DEMOCRATS AND MEDIA: FULLY INVESTED IN TRUMP FAILURE

 “If we do what is necessary,
the odds will be in our favor.”

~Paul  Buxton

If we do what is necessary, all the odds are in our favor. Charles Buxton
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/odds_2.html

            President Obama,  the Clintons and the Democratic machine would have you believe they are afraid of President-elect Donald Trump’s ambitious agenda. That he will pursue a course far more aggressively conservative than past Republican presidents. That he will do what must be done.
         They tell you they are afraid Trump will build that wall to keep out trespassers. That he will deport criminal aliens.
         That he will start some kind of trade war with China and other manufacturing centers in the world.
         That he will tax the middle class and not the wealthy.
         That he will  dismantle, replace or improve the ACA, better known as ObamaCare, leaving the poor without healthcare, students non-covered, and those with pre-existing conditions at the mercy of those cruel insurance companies.
         That he will undo all the work, and (as they see it) the accomplishments of President Obama.

         But what Obama, the Clintons and the Democratic Party are really afraid of is that President-elect Trump will succeed! That he will set in motion a chain of events leading to a reversal of the past eight years of stagnant growth, growing joblessness and poverty, increased crime in America’s inner cities, and turmoil in the Middle East.
        Believe me, they will not let a day pass without denigrating whatever Mr. Trump does. No matter how trivial, petty and absurd their attacks will be, they will be totally invested in portraying the Trump Administration as an abject failure. They are betting on it. They are instigating it. They will manufacture failure if they can.
        Why?
        Simple. This election was a repudiation of liberal policies which have resulted in all the failures noted above, and which have produced an angry electorate filling virtually every office, from Congress down to State and local municipalities, with Republicans. Democrats are wise to fear that Americans may never again elect a liberal to any significant office across the entire nation. They have seen where liberal policies got us, and they don’t like it. They’ve had enough of it.

        Which is why the real fear on the Democrat side is that, despite all the horse pucky they, the Media, Hollywood, Academia, unions, the Republican establishment an even foreign leaders have thrown at Candidate Trump, he will continue to defy them, out-wit them, and ultimately crush them. They fear he will succeed with his agenda because they know that’s what he is all about. Succeeding, no matter what the odds.
        They are afraid that Trump might actually Make America Great Again!

CAN TRUMP BRING IT BACK TOGETHER?

A nation too diverse
Is a nation cursed.



Ex pluribus, sed multa.









         A century ago, America painted itself as a “melting pot.” The strength of our nation was thought to be the diversity of cultures which constituted America’s new Middle Class. America believed it could alloy diverse cultures in the crucible of its dynamic industrial society. America believed in the good faith of new immigrants; that they would settle here, raise families, learn the language and customs of America, adding to it the best of their own cultures.
         In theory, a great idea.
         Over the following decades, millions of wannabee Americans were checked and cleared (or not) through our ports of entry, such as Ellis Island. The melting pot worked particularly well with Europeans because America is the offspring of Europe. Our original settlers, laws and traditions are primarily European. Even our science and technology had their birth places in Europe. Thus by the 1950s, Brits, Irish, German, Italian, Polish, French, Spanish, Swiss, Danish and all the rest were fairly well alloyed, well on their way to the goal: e pluribus unum.

           I was born and grew up in a large Eastern U.S. city during the 1940s, among neighbors who were the grandchildren of European immigrants. My grammar school was filled with them. We pledged allegiance to our flag, “and to the country for which it stands.” Every kid spoke English, and families strove toward the values, traditions and tastes we came to know as The American Dream.
           Oh, of course there were problems. Most were a result of poverty, and the tendency of the first generation of immigrants to cluster among one another for support and security, quickly creating whole sections of cities filled with one nationality or another. Still, for the most part, my generation quickly became part of middle class America because we all believed in the Dream. And we knew, if we learned something, worked hard and stayed on the straight and narrow, we could expect to live that Dream.
         But it all began to unravel after the ‘50s. Not for my generation, but for the next generations. America no longer was a melting pot. It was a variety pack without the wrapper to keep it together. E pluribus unum has become Ex pluribus, sed multa (from the many.... still many). A form of Balkanization.

