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Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. – Winston Churchill
I used this quote once before but felt it worth repeating after the Supreme Court decisions of the last week. Several decisions served to encourage. Others proved problematic and discouraging. In all, I think there was much more of the former than the latter. I say take victories where you can. A baseball player who manages to consistently connect with the ball at the plate, getting on base seven times out of twenty, is bound for the Baseball Hall of Fame. It matters little that he fails the other thirteen at-bats.
Similarly, Biden's disastrous debate performance seems like a massive success for conservatives. Some are saying it was so bad the election is over and Trump will walk away with the presidency this fall. Maybe. It helps Trump's cause, but I suspect it will not be as disastrous as the Progressives fear and the Republicans hope. In a month it may be viewed as a mild upset. The mainstream media provides Biden the equivalent of the Queen of the Underworld's magic brazier. Both produce smoke that cause those inhaling it to deny reality, whether in this world or Narnia.
More success will be necessary. More failures will be encountered. Yet both triumph and disaster (as Kipling points out in "If") are both imposters. What matters is the courage to continue towards the goal. It is easy to continue when things go well. It is equally easy to give up when things go badly. Every success is transitory, the start of the next challenge. So is every failure.
Reinforce success. Accept failure and move on.
Discussion (6)
It often feels as if total failure is just a heart beat away in our modern politics.
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That's because our political opponents want us to believe that. They hope it leads to despair and us quitting the field without a fight. That makes life easier for them.
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But it's a fake quote.
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That was central to the 2008 and 2012 elections.
I am not saying I am giving up.
And
The left's has made far more progress in my lifetime than the right. This progress goes back 50 before I was born.
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