A few days before the election, one of our friends at PTS posed this question:
How does it feel when it all crumbles down around you?
I promised that I would answer his question after I had sorted it all out. Now that a decent interval has passed, I’m ready to take a stab at it.
First, I want to challenge the premise of the question. I honestly don’t know how it feels when all crumbles down around me. I got up on Wednesday morning, put on my pants one leg at a time, and went to work just like I do every Wednesday morning. I was disappointed, but not devastated. Like the proverbial frog in the pot of boiling water, the heat of disappointment has gradually increased as the Republican Congress has strayed further and further away from the principles that brought it to power 12 years ago: smaller government, tighter spending, less corruption and pork. That disappointment has been heightened from time to time over the last six years by a Republican president who has similarly turned his back on the GOP’s conservative principles. But it’s not something that hit me all at once.
Then early Thursday morning, something else struck me. The question also presupposes that the Republican defeat is something so cataclysmic that conservatives can never recover from it. This apocalyptic scenario is reminiscent of the global warming rhetoric of this century and, for that matter, the global cooling rhetoric of three decades ago (Has anyone else noticed that the environmentalists have been subtly changing the term of art lately to “climate change,” perhaps in an effort to hedge their bets?). I may not be old enough to remember the last six Ice Ages and the subsequent global warming that brought this planet out, but I can distinctly remember at least two conservative “Ice Ages”: the 1964 defeat of Barry Goldwater and the 1976 loss of Ronald Reagan to Gerald Ford for the presidential nomination. For that matter, the Democrats controlled the House of Representatives for more than 70 percent of my 56 years on this earth. Politics, like climate, is cyclical.
Another reason I’m not despairing is that conservatism wasn’t defeated, Republicanism (or rather what it’s become) was. Rahm Emmanuel should be given credit for recruiting as many moderate to conservative Democrats to run for Congress as he did. But the heavy lifting is going to come next year when these blue-dog Democrats run head long into the agenda of the liberal Democrat leadership. Someone is going to be disappointed: either the Netroots, who want nothing less than an immediate pullout from Iraq and George W. Bush’s head on the chopping block of impeachment; or the Republicans and Independents who voted for Democrat candidates who, in many cases, ran to the right of their Republican opponents.
Finally, my disappointment has been tempered by the fact that my hope is built on something much less transient than which political party happens to be in control of Congress at any given time. Chuck Colson once said that the Second Coming of the Messiah isn’t going to be on Air Force One. Neither is Congress going to be the source of anyone’s salvation. For those who place too much hope in politics, all can crumble down around them when the final vote is tallied. If you don’t believe me, revisit some of the posts at PTS (or any other left-wing blog) immediately following the 2004 election.
To put it all in perspective, let me close with the final verses of the poem “Choose Something Like a Star” by Robert Frost:
So when at times the mob is swayed
To carry praise or blame too far,
We may choose something like a star
To stay our minds on and be staid.
As the holiday season approaches and you still find yourself in either euphoria or despair because of the election results, stay your mind on that Star in the East that the Magi followed. Wise men still seek Him.
Here’s an example of others who, in the face of defeat, were “disappointed but not devestated.” BTW, I didn’t read this until this morning, so I can’t be accused of plagarizing the phrase.
WARNING: This link contains CHRISTIAN DEVOTIONAL MATERIAL. Do NOT open this link if you are offended, angered or otherwise agitated by biblical verses or commentary thereon.
http://www.rbc.org/odb/odb-11-13-06.shtml
LOL. Well said on both. We both know those that might faint over the audasity of it all. I have a response to this but have had trouble getting a ref. But it’s coming.
celtictexan,
While you’re putting the finishing touches on your response, let me add one more comment – an excerpt from another classic American poem that’s so universally known and loved I don’t even need to mention the title or author:
He stared down at Who-ville!
The Grinch popped his eyes!
Then he shook!
What he saw was a shocking surprise!
Every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any presents at all!
He HADN’T stopped Christmas from coming!
IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!
How does it feel when it all crumbles down around me?? Don’t make me laugh!
I’m still looking but finding it hard to find. I’ve seen it a thousand times and now I can’t and don’t want to misquote.
It involved a study of the French revolution. And went on to draw similarities to all such revolutions. It’s a five step plan that involves causeing hardships among the the middle class. I. E. high taxes, failure to enforce law, attacks on traditions and standard values etc. Which leads to fear and distrust of the government, which leads to civil war and the killing of leaders and any intelligencia that seem connected to the government, which leads to a power vacume, that the original instigators step in to fill/force upon the disorganised who remain. That is it in a nutshell but I will still find the original. It reminds me of what is happening now though. The tactics of the left and dreams of socialism.
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