           Every nationality and ethnic group now has its own precinct. English is not welcome or respected everywhere. Customs from the emigrant cultures no longer give way in favor of the “American” way. Immigrants began coming to America not to share in our beliefs, laws and traditions, but to recreate much of the very places from which they fled! Some even would like their parts of town to be judged by non-American law. Chinatown seemed to have become a template for every other culture. Every group has its own lawyers, political groups and lobbyists pressuring politicians to adopt their ways or face defeat. There are growing communities of Muslims, LGBTQ and every flavor of mankind clamoring for special attention, and for government funds. 
          Our deeply rooted race problems have been exacerbated by an inability or an unwillingness to successfully meld black, brown and white cultures. Blacks and whites reject each other’s ways. Blacks, browns, whites are constantly at political and cultural odds.
           We are experiencing nothing short of political chaos.
        And it’s not just political chaos. American’s lifestyles have degenerated into another kind of chaos. Cultural chaos. A full description of this degeneration isn’t necessary. You know the drill as well as I do. From massive addiction, dependence to shocking loss of morality.

        If cultural chaos spreads like a disease, the pathogen is political correctness. Far too much of the nation’s energy, treasure and time is now spent patronizing the unreasonable demands of diversity.

        Into this boiling cauldron will step a new president.
           I don’t know if anyone, short of the Lord himself, can rejoin what is at this point torn asunder. After this election, half the voters will despise the new President, Donald Trump, from day one, and for at least the next four years. 50% of the voters are ready to jump on every word and deed of the new president. Mr. Trump has not even been sworn in yet, and the “honeymoon period” has not lasted 24 hours!
         I don’t know if Donald Trump can deliver all or even any of his promises. I don’t know if he will try to be President for all the people. I don’t know if he will  be able to make things better for the majority of Americans. But I do know Hillary Clinton wouldn’t. And many Democrats knew it too. Which is why they looked the other way when it came to Mrs. Clinton’s record, and her compulsive lying.
           With all his faults, Donald Trump strikes me as Traditional America’s last best hope. Had he not triumphed in this election, America’s future very well may have been that of another has-been. A “Great Experiment” which, after a couple of hundred years, was tossed into the crowded dustbin of history.

          My hope for President-elect Trump is that the oath of office will awaken his better angels. If America is to heal, her people, people of every stripe must learn to recognize and acknowledge those angels when they appear.

CLINTON vs TRUMP: IMPROBABLE POLLS

“Don’t buy a single vote more than necessary.
I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay for a landslide.”

—Joseph P. Kennedy








        While I doubt that any scientifically-oriented pollster has an algorithm to calculate the odds of so many major voting events resulting in virtual dead heats, I can assure you, the probability is almost zero.
        Think about it.
     This isn’t like a coin toss, where every toss has a 50-50 chance of coming up heads or tails. No matter how many heads come up in a row, the next toss will still have 50-50 odds of coming up heads or tails. That’s experimentally provable. Try it. I did. The more tosses, the closer the results conform to the 50-50 probability. In ten tosses, you might get 3 of one and 7 of the other, but in 1000 tosses, you can bet it’ll be very, very close to 500 heads and 500 tails. 50-50 results increase with the number of tosses!
       Now we come to voting. Many fail to grasp that winning an election by, let’s say, 52-48% doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a true 4% difference. If side “A” had received just 2% fewer votes (50%), it would be a tie because that 2% likely would go to side “B,” resulting in “B” receiving 50% as well.
       A 51-49% result would be even more likely a statistical tie given voting errors, counting irregularities, and plain ol’ fraud.
       So how is it that so many elections result in a near tie? Think about the “Brexit” referendum. How plausible is it that the UK, with a voting age population over 50 million, is so evenly divided that, right down to the end, no one was able to accurately predict the result? How plausible is it that voters here in the US are so evenly divided? It is almost weirdly improbable. I’m not saying it couldn’t happen now and then. But  with this frequency? Think of past elections you followed. Primaries. Referendum. Even weekly political polling defies probabilities!
       Take the Clinton/Trump divide. With the number of people who hate Trump: “Never Trump” people, women against Trump, Hispanics against Trump, African-Americans against Trump, the media onslaught and all the rest, how is it that in poll after poll there is not even a 10% lead of the Clinton campaign? If you believe the media hype about how many voters claim to hate Trump, is this plausible?  Mrs. Clinton ought to be leading Mr. Trump by 30+%! But if there is only a 6% lead for Mrs. Clinton, as polling averages seem to suggest, that’s just a 3% actual difference the Trump camp needs to make up. Well within the so-called polling margin of error.
       Why are we not seeing true “landslide” victories? Where candidate “A” wins by a huge margin. Where a candidate takes 46 or more of the 50 States?
       There’s something Twilight Zoney here. Skewed results? Skewed reporting? Cheating? Wishful thinking? Interviewees, for fear of seeming politically incorrect, reluctant to admit they actually like Trump? Or is it out-and-out fraud?
       Fraud? One theory is that if polls showed one side or the other leading by 30% or more, voter passion would cool off pretty fast. Almost as fast as media ratings would plunge. Which means ad revenue would fall off as well. Nothing whips up passion and media ratings like a good, close, mud-slinging race like Clinton/Trump. Or like “Brexit” did. All commercial interests are happiest when the polls suggest a difference under 10%.
         Knowing how easily it is done, do the media, polling organizations, fund raisers and the pundit class publish carefully manipulated polling data for their own benefit?
      My grandparents, in the face of solid proof, still refused to believe that wrestling matches, “The $64,000 Question” and other contests, ball games, horse races, court trials, politics, and yes, elections, could be “fixed” or jury-rigged. Perhaps this is one reason I, on the other hand, have never been deluded by such Pollyannaish notions. 

