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Fighting Fatalism
Like many right-of-center Americans, I fell into a months-long funk when Barack Obama was re-elected. I understood voting for a charismatic cipher in 2008 after years of war, scandal, and a financial collapse. It would have been hard for a Democrat not to win, especially with the cheerleading of newsrooms and popular culture.
But 2012 was a different matter altogether. The voters knew who Obama was. They lived through four years of economic stagnation, failed foreign policy, and the callow dilettante presiding over both. They saw the backroom deals and the trillion wasted on a fictitious stimulus, but the American people didn’t care. They agreed with Mitt Romney on nearly every issue, but Obama made failure look cool. They applauded American decline and signed on for another four years.
Week by week, I slowly got over my 2012 fatalism. I focused on the small victories conservatives could win in the states and school boards. I saw a rising tide of right-leaning problem solvers in governors’ mansions and statehouses. And despite the bad rap many millennials get, I met so many young people who got it. My inherent optimism slowly returned.
But Thursday, Bush-appointed Chief Justice Roberts decided for a second time that the economic and moral garbage fire known as Obamacare be rubber-stamped — the law and the English language be damned. The American people will continue to suffer under this monstrosity (my family lost our plan) while liars like Gruber, Pelosi — and yes, Obama — give high fives and cash bigger checks. The bad guys won again and fatalism is hard to fight.
The U.S. has spent six years tossing matches at the Middle East powder keg, encouraging petty expansionists like Putin, and almost begging China to replace us as hegemon. Our national debt is higher than our gross domestic product and politicians from both parties demand we spend more. Beijing has stolen the most personal of information from 18 million federal employees and Washington insists we hand them our medical records as well.
It’s hard for freedom-loving Americans not to be fatalistic. To declare America over and seek greener pastures or just drop off the grid. Personally, I can’t run to a virtual Galt’s Gulch since my kids and other younger generations need me to at least try to stop the slide if not reverse it. So I remind myself of the times America faced tougher trials: the world wars, our nation’s founding, and the fight between the Union and the Confederates (if I’m still allowed to use that trigger word).
Despite the multiple crises, our betters are screeching about utter nonsense. Whether a flag should be displayed in an iPhone game, whether people can choose their race and gender, if old ladies should be publicly flayed or just put out of business for not baking a cake.
Eventually the electorate will come to its senses — I mean, they have to, right? As Glenn Reynolds often says, “what cannot continue, won’t.” But what cataclysm will it take to shake us out of our navel-gazing, microaggressed, Brawndo-swilling stupor?
An even worse financial collapse than in 2008 with no borrowed money left to rescue the banks? A deadlier act of war than 9-11? And if either happens, God forbid, will Americans just use the moment to blame each other in even uglier terms?
My ultimate hope, as a Christian, is knowing that God is in control. Being a student of history, I know that cultures have endured far worse calamities than our comfortable decline. But I want to know how you keep your hopes up. Fatalism will never win hearts and minds, let alone elections, so do you have advice on keeping political setbacks from dragging you into despond?
Maybe you take a break from the news (this website excepted, of course). Do you hug your kids more? Slam three shots of bourbon? I’d rather be a Reagan than an Eeyore, so let me know in the comments.
Published in Culture
Since DC thrives only by extorting all our savings, then about the only way to truly make them feel pain is to stop giving them money. That’s going to require some kind of tax revolt.
Every nation/state etc. has an arc, we’re clearly on the downside of ours.
We aren’t going to be able to reel this back in……Its generally the courts that go last when the next or new ‘Caudillo’ mounts the stage. Yes, we’ve ‘crossed the Rubicon…’. The Dept.s of the Fed. bureaucracy are locked in, inc. State etc. …we have not had a non-proggy/liberal innervated governing apparatus for 80 or so years. They’re dug in like tics or termites and no tent is large enough to fumigate, they have eaten enough by now to have critically fractured the foundation.
Comparisons can be facile but the language here (with not a lot of imagination) used to describe ‘That’ general state imho is eloquent and applicable in referring to our general state specifically;
The nation of soldiers, magistrates, and legislators, who composed the thirty-five tribes of the Roman people, were dissolved into the common mass of mankind, and confounded with the millions of servile provincials, who had received the name, without adopting the spirit….
and most especially;
The form was still the same, but the animating health and vigor were fled. The industry of the people was discouraged and exhausted by a long series of oppression.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/gibbon/01/daf01023.htm
If God is in control then we have nothing to worry about. Oh, wait. What about those hundreds of failed civilizations and thousands of failed nations/governments? Was God in control then? I hope not.
