Doug Smith: Author, historian and lead contributor to Free State Patriot.
Well,
As we wait for the dust to settle on the leftist hysteria that America would have the audacity (ok if I use that word, Barack, now that you’re done with it?) to NOT elect Hillary, a few observations and considerations for the path forward.
For the little creampuff darlings, who have grown up in a world of “Everybody Wins” baseball and participation trophies, the Chicago Cubs and I have a few words for you. To quote Barack Obama
“We won. “Deal with it. And here, you poor darling 23-year-old sobbing because the latest Progressive, Herself, did not win, is a free lesson for you: there ARE winners and losers. Not everybody gets to be President, or World Champions. Participation trophies are meaningless. There will be things you try to do and fail. Get over it. And get up and keep moving. Those of us who got up and went to work the day after Barack Obama was elected are not going to dry your tears, give you a safe space, or feed you. So, after your Gender Diversity Issues in Middle Eastern Geopolitical Discussions class, maybe take an accounting or chemistry (or welding) class or two.
Nobody gets to win the World Series because it is their turn and they have waited a long time. Ask the Cubbies. 108 years, baby. Ask them how they won. Ask them how they dealt with the wait. Likewise, no one gets to be President because it is their turn. Ask Bob Dole, John McCain, and of course, Hillary Clinton.
Regarding Hillary. She is an altogether unpleasant woman. 92% of Americans find her untrustworthy. And so, she is. But still, 47% were apparently willing to overlook her mendacity, her self-righteousness, her disregard of law and morality, and vote for her because she is a liberal. If you are a lefty reading this, ask yourself this: would you have been all weak kneed and weepy about the chance to elect, sniff, sniff, the FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT if her name were Sarah Palin? How about the chance, Oh Rapture of Raptures, to elect the FIRST BLACK WOMAN PRESIDENT if her name were Condoleezza Rice? No? Lose that Matthew thrill going up your leg?
This was about what the Democrat Party has become: special interests, leftist social issues, and identity politics. So, either Bill was not advising Hillary, or she was not listening to him. If so, it’s the Economy, Stupid would have blazoned T shirts, and not I’m with Her.
Now, for myself, and I suspect, most of us Trump voters, there is no willful blindness to his faults just because we voted for him. If you read my first FSP article on Trump, I concluded “Trump is an ass. I suspect he will always be an ass”. Nothing has changed my mind.
Hillary’s posse said “She may be a crook, but she is our crook”.
We find ourselves saying, oddly, “Trump may be an ass, but he is our ass.”
Hmm. May need to rewrite that line. Doesn’t really roll off the tongue.
Still. President Elect Trump is a coarse man. As were Presidents Grant, Truman, and Johnson. President Elect Trump lives loose in his relations with women. As did Presidents Roosevelt, Kennedy, and of course, Clinton. (Thankfully, we will not have to know say Bush 41, Bush 43, Clinton 42, and Clinton 45).
So, voters on the right are used to holding our noses, taking one last look at what the Dems have to offer, and concluding that McCain may be less than ideal, but Please, God, not 4 more years of Obama, and marking an R.
Voters on the Left, it seems, cannot bring themselves to vote for their flawed candidate without taking a slug of Kook Aid, and seeing them bathed in light, Deified, with Grecian columns, riding a white horse.
I have been critical of both of these flawed candidates, and asked myself, on behalf of 350 million of us, Really? This is the best we can do?
So, it seems.
So, what is it that makes the leftist put their candidate on a podium and swoon (can you imagine Reagan admonishing the crowd, now don t lock your knees, give him some air, let the paralegals get to him)?
I maintain that at least a part of the leftist, from the Ivy leaguer talking head denying reality, to the weeping college powderpuff there is a deep-seated belief that there must be a better class than me to tell me what to do and take care of me. Or, conversely, a belief that I am a better class, and I need to tell you what to do (starting with paying more taxes to pay for my lobster and sushi, I’m busy looking out for you and can’t be bothered to work). To put it more succinctly, there are those who feel that some men should be ruled, and of course, others should rule.
That explains a lot. Divine right of Kings, so of course if Barack Obama wants to shut down power plants, he should, and Constitution be damned. If Bill Clinton wants to seize huge tracts of land for the government, why, that is no different from Henry II seizing Ireland to dole out to his vassals. And if I get to be a vassal, why then, the Duke will see to my needs.
