Great
Expectations
Charlie Earl
This is the
second installment of a three-part “decision week” series. Friday’s column is
“New Beginnings.”
Let the
raucous shouting begin as a new era unfolds in America! Ooops…I allowed the
mood of the mob affect my morose mulling about the truly malignant state of our
nation. We are in deep, Friends, and there is no shovel currently in sight that
will or can dig us out of this hole. Although I suspect that the only changes
we’ll see regarding the growth and reach of big government will be superficial
and rhetorical ones, the initial reaction from many citizens will be “horror.”
They assume that our great slide into the fiscal and regulatory abyss has been
accelerated. They believe that our country is now scrambling to re-establish
our footing on solid terra firma as
we attempt to regain our national equilibrium.
Just as
Charles Dickens transported us into Pip’s development, the optimistic ones
among us are expecting a transformational recapturing of the American Dream. The new administration
will undo all the bad, and propose only good measures for the people of the
United States. Of course…. there’s that pesky little interactive process
between the Congress and the White House. Also…the never-smooth relationship
between the People’s House and the Lords of the Senate can be an obstacle.
Finally the SCOTUS—a group of nine isolated fully-human and fallible people who
represent every special interest group in America—will find a way and an
obligation to gum up the works. So…even if our new leader has the testicular
fortitude (doubtful) to plunge headlong into the morass of costly big
government, he will face hurdles, bumps and barriers at every step of the
journey. The crucial element is: Will he have the courage to go above the heads
of the political class directly to the people…. or will he compromise with the
entrenched statists and claim victory while doing so? Or…more likely….he will
rule by fiat and executive order.
If he fails
to tackle the big issues straightforwardly while he is basking in his
“honeymoon period,” then he will forfeit any opportunity for doing so later on
because his opponents and the special interests will join together to thwart
him. He must begin … bravely … boldly… even somewhat bombastically. He dare not
backpedal or backslide. Our nation cannot afford it. Our survival cannot allow
it. Our citizens should not permit it. Dickens portrayed the gradual growth of
Pip in Great Expectations, but our
president does not have the luxury of a lifetime or a lengthy novel to grow
into the job. He’s had four years with little growth. He must begin the
dismantling of the Nanny State immediately, in high gear and accelerate forward
from there. To pause, to hesitate will destroy his momentum and condemn our
nation to rapid decline. We know he won’t, but it will be more difficult to
blame Bush.
In 1832 New
York Senator William Marcy is reported to have said, “To the victor goes the
spoils.” In our present condition we might amend Marcy’s statement by asserting
that “to the victor goes the spoilage.” His duty with our help is to interrupt
the decay before it becomes too rotten to be saved. He must understand that the
problem is not merely an economic or fiscal one. It is an attitudinal and
mindset difficulty. Spending too much is bad. Overspending for wasteful
inefficiencies is worse, and borrowing to buy votes through wasteful
meaningless programs is deadly. He must recognize the malignant character of
such an approach. He cannot simply see it as a financial issue, or he will lose
the battle. He must be deeply and convincingly aware of the moral bankruptcy of
the profligate path we have been following. He must move beyond the balance
sheet to the very core of the nation. He must be willing to transform us all by
his commitment to rebuilding our reliance on the enduring values that have
carried us this far. It’s a daunting task in difficult times, but for now, for
the short-term, we can have great expectations. But….reality bites, and our President
is unfamiliar with the real world.
Charlie Earl
You seem more unhappy about the outcome of the election than I am. I think you are focusing too much on the contest between professional politicians. I felt a warm glow at the result of the ballot measure votes Tuesday. It was amazing to see pot legalization and marriage equality pass, two issues that Libertarians had supported for a long time.
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