I guarantee you that if you take a stroll through the local mall or spend a few minutes talking with people in the local cafe, nearly everyone there will know that Kim Kardashian is pregnant and that Kanye West is the father of the unborn child. A majority will know about RGIII’s rookie exploits and which teams made the NFL playoffs and which ones didn’t. A majority will know which NCAA teams are playing for the national championship. A good number will know which NBA team just had a 17-game winning streak snapped, and why it happened. Most can name characters on Cougar Town or Homeland or contestants on Dancing with the Stars. Someone will know that Simon Cowell is dating Carmen Electra. And they may actually care enough about that to engage in a lively conversation about it.
Everyone will know that Congress made a deal with the president and the fiscal cliff has been averted — huzzah! Hardly anyone will know any of the details or that despite that deal, their taxes went up anyway. While everyone was watching the right hand — the income tax rate — the left hand was snatching their money via a payroll tax hike. The great misdirector wins again. The details mattered far less than the fact of a deal. That’s stupid when you think about it. It’s like not caring about the details of the home mortgage you just entered into. The interest rate, and the fact of whether it’s fixed or floats, matters a lot. The details of whether you can afford the monthly payments matter a lot. The property taxes and ground rents matter. Likewise, the details of whether we’re going to cut federal spending or just keep taxing matter, a lot.
Hardly anyone will know that Iran is making threats again. Fewer will care, and fewer will connect those threats to anything larger or see how they may relate to our current leadership’s policies and outlook. Fewer still will know that Egypt has gone from being a passable ally to a rising threat. Hardly anyone will connect that change to anything said or done by the current president and his foreign policy team. Almost no one will praise the good owners of Hobby Lobby for standing up to power and telling it “No” in a good old-fashioned American way.
There was a time when a tax hike the scale of the one that slipped by yesterday would be enough to cause a stir. There was a time when the seismic changes sweeping across the Middle East would drive more headlines than the lifestyles of useless celebrities. There was a time when it wasn’t nearly impossible to raise a family and get your kids through college on one salary without going into crippling debt. That time is gone, and the world of that time along with it.
Along with that world has passed what were once this nation’s bedrock beliefs. We used to believe in a transcendent God. We used to believe in thrift and hard work. We used to be the engine of the world, not just in industry and invention and commerce, but in thoughts and ideals. We used to be exceptional.
November 6 provided powerful evidence that we don’t really believe in any of those things anymore and that we’re not who we thought we were. We have an economy in shambles and a belief system in ruins. Our government makes promises it cannot keep, to keep current officeholders in power at the expense of future generations. Our government passed a law against the objections of the majority that does almost none of what it was advertised to do, but which begins to monopolize the health care system even as it represses the freedom of conscience and the freedom to be left alone.
We’re an economic basket case. Eleven states now have more people on government assistance than are working at jobs.
Forbes calls these the “death spiral states.” It should worry us all that they include New York, Ohio, Illinois and California. Two of them are two of our three most populous states. One glitters with Manhattan and the other, with Hollywood. They dominate the coasts and the culture. They should be working parts of a machine driving the domestic and world economy, but instead they’re becoming sand in the gears. It’s probably not a coincidence that our president was born in one and built his political career in another, and is transforming the nation into something that resembles them.
Calling them “death spiral states” may be unfair to them, anyway. We may be a death spiral nation now. We are running yearly deficits north of $1,000,000,000,000. So many zeroes that your eyes lose focus on them. But the main driver of these deficits is not fiscal, but moral. When you routinely break your word, the problem is moral. In ObamaCare and the fiscal cliff deal, the president broke his word multiple times. He failed to have either of the bills posted five days before votes to allow for review in both cases. He raised taxes on millions making less than his magical $250,000 per year. He set the pattern that he will create crisis that demands action, set an artificial deadline to build pressure and drive media narratives, then leave the American people no time to digest the details of the actions taken until they become law. The fact that he is not called on this by the people is evidence that we have a moral problem. We don’t care that our elected leader’s word is worthless. A majority don’t care that he is hacking the system and may yet bring it down in some future “crisis.”