It all makes sense. Droit du seigneur would allow for Bill Clinton’s free ride (Ooo, cringe worthy pun!) on women as he climbed the ladder of power. The massive “gifts “to the Clintons: A Ducal Tithe. House Obama’s lavish vacations: his Kingly right. With fitting noblesse oblige, he said, I am not a king, but then proceeded to live, and reign, just like one.
To the delight of his constituency, as long as they received their cut of the dole. As for his retainers, and his nobles, (the Decimated Democrat Party, who, in 2017, after 8 years of carrying water and catching spears for Barack the First, will be at their lowest ebb of power in Congress, the White House, and the States in nearly a century) why, if they must fall on the sword to protect the King, and his prerogatives, it is their just and right honor and duty.
Hyperbole? Exaggeration? Perhaps a bit.
But a nice parable of the Leftist mind.
Then, there are the Curmudgeons. Like me. And Samuel Adams.
Adams was a Harvard man in the days when that did not mean a squishy, politically correct taker. Adams was a thoroughly unpleasant man. He was not content to go along with a spendthrift government balancing its budget through ever increasing taxes on his labors. He was instrumental in the 1st and most famous Tea Party, in which curmudgeonly citizens extended a salute to the British Crown and said, in essence, Tax This! (on warm summer evenings, Boston harbor still smells faintly of Earl Grey).
Adams was distrustful and well aware of the penchant for government to abuse its subjects. Aside from his tax protests, he was instrumental in insisting that the Constitution of a new nation and government contain amendments to restrain government, and protect citizens; our Bill of Rights.
Adams was content to be governed, but damned if he would be ruled.
So, for that matter, and I. That, I think, characterizes the voter on the right of the political aisle. We grudgingly accept that there must be governance, but we look with a gimlet eye on those who would govern us, and stand ready to “Throw the scoundrels out!” We have no illusions that we can be ruled by angels, but rather accept that we must be governed by sinners.
We will protect ourselves from those unfortunates who must govern ungovernable curmudgeons like ourselves. We will grudgingly let them govern where they must, and if threatened, we will grab a rifle and stand to beside them to repel a foe, anxious to get back to our farms and shops when the fray is ended.
We want to be left alone, safe, to grow our barley, fashion our wares, and plumb our homes. We will build what we build, and expect to be paid for our skill and industry, and will begrudge what is taken from us and given to the idle. We will be charitable as the dictates of our conscience demands, but bitterly oppose being condescended to.
We bitterly resent being told our efforts don’t matter, that we are cruel and heartless because we appreciate our own worth, and are prepared to fight, or repel, or let starve, the bandit, the savage, or the indolent.
So, I think that in 2016 the spirit of Sam Adams lives. That was the dead person voting on our side.
Yes, we know that Hillary is an unpleasant and corrupt woman. Trump is a coarse and often uncouth businessman. We are not fond of either of them. Yet, one of them would govern us, and one would rule us. For 8 years, we have been talked down to, told to ignore the evidence of our eyes, told that viscous attacks on our fellow citizens were somehow our fault, told that we had a bumper crop when we could see barren fields and empty trees.
There is a vernacular saying: Don’t pee on my back and then tell me it’s raining. “
Our backs are wet. And it hasn’t rained in a long time. And we are a little tired of the scions of Harvard and Yale telling us otherwise. The Ivy s may have some nice books and big endowments. But out here where men live and die and work and pay taxes, we know that water runs downhill, every time. We know that iron is hard, fire will burn, and mother nature, red of tooth and claw, will settle accounts with dam foolery, every time.
We had 8 years of progressive lite under Bush 43. We ve just had 8 years of progressive over the top from Barack Obama.
And we have 93 million out of work. Our wages have been stagnant for years. Our homes have lost value. Jobs for our children and grandchildren and scarce. We have a bitter, determined enemy trying to destroy us, and leaders who won’t even say their name.
We have felt and smelt our wet backs and that ain’t rain and it sure ain’t honey.
Kill our enemies. Leave us most of our money. Don t spend what we don’t have. And get out of the way.
American curmudgeons being what we are, we will come roaring back.
And that is what we voted for on my birthday. That is what we are expecting. That is what we will insist on from President Trump, Leader McConnell, and Speaker Ryan.
The fat lady is warming up her vocal chords. And we will be listening.
Free State Patriot 