I gag at politicians (Jeb Bush for example) who try to feed on our innate optimism, who tell us nice things about our country and ourselves, all the while whistling past the very real forces that will be our downfall.
Don’t play that game. I know we want to feel good. Don’t feel good, and don’t fall for someone who relies on those tactics of feel-goodism or faith in God. That may win elections – which is yet another discouraging sign – but it doesn’t save civilizations.
Agreed, same with De Blasio ala NYC’s complete collapse at the polls in number etc….after decades with/of Giuliani and Bloomberg, they grew complacent….
Trite, bit true.: Humans are built to be unsatisfied with the status quo. So, the pendulum always swings, when people have a choice. We still have a Constitution avd can vote. That is what sustains me.
The constitution has what value these days? A framework for a meaningless pantomime?
And a recession that was hammered by the media as “the worst economy since the Depression”. I vividly remember a story on CBS the day after the election, that finally admitted the recession had ended in the preceding quarter…
Now I feel like Han Solo in the garbage compactor scene:
The roaring sound was SCOTUS imposing SSM nationwide.
My husband wants us to develop a plan like this. I’m skeptical. Where in the world can one go? Can you let me know your thoughts?
Knowing that God is in control gives hope in the long run, but things can be dreadful here on Earth. The Old Testament is a catalog of the terrible sufferings that God allowed the Israelites to endure, because of their unfaithfulness.
James 1:2-4, 12:
At the moment, I’m not feeling the joy.
Now that Obergefell v. Hodges has come down. Now I am depressed. But thanks to United States v. Windsor I can now live into a new vocation. Now, since my opposition to Obergefell v. Hodges can only be explained by animus I am therefore hostis humani generis. The more I role that title around in my head the more it has a ring to it. I bet it will sound better after a glass of Bourbon… It’s okay to drink Bourbon before 10:30am on a day like this, right?
the goal is switzerland. Which means get anywhere in the eurozone and then just go there. Its nearly impossible if one is not part of the eurozone and not claiming asylum.
Not in my industry. While there are countless starving independent practitioners, the big firms are owned by the banks to protect and expand their chiefdoms. Both the banks and large firms own congress, which is how we got Dodd-Frank.
If I was sans kids I would immediately emigrate to Australia. Incredible people, culture, and land. But to do so, you must bring skills that are needed by the country. You can’t just land and live there (because racism, right?).
I’ve had a somewhat similar experience. I was on facebook briefly a few years ago, disliked it, and left. I use twitter mainly to follow non-political stuff I’m interested in– sports, music, etc. I am, however, on ancestry.com many hours every day piecing together the large combined genealogy of my wife and me– in other words, the family tree of our three sons. I also had my DNA analyzed so my boys will know more about who they are. I have learned some astonishing things in the last few months of concentrating my available time in this way.
I find that when I spend time on things that will endure for my family, including cataloging the massive amount of family photos, letters, Bibles and documents it helps me put the daily national foolishness in perspective.
I guess my way of coping has been to work on strengthening the ties that bind. Well, that and baseball. Lots of baseball.
The 2012 election was really hard. I used to be progressive, and when I was progressive I thought I was on the losing side. Eventually, I figured out my conservative friends were right and I was wrong. By finally joining conservatism/classical liberalism, I saw myself as being one of the stupider members of the smart group, since it took me so long to see the light. I didn’t speak up because I figured “Who needs to hear from me? I was an idiot until I was thirty.” Then Obama got reelected and I realized we had a big problem.
To answer the original post’s question, I guess faith in God gets me through. I’m not feeling real zealous as a Catholic right at the moment, but God is Truth. Reality will assert itself. Obamacare really does have “death panels.” It doesn’t matter whether the law says so or not. Who ever is paying for medical care can choose to stop paying. It doesn’t need to be required by law. Reality requires it. Gay and straight are not two flavors of the same thing. Sex, meaning heterosexual sex, makes babies. It was making babies before there were humans and will probably be making babies after humans as well. Truth and reality are not going to abandon us.
Michael, would you consider becoming a progressive again? Nothing personal, but it sounds like whichever side you are on always loses, so we may have to ask you to take one for the team… ;-)
Yes.
Oh, good!