CONSERVATISM AND AMERICA’S ALABATROSS

 “Success makes men rigid,
and they tend to exalt stability
over all other virtues;
tired of the effort of willing,
they become fanatics about conservatism.”
~Walter Lippmann

Success makes men rigid and they tend to exalt stability over all the other virtues; tired of the effort of willing they become fanatics about conservatism. Walter Lippmann
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/walterlipp402629.html?src=t_conservatism

        While I believe basic Conservative principles to be honorable, in the practical world, Conservative theory is based on a rhetorical premise which seems to doom this philosophy to little more than a vain hope. A burp in the timeline of Man’s evolving political realities.
         Conservatism – limited government, restrained Federal spending, traditional marriage, freedom from government intrusion, and all the rest – is built on the assumption that the framers of our Constitution believed, literally, in what they claimed in our Declaration of Independence: that “...All men are created equal.” And there-in lies the flaw. As long as Conservative philosophy clings to this assumption, it is disregarding reality.
         William Buckley held this notion up as an ideal, not as reality. Perhaps in some future time, all men will be created equal – with science-fictional genetic techniques whereby every newborn emerges with equally high endowments of talent, ability and physical advantages. For the epoch we inhabit, however, this is little more than a myth.
         Our society’s development is encumbered by an albatross hanging on its neck. While traditional America and its conservative values shrink, the wards of liberalism grow exponentially. They constitute an unwieldy fiscal and cultural burden which our leaders have been guilty of encouraging.  On its own, this burden cannot change for the better.
        Can anyone make a rational argument for the idea that all men are created equal? Are birth circumstances equal? Are all of us equally gifted with some ideal comeliness? Are we all equally capable of running the decathlon? Are we all endowed with high IQs? Do none have physical, mental, emotional handicaps? Do we each spring from the fairest seed into the fullness of life? Each of these measures – the foundations of personal stature – is far from being equally distributed within our population. Each affects an individual’s potential, perhaps more consequentially they affect societal conditions.
         Perhaps you think Constitutional equality means nothing more than that all men are entitled to equal treatment under the law? Or that all are Constitutionally entitled to equal opportunity? These are legal and moral contracts (theoretical as they may be), and strictly speaking, not entirely what the Framers had in mind. If it had been, Lincoln would not have had to bring the nation to war over slavery, and women would have been voting since day one.
         “Opportunity” is valueless unless and until seized by persons of some ambition. But equality doesn’t exist in ambition either. Large segments of our population, of all races, creeds, gender and backgrounds, have neither the desire nor ambition to grasp opportunity in the way others do as a simple matter of course.
          Many Americans appear to be perfectly content being “albatrossy.” In America’s contemporary culture, professionalism, material wealth and titles are not the only measures of success. But they are what many Conservative elitists appear to measure it by, completely disregarding the inconvenient fact that the kind of personal  independence which they themselves have achieved demands more effort than albatrosses are willing or able to generate.
         If Conservatism is perfectly comfortable with the growing masses of ill-educated Americans and non-citizen immigrants demeaning the nation’s traditions and culture; if conservatives fear to step into the deep waters of this very deep problem; if conservatives are willing to suffer the indignities of cultural mediocrity, then Conservatism is nothing more than another political scam designed to stir your spirit... enough to open your wallet.

