The Dam Is Creaking

     Folly, the late Barbara Tuchman wrote in her book The March of Folly, is “knowing better but doing worse.” More lucidly if less lyrically, a fool is one who refuses to learn from his own mistakes. He persists in a course of action that has led him astray previously – perhaps on several occasions – for reasons he cannot or will not articulate. Those reasons usually reduce to stubbornness and pride. The “humble fool” is a creature modern science has never yet detected.

     But to be fair, we must admit that, as Victor Hugo wrote in Les Miserables, “We’re all fools, most of our lives. It’s unavoidable.” For most of us, folly tends to be situational, springing from specific contexts and challenges in which our pride dwarfs our realism about our limitations.

     There are a great many fools in the Republican Party. Some of those fools are at the pinnacle of the GOP. Here’s the demonstration:

• Each time since World War II that Republicans and Democrats have agreed on some sort of tit-for-tat, the Republicans have kept their word and the Democrats have reneged. Yet Republicans continue to pursue compromises with Democrats.
• Democrat officials and spokesmen routinely savage Republicans. Their targets often refuse to defend themselves, “reasoning” that “If I’m nice in return, I could win them over.”
• The Democrat-aligned media have repeatedly seduced Republicans into traps whose bait was a few column-inches of mildly favorable coverage. Despite the media’s long record of such perfidy, Republican officials, luminaries, and voters continue to be seduced by media importunings.
• Finally for this brief roundup, Democrats can commit the most heinous acts in full view of the public…without any Republican of stature being willing to denounce them for it. Indeed, often Republicans of stature will castigate more lowly persons for daring to take note of Democrat sins and crimes.

     To me, this is an indictment of the “Pollyanna mentality” of the GOP. Highly placed Republicans seem endlessly willing to betray the party’s supporters to gain something of little or no value from the Democrats. Some Republican legislators will vote against their party’s and nation’s obvious interests rather than risk having a Democrat, or some media figure, criticize them in public. This defeats any claim by such persons that they represent their constituents’ interests. Yet they continue to garner votes by the millions, which suggests that their constituents are even bigger fools, at least every two, four, or six years.

     Why yes: this is about the stolen 2020 election. However did you guess?

     Have a few links:

• Maricopa County, AZ election officials provably destroyed election records.
• So did Antrim County, MI election officials.
• Biden’s dementia is on open display.
• Biden is under orders not to answer reporters’ questions.
• Reporters are under orders not to publish Biden’s statements without White House approval.

     If Joe Biden were a Republican, he’d already have taken up residence in a room with soft walls whose door locks from the outside. The media would be blasting him as an enemy of the press. His supposedly record-shattering election victory would have been invalidated on the grounds of blatant, coordinated fraud, which was visible on Election Night in at least six states. A caretaker Administration would be in place, emergency procedures activated for a rerun at the earliest possible time.

     The Constitution doesn’t contain any guidance applicable to our current situation. It’s possible that the Founding Fathers could not imagine a stolen election in these United States. Yet that is what we have had. It’s been followed by four months of openly anti-American governance designed to cement