Thanks Philly! I think we all needed that ;-) It’s been hard conjuring-up any optimism lately, so I’ve been filling the void with books on the founding of the country (“Washington’s Spies” is great!) to remind myself that it was a hard slog at the beginning, but they (& therefore we) survived. So, we need to take up the banner, dust ourselves off, and keep charging the hill. It’s gonna suck & we’ll get knocked down a few more times before this is over, but we just need to keep on keepin’ on. Our country’s eventual return to sanity will be worth it. Stedfast and Loyal
I can only imagine the perverse enjoyment the progressives are taking in the comments here and in wsj today. I believe the venting is heathy, their enjoyment of our plight burns .
Unfortunately the overt visibility of the incorrectness of two decisions in my legal layman’s mind , leads to a willingness to believe the worst Roberts motives theories.
Obama’s America.
The US is the closest historical analogue to Rome. It’s not exact, and some parts are even radically different, but the similarities in political trends are close enough that they should frighten anyone that can read. Rome went from a small republic that demanded each man carry his weight, to an empire that subsidized the grain of all Romans, to a crumbling wreck that provided all grain free to Romans, along with the circuses to keep them pacified.
We started as a small, principled, limited Republic. We grew and became an empire, and defeated our Carthaginians. And now things are getting bumpy. Our Goths and Vandals are coming from the south, and across the sea, another growing empire waits, and watches.
“But I want to know how you keep your hopes up.”
I don’t. I’ve been damned surly and gloomy for some time. The fundamentals have to be changed, not the politicians elected. Politics is downstream from culture is downstream from ideas. The Left has been corrupting the ideas for generations. They’ve been at this for a long time, and it’ll take a long time to reverse the destruction.
It’s a good thing for that purpose. One of the reasons that the UK lacks civil rights (specifically, meaningful hearsay and right to silence laws) is because there isn’t enough legal training to have them enforced as a practical manner. The US protects citizens from the government in large part by making the government (relatively) easy to sue. There’ s a lot of ways in which individual rights have been better protected because of the culture of private attorneys general in the US. There’s a lot of costs to our number of lawyers, and I don’t know if it’s a good thing, but it certainly empowers resistance to arbitrary government action.
I think it correlates with conservatism; view the vote roll calls, the SCOTUS votes, the media figures. It’s also part of the general principle that conservatives take the defeat of our enemies seriously. It doesn’t correlate so much with the fringe, but even the fringe seems happier. We’re not just getting fewer Ruby Ridges because the government has a lighter touch, but also because the crazies (often the fringe of the fringe) are calmer.
No, it doesn’t. If you look at the 1990 OBRA, which brought about the surpluses of the 1990s, it was written so that the changes would take place unless there was an opposed supermajority. The Ryan Plan is essentially similar. We need one good term and it’s likely permanent.
It’s pretty objective. The complaints people had about corruption were mostly about relatively minor shifts (part of the reason for a grade change), and we’re talking about a large grade gap.
The race goes not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, and rating a racer or an army’s likely future performance will always be somewhat subjective, but rating a top class team or unit as substantially better than junk is something that can be done with a reasonably high degree of confidence.
Republicans are expanding individual rights (labor, education, guns, abortion (from the kid’s perspective), cutting spending, and protecting us from foreign governmental abuse (trade agreements). None of that seems totalitarian to me. We’ve always had insult humor, and there’s plenty of current successful comedies that actively disparage it. In terms of heated debate, we made it through the election of 1800, and that was far worse than this.
Well, at the moment the persecution is, unless I’ve missed something, pretty abstract. When Syrians are driven from their homes or murdered, we ought not to feel cheerful about it. When the laws change in ways that will harm the healthcare of others, we ought not to feel cheerful about it.
If you are driven from your home, or you or your loved ones receive inadequate healthcare, then you should take comfort in those verses and others like them.
Gun rights, federalism, criminal procedure rights, economic freedoms, religious freedoms, political freedoms. Spend a little time watching the Court and you’ll see that they strike down a lot of terrible stuff, a non-trivial portion on Constitutional grounds. .
America is wealthier, freer, happier, and more moral than other countries, and the Constitution is a part of the reason for that.
Did we give up after the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?……No!
Cheer up Jon. We look to you for witty comments and good humor.
Every 4 years, there is a clutch of presidential candidates who always say, “this is the most important election in our history”. That is almost always nonsense. But last time, it was almost true; the 2012 presidential contest was the most important since 1860. The country elected a Leftist who had been in office for four years, knowing full-well what they were doing. In 2008, the Democratic candidate posed as a post-partisan, post-racial unifier, and although it was a lie, many people could be forgiven for falling for it. But there was no excuse in 2012. The American people chose an ideological Leftist. Obama is not the problem; he did not elect himself.