Saving Democracy

SAVING DEMOCRACY

By E. P. UNUM

October 24, 2021

          The very last sentence in Tucker Carlson’s bestselling book Ship of Fools is probably one of the best statements I have read in a very long time.  “If you want to save democracy, you’ve got to practice it.”

          What a simple and accurate statement.  Tucker Carlson was talking about the challenges we face today in our democracy.  He states, correctly, that massive inequality can’t be sustained in societies where everyone can vote.  To survive, democracies must remain egalitarian.  When all the wealth seemingly flows upward, the majority will revolt.  Voters will become vengeful and reckless.  If they continue to feel neglected or ignored, they will support increasingly radical leaders who, over time, will ultimately destroy the government system along with everything that made it prosperous.  Left untended, democracies tend to self-destruct.

          There are two ways, Carlson says, to deal with this cycle.  The quickest is to suspend democracy.  If voters or the people elected to represent them cannot agree or reach responsible conclusions, you can’t let them vote.  You don’t give suffrage to irrational populations for the same reason you don’t give firearms with live ammunition to children; they are not ready for the responsibility. But there is a cost to such action.  You cannot install an autocracy without widespread repression and bloodshed.  Saudi Arabia does not have revolutions because the Saudi people believe that their Royal Family was installed by God.  Equally, nobody in East Germany believed that about their government.  That is why the East German Regime needed machine guns and a wall with barbed wire to keep their citizens from fleeing to the West.  There is no transitioning from democracy in America without civil war.  History has taught us that painful lesson.  Americans will not tolerate an autocracy.  That is why we do not have a King or Queen.

          The other solution to the challenges faced by our democracy is simpler: 

“Attend to the people. Think about what they want and need; not what you want them to do. If they start dying younger or killing one another, figure out why and fix it. Care about them. If the majority is worried about something, listen to them.  Give them back some of their power.

If the people have strong feelings about an issue, like open borders and the

massive influx of illegal aliens, don’t overrule them, listen to them.  You can’t force enlightenment by executive order. In a democracy you can only persuade. Go slowly.  It isn’t easy to relinquish control to people over whom you have power. But try.  If you truly want to save democracy, you’ve got to practice it.”

In these brief thoughts, Tucker Carlson zeroed in on the central issues of our present-day controversies.

          But, of course, the current Biden administration has ignored all of this.  Today we are witnessing the slow erosion of our freedoms and abandonment of our economic system that has served us so well and created the wealthiest nation on earth.  And it seems we are seeking to throw it all away for the sake of pursuing an unachievable myth of a utopia that does not and cannot exist.  Thomas Jefferson, arguably the most intelligent man to ever serve as President of the United States so eloquently reminded us in these prophetic words: “If there be any among us who would alter this Union or change its Republican form, let them stand as monuments to the precept that error of opinion may be tolerated when reason is left free to combat it”

          We seem to have forgotten that word reason.  Today, all we see and hear are politicians on both sides of the aisle incapable of having reasonable discourse.  All they do is call each other names and cast aspersions against each other.  The Progressives a/k/a Democrats a/k/a /Leftists have concocted a $3.5 Trillion spending bill that no one has read, or will read, but based on my cursory reading of summaries, the bill contains quite literally gross frivolous spending that drives us closer to a monumental welfare state along the lines of what we see in Europe. But it is important to remember that this wish list of leftist spending programs is in the midst of an economy that is growing but beset by supply chain problems and feckless monetary policy.  Consequently, shortages will drive prices higher and reckless spending will lead to some very serious hyper-inflation.  But the democrats have turned a deaf ear to this and so has our President.  Dangerous is the word that comes to mind but that might not be strong enough.

          What is astounding to me is that no one is focusing on the tell-tale signs of trouble on the horizon.  Consider the following:

1. There are hundreds of cargo ships carrying products just sitting off the coasts of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington.  They have been there for weeks.  The problem is the Longshoreman Union refuses to automate to speed up the off-loading of these ships and we have a shortage of truckers.  That problem is exacerbated by the facts that Governor Newsome of California disallows non-union owner/operator truckers and has signed a law that prohibits trucks built before 2011 from traveling in California.  They want truckers to use electric trucks…that do not currently exist.  So, the result is that products, including food, toys and other important items, do not reach their markets, and shelves at retail outlets are bare.  Yes, we have a problem at our ports, but the problem is accentuated by a reluctance to modernize like many of the ports in Asia have undertaken.  So, we have shortages from everything from toilet paper to furniture and everything in between.  When you have shortages, prices rise, which is happening all around the country.  But in the face of this, democrats want to spend $1.25 Trillion on infrastructure and $3.5 Trillion (some say $4.3 Trillion) on, well, your guess is as good as mine.  That is the very definition of inflation, i.e., too many dollars chasing too few goods! And this type of inflation is by no means transitory!   

I guess folks in charge of spending missed those classes in basic economics, or they weren’t paying attention.  It’s a blueprint for disaster.  If you don’t believe me, take a close look at Argentina, Cuba and Venezuela.  Then again, the Bill was written by Senator Bernie Sanders, an avowed socialist/communist who has never held a job in the private sector, nor has any experience owning or managing a business in his entire life, so, what could possibly go wrong?  By the way, Biden’s Build Back Better Program of $4.3 Trillion is approximately what our government, through the IRS, collects in taxes from all sources in a year.  How can this be sustained?

