The Source of our Discontent
Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 10/2/20
It
is both relevant and fair to pose the following questions: Who is chiefly
responsible for the nation’s partisan divide and our inflamed political
discourse? Who started the acrimony and still feeds it constantly? Who has
obviously sought to use that divide for their own political gain?
Sometimes
questions can be answered with other questions. For instance who in 2016
refused to accept the results of the presidential election? Who, instead of
accepting defeat and serving as the loyal opposition, has since sought to
personally discredit the duly elected candidate at every turn? Who went
unsuccessfully from “collusion, collusion” to “Russia, Russia” to “ventilators,
ventilators” to impeachment, to “ineffectiveness in a time of pandemic” to “the
president hasn’t paid his taxes,” further indicating their disregard for a
legitimate election? On whose side of the political divide are the thuggish,
destructive “protestors” and their cheerleaders?
Furthermore,
who abandoned the time-honored tradition of losing an election with honor, then
working to elect their preferred candidate in the next election? Conservatives
never behaved so unseemly during the eight years that gave them gay marriage,
apology tours, initiation of socialized medicine, and warnings about “cynical
voters who cling to guns or religion.”
These
questions require no pondering. We all know the answers.
Precisely
our division is centered on race, economic ideology, and our political system
itself, that is, how we are governed. Regarding our political system, the
divide is a matter of representative government versus government by unelected
judges, bureaucrats, and “experts.” Regarding the economy and economic ideology,
the division is purely and simply capitalism versus socialism. As for race, the
division is supposedly over justice versus injustice. In order to achieve
justice, it is apparently now legitimate to bash store fronts, shoot cops, and
set cities aflame.
The
most foundational of these three areas is our political system. America is a
representative democracy. Understanding that a pure democracy is functionally
impossible in a continental nation, we elect people to speak and vote for us.
This system is now under attack. Abolish the Electoral College, the dividers
are crying, knowing full well that doing so would leave rural America and small
states out of the loop, bestowing total electoral power upon the population
centers of the nation.
And
just which party now controls the major population centers of the nation? Which
one wants to further “transform” our political system by packing the Supreme
Court?
Another
source of our discontent is the unabashed embrace of socialism by Bernie Sanders.
Ditto the Democrat Party’s joyful embrace of Sanders and his Children’s Crusade.
Their claim that public schools and Social Security render us socialist already
indicates their need to return to 12th grade economics. From the
very start America has thrived from capitalism. It was a Democrat, Senator
Russell Long of Louisiana, who thundered from the Senate floor, “If we’re gonna
have capitalism, we gotta have capital, and if we’re gonna have capital, we
gotta have capitalists.” Long’s party has long since morphed. Its face is that
of 20-somethings who truly believe there is such a thing as free stuff.
As
for race, a quick relevant story that’s close to my heart: Fifty years ago a
personal friend became head football coach at the high school I attended in
Forest, Mississippi. 1970 was the first year of integration in Forest. Coach
Gary Risher’s team was undefeated and won their conference title. His assistant
was James Clark who had been head coach at the Black school, E.T. Hawkins High.
Only 6 of Coach Clark’s players chose to remain on the team. Two weeks ago all
6 Black players attended a halftime program that honored the 1970 team,
including Edmond Harvey who drove from Las Vegas and picked up Lee Evans in
Shreveport to head toward Forest. When my brother Carlton related to me the
news of this exciting event, he added, “Tells you something about Forest.”
Which
it does. It also reminds me that here in Georgia I observe good race relations
every week of my life. Yet, charges of racism have become the standard cudgel
of the party that doesn’t seem to like their country.
No
one can blame conservatives for the nation’s great divide. On election night of
2008 conservatives accepted their fate, assumed the role of the loyal
opposition, and set their sights on 2012. Let’s see if Democrats will do
likewise come November 3rd by calling off their thugs, checking their
obsession with race, and acknowledging that Forest, Mississippi is a microcosm
of the entire nation. In fact, a good nation that is not racist and that will
never tolerate the group-think and collectivism Democrats are planning for us.
Roger Hines
9/30/20
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