          The problem is far too serious and obvious to ignore. But it is ignored, because for decades now, conservative leaders appear cowardly, terrified of leftist propaganda; being called divisive names by the uber liberal PC crowd. Shame on conservative leaders! Here we have Conservatism, arguably the last best hope to save the goodness of our culture, unwilling to confront the facts. Reality. The truth of our time: an ever-growing population of uneducated, street-smart, highly organized in the way ants are, increasingly aggressive and demanding, dependent upon an equally fast-growing centralized government to sustain it. Socially liberal governments are always willing to bankrupt the nations they govern in order to accommodate these demands... in exchange for votes and permanent incumbancy. But the masses will never be set upon a path of self-improvement by such a government; they will merely be sustained at a materialistic level somewhat better than the less demanding masses of the past. Albatrosses demand what they want, but self-betterment is not among the demands. Because that requires something no government can provide; personal drive, ambition, a desire to learn, a willingness to invest one’s time and effort in personal betterment.           Not very different from religious charlatans, the worst of Conservatism manifests itself in opportunists who profess this creed, knowing of the thirst among its own, but doing little other than profiting personally from preaching to the choir through books sales, radio, tv, and all the rest.
        Does anyone really believe the incessant litany of “Conservative” issues will do much to increase Republican support? Or counteract the emotional promises of liberalism? Will any of it correct the eastward course of our nation? Demand – without will – for smaller central government and fiscal restraint are the equivalent of whistling past the graveyard. How can anyone expect a bloated government to reduce and restrain itself!? The government is like a fat guy who keeps promising to go on a diet as soon as he finishes his next six-pack and bag of chips, which only make his stomach grow, which makes him hungrier still. When pressed to deliver on his promise, he can always blame his wife – or Congress – for bringing home the beer and chips.
          Only by acknowledging the fact of man’s unequal creation, unequal ambitions and all the rest; coming to terms with it, and revising its approach to the problem can Conservatism hope to regain cultural tender outside its well-fed constituencies. If stubborn elitist conservative leaders continue to ignore these facts, ugly as they are, Conservatism will never be anything more than a barely tolerated minor philosophy, a career for charlatans, and the target of mockery by the new majorities.
     Is it any wonder that so many, new to America, having sneaked into our nation past the willfully blind eyes of justice, place no value on doing right, respecting our culture and our laws? If you get something for nothing, that’s exactly what you’ll think it’s worth. Nothing. If an albatross didn’t pay for that sidewalk, is it any wonder he will spit on it? If you never revered that desk in the Oval Office, is it any wonder you’ll sit with your feet upon it?

         And so, true Conservatives will be passengers, never captains, on the Ship of State, as it flounders in the uncharted Sargasso Seas of hybrid socialism; a capitalistic economic system dominated by plutocrats, a nation administered by a bloated central government whose leaders are kept in power by increasingly dependent masses to whom it doles out benefits in return for votes, and an education system dominated by propagandists rather than teachers, where PhD’s are as common and about as valuable as the dollar bill. And where only the children of the plutocracy are afforded true education at the most elite halls of learning... those privileged few who can even find the ladder of success in order to climb it.
         Having warned us about the very thing we are now experiencing, I suspect our Founding Fathers would not be shocked by the level to which we have allowed the governance and cultural qualities of this great nation to sink. If Conservatism is ever to be the antidote, it must reformulate its mission so those now hostile to it are able to grasp the genuine goodness, opportunities and hope it can offer.

AMERICAN BRAINS: WASHED BUT NOT CLEAN

“Is there any point in public debate in a society where hardly anyone has been taught how to think, while millions have been taught what to think?”
― Peter Hitchens






          The only part of the human body which doesn’t benefit from being washed is the brain. But on average it gets washed more times than our hands.
         Brain washing is a form of marketing. Selling. There are two kinds.

