On the personal level, there have been health issues, logistics issues and car issues (I had to buy a new battery the other day). And my computer crapping out on me and necessitating a return to Apple for repair. I handled it all mostly poorly in terms of my immediate responses (an abundance of potty language), but I did address each matter as it arose, knowing that the tooth fairy wasn't going to intervene. Probably the most difficult teaching for me that our Lord has bestowed on us is the simple phrase "in this world you will have trouble." You'd think that after my several decades of earthly existence I'd have made my peace with that one, but it's still hard for me to swallow. Harshes my mellow.
But the laptop is back, and so I'm back at LITD. LITD deprivation may have messed my head up worst of all the limitations on my ability to maneuver. Daily life felt so unnatural without access to my main outlet for observation, analysis, reflection and occasional ranting.
So for my first back-among-the-living post I'm hoping you'll permit me a bit of rambling. I'll try to make it worth your while with some piquant turns of phrase and resounding affirmations of what is true, right, good, noble and all else that is the antithesis of the boneheadedness that drives most of contemporary life.
I suppose the place to start is with the ongoing impact of the Very Stable Genius on the nation's cultural and spiritual health.
Consider his impact on the judgement and / or character of various people who, before being either consumed by cult worship for him or placed in positions of self-compromise due to their functions within a national-service context, were reliably principled figures.
There's Fox Business personality Lou Dobbs, who has gone from, well, let's let the VSG's pat on the head to Lou tell us just what kind of superlative tongue-bath was administered:
“I was watching the other night, the great Lou Dobbs,” Trump told rallygoers in Lexington’s Rupp Arena. “He said, when Trump took over,— when Trump took over, President Trump, he used to say ‘Trump is a great president,’ then he said ‘the greatest president since Ronald Reagan,’ then he said ‘No, no, Trump is an even better president than Ronald Reagan.’ And now he has me down as the greatest president in the history of our country, including George Washingtonand Abraham Lincoln!”There's Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, who apparently got so caught up in the feverish atmosphere of last night's rally that he joined the VSG in the rhetorical gutter, saying about Nancy Pelosi who certainly deserves to have pointed, well crafted barbs lobbed her way, "I don't mean any disrespect, but it must suck to be that dumb.'
There's Mike Pompeo's disappearing act when it has come to having the backs of people in his State Department such as former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and Pompeo's recently resigned senior advisor Michael McKinley.
There's the line of "Pray for 45" T-shirts that Franklin Graham is hawking on the Billy Graham Bookstore website. Rather than focus his concern on how the VSG is getting picked on by political opponents, something that has characterized that arena of our national life since the Founding, Graham would do well to steer the president toward the kind of sound doctrine Graham's father used to preach and away from the prosperity gospel that Trump's charlatan spiritual advisor Paula White dispenses.
There's Rand Paul's pivot from emphasis on unwavering heed to the text of the Constitution to calling for outing of the whistleblower, when in fact, since impeachment is not a prosecution in court, and the liberty of the accused person in the situation (the president) is not at stake - ergo, no right to face his accuser.
So there's that.
Now, I'd like to weigh in on the latest matter to garner the city of my residence national attention. Newsweek characterizes it this way: "Democrats Take Control of Mike Pence's Hometown For The First Time in Nearly Four Decades." As the article states, it came down to one vote for one district seat on the city council. I know the guy who lost the seat. We were in tenth-grade English class together. Served on the class-reunion committee together a few years ago. He's the most plain-spoken among the Republicans on the outgoing council and a guy who has had his share of life challenges. He was motivated to run and serve by the fact that he's lived in the district he represents his entire life.
Longtime LITD readers know I coin a lot of terms and monikers for various phenomena and people. one of which is Reasonable Gentleman Syndrome. The term "Reasonable Gentleman" (which also covers Reasonable Ladies) is loosely synonymous with the commonly used term "RINO," but I feel it fleshes out more of what in fact distinguishes such a person from someone who puts principles first. It is meant to convey the mindset that proceeds on the basis of extending goodwill to Democrats because they see them at social functions, send their kids to the same schools and summer camps, and on rare occasions find points of convergence for pursuing common legislative goals, even though it's clear that Democrats, since the veterans of the countercultural revolution returned to The System and commenced a Gramscian Long March Through The Institutions - insinuating themselves in such arenas of public life as law, journalism, education, the arts and even business and religion - have been single-mindedly determined to eradicate all non-Leftists from those same institution. Most Republican presidential candidates since 1988 have been Reasonable Gentlemen. Obviously, Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney fit the mold. And lost their races, may I remind you.
To return to the subject of Trump for just a moment (ugh), that's how we got him. A considerable swath of the Republican voting public was on the verge of permanent disillusion over the halting effectiveness of the Tea Party movement when along came Mr. He Fights, and their starvation for a possible way out of surrender to Leftist tyranny turned to elation.
It was a flawed response, but the question then arises: What would a good response look like? My first responses is something straightforward like, "just keep conservative principles front and center," but consider that our society is so far gone that if one goes on record stating such basic truths as "the global climate is not in crisis," or "recycling is pointless," or "redistribution is always a wrong use of government" or "it is impossible by definition for two people of the same gender to get married" or "there is no systemic bigotry against minorities," one can't get elected to any public office on the local, state or federal level in post-America.
The local Republican Party in my city is deeply afflicted with Reasonable Gentleman Syndrome. It is awash in Unfailingly Nice People. That characteristic came even more to the fore than usual in the 2015 municipal elections which saw the primary defeat of the previous mayor, whose problem was neither sticking to core principles (she cared not a whit about any of the matters I stated in the last paragraph) nor any kind of Trump-esque egotism, but rather that she just wasn't wrapped any too tight. She used to shatter the beings of staffers and journalists with her bizarre outbursts, had odd policy preoccupations and had paranoid perceptions about the Nice People all around her - who really were nice; they did not have the nefarious intent that she deluded herself into believing they had. Hence, she was ousted for a guy who set such store by "getting along with others" that he lost the will to muster any real aggression in support of council candidates in the 2019 cycle. (He was unopposed for the mayoral position in the primary as well as in the general election.)
And as a result, the sustainability-and-diversity crowd ate the Republicans' lunch. It's going to be diversity circles and solar panels on steroids around here.
I would say to local Republicans, "Get some fire in your belly, but be careful that it is principles-driven so that you don't fall for either another wack job or a Trumpist." That's easier said than done, since this is the home of the Pence brothers, who have obviously hitched their wagons to the Trump Train (although, if the soon-to-be released book A Warning has any credibility, Mike signaled to the GOP right after the Access Hollywood tape surfaced in 2016 that he was ready to step in if the party saw fit to oust Trump as the presidential nominee).
To the national Republicans, I would probably just say, "You may well be hopeless."
Well, hey, how about that? I was indeed able to bring a rather rambling post full-circle and make a cohesive point.
I didn't lose my chops after a week of personal chaos after all.
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