When you have more takers than makers, as seen in the eleven “death spiral states,” you have people helping themselves to the fruit of other people’s labors. In the current president, we have a man encouraging that behavior on a grand scale, with his callous class warfare and continuous assault on “the rich” and “those who aren’t paying their fair share.” He was re-elected running up larger deficits than the ones he called “unpatriotic” when it was convenient for him. He was re-elected never defining what “fair” is or explaining in detail what taxpayers are getting for their money. He was re-elected breaking his word. More Americans know about and are enraged by Dan Quayle and “potatoe” than the fact that their taxes just went up, that their president lied, and that we’re still hurtling toward the mathematical fact that our nation is on track to spend itself into bankruptcy. They don’t realize, or just don’t care, that this president once labeled his own policies “irresponsible” and “unpatriotic,” and that if he was right then, then he must be wrong now.
I can sit here arguing all day and all night, here in this space or on Twitter or Facebook or wherever eyeballs happen to be, how awful all this is but it does no good at all. As soon as you bring up the m-word — moral — you lose most of your audience. Most Republicans no longer want to hear that word, let alone Democrats or independents. To use it is to jostle up memories of that world that’s gone, Father Knows Best and all that. It’s antiquated. Quaint. Intolerant. Gets you labeled as a crank and dismissed.
So we fight the details of this or that policy in utter futility. We’re nibbling around the edges of the crisis, though. The next assault will be against a fundamental right enshrined in clear ink and with clear purpose, the right to bear arms. Having surrendered the right to be left alone, and having severely damaged the freedom to think, and having pushed our transcendent beliefs off to the margins, it may be easier than it has been in times past to assault the right to self-defense. A moral people would realize that the move to grab firearms from the law-abiding is going to empower criminals and politicians — sorry to be redundant — while doing nothing to make anyone safer. That assault will be followed by others, and phony crises and posturing and heavy spin. A moral people would see through the spin. A moral people would discern truth from lie.
But are we that anymore? For the answer, just look at the quality of the people we have placed in power over us. Just look at the things we choose to care about, and the things we let slip by without them bothering us.
The Gods of the Copybook Headings say that ignorance is no excuse, and they are quite right.
Don’t be too hard on others – it’s been that way for ages. Even the philosophers of Ancient Greece complained about how people at dinner would discuss athletes, plays, etc. instead of philosophy. Maybe we are idealizing a past where the “average” citizen was as engaged as we wish them to be now.
The key is to get enough motivated people (and it isn’t a majority) to know the issues and get them in the right positions to act on them.
Thank you for the excellent column.
Documents like this article are what we need to begin a (in fact : moral, and then, cultural) “reconquista” of our Country.
I’m with you. I’ve spent more time getting my house in order, with Him who knows me better than I do, then concentrating on all the chaos in the world. . It’s hard getting rid of the natural man, and acquiring the traits of the spiritual man. Everything we have lived through in the US has always had this undercurrent of blessing from God, and even though many of us have known for years that His hand has been removed, I think even the majority now realize that something is terribly wrong, but either don’t have the knowledge or faith, or fearlessness to do anything about it. That’s where we come in – if we are in that right relationship, believe we are equipped not for our comfort but to help those that have lost the way, truly believe that the US is not our home, and this worldly kingdom is not the end, then we need to get serious about losing the trappings, desiring AND USING the weapons to draw men to Him. You’ll never know which column on which date, had the effect of changing even one person, but it’s where you’re placed and we just keep our eyes on the prize. One heart at a time.
I’ve always felt that any man who knows and believes in a living God, is passionate enough to want to hold any elected office, is the wrong man for the job. We know about faithfulness, and that no one can be loyal to two kingdoms, even the owners manual says it can’t be done. So why are we looking for, or even expecting, our elected officials to have some kind of moral fiber? The kingdoms are diametrically opposed and heading in opposite directions, just took a while for it to become so obvious.
+1, except for the last paragraph. I don’t feel anyone who holds or wants to hold public office is not qualified. Most certainly fall into the category you described, but not all.
I hear ya.
Our nation is in the firm embrace of evil.
