A Paralyzed Nation
Well, apparently, we escaped the alleged perils of a government shutdown. In my more cynical moments, I find myself longing for more and longer ones.
Well, apparently, we escaped the alleged perils of a government shutdown. In my more cynical moments, I find myself longing for more and longer ones. After all, the only difference between these official shutdowns and the usual state of affairs is that the Republicans get all the blame for the temporary stoppages, while the Democrats have to take half the credit for the permanent state of paralysis.
We don’t have a government. What we have are two warring factions that can’t agree on anything except that the other side is evil and never has the best interests of the nation at heart. That is why I honestly believe that the only chance for survival of the republic dreamt up by the likes of Madison, Hamilton, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and Washington, is for the nation to finally separate along ideological fault lines.
Liberals could then have their own Eden, a socialist welfare state with open borders; where in the face of determined enemies, the authorities fight back with slogans and peace signs; where abortions on demand are the policy, along with transgender bathrooms; where Sharia law is practiced; where the minimum wage is $25-an-hour and where a burger tomorrow costs as much as a lobster dinner today.
We conservatives would have our own nation, where the law of the land would be the U.S. Constitution.
The reason that the Democrats have so much power, whether in the majority or not, is because they stand united. Wrong, but united.
The GOP is simply too diverse to battle on equal terms. Republicans are simply too busy squabbling among themselves to ever present a united front. You don’t notice it so much when they’re the minority party. But, today, when they control both houses of Congress, the Oval Office and even the Supreme Court, you suddenly become aware that there is something called the Freedom Caucus in the House, along with another unbending faction called the Tuesday Group. It’s no wonder the Republicans couldn’t pass the Obama Replace and Repeal Bill. Chances are they also won’t be able to agree to build the Wall or pass Trump’s revised tax code or even agree what to include on the House’s lunch menu.
The best thing about having the GOP in the majority isn’t that they get anything done, but that they prevent the Democrats from getting anything done.
I was delighted, though, to see the Republicans manage to seat Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court, but even the Court has become a bad joke. The whole point of having such a Court is to enable the justices to determine whether legislation is in keeping with the letter of the Constitution. It shouldn’t be too difficult. After all, the writing in the Constitution is quite clear. Even a non-lawyer such as myself can understand it. So, how is it that not only are nearly all the decisions determined by a 5-4 margin, but that we can easily predict how all nine justices will vote because the Court has become as partisan as the U.S. Senate.
On occasion, someone will accuse me of being racist. That’s because I cut blacks little if any slack. I don’t buy their claims of victimhood 150 years after the end of slavery, 50 years after the end of Jim Crow. When racially-diverse immigrants from around the world, most of whom come here not even speaking English, and yet manage to survive and even thrive within a couple of generations, I find it impossible to buy the complaints of blacks that it’s white racism that’s holding them down.
It’s not the fault of white people that half of black youngsters drop out of high school, a percentage nearly that high drop out of college, that the majority of black men do not marry the mothers of their children, and that welfare isn’t regarded as a shameful necessity, but as an entitlement.
This isn’t meant to tarnish an entire race. In fact, it’s commendable that there are so many blacks who are decent and hard-working when you realize that they’re not only going against the tide, but have probably had to put up with neighbors and relatives condemning them for “acting white.”
I am in favor of capital punishment. I know there are those who oppose it, regarding it as a barbaric practice. One of their favorite arguments is that we have executed people in the past only to find years later through DNA evidence that they were innocent. But we have had DNA testing for several years now, and yet they continue to pull out the old argument every chance they get, even when the person on death row is there because he was convicted on the basis of DNA evidence.
What I find truly bizarre are the concerns that some of the holier-than-thou types have when it comes to the means of execution. Even though many of those bound for execution didn’t merely murder innocent people, but often tortured them to death, there are those who worry that the brutes might experience the slightest bit of discomfort. The worrywarts managed to all but eliminate hanging, electric chairs and firing squads, replacing them with lethal injections. But, naturally, they then quickly objected to the injections, fearing the killers might feel a slight burning or tingling sensation.
Although I think a fair amount of pain should be part of the process, I am willing to compromise if they’d bring back the guillotine. I understand it is totally painless, but at least the killer would have time in which to anticipate having his head separated from his neck.
After I wrote about my suggestions for an ideal society, one of my readers suggested that naturalized citizens should have to learn English before being allowed to vote. I let him know that when I said a person would have to pass a civics class in English before becoming a citizen, I felt I had that covered. But in case I’ve not made my position clear, I acknowledge that immigrants can be good people without being able to read or speak English, but they can’t be good voters.
As sins go, I’ll admit that snobbery is pretty far down the list. But I find it bizarre that so many people seem to revel in being snobs and in assuming a superior attitude when it comes to such things as wine, art, movies, books and food.
It’s harmless enough, I suppose, and can even be amusing when one guy sniffs a wine cork, another speaks undecipherable gibberish about blotches on a canvas and a third rhapsodizes about a dish of truffles. What is confounding is that people are likely to spot snobs outside their own areas of snobbery, and to even hold them in mild contempt, but fail to recognize that they’re all brothers under the skin. Or, rather, under the raised eyebrow and the slight sneer.
I only recently become aware of the opioid epidemic created by people becoming addicted to pain pills after suffering a physical trauma, and advancing quite often to full-fledged heroin addiction.
I’ve been wondering if hypnotism has been tried in any of these cases. After all, we’ve all seen exhibitions of hypnotism where people have needles poked through their hands and felt nothing. So, wouldn’t it be worth a try if it could keep people from having to rely on the pills in the first place?
It used to be that attorneys were often despised because we’d see them go to any lengths to keep rapists, thieves and killers, from getting their just deserts. These days, though, when lawyers seem to be devoting most of their time to keeping the federal government from deporting illegal, often criminal, aliens, American citizens have a brand new reason to despise them.
In fact, the way things are going, I expect that left-wing attorneys will soon be suing St. Peter for not throwing open the Pearly Gates to all the sinners trying to sneak into Heaven.
