The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘Turning It Around’ Is 99% Turning It Around, And Only 1% Asking ‘Can We Turn It Around?’

Posted on | January 21, 2012 | 1 Comment

by Smitty

I got people wondering aloud regarding my optimism. The alternatives are simply navigational hazards: important to recognize, but only for the sake of avoidance.

Maybe I’m just stoked from watching Scott Ott lay out the problem clearly and concisely here and here. Progressivism has worked its evil slowly, while no on paid attention. It’s a con job, built on money and fear; the notion that the End Of Washington DC As We Know It means that the sun will not rise tomorrow is malarky. I refuse to live in fear that the money taken from me for the Social Security Ponzi scheme will not be there when it’s my “turn” to pass the economic abuse onto the grandkids.

The people in the hot seat are the presidential candidates, who have to hang ten on a narrow wave of calming the anxieties about the change that must come, while not sounding so squishy and moderate as to sound accepting of the debt servitude facing all of us. Patterson over at PJ Media asks “Can America Turn It Around?“, to which Yoda replies: “Do or do not. There is no ‘try’.”
Patterson ends his first of three installments:

By the end of the 1980s, the American economy was once again the envy of humanity, and the Free World’s existential adversary the Soviet Union was on its knees.
We can say from the example of Ronald Reagan that one person can make a tremendous difference and that economies can turn around, dramatically and for the better. However, two things must be remembered:

  1. Reagan was an exceptional leader, the kind that comes around once a century, if that. He uniquely combined an optimistic temperament with a deep understanding of the defining issue of his day (communism). His policies, both economic and military, were philosophically sound and competently executed.
    It would be an understatement to say that there is no one of such caliber among our political class today — left or right — nor does there appear to be one waiting in the wings.
  2. The American people were a different breed back in 1980. Since that time, three decades of liberal assault on American traditions — in our schools and media — combined with wave after wave of illegal immigration have eroded the common bonds of affection among our citizenry, what Thomas Jefferson referred to as “consanguinity” in the Declaration of Independence.

Can America turn it around? Yes. Does the nation possess the requisite will and unity of purpose that would allow an effective and sagacious leader to make the tough decisions necessary to pull us from the brink?

  1. Communism is a kissing cousin of the Progressive assault on the Enlightenment. It’s not worth a chicken/egg analysis, but the idea that the Commie threat ended with the Reagan administration may be incorrect. Also, there was nothing too magical about Reagan. He was simply an American, and exemplified the kind of common sense to which we should all aspire. Also, we should do a better job of passing common sense onto our children. Don’t bore me with backward looks at Reagan as an excuse for accepting a crappy President in November. Drive your leaders. Let them know what the will of the people is. They only offer screwy slices when teeing off in a vacuum.
  2. The crucial difference between Americans then and now is the internet. Progressivism is predicated upon the notion that people are sheep, that the mob is clay, and that the media can be used to make the mob do stupid human tricks. People may be sheepish, and have claylike properties in mass, but the Progressives absolutely Do Not have enough media control to extinguish American exceptionalism.

One hopes to see the level of peaceful participation in 2010 replicated this year. Let us show up on the Mall with an order of magnitude more people than #OccupyDC, and not cede the ground to a pack of infantile, Progressive hippies. Because turning this situation around is mostly about doing it.

Update: linked at TrogloPundit

Category: Progressivism

Comments

One Response to “‘Turning It Around’ Is 99% Turning It Around, And Only 1% Asking ‘Can We Turn It Around?’”

  1. Boy, there’s a lot of serious blogging going on at blogs not called TrogloPundit today « The TrogloPundit
    January 21st, 2012 @ 8:08 pm

    […] Stacy and Smitty of The Other McCain are doing their usual blanket coverage of the GOP primary and philosophical cage fighting over Constitutional first principles. […]