Hope? Thoughts Before Entering the Bunker.

 

Is there any reason to hope? Many conservatives openly feared that Trump would be merely a blessed delay, a brief reprieve from the inevitable rise of the brain-washed totalitarians among us. Après Trump, le deluge. The destructive leftist fantasies that have been a staple of intellectuals since Rousseau invented the role of the parasitical, selfish, self-promoting but verbally adroit intellectual selling political fantasy are now in full flower. (Rousseau, Voltaire, and Diderot would have set records for numbers of followers if Twitter were around then.)

It is never rational argument that defeats the fantasists. With the conspicuous exception of Ronald Reagan, conservatives generally don’t seem to know that if listeners think the choice is between the drab reality they know versus a glowing possible future, they will trade the cow for a handful of magic beans every time. The fantasists are often only stopped cold by reality when people are dumb enough to give a fantasy regime a try–often at horrific cost.

The fantasists will likely get their turn in our nation. Maybe now. Almost everybody under 50 has been subjected to intense anti-American and anti-western propagandizing at every level of education. All of our major news organizations are either expressly captive to an inimical ideology or (as in the case of Fox News) muzzled by increasingly woke corporate sponsors. We can no longer watch sports events without propaganda. We are gaslighted daily about race, sex, economics, and our physical environment.

Maybe even scarier, the COVID policy disaster demonstrated that a hell of a lot of Americans seem to like the idea of obedience to strictures provided by nominal experts. And the willingness to find new ways to enforce the new order is also chilling. Gauführer, come quick! My neighbors are harboring an unvaccinated family in their attic.

The legacies of the Founding Fathers, Ronald Reagan, and even Martin Luther King are being systematically erased in schools, entertainment, and governance. The mindless mobs in our city streets are evidence of that rot.

Can we hope?

Recall H.G. Wells’ sci-fi classic War of the Worlds, in which the invading Martians defeated us at every level. It was the earth’s bacterial and viral life forms that finally stopped them. The clever Martians were unable to function in our real world. Similarly, the Russian Communist Party controlled every aspect of life for several generations. It was not possible to openly express or easily find opinions contrary to the party line. What brought it down was the unconcealable fact that its dogma and methods don’t work. Reality cannot be denied indefinitely.

What is noteworthy about the unfolding Biden Administration is its complete lack of originality in any way, shape, or form. Democrats invariably market themselves as the party of novelty, progress, and a bright (government-led) march into the future. In contrast, the Biden vision is to reheat leftover policies that did not work when they were implemented before. In addition, they will likely smuggle in a few of the worst ideas of the Leninist Youth wing of the party just to make sure failure is guaranteed.

If mediocrity can be said to have heights, a Biden Administration will indeed reach new ones. For the moment at least, Biden is excluding the hard left in favor of a set of retreads who did a lousy job the last time they were in power combined with alumni of the tech companies that delivered his electoral “victory.” Soon, Jimmy Carter will seem like a combination of Pericles and Bismark by comparison.

I think my biggest regret of the coming Biden economic and diplomatic failure may be that the hard left will not get the blame so the requisite periodic cure of the fantasy diseases will be incomplete.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party has quietly become vastly more diverse than it was a generation ago when Lee Atwater was crafting a southern strategy. The hopes and successes of new Americans brushing aside the ashes of identity politics is likely going to be at the core of the party in its emerging incarnation. Let’s hope so. Making reality great again is never a bad way to go.

Be sure to use the secret knock when you visit the bunker. I hate to waste ammo and lose friends.

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  1. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    Bill Berg (View Comment):

    Top three GOP priorities: Life (as in pro), Liberty (rejection of “ideas so good they must be mandatory”), Pursuit of “happiness” (our founders greatest mistake, it ought to be MEANING … “the thing” that Nietzsche got right: “He who has a why can bear almost any how”. 

    I add a 4th … following the Constitution is the greatest “how” in history. 

    I can almost equate “meaning” with “pursuit of happiness” or “property or possession” for that matter, but I like your thought and I like your added 4th item. The traditional GOP is still operating in deep state mode accepting Trump when convenient to that end and rejecting him when not.

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