I fear that a return to reason is beyond our means now.
Stay the course, Bryan! Every scintillating word you write does matter, and you must not give up. The ability to inspire others is a true “gift of the spirit.” It has never been more needed. You have it. Some people would envy what, through a different prism, looks like pretty clear marching orders from the Universe.
For a long time now, it’s been modish among the so-called smart set to denigrate the transcendent virtue of hope, exemplified by the popular saying, “Hope is not a strategy.” People who say this have no idea how right they are. Hope is not a strategy. It is the mother of all strategies. Samuel Johnson’s “Without hope, there is no endeavor” makes the point.
Just keep on keeping on. (Or perhaps a “hardened” news man would prefer Churchill’s saltier, “Keep buggering on!” often shortened to just, “KBO!”) It really is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness, and Bill Sands was right when he wrote, “The world is plastic to our thoughts.” So was someone else when He said, “…and greater works than these shall ye do.”
The only thing standing between us and success is our beliefs, and we control those.
I would like to second the sentiments of MayberryLady.
Bryan,
I was not aware of a single item in the first paragraph. You have captured a lot, very concisely. I have commented in the past months on my grief at the pending loss of my beloved country as I know it, and discovered that I have been worshiping the constitution when I should have been worshiping God exclusively. I still love my country, and I still grieve, but my hope is no longer in my country and its constitution. My hope is more firmly rooted in God. That hope is sustained by surrounding myself with like-minded people. God bless, and please keep the candle burning. Some of us can see it, and draw comfort from it.
This is one of the best-written analyses of the state of the US ‘soul’ that I have read in a long time. Bryan achieves an objective frankness without descending into apocalyptic rhetoric nor personal despair.
As a non-US citizen who has never set foot on US soil nor has any plans to, I have followed US very closely all of my adult life, quite aware that the US was the global leader in, as Bryan puts it, not just industry and commerce, but in thoughts and ideas. As the decades have gone by, I have grown more and more dismayed with the cancer of so-called ‘progressive’ ideology that has eaten into the very heart of the nation and metastasized beyond any reasonable hope.
On November the 6th I gave up on the USA. To have elected Barack Obama the first time was mere stupidity, a symptom of the ‘conspiracy of fools’ buying into the ‘post racial’ spin and trying to prove that they are not racists. However, when for four years he had provided abundant and incontrovertible evidence of being totally inept to lead a banana republic, let alone a great nation like the USA, to elect him again is not mere foolishness. It is a very deliberate choice.
Since I am not a citizen of the USA, it is much easier for me to ‘give up’ on the nation, of course. Nevertheless, I think the rapidly dwindling conservative electorate would be very wise to remember the Pilgrims and so many others who fled oppression and injustice and the imposition of doctrines and ideologies anathema to their beliefs. The USA is not so much a fixed geographic location as an ideal, a dream, a promise. And it is increasingly obvious that this ideal, dream and promise no longer have their home in the nation known as the United States of America. Were the Pilgrims defeatists to leave England and seek a new home? Were all those who left their homes in oppressed states to come to Coney Island defeatists? Clearly not. They were not giving up on their dreams, which is why they left England, Germany, Russia, etc. To have stayed where they were was giving up on their dreams. And so today, I believe, the time has come when those citizens of the USA who hold as non-negotiable those ideals and principles on which the republic was founded must again become pilgrims. There are many, many other countries in the world that are fiscally and socially conservative. To deny this is rank ignorance and parochialism.
Such a choice would not necessarily result in immediate financial gain. On the contrary, cultural shock and the loss of one’s professional network would take a heavy toll. (I cannot emphasize too heavily the wisdom of getting – and paying for – sound advice from experienced and successful immigrants of your nation of choice). As I said, this choice would almost certainly come at a high price, but if your only criteria is economic, then you probably belong in the USA of Barack Hussein Obama anyway.
If your vote no longer has any value because the conspiracy of takers has greater (and exponentially growing so) weight than that of the union of responsible citizens, then your last vote is with your feet. Do not spurn it lightly.
Ian,
I appreciate your perspective, and also visited and am impressed by your blog.
