Truth be told, I have never felt a compelling interest in politics. I am like most Americans in that regard. We are interested in results, not machinations.
We don’t expect our elected officials to be rocket scientists. If they were, they’d be doing something more useful. We expect little more from DC politicians than that they fix what needs fixing, protect the nation’s interests, and at least be loyal to America. In return, most turn a blind eye or shake their heads in frustration at the almost inevitable corruption of electees in their own Party – you know – those who steal as much as they can get away with, hit on young Washington DC interns, and speechify on tv on the 4th of July while the rest of us eat hot dogs, and burp heartily at the blathering pols, causing everyone around the tv to laugh – that sort of thing.
Unfortunately today’s brand of politician seems less interested in opportunities for good results but very interested in opportunities for good corruption. Think about it; you only hear about it when they get caught. Feeble apologies. Why else would someone spend millions and millions of dollars, giving passionate stump speeches in places they’ve never even heard of, to get elected to a job that pays so much less? If elected, the passion suddenly turns to their own economic interests. Worse, many don’t even seem to be loyal to our nation.
Progressive liberals may ask What do you mean “your America?”
It’s the land and culture I grew up in. I was raised and schooled during what I believe were the best years this nation ever experienced – the 1940s-1950s – a time when we happily pledged our allegiance to Old Glory; and to the nation for which it stands. This was before “Under God” was inserted into The Pledge. I don’t personally care if they leave that in or take it out. It’s not the operative phrase in The Pledge.
“I pledge allegiance to...the nation...”
That’s what’s important.
To our politicians I say don’t give us claptrap about following The Constitution. The Constitution is the foundation for our nation’s laws, but there is nothing there that demands their loyalty to the “idea” of an America in which we – including most of our politicians – grew up. How can someone who grew up in a country where farmers rise at dawn to feed a world, a country with rodeos, Boy Scout troops, National Parks, stock car racing, grand baseball stadiums, sandy beaches with sailboats, fishermen and surfers, a culture that spawned Elvis, Lucy, Mickey Mantle, Mickey Mouse and the Beachboys, the likes of Neil Armstrong, George Patton and Joe DiMaggio; a culture that built the Golden Gate Bridge, the Empire State Building and carved the faces on Mount Rushmore – how could somebody who grew up among all this go to Washington and suddenly put the welfare of a foreign nation before his own? Become virtual spokesperson for some adversarial nation or value system? How can anyone who is honored by his own countrymen with election to the highest offices turn his or her back on all that he or she held dear as a child? Somewhere along the way, they somehow seem to have lost their soul. Explain that.
There is only one explanation. The heart of a politician beats to a different drummer. He has no soul. Under the guise of “protecting The Constitution” he will sell out all that makes America unique among the countries of this planet. Only a mentally-disturbed politician could argue for NOT protecting our borders during a time he claims “We are facing an enemy who wants to kill us.” Only a mentally-disturbed politician could give away our military secrets to our adversaries. Or our jobs. Or our very sovereignty.
We have heard Michael Savage describe (very aptly I might add) that liberalism is a mental disorder. But if the Democrat Party, taken over by leftist liberals is a sanitarium for the mentally disordered, what is the Republican Party? I do not see this bunch of Brooks Brothers happy-boys protecting our America any more than the grubby Democrats. If the Democrats can rightly be charged with shoveling trillions of our tax dollars into the bottomless pit of social engineering, the Republicans are pouring similar amounts into the bottomless pockets of the business school club of CEOs. Big oil CEOs. War-supply CEOs. Big Pharma CEOs. Wall Street CEOs, and on and on. How does this protect my America? Just the opposite is true.
America produces fewer and fewer things at home. Our politicians shed crocodile tears. We are just borrowing, playing with and printing money that is worth less and less each year. Like a family deeply in debt, a nation deeply in debt is vulnerable. Especially when its creditors are not its friends. Eventually, the family will be forced to pawn its heritage just to stay afloat. It sucks up to anyone with cash, no matter how unseemly. It takes in boarders whose backgrounds and motives are unknown. Most disgusting are the family members who try to convince the others to leave the doors open so strangers can come in and cause the havoc.
As a child, I once lived in just such a house in just such a neighborhood. I will never forget the fear, palpable as it was in my family and in that house and neighborhood. But whereas my family had enough drive and smarts to climb into the middle class, eventually moving to a better neighborhood, those options seem impossibly limited in a nation. Rats sense when a ship is in trouble and begin scurrying off along the mooring lines. Here in our ship of state the bilge is rapidly filling with brackish water, but we are at sea and there is nowhere to escape. It is up to us rats to save our ship.
If nothing else, I would urge every decent law-biding citizen to go out and buy a legal gun. If you already own one, buy another. This is the home of Colt and Springfield and Winchester. Even if you never unpack your new gun – a sudden surge of weapon sales to average Americans will send a very hard metal signal to our politicians and officials; their constituants are frustrated to a boiling point and no longer trust them to protect America or Americans. And our enemies, including those already among us, all of whom follow our media so closely? It should give them some pause.
Or maybe you would rather go down with the ship?
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