Why This Election Year America Is Nurse Jackie
What does it say about the self-control of a man who chooses to live his life without beer?
Last weekend I debuted the first installment in my ongoing series of book reviews here at PJ Lifestyle: “23 Books for Counterculture Conservatives, Tea Party Occultists, and Capitalist Wizards.”
In the middle of the list I featured these six books and discussed their contributions to understanding American exceptionalism:
10. Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America by Ann Coulter
11. The Secrets of Masonic Washington by James Wasserman
12. Americanism: The Fourth Great Western Religion by David Gelernter
13. Occult America: White House Seances, Ouija Circles, Masons, and the Secret Mystic History of Our Nation by Mitch Horowitz
14. The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (A Little) Craziness and (A Lot of) Success in America by John Gartner
15. The Secret Destiny of America by Manly P. Hall
In Demonic, Ann Coulter explains the relationship between mob psychology, human evil, demagogic emotional manipulation, and America’s founding as a bulwark to protect against all three. In The Secrets of Masonic Washington, James Wasserman reveals the esoteric meanings behind the statues and symbols of Washington, D.C., the enduring monuments to the transcendent values that liberated America from the tyrannies of the fickle moods of mobs and kings. In Americanism, David Gelernter argues that Old Testament Puritanism evolved into the American Idea, a secular creed uniting citizens of disparate religious identities. In Occult America, Mitch Horowtiz shows that as America grew and expanded her states acted as not just “laboratories of democracy” but cauldrons of religious freedom from which new faiths — including Mormonism — emerged. In The Hypomanic Edge, psychologist John Gartner argues that all throughout America’s history the peculiar, high-energy temperament of an immigrant nation has manifested repeatedly in the nation’s entrepreneurs, scientists, explorers, and statesmen. And finally, The Secret Destiny of America by Manly P. Hall, a favorite of Ronald Reagan, collects together a series of fantastic tall tales and prophecies to mythologize this American ideal of a land dedicated to every human being’s right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Mitt Romney fits this paradigm. He’s the textbook example of the energetic, can-do businessman, balanced and guided by a system of traditional, American values embedded within his Mormon faith. Meanwhile, Barack Obama spent 20 years practicing how to worship himself in this antisemitic conspiracy theorist’s church:
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Well Jackie, what’s it going to be? More Goddamn America to kill the pain of having to take responsibility for the freedom of creating your own happiness? Or some Mormon sobriety so we all can just see the price of gas go back down?
God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.
Grace, serenity, realism, courage, insight, wisdom. Oh! and God.
Romney landslide in November.
Amen!
Willard M. Romney’s Mormon faith, with its historic roots in Freemasonry, does trouble me. I find that its followers avoid making a careful scrutiny into their faith’s foundings, preferring to accept the narrative their church gives to them. In this way, I find Mormonism somewhat like Islam. But Mormons I tolerate because rarely have they been prone to violence. What human has no flaws? So W. Mitt Romney holds a belief that holds no historic water. I find some of the beliefs of the Founding Fathers of this nation troubling too. So I’ve voted already, but not for a community agitator.
I agree up until you said the Founding Fathers were troubling….they are not, they were/are awesome.
Mormons are a cult, not a religion and the the bedrock of their “faith” the Pearl and the Great Price confirms their “non-Christian” status. That being said, they do do good things and are generally upstanding citizens, they are just not Christian.
Next to Obama, Romney is George Washington as far as I’m concerned.
Mormons accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. That makes them Christians. Heretical Christians, at least according to the Episcopal Church (yeah, I know, I’m not sure how Christian they are these days! That’s why I’m not a member anymore. But still…), but still Christians.
“I find that its followers avoid making a careful scrutiny into their faith’s foundings, preferring to accept the narrative their church gives to them.”
This is whole-cloth nonsense.
I agree: if my Mormon neighbors have their Scout troop clean up one more trashy lot in our neighborhood or, if they bring one more plate of cookies or loaf of freshly baked bread to my home I shall SCREAM. In a world where one throws out apples and oranges received as Halloween graft, who brings food to neighbors like that ?
And what’s with encouraging all those young men and women to serve for 2 years, or whatever–at their own expense–and during the most selfish period of a young person’s life ? That’s just plain weird; they must do it at the point of a gun. At least my kid would not volunteer. And what is with ALL those kids ? They must support the minivan industry alone. Are they trying to give Catholics competition for maintaining US demographics ?
I hear our minister talk about “by their fruits you shall know them” and then totally bash the Mormons…somehow it doesn’t quite square: they’re so evil yet they do much ground level and unheralded good.
Weren’t many of the founders also Freemasons? Too much of the anti-freemason stuff is bound in with the International Jewish Conspiricy garbage. I do know a little bit about freemasonry and I’ve seen some of their “secret” stuff; it’s just a harmless bit of nonsense.
WHA?
Freemasons? Seriously, are you kidding me?
Whether Romney is a Mormon or belongs to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is irrelevant. This country is on the edge of a precipice we will not avoid if Obama is re-elected.My husband’s partner at work is Mormon. He truly doesn’t have three heads, a small spaceship parked in his garage or a secret Jesse Ventura code ring. He’s a decent, honest man who gives to his community (and I mean the ENTIRE community) on a daily basis. My husband is a Jew. I am not religious. DOesn’t matter a hill of beans. We’re ALL voting for Mitt Romney.If you give anything resembling a damn about the future of this country you will, too.
Nobody who touts the Flying Spaghetti Monster actually believes in the Flying Spaghetti Monster. That’s why I wouldn’t for any any FSM fanboy. And I don’t vote for people who claim to be Catholic without believing in Catholic Christianity nor people who claim to be Protestant Christians who put race before God – too bad, Plugs and Bambi.
Well, I don’t watch Nurse Jackie but I watch Vegas. And this week the conspicuously Mormon banker, Mr. Farwood (who has been portrayed in a good light), said the “..the things Mormons care about are relationships- with our family, our church, our community.” I could have fallen out of my chair. Maybe it’s just a tiny chink in the armor of Hollywood, but it was nice to see it in a top-rated show.
It almost makes me forgive CBS for Abby Sciuto saying she wanted to be stuck in an elevator with Michelle Obama.
A vote for magic underwear is a vote for America! Go Romney!
You may as well ask “Is America ready for some Muslim sobriety”? Romney isn’t a Christian. And who cares? It is time for sobriety, that only a non-Christian can bring. Just don’t expect a Christian perspective.
What Brutus said. Seems to me that lately most of the mainstream Christians have been a bit, well, reluctant, to defend their religion against a MAJOR competitor (or two, if you count communism as a religion). Maybe we should try something else. Either way, as Insty says, I prefer a syphilitic camel. Although Romney might not like the comparison, I hope he’ll still accept my vote…
Noah was not a drunk. Having just gone through a tragedy that makes the Holocaust pale in comparision (and that’s saying a lot) he accidentally got drunk ONCE, in private.
(I would argue about David also, but there’s not enough cultural similarity for me to convince you.)
As Little Carmine said (Sopranos), “We’re on the precipice of a crossroads.”
Very interesting piece, David. Methinks you may have a bit of hypomania yourself – how else do you find the time to write AND edit AND read so many damn books? Gimmee some of that!
Regards,
John.