I worry about the world. I worry about my country. My wife doesn’t worry about these things. She worries about the reality of what is happening to us, in our little world. She is impatient with worries about things over which we have no control.
We live in Tennessee. No matter who we vote for, Romney will win Tennessee. We used to live in California. No matter who we voted for, the Democrats always won in California.
She is probably right, but I can’t help it. I have the disease of those who prefer the large and abstract over the immediate, those who imagine they are somehow playing on a world stage, while they neglect their own lives’ reality. It might be understandable if I were Gandhi or Ronald Reagan, but obviously I am not.
People talk about the impending fiscal cliff. Near as I can tell, we jumped off the fiscal cliff some time ago, years ago, decades ago, but it’s a long way down. So, so far, so good. The bottom is coming. I doubt very much that anyone can prevent the inevitable splatter of Wile E. Coyote on the canyon floor.
The vast majority of human beings on planet Earth are clearly crazy. Muslims, the French and Greek electorates, the populations of Africa, South America, India, China, Korea. The Enlightenment is barely a flicker. The scientific method has not really caught on, even among scientists, especially climate scientists.
I am not a fan of universal suffrage. The fewer people who vote, the better, in my opinion. Black people always vote for Democrats, no matter what. Hispanics mostly vote for Democrats, no matter what. Felons and illegal immigrants always vote for Democrats. Single women who want free abortions and birth control vote for Democrats. Unions and public employees vote for Democrats. Food stamp recipients vote for Democrats. Young people whose idealism has been corrupted by our Marxist higher education system vote for Democrats. Anyone who believes what they read in the New York Times and the Washington Post, or what they see on ABC, CBS, and NBC, vote for Democrats.
Republicans have their own benighted constituents of course, but the GOP is definitely losing the war for hearts and minds.
Whoever lies the most convincingly, to the most special interest groups, wins. Barack Obama is a liar’s liar. His whole life is a lie. His books are all lies. His advancement at Harvard and the University of Chicago and in Chicago politics is all built on lies. As a liar, he makes Bill Clinton look like a piker. The polls are skewed of course, to favor the Democrats, but, skewed or not, I do believe that Obama is ahead.
It looks like the self-destruction of democracy to me. We gave up being a republic when we gave the vote to whoever wanted it. No identification required, let alone any more stringent requirements. Whoever promises the most unsustainable goodies to the most ignorant, wins. To paraphrase H.L. Menken, nobody ever failed to gain power by underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
The very idea of a republic that takes care of the roads, jails thieves and murderers, provides for the common defense, and otherwise leaves everyone alone, exists only in the world of “crackpot” fantasy. It doesn’t look like it will ever have the votes.
And so, I worry.