Can you please list the countries that are more socially and fiscally conservative. I am genuinely not aware of what countries you might be referring to.
This could use a front page link for New Year’s reflection.
Good stuff – maybe Pravda will republish it. They seem to have their finger on the pulse of America, while the MSM plays dumb to lull us to sleep. Odd that.
Excellent if depressing post.
Secede. There’s nothing else you can do for the coming generations. Deep down I think you all know this.
You wrote, “A moral people would see through the spin. A moral people would discern truth from lie.”
You’re right. Propaganda appeals to our weaknesses and worst instincts—our fears, insecurities, avarice and suspicion, and it brutalizes our perception of our fellow human beings. A moral people would find the spin and posturing repulsive and reject it for what it is—lies and deception.
I absolutely agree with what you’ve written. Breitbart said, “Culture is upstream of politics,” but Russell Kirk said, “At heart, all political problems are moral and religious problems,” The fact is that upstream from our culture—television, sports, movies, books, entertainment, education, you name it—is our understanding of God and man, and right and wrong in responsibilities and relationships. That’s the fountainhead of both culture and ultimately politics.
“just look at the quality of the people we have placed in power over us”
Sadaam’s cabinet. But not as honest. Or as smart.
Those who care can see what is happening and where we are headed. It is no coincidence that the government wants to totally disarm us. Our second amendment is the only thing that restrains them. Without it our taxes would rise unrestrained and our services would plummet and we would be subjected to a permanent ruling class with no middle class. All we have to do is look at what our politicians are saying. When they say they want to help the middle class that is code for targeting the middle class for destruction. They talk about improving the economy and growing jobs but their actions are to destroy the economy and kill jobs. They talk about protecting America but their actions make our nation vulnerable to attack from our enemies and domination by our crooked politicians and their cronies.
All American’s need a strategy to survive since there seems little will to exercise the founding fathers wish to abolish an out of control government. We need to live small and earn big, learn to hide our resources and set our last stand boundaries. We all need to decide how far we will back up as our government assaults and at what point we stand true to what we have taught our children. Maybe it is inevitable that those who were born in our nation’s best times would also live to see it’s worst. All I know is that I have had a great life and plan to have a good one as long as I can. If it all goes to *%#* tomorrow the balance of my life is positive. I’m not sure my children and grandchildren will be able to say that. I see a very different world for them. How sad that we have allowed ourselves to be subverted so openly.
Should I be proud that I know practically none of the things in the first paragraph?
Anyway, I’d agree it does limited good to complain. Things haven’t been perfect since the fall of man. But egads look how far sanitation and medicine have come. Do we have the top school in the world? No. Better education than a hundred years? certainly. Are race relations perfect? No. Have they improved? Absolutely.
Criticism and dialogue are a good first step, but it’s only a first step. Make note of what is bad, but unless you can get people talking about practical, workable plans to make it better and then take some action…then it is just complaining.
The death spiral will only take us down if we accept that end as inevitable.
To my mind, Benghazi was a turning point. In the middle of an election, their Man in Benghazi is murdered, and they just did not care. They = Obama, Clinton, the Media, the Left.
For their purposes, the story of Christopher Stevens’ death was “buried at sea”. Morally speaking, they did not bring his body home.
Before Stevens’ body was cold, the Media was following orders to attack Romney for his tone. Obama gave a scheduled interview to CBS which was heavily edited for political advantage, then he flew to Las Vegas for a fundraiser. Within two days the “47 percent” tape was released, and Petraeus was being blackmailed.
I guess this is Chicago politics writ large.
I can only hope that our men and women in uniform get the message that this president does not have their back. Yes there is the individual right to bear arms, but there is also the collective will to bear arms to defend a shared way of life. Something you don’t learn when your mom first drags you to Indonesia, and then dumps you in Hawaii. Aren’t we all glad with the result of Stanley Ann Dunham set free to pursue her dreams?
Shared… “morals” comes from “mores” which is “what is customary to do”. Keep talking about morals, Bryan. Everybody’s got them, even if they don’t want to call them that.