         One kind is the hard sell you get from salesmen at car dealerships or advertising with special deals, discount prices and the like. Unvarnished capitalism; retail sales, where the rubber meets the road. There’s not much subtlety here; little in the way of subliminal messaging. Just exaggerate the features and benefits of your products. Now, bordering on subliminal messaging is timing; advertise juicy hamburgers and pizza at dinnertime, when stomachs are growling “Feed me!” And the old reliable; SALE!
      The other kind of selling is far more subtle. Because it’s not selling products or services. It’s selling a way of perceiving something such as how a corporation, a person, a political party or politician, an industry, a religion or anything which lies outside the realm of a product or service. I know something about this. I practiced this special art for decades. Journalist Vance Packard described it in his book, “The Hidden Persuaders.” Persuaders? Bull. It’s unadulterated brain washing.

         I and my cohorts were tasked with changing the way people think about certain products, services and issues: make them think a certain way, believe a certain way, whether or not that way was right, or true, or to their benefit. Often, it’s to repair negative perceptions of something or someone. In our particular case, it was done through the vehicle of national advertising. But there are many other ways.
        In image messaging, subtle, almost subliminal layers are employed. Cultural overlays abound. An eye-catching message contains more than meets the eye. While stimulating images are the bait, cultural signals are the hooks. At its worst it’s political propaganda.
       Let’s say that a few decades ago, somebody decided it was time for Americans to accept ideas which, culturally, traditional America had not accepted in the past. Take cigarette smoking; in one era it was portrayed as cool; done by rugged he-men, cowboys and celebrities, every third actor had a butt hanging off his lip, smoke drifting up into his squinting eyes, sexy ladies exhaled smoke into their admirer’s face. Then, cigarettes went out of fashion after millions were spent portraying smoking as seriously dangerous to smokers’ health. Now those same cultural forces which washed society’s brains with the dangers of tobacco smoking are brain washing gullible Americans with the virtues of smoking weed. Judging by the recent polls on the subject, the average American is believing. Again. Lining up to jump on the next cultural bandwagon, with little regard for where it may take them.
         Let the message include all the “good” aspects which can be demonstrated about what is being sold. But let it not include the possible faults. Most people are not equipped to think critically. So, over time, they are seduced.
         Mindless cultural forces have infected our national thinking to such a degree that our children are not being taught the essentials so much as they are being brainwashed. Today, by the time your little girl or boy reaches the age of ten, their still-growing brains have been washed, bleached, pressed and folded to the point that the kids will almost certainly grow up filled with counter-intuitive cultural ideas which most will not question.
         Children, children! are being confused in schools by teachers asking them to “choose” their own gender identification. Or to behave like the gender opposite their natural gender. What can be more confusing to young kids and their parents than forcing them to think or act in an unnatural way; making them think about something not based on science or nature. This, and other subtle types of brain washing go on day after day in K through 12, and gets worse in higher “education.”

      Today, for example, in cultural messaging, despite statistics demonstrating its many down-sides, single motherhood is portrayed as a normal, even desirable, part of American family life. Culture promotes inter-racial and same-gender coupling, and any number of “progressive” ideas; global warming, women in military combat, gun control. Or how pharmaceuticals are the answer to all your ills. Or something as blatant as increasing sales of alcohol by getting women to openly drink more booze. Portraying drinking in social situations as if it somehow makes women more alluring, more independent; gals just want to have fun. This type of brainwashing goes on throughout the whole gamut of social and cultural subjects.
     Do manufacturers care about the cultural issues, or are they just using it for profit? Dumb question. This is capitalism.
      Of course, blunt presentations of non-traditional ideas are almost always met with ridicule and hostility. At first. But inserting them, virtually subliminally, with an overlay of advertising or entertainment, over and over, has the long-term effect of changing attitudes, especially for younger malleable minds.
      Our culture has turned upside down. America has abandoned her old mores in favor of new sentiments which have swept, like a devastating tornado, across our cultural landscape. Many cultural “trends” start out on the mean streets, in the closet, or dark basements, and gradually find their way into the raw sunlight of Main Street America.

