David Gelernter has some thoughts on the options open to voters.
Mr. Trump’s candidacy is a message from the voters. He is the empty gin bottle they have chosen to toss through the window. The message begins with the fact that voters hear what the leaders and pundits don’t: the profound contempt for America and Americans that Mrs. Clinton and President Obama share and their frightening lack of emotional connection to this nation and its people.
. . .
Trump voters have noticed that, not just over Mr. Obama’s term but in recent decades, their own opinions have grown increasingly irrelevant. It’s something you feel, like encroaching numbness. Since when has the American public endorsed affirmative action? Yet it’s a major factor in the lives of every student and many workers. Since when did we decide that men and women are interchangeable in hand-to-hand combat on the front lines? Why do we insist on women in combat but not in the NFL? Because we take football seriously. That’s no joke; it’s the sad truth.
Did we invite the federal bureaucracy to take charge of school bathrooms? I guess I missed that meeting. The schools are corrupt and the universities rotten to the core, and everyone has known it since the 1980s. But the Democrats are owned by the teachers unions, and Republicans have made only small-scale corrections to a system that needs to be ripped out and carefully disposed of, like poison ivy.
. . .
For eight years it’s been Humiliate America season—buzz our ships, capture and embarrass our men, murder an American ambassador—a resoundingly successful attempt to spit in our faces and tell each one of us to drop dead. Thanks, Mr. President. Enough is enough. You know that Hillary is Obama Part III. We can’t let that happen. Parts I and II have brought us close enough to catastrophe.
That is the problem for those whose integrity or nobility won’t allow them to vote for Mr. Trump despite their dislike of Mrs. Clinton. There is only one way to take part in protecting this nation from Hillary Clinton, and that is to vote for Donald Trump. A vote for anyone else or for no one might be an honest, admirable gesture in principle, but we don’t need conscientious objectors in this war for the country’s international standing and hence for the safety of the world and the American way of life. It’s too bad one has to vote for Mr. Trump. It will be an unhappy moment at best. Some people will feel dirty, or pained, or outright disgraced.
But when all is said and done, it’s no big deal of a sacrifice for your country. I can think of bigger ones.
There's more at the link (article may be behind a paywall). Recommended reading.
Peter
"The citizen must not be so narrowly circumscribed in his activities that, if he thinks differently from those in power, his only choice is either to perish or to destroy the machinery of state."
ReplyDelete--Mises, Ludwig von (1927). Liberalism (p. 59).
"Socialism is positive and aggressive, declaring that each man shall have enough.
It purposes to introduce new forces into society and industry; to put a stop to the idleness, the waste of resources, the misdirection of force, inseparable, in some large proportion of instances, from individual initiative; and to drive the whole mass forward in the direction determined by the intelligence of its better half. "
--'Socialism', F.A. Walker (1887) Scribner's Magazine
The socialistic party favors the office holder "At least, those who are not office holders will, under Socialism, have the hardest kind of a time." There is only one party inside the Beltway. A couple of sects, but only one party and that is the party that favors the office holders.
A quote from the late, great Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
ReplyDeleteIt is to be hoped that what Maggie did for Britain, the Donald will do for the US. It seems that our new PM, Theresa May, has the same ideas and attitudes that her female predecessor had.
BREXIT now!!
I'd echo Steve's comment. We ARE at that point... And everyone, seemingly everywhere is on edge like I've never seen in my life, at least not here in America.
ReplyDelete"...the empty gin bottle..." That gin bottle has never been empty. It has gasoline and a rag stuffed in it. However, the punk is now lit, again. The Louies and Marie Antoinettes of the Ruling Class of this country need to dig their collective heads out each others asses and move back to center before they lose their heads and a whole lot of unnecessary lose of life with them.
ReplyDeleteInteresting times we live in, for sure. ;)
ReplyDeleteHello Peter
ReplyDeleteSorry but I couldn't get your email link to work. I added you to my blog roll at The Last Tradition. http://www.thelasttradition.com/
Can you add me to yours?
I'm more than a little fed the hell up with the supposed oh so principled republicans who for decades have got their way and by hook or by crook have got their bankster, corporate, party elite approved nominee/sacrificial lamb nominated and have then brow beaten the base into to begrudgingly pulling the lever for them. From The Great Leader, to thebobdole, to crazy johnny mcqueeg, to The Dear Leader, to creepy ass Romney. The establishment and the conservative commentariat have hauranged the base about how not voting for the republican nominee was a vote for the democrat. How even if you're not too enthusiastic about the nominee you must vote for him anyway because the supreme court (and we get souter, kennedy,roberts etc) and because this is the most importantest most criticalest lection eeeeeevvvaaaaar. Now when it's someone the base chose over their objections, the whole party loyalty thing has up and disappeared like fart in a whirlwind. Their hypocrisy is laid bare. The game was rigged all along and the churchies, the gunnies and the actual conservatives were played for chumps and rubes by their self proclaimed betters.
ReplyDeleteThis time it IS the most important, most critical election in our lifetimes and perhaps the life of our dying republic. This time the supreme court DOES hang in the balance. Not voting for Trump IS voting for Hillary Clinton. Not voting for Trump IS voting for the destruction of the rule of law. Not voting for Trump is voting to wipe any vestiges of the nation our founders intended away forever. Not voting for Trump is voting for virtual global enslavement to globalist bureaucrats. Not voting for Trump IS voting for rule by corporate oligarchy.
If the party establishment, the supposed conservative commentariat and the so-called conservatives screw this up by not voting for Trump or voting for Clinton (sameysame) the base is finished with the republican party but not before busting up the place and leaving the republican party as relevant as the Whigs are now. You'll be setting in motion upheaval the likes of which we haven't seen in 150 years. To quote Fred Thompson from The Hunt for Red October "This business will get out of hand. It will get out of hand and we'll be lucky to live through it."
Do what's right for our Nation and what's right for your posterity and vote for Trump whether you like him personally or not. It's probably the last chance you'll ever have for your vote to ever matter for something.
I've nothing to add, except emphatic agreement.
ReplyDelete