Yeah, I Guess the Debate IS Over...

I have not posted in over a year, but I had written something some time ago, just after the 2012 election which I never posted, apparently/. Just reading the first sentence, it seems like it might be curiously appropriate for today, considering everything which is going on. Let's take a look...

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It is interesting to try and form a snapshot of the world around us today, and wondering how that picture will look in a year, two years, and then 5.  I am betting it will not look pretty, but am I wrong?

We have a president in office, elected for a second time, who truly seems to believe in autocracy.  He is not the first to exert his executive power overzealously, no doubt, but it is more troubling this time.  Why?  

He, and his administration, truly don't seem to give a damn what a good portion of the country thinks, even the majority on certain issues, and seems determined to rule rather than govern.  He seems openly contemptuous (and he is not alone) of anyone or anything that seems to challenge his will.  And the same seems to go for much of the "watchdogs" who are supposed to guard against such hubris and protect the little people, but whom seem just as disgusted by the peasants who refuse to get with the program.

Perhaps it does not help that a professor of constitutional law at a major university thinks the constitution is passe', and that the "newspaper of record" would publish it without comment, let alone rebuttal.

Perhaps it is also that he is not the first person of supposed position and esteem who has espoused the same view in recent years.  

Perhaps it is some of the same people, and certainly the same side, which just a few years earlier was screaming "Fascist!" when a different man held the office.

Perhaps...

Could it be that I am wrong about that future when a nation which already has the best armed, by far, populace in the world, feels the need to buy even more guns, or guns for the first time, even as the political class talks about "getting them off the streets".   People even like my spouse, who two years ago, did not want ANY gun in the house, and now ponders whether we should get a second?

Am I in error to worry about a worldwide financial system which seems increasingly based on cheap parlor tricks to keep it chugging along, even as the wheels falls off?

Am I paranoid to think that an Arab Spring which supposedly would usher in a new era of freedom and democracy more resembles the lights going out in Europe circa the 1930's or the march of Communism post 40's? 

Maybe.  

As Hindenburg reportedly claimed, maybe God does look after drunks, little children and the United States of America.  

Of course, we are busy pushing God out of the public square, mocking him in the private, except when he is worshipped by those who take such actions as legitimate cause for murder.  So, God may decide to sit events out for a while.  Sorry.

The point of taking this snapshot now is to keep in mind these kind of ironies...

...in the future as events unfold, in the vain hope some might understand how we got where we end up.

I say vain because I don't think it will happen, at least not until the shit well truly hits the fan, and, to paraphrase Herman Wouk, the scales don't fall from people's eyes, but are shot off.

I told a friend of mine today that I had found a new kind of loathing for the Left to describe my changed feelings toward them, but I realize that was not quite right.  I always had loathing for the Left, and it's not really a matter of degree that has changed.

What is different now is that previously, I felt it was important to try and engage in some sort of discussion or dialogue with them, to argue or even beat them over the head with facts and logic in an attempt to get them, at least some of them, to see reason.

I no longer feel that.  What I feel is that the Left, the hard core liberal cult, is not interested in facts, logic, fair play, consistency or anything else.  None of that matters when it does not suit them.  Their agenda matters in the ultimate expression of the ends justifying the means.

So, the Left, having made it clear to me and others with differing views that nothing we do or say, nothing we prove or disprove, nothing experience reveals nor common sense dictates will ever divert them from their goals, have made my task in dealing with them far simpler, if not easy.

Resistance. Pure and simple.
  

*No energy to be burned in pointless arguments with those not interested in debate.  

*No effort exerted to master or organize facts or issues.

*No time wasted trying to convince those whose faith trumps all reason.

No, that time is past. What remains is to decide what core principles and beliefs we hold dear, and to hold on to them without any negotiation or equivocation.  

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Interesting that I would return to this blog, to find this unpublished post, at this time, when much evidence of what I am talking about is coming to light.
"We have a president in office, elected for a second time, who truly seems to believe in autocracy."

The IRS admits to using the power of it's organization for partisan political ends.

Allegations that the EPA did very much the same thing.

The Department of Justice secretly obtaining phone records of a media outfit, and then hedging on who ordered it.

The continuing Benghazi cover-up.

There have been plenty more indications that this administration simply does not care about the rule of law and simple accountability, but this week seems to a particularly busy one for scandals.  

Will it amount to anything?

Well, if history is any measure, no.

 A compliant press corp, even if annoyed at being bullied and spied, will likely fall back in line as it has done before.

A Republican leadership, too drunk on the same power which fuels their opposition, will be unwilling to pursue this kind of malfeasance far enough to make a difference because that will mean diminishing governmental power when it's their turn.

The problem is, that it is not the administration alone, not the entire left, and sadly, even the politicians on the right.  This administration has been the most blatant in its abuse of power, but it is aided and abetted by a Left wing for which standards are applicable only when they view it as beneficial.  That things that were unspeakable abuses of power before, are shrugged at now, if even acknowledged.  In some cases, there is literally an attitude of, "Well, it's us, doing it, so it's cool."  The Left as a whole has gotten used to not being called on things, and for obvious reasons they wish that to continue.  Ideals and standards are simply tools to be picked up and put down as needed.  What matters is POWER.

Of course, this is where the Right comes in, insofar as the establishment Right.

They like power just fine, even if they make the obligatory protestations about the encroachment of governmental reach.  After all, if we really did reduce the size and power of government, it would reduce the stature and power of ALL members of government.

Who readily gives up power and prestige, particularly when you have come to rely on it as your only means of subsistence?  

The American people sense this increasing sense of entitlement to rule autocratically in much of the government structure, and they are making preparations for it, because it does not seem it will stop and recede on its own.  

One can label all those people buying guns and ammunition as militia crazies, but when one looks at all the corruption, abuse of power and haughty denial of responsibility rampant in government, one has to ask; when does it stop?

And if you cannot answer that question, then you will understand why people are preparing themselves for some of the worst possible scenarios.