      How many everyday ads have you seen for a common product such as XYZ brand breakfast cereal, or soft drinks, fast-food, or whatever, portraying parents and children in a cozy kitchen, happily consuming XYZ. In earlier decades it was taken for granted that the parents and children would be portrayed by attractive actors, all of the same racial background, be they a white family or a black or Hispanic family. Nowadays, it’s mixed-race couples, and moms and children without husband-fathers. Not very long ago, these all would have been met very negatively by viewers. The XYZ corporate offices would have been inundated with letters from viewers threatening to stop buying the product. The company knew audiences were heavily skewed toward the majority white viewers. Depending upon the company’s sentiments, they might or might not drop these controversial portrayals.
      Today, it’s the minority lobby groups which make the loudest and most threatening noise. If a company doesn’t recognize the minority’s particular issue, that minority will virtually threaten to bankrupt the company.
      Oh, a commercial doesn’t directly address cultural issues. It doesn’t have to. They are right there, unspoken, digested by your eyes and washing your brain. Let it show up in commercials for food, restaurants, cars... over and over and over, and after the initial emotional reactions subside, the idea sinks in, the washing is complete, and audiences for the most part begin to accept these things as the “new normal.”
     The ad purports to be selling breakfast cereal. And it is. But it’s also selling cultural change which you might not expect to find embedded in a message about flakes. Now some may ask which is the chicken and which is the egg. Does the commercial reflect societal and cultural change which is already happening, or is it somehow encouraging, selling, the change? The answer is both.
      Certainly it makes sense for an advertiser to appeal to emerging markets; to be relevant. But how exactly does it make sense to ignore the sensitivities of the majority in favor of the minority when trying to sell products? Some marketers believe it’s expanding the user base. Again, illogical. Some subliminal cultural ideas turn off the majority, who in return may decide to stop using the product. In today’s ultra-sensitive culture, one never knows exactly who will be offended by what.
      “In the business,” we always thought of it as being “edgy.” If there’s a new trend in fashion, music, relationships, whatever; the creative folks will glom onto it. Not necessarily because it sells a product better, or even brings more attention to the message, but because it satisfies the creative folks’ and some of the clients’ need to feel edgy. It can otherwise be a pretty boring business. But somebody in a position of authority in the ABC-to-XYZ advertising departments is championing the cause, so is perfectly happy to let it be part of their advertising messages. America’s new all-embracing brand identity.

     Think of how this brain washing has impacted your own thinking. Examine the attitudes which you may have which are not really a product of your own thinking, but which were implanted by outside influences, influences on your way of thinking which you may never even have realized were a factor in your attitudes. Your challenge is to recognize the way you are being manipulated in virtually every facet of culture, including health care, finances and politics.
      When this technique became more and more in demand by our clients, I decided it was time to lose the career or lose my soul.

      If you are smart, you look beyond any attempts to have you think as someone else wants you to. You think for yourself. But you need to know how. You need to clear your thinking of what you have been fed by the culture all around you (almost always without you realizing it). Free yourself from tribal thinking. That is thinking according to what your tribe says you should think. This is cultural brain-washing at its worst. If you can’t do it, you have not reached your potential and you are not a complete person.
      Remember: the only part of your body which doesn’t benefit from being washed is your brain.

TRUMP SEES THE DANGERS OF EUism

 “Perhaps they know,
as much as anybody,
that they are in danger.
They simply would rather see
American men and women,
dying to preserve their safety” ~David Brooks


     Perhaps now that the politics of terrorism has brought this Western European cultural phenomenon into sharper focus, you have sensed the lack of a certain responsibility within the European Union. In the aftermath of terrorist activity within EU member nations, the lack seems to have become more obvious. And, though their intentions may be altruistic, liberals in America are opening their arms to invite the same cultural attitudes to cross the Atlantic. It is difficult to see how this same problem will not infect us over here.
     The culture of the European Union takes for granted passionate expectations of comfort and personal financial security for its citizens. After terrible wars and violence in which tens of millions of Europeans were slaughtered, there is an understandably strong aversion to war. This seems to have generated a political correctness which reflects an unsettling sense of guilt in the European mindset. Perhaps there is a fear that there is something inherent in European passions which, if let loose again, could cause horrors to be unleashed. As a result, for decades since the end of World War II, European nations have come to rely heavily upon America for military security. In essence they are saying let the stupid American dogs protect us. Why not? America doesn’t charge much for the service.
     Perhaps, to liberal minds in America, there is nothing wrong with all this: an aversion to military action, short work weeks, guaranteed leisure time, financial security, and more. Socialism. In some ways European culture is admirable. The EU is more than a political structure, it is also a cultural vehicle. The best of each nation’s culture, products and attitudes are easily transportable across borders within the EU. But so are the EU’s economic problems. And therein lies the rub.
     When times are good, EU cultural expectations can be realized across its many borders. But when the European economy is not going great, and there are many aggressive military challenges within its many borders, Europeans sense their own weakness. They fear their personal financial security is at risk. Their culture regards fighting as beneath them... but reliance upon the U.S. these days is sketchy, President Obama has shown no passion for military or even political involvement, so, EUers worry, who will protect them from outside aggression? Having no clear answer, they hide their heads in cheese and wine.

