Enlightenment Reactionary

I've spent the better part of the last 2 days listening to gloating Democrats promise to take American in "A New Direction". Due to Joe and Joan Sixpack's impaired long term memory this direction will be the same as always; the same direction they always take the country. The path is roughly spiral, as in swirling down a freshly flushed toilet.

Ordinarily, I don't let elections make me either overly angry or overly elated. But these aren't ordinary times. Wishy-washy memory impaired Swing Voters just voted many of their fellow citizens to death, hopefully not too many. Being Swing Voters, when it happens they will be completely gobsmacked and demand to know who dropped the ball. The answer of course: You did numbnut.

I try very hard not to be vindictive, but I do hope the fallout from the mushroom cloud lands in your hometown and not mine. This doesn't cause me any stress. It's merely a consequence of having a rational self-interest--and love for my children and grandchildren. I'm sure the head-choppers in the Middle East and elsewhere will appreciate your altruism.

I didn't realize how bummed out I was until my Commie wife (love you, honey) started trying to cheer me up. She told me, "Well, maybe the Democrats will screw things up so badly they'll get voted out in the next election." I appreciate her loving and encouraging words, but she misses the point. This isn't about my team winning. This isn't like pro football, baseball, basketball, or any other inexcusable waste of time. I'm bummed out because I'm already grieving over those who will die. I will take no pleasure in any possible Democrat Party drubbing, no matter how humiliating it might be for them.

Why? Because Swing Voters make any gains by any side purely illusory.

I have maintained for years that despite my disagreements with them, I respect dedicated Leftists far more than Swing Voters. Why? Because at least they know what they believe however misguided it might be. Because they are willing to come out for a position or policy even if it is insane. If you not sure you know any Swing Voters don't worry, they're easy to spot. They can most commonly be identified by their most beloved philosophical statement: "I don't vote for the party, I vote for the man." (Sorry Dad, but it's true.)

So, what's going on here? It was explained to me best in a conversation long ago. The gist of it was: Swing Voters vote for Republicans to let the country build up some wealth, then they vote for Democrats to steal it for them.

Socrates once famously observed that, "The unexamined life isn't worth living." If this is so, Swing Voters live some of the most worthless lives on the planet. But I shouldn't pick on them too much, non-Swing Voters are frequently not much behind.

Seemingly for ages there has been a debate: Are Americans stupid? They answer of course is no, sort of. The question is actually of the glass half full, half empty, twice as large as it needs to be variety. Americans are dazzling intelligent and capable and have great respect for intelligence, of the right variety. That variety being workaday intelligence that has an immediate practical application. On the flip side Americans have an almost universal contempt for abstract thought and knowledge despite the fact that, in the long run, this variety affects their lives more than the other.

Most of my beloved fellow citizens are slaves to long dead German philosophers whose names they don't know and don't care to find out. Most don't know that there are different schools of philosophy while they practice Pragmatism and Realpolitik every day, which they justify by unthinking reflexive Relativism, which they would treat of laws of nature--if they believed in laws of nature.

Did the Swing Voters vote out of spite? Were they sick of partisanship or just tired of trying to figure out what to spend their tax-cut money on? Maybe they think it's time to raid the treasury for government goodies. It doesn't really matter now does it?

The only relevant point here is that Swing Voters have given us a Congress of reflexively pacifistic knee-jerk appeasers who believe all problems is can be solved by playing nice. These are the same folks who stupidly advise their bullied children to "just ignore" the bullies when all a bully understands is a folding chair across the teeth. These are the people who fervently believe that Perfect Evil was manifested and wiped-out with the birth and death of Adolf Hitler. All the while ignoring the fact that hordes of potential Hitlers swagger through high school halls in letterman jackets lacking only a place and time to happen. These are the people who have never traveled and don't believe that people from other countries can be as bad as "alarmists" say. One can scarcely imagine what goes through their minds as modern day mass graves are found to contain hundreds of thousands of tortured bodies. What does go through the mind of a Swing Voter when he or she elects a Congress that gleefully supports keeping both our borders and both our coasts wide open? All of this in a world with ultra-high speed travel and a 1.5 billion people who fervently believe all their multitudinous problems are caused by us--and that their god wants us dead for it.

Hopefully, you Swing Voting guys and gals can get it through your thick heads. While you were keeping an eye peeled for the return of fascism in Europe or America, it has resurfaced with a vengeance in the Third World. The fact that the "Nazis" now wear turbans and ungroomed beards in stead of swastika armbands caught you totally by surprise, or rather will catch you by surprise when you finally "get it". Your vigilance against World War III has guaranteed it will happen. The beginning is all around us and still you vote for expediencies of the moment. Until such time as you see the light (unlikely), or my side gets up the guts to defeat you in the arena of ideas (almost as unlikely), this outcome is inevitable. The only question that remains is how you're going to blame it on us and spin it into yet another election victory.