The Control Room of a submarine is a tight space with no windows, crammed full of gauges and high-tech electronic indicators. But one instrument is dirt simple and very important — it’s called an inclinometer, and it works just like a carpenter’s level, the kind you buy at Home Depot. When the bubble is at the top center, the ship is level. That’s good.
When the ship is tilted too steeply up or down, the bubble disappears — submariners call that “losing the bubble” — a disorienting change and an urgent reminder to get the ship back under control. Losing the bubble is akin to losing touch with reality. That’s bad.
And it reminds me of what’s happening in our nation today. In too many ways, I think we’ve lost the bubble.
Some glaring examples:
COVID 19. We can’t decide whether the pandemic is over or not. COVID-19’s death toll is now less than half of that from either heart disease or cancer, yet we continue to treat COVID as a universal justification of measures that are politically motivated and economically harmful. COVID is still very real — but It’s a problem, not a crisis.
Economy. There’s a debate raging right now as to whether our economy is technically in recession. But does it matter what we call it? Inflation is at 8.3%, a tax on every American and one that is particularly unforgiving for low-income families. Nearly all economists agree that a central driver of inflation is excessive spending — and yet we keep doing exactly that. Why?
National defense. World stability is teetering in both east and west. Russia, failing badly in its Ukraine misadventure, now hints that it might resort to nuclear weapons. In the Western Pacific, superpower China has Taiwan in its sights. Meanwhile, our military seems obsessed with LBGTQ training and COVID vaccination mandates. Fiddling while Rome burns?
Energy. In a panic over the long-term consequences of changing climate (ongoing for the earth’s entire four billion years of existence), our nation is rushing to transform our electricity supply into a fully renewable (primarily solar and wind) system. That’s a noble objective, but the premature shift will surely increase the cost and decrease the reliability and availability of electrical power — severely adverse near-term consequences with little or no long-term benefit.
Voting Rights. States that have adopted measures to improve voting security (such as voter ID and controls on remote voting processes) have been sued by the federal government on the basis that these measures are intended to suppress minority voting, much like the flagrantly racist Jim Crow laws of a century ago. But in the recent primary elections, voter turnout in these states — particularly among minorities — has been higher than ever. What’s the problem again?
Insurrection. We’re told by the president and by a transparently partisan Congressional Committee that a four-hour riot 19 months ago by a rag-tag mob of blowhards constitutes the greatest threat to American democracy since the Civil War (the one that claimed more than 600,000 American lives). That’s absurd; not even the most polished prime-time TV broadcasting can turn an ugly riot into a credible effort to overthrow the U.S. government.
Gender. Our elected leaders demand that we accept the new dogma that gender is a matter of personal choice, not biology. Worse, they insist that we allow children — who are too young to attend R-Rated movies without parents or guardians — to choose irreversible chemical or surgical body modification in order to “affirm” their preferred gender. It’s lunacy. And child abuse.
Domestic Terrorism. The U.S. attorney general likens angry parents at school board meetings to terrorists and advises that the greatest threat to our nation is now domestic violence at the hands of white supremacists and right-wing extremists. Where are they?
Abortion. Democrat leaders assert that abortion is the most important issue facing the nation and that Republicans have taken that right away from American women. That’s false. The Supreme Court confirmed what legal scholars have known for decades — that the U.S. Constitution is silent on the matter, and that it therefore it must be decided by the voters. The court’s action was a vote for the democratic process, not against it.
Immigration. By conscious policy, our southern border is a sieve, allowing millions of aliens to enter the country illegally, along with immense quantities of illegal drugs. Yes, we are a nation of immigrants — but a country without effective border control cannot survive.
None of this is good for America. In each case, we’ve lost our way, the bubble nowhere to be found. We need to right the ship, now.