      The Atlantic Ocean is wide, but not so wide as to prevent this kind of thinking from taking strong hold on American culture, severely limiting America’s will to protect Western values. Guaranteed comfort and all the rest, are seductive promises. But the cost is living under the ever-growing heavy thumb of Uncle Sam. George Washington fought and won a war to liberate us from European royalty and elitism. Many of us descend from, and still have great affection for, our European roots. But having won our independence, do we still, nearly two-and-a-half centuries later, owe Europe elitism the potential spilling of more of our most precious blood?
     Donald Trump is right about this too. NATO and the entire subject of Europe’s contribution to its own safety need a long-overdue overhauling.

ADAMS’ IRATE, TIRELESS MINORITIES

 

 It does not take a majority to prevail...

but rather an irate, tireless, minority

keen on setting brush fires of freedom

in the minds of men. 

 

     Powerful words, penned by Samuel Adams.

     But is that it? An irate America declared and won its freedom from the Monarchy in the 1770’s. The Union fought for and won freedom for slaves of all minorities in the 1860’s. Americans again lit brush fires to end segregation in the 1960’s.

     No period in history ever achieves the “positive absolute.” Each era slowly, often painfully, transitions from one dominant way of thinking to the next. Sometimes, we hope more often than not, we get closer to, though never reach, the positive absolute. Perhaps one or two scorching fires per century is about all an evolving culture can absorb.  
     Unfortunately today we find more cultural brush fires burning than Southern California’s Santa Ana season. Adams’ irate, tireless minorities are at work everywhere, fanatical firebugs, hiring lawyers, organizing marches, printing posters and tweeting like nests full of hungry canaries. But many fight for freedoms they already have.

     In 21st Century America, are gays not free to be gay? Are atheists not free to mock God? Are not environmentalists free to protest on behalf of fish and bugs? Are not Native Americans free to protest against professional sports teams’ names and heralds? Are not trans-gender people free to be? Are not muslims free to exercise their religion? Are not minority races free? Are not women, who we are told actually constitute the majority in America, free? Freedom they have, and with rare exceptions, safety under the law.

      Yet, many go on preaching the myth that society inhibits them from freely exercising their chosen paths. But surely society cannot be blamed for what reluctance individuals may have to freely pursue their lifestyle. Does not The Constitution guarantee each is free to walk his or her own path?

    Methinks what already-free minorities crave most of all is acceptability and fame. Fame comes to some degree with the lighting of Adams’ brush fires. Acceptability, on the other hand, has a way of eluding their grasp. The reason is tradition. The First Amendment of this very same Constitution guarantees an equal right to express disdain for non-traditionalists as non-traditionalists express for traditionalists. So while the law guarantees one is free to choose a non-traditional path, it also guarantees critics are free to use their own rhetoric and ideas to oppose questionable change. Non-traditionalists are quick to use their Constitutional guarantees of freedom to achieve their goals; even quicker to cry foul when the other side employs its guarantees to oppose them. Yes, they like The Constitution when it supports them, but when it supports the other side... not so much.

     Some historians criticize Samuel Adams for what they judge as emotional propaganda which resulted in unnecessary deaths in the years leading up to America’s Revolution. It’s all a matter of perspective. Either way, common sense America must not pour fuel on fire, to insure Adams’ brush fires are not stoked by the irate on either side. So far, with some notable exceptions, we have done a fair job. But there is always the danger that these little brush fires spread, joining together to become terribly destructive human infernos which nations suffer from time to time.

