There is a Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times,” and I must say we are, indeed, living in interesting times. While no one has been able to substantiate this is an actual Chinese curse suffice it to say that were it one it would be a good one. Interesting times, indeed: democracy is under threat but the perpetrators are the very ones who claim their opponents are the threat; political opponents are being pursued by government agencies for crimes real or imagined; a person who did not run for the office of President is now a major party’s candidate through the old smoke-filled back room technique; a former President is almost assassinated and as I write this blog there has yet been no formal acknowledgment of that attempt nor an official update on the investigation; thousands of illegal migrants continue to pour across the border; we have a President who is obviously suffering from cognitive decline but nothing is being done by the in-power party to remove him from office; and a whole host of other “interesting” things are happening.
How did we get here? Well, one answer is 24/7 media that purports to be non-partisan but is anything but. Another is way too much money being inserted into the system by power brokers using their purses to control politicians and media. Those of you who have read my essay “If I Ran the Zoo” know how I feel about career politicians and partisan media talking heads along with the so called experts they employ, most of whom are partisan apparatchiks for one party or another.
Shades of Tammany Hall and picking candidates. For you younger readers and non students of history Tammany Hall was what they called the New York cabal of unelected power brokers who bought votes for their politicians and ran the city and pretty much the state for a number of years in the early twentieth century.
I’m still not sure who actually has their finger on the nuclear button. Whoever it is they were not elected by the American people and that is wrong in so many ways. The last thing I want is management by a committee of bureaucrats when we’er faced with possible destruction. We elect a president because we trust in their decision making ability. Right now I cannot trust that such decisions are in the hands of an elected official and that is scary. Having been a member of those unelected bureaucrats I know how they think and it’s all about “not my decision.”
If only we could sweep away the idealistic green screen epic the collectivists have constructed and get people to think. I know that thought, in itself, is pretty much Idealism and I know it can never happen. Yet, something must be done to pull us out of the death spiral we’ve settled into. It starts with individuals. It starts with you. Remember the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. So, do something constructive. Help us leave this era of interesting times.