothetically) that, since we don’t have processes in place to protect voting machines from having their internal modems switched on only after the votes are done being counted, hackers managed to remove some Trump votes or apply algorithms to a number of vote updates.
The American people still have a fighting chance. They want secure elections. They can outvote some level of cheating–we’ve done it before! And we can secure those election machines from hacking by taking the advice of the Election Assistance Commission and getting rid of those dang machines in all 50 states.
So yes–canaries and bellwethers for sure, and keep up the struggle. When we’re dead or Messiah returns–whichever comes first–we can stop.
Still a lesser evil, and worth the effort.
But the GOP sure has let us down before. It’s why we have primaries.
One of the speakers at the recent Hillsdale seminar we attended was asked what we can do. His response was “Behave like free people in everything you do”. Free people do not wear masks whenever they are around people not in their household. Free people do not undergo an invasive medical procedure simply to keep a job (especially when jobs are going begging almost everywhere).
I think we have too much to think about. We have always had too much to think about, but we had mechanisms that did some of the heavy lifting and they are all suspect at the moment which makes it more difficult. The mechanisms we had were our elected representatives in all areas and levels of government and the free press. We’ve lost a lot of trust in them, so we are navigating without them. We feel like we each need to figure out all the things or at least agree with someone else on all the things.
I don’t really view this as a negative, but as more of a realistic assessment. However, I’ll offer, I think the way forward is not to dwell too much on one thing. That’s the best thing to do when we’re not 100% on something. Sure, kick it around a little, but don’t get stuck. Keep moving and work to restore the trust in the aforementioned and if we can’t trust them, replace them.
I think we’re more in a war that is fought with words and ideas. We need to arm ourselves with the best we have. The battlefield is the family dinner, the beer with friends, the local bar and anywhere else we can have a conversation. Practice with the social skills of bourbon if needed.
This. You may wish to put the emPHAsis on “happy” and that’s your prerogative, but it’s the “warrior” part I’m focused on. And I don’t believe any attitude of mine is going to suppress potential (R) votes. I think the behavior of the media and all three branches of government has already taken care of that.
Democrats use fear to stimulate turnout — you don’t want that crazy fascist Trump returned to office, do you??? Well I think it’s past time that Americans were fearful for the future of their country — for their kids’ futures! The greatest threat to America today is internal and it’s coming from the totalitarian-inclined Left, funded by Big Tech oligarchs and resident in the DNC.
I didn’t read this particular book by Murray, but I heard him talk about it in several interviews and podcasts. If I recall correctly, he called for:
Does this sound right? It’s been a while.
Again if I remember correctly, I found this to be a time that I was ahead of Murray on the learning curve. He’s been a significant influence on my thinking, up there with Thomas Sowell on secular matters. I think that this was the book in which he discovered the seismic shift in federal jurisdiction that occurred in the 1930s and 1940s.
One of the hazards of our profession is that we may assume that everybody remembers old Farmer Filburn.
Horde ammunition, precious metals, and dried food. Network with others who are preparing to survive the Burning Times.
The Republican Party is not going to save us.
Has anyone else noticed their radio silence as the store shelves go empty, gasoline skyrockets, the border is overwhelmed, and inflation is unleashed.
You’re asking us “pessimists” to provide a course of action. What plan have our supposed Republican saviors put out? Or are they trying to figure out how to solve the aforementioned problems with tax cuts and more immigration?
Can we save it?
(“Save” here would no mean some tough-love kind of saving.)
Is it possible to do all of that, and still try to win the election next year?
They will do nothing. Just as always. It is all about perks and power.
The Uniparty will continue.
Sectarian Civil War is coming. I don’t think there is much we can do to stop it.
I grow sick of being told that pessimism is a self-fulfilling prophecy. I don’t plan to stop voting, but no one gets a dime of my money who has not proven that he or she actually will fight for me. Right now, there is only one national politician that fits the bill.
I don’t think so. Think how many chances they had to do the right thing — repeal Obamacare, defund the abortion industry, shutter anti-constitutional agencies like the Department of Education, make real cuts to spending rather than reduce the rate of increase. . .
This meme never gets old.
It does not look likely.
America is in a death spiral that no nation in history has pulled out of.
If the Republicans win, what do *we* win, aside from nosebleed seats at Failure Theater?
I’m just asking, why should we believe this time will be different? As I said, not even the GOP is putting out any kind of plan to fight the Biden agenda. I guess not having a plan is one way to avoid disappointing your voters.
Just give me a reason to think this time, unlike all the previous times, the GOP isn’t going to betray us or sell us out.
I find it disappointing that so many on this thread have just given up all hope. It is not very encouraging. And the whole point of the post is to be a happy warrior. You’d think the title of the post was “Let’s Throw in the Towel.” I guess you just can’t make people happy. They have to do it themselves.
I prefer multiple options. Of the three you mentioned, I prefer #1 and #3. Like you, I am not on board with #2. (The OP was about #1.)