PRIDE IN ONE’S COUNTRY

     My Country
     ‘Tis of Thee,
     Sweet Land of Liberty,
     Of Thee I Sing; 
     Land where my fathers died,
     Land of the pilgrims’ pride 
     From ev’ry mountainside 
     Let freedom ring


     These graceful lyrics, penned by Samuel Francis Smith, to a melody borrowed from the UK’s rousing, “God Save the Queen,” served as one of our de facto national anthems, along with “Hail, Columbia” and “God Bless America,” before “The Star-Spangled Banner” was officially adopted as our national anthem in 1931.
     We used to sing these anthems in grammar school when I was a kid, in the years after WWII. The thought which always produced a transport of emotion in this kid was “pride” in one’s country. Today, among so many in what has become a nation of mutts – mixed salads, if you prefer – chests do not swell at thoughts of the “Land that I love,” or our “Gem of the ocean.” It’s obvious that if there is any pride among our people nowadays, what produces it is very different from in the past. It’s more like, well, we don’t really love America, we love her benefits. To many on the Left, it’s sort of like Land that I don’t love, I won’t stand beside her, or guide her, through the night with a light from a Bud. To some on the Right, the anthem runs a bit like Glen Frey’s

“I’ve got mine,

Don’t want a thing to change,

‘Cause I've got mine.”

     Do educators teach, and students learn, of the proud accomplishments and traditions of our nation? The liberal theme seems to be that if they could just turn America into The United Marxist States, perhaps shucking just the downside of Karl’s failed philosophy, then they might feel some pride. Libertarians might feel it if we could just drop all those annoying restrictive laws, and allow millions upon millions of stupid people to just do what they please. And while Conservatives do express pride in the military and maybe the cops, or maybe some sports, they feel no pride in the Congress – I should say the entire Federal Government – or their own Party leaders. Jane and John Q. Public have more pride in their fave football team’s logo and mascot, or in their new lawn mower, than they have in their nation. Why?
     It’s a mess. And it ain’t gettin’ any better.

     Lack of pride?
     A lack of pride in one’s self, one’s family and one’s community is like a barbed-wire fence which keeps the growing underclass enslaved by their street culture and scheming leaders. Lack of pride suffocates the fires of self-determination. Allows self-serving dunderheads to tell you how to live, what to eat, drink, wear, how much of this or that you can use, how to vote, and worst of all, how to think. How can anyone who has no positive accomplishments of his own feel pride in his country? He has been taught that his nation is the reason he has not succeeded. This dreadful way of thinking leads to total dependence on the government to provide whatever it takes to keep the undersheep going. Just enough to keep it going. Never enough to allow it to break free from the shackles of an ever-growing government. Can anyone feel proud in a culture like this? Ask those who survived life in the totalitarian USSR.

     So, out of this milieu comes a very different candidate for president of the United States. One who senses this lack of pride; in the joblessness of blue collar America, the hopelessness of inner city America, the ineptitude of our foreign affairs officers, the demoralization of our local and border police officers. He hears of it everywhere. So, having made his own fortunes, needing no more, he claims he owes our nation a great debt (and so he does!) He insists he will make America great again. Like it was in the years he and I were not embarrassed to sing about this sweet land of liberty.
      But the naysayers in media and politics skip gingerly over his essential idea – that under his leadership our economy and foreign affairs will improve greatly, that his policies will return our economy to it natural dynamism. He will lower taxes, which will bring business back to America, which in turn will produce more jobs, and produce excess revenue, which we can use to pay down the debt, which will once again make us the world’s acknowledged economic powerhouse, which will restore our greatness. 
     Yet the media natters and pffs! Exactly how can we trust someone who has declared bankruptcy several times to do all this? Nevermind that he has always emerged more successful in the end. Wobbly-kneed Republicans make worried faces and say yes but he’s not nice. They don’t like him. He’s too bombastic. Or, well, they think he has too much pride in his own accomplishments to be president.
     The establishment wants someone more docile. Someone whose greatest accomplishments have been more like those on the Democratic side, ie: government solutions. They want someone more... well... pliable.
     Too much pride?
     If Donald Trump can make America great again, won’t all of us feel a sense of pride in a resuscitated nation? Won’t that pride spill over into our attitudes, in our work, in our family and community, and lift the standards of our personal ambitions? Of course it will. More kids, especially those in inner cities, will once again grow up hearing about broader possibilities for them, about the national pride that inspired so many of us back in the day to climb up out of whatever socioeconomic depth we may have been in, to break the chains that held our parents. The sunlight of greater personal opportunity should warm every American’s easy smiling face.
      Wasn’t this our Founders’ vision for the future of their new republic. One free from the interference of an overly large government? Where opportunity is the fundamental engine of accomplishment and economic success? No matter how many millions of citizens might dwell within?
     The pilgrims’ pride must be everyone’s.