2.   Have you looked at the price of gasoline at the pump recently?  Since February, gasoline prices are up over $1.20 on average, a 42% increase in prices and heading higher.  Recall how on his first day in office, President Biden abandoned the Keystone XL Pipeline and suspended oil and gas exploration and fracking.  In one stroke of his pen, he wiped away American Energy Independence that took us thirty years to achieve.  Of course, his action was a personal affront to President Trump and an outright appeasement to the left.  Today, the Biden Administration is calling on Middle Eastern countries to increase their oil production to ease our problems.  The ignorance and stupidity of these actions defies logic and contributes mightily to the problems we find ourselves facing today.

3. Shortly after he took the Oath of Office, President Biden cancelled all contracts associated with building the Trump Wall on our Southern Border.  The result:  over 1.7 million illegal aliens have entered our nation (it is much higher because this includes only those who we checked at the border).  Clearly by the end of December over 2.0 million illegal aliens will have entered the U.S.  Many of these aliens are from foreign nations in the Middle East who hate us.  Everyone is being given food, shelter, health care and spending money.  Guess who is paying for all of this.  You guessed it…the U.S. taxpayer…you and me.  We have heard President Biden say unequivocally that he is “against the Wall”.  Yet, unbelievably back in September, Homeland Security issued a contract to Turnstone Holdings, LLC to build a Wall around President Biden’s home in Delaware at an estimated cost of $457,000 complete with state-of-the-art technology.  I guess it is one more example of “rules for thee but not for me”.

4. I still have not heard a cogent, rational explanation from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, General Mark Milley or President Biden as to why. we left $85 billion in military assets behind in Afghanistan not to mention over 1,000 Americans while we executed a retrograde of forces from that country.  As of this writing, October 24, 2021, there are still 368 American left behind in Afghanistan.  My question is where is the accountability for all of this?  Why are these people still in charge?  What Biden and his generals did was a stain on American honor.                                   
5. Another example of how far we have fallen in terms of our Rule of Law is the incarceration in solitary confinement, people who allegedly participated in the January 6, 2021, Trump rally, without bail, and without due process for months?  Many of whom never even entered the Capitol Building. Does that sound like America to you?  Democrats continue to call what happened on January 6^th as an “insurrection”, but no weapons were ever found at this event.  How can you have an insurrection without weapons? Where was the assault on our Constitution?                       
6. By what sophistry of imagination is it justified or even morally right to instruct the FBI to seek out parents attending school board meetings to determine if they are domestic terrorists?  But that is exactly what Attorney General Merrick Garland did using as his rational a letter sent by the National School Boards Association to President Biden urging him to use the Patriot Act against parents who dare to question Critical Race Theory being taught to their children!  This is the kind of thing you see in autocratic states like China and Russia, not America.  Crowds of people at a Virginia school board meeting cheered as plumber Scott Smith was gang tackled by police when he tried to raise the plight of his daughter who was raped and sodomized in a woman’s restroom by a teen boy wearing a skirt.  They would not even allow him to speak!  This is not freedom.  It is also, by God, not right.

I could go on, but I think not.  I would rather share some opinions.  More and more Americans who bought into the myth that Joe Biden is an honest, middle of the road, caring and sensitive soul of humble beginnings who has the best interests of America at heart are starting to realize that he is exactly the opposite of these things.  They are looking more closely at this man and seeing that his entire career has been marked by fantastical boasting, outright lies, spite and snobbish disdain for the little guy, masked by a veneer of phony self-deprecation.  In other words, he is a phony just like his former boss Barack Hussein Obama.  The arrogance and duplicity of his administration mirrors his character and lack of integrity.  Sports events nationwide erupting into chants of “f**k Joe Biden” and “Let’s go Brandon” clearly suggest the President has a real problem connecting with real Americans.  Being clueless and out of touch is not a recipe for success in the midterm elections.  But that only matters if you truly care about democracy. 

          Here are a few provocative questions:  what if the warriors of the so called woke revolution have suddenly accepted that their destructive policies have alienated voters?  What if they have given up on winning free and fair elections?  What if they decided to grab power by taking over the foundational institutions of the nation?

          I am ever mindful of the words of John Dalberg-Acton, Lord Acton, 13^th Marquess of Groppoli…” Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.  Sadly, that is how I view the Biden Administration.  It is not too difficult to envision the underlying rationale behind the massive influx of illegal immigrants… likely future democrats…who are being secretly flown and bussed into red states in the middle of the night.  I can also see progressive designs on the Supreme Court where packing the court with left wing activists appears to be in the offing.  Equally devastating would be a progressive takeover of the Federal Reserve orchestrated by Wall Street Marxists masking as high-minded ethicists.  If progressives succeed in taking over the central bank, they will have power beyond their wildest dreams to advance their destructive ideological agenda through economic policies that bypass Congress.  They can use powerful financial levers to implement their favorite wish list items…like universal basic income and a debt bonanza to punish the fossil fuel industry that provides 80% of America’s energy.  Be aware that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and members of the squad are drooling over creating a climate- obsessed fed as a major instrument to effectuate control over Americans.

          This is all about power.  Biden could care less about how to solve the self-inflicted crises impacting our nation because he does not care about our real-world problems.  At his core, Joe Biden is a crook without a moral compass, and he has surrounded himself with people like himself.

          America is at the precipice.  If the Biden Spending Plan is successful, it will signal the start of a major financial collapse.  It needs to be stopped in its tracks at all costs, and Americans who value democracy must find a way to vote the charlatans occupying offices out in 2022.

          The alternatives to this are both depressing and ominous.

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If you do not take an interest

in the affairs of your government,

then you are doomed to live under

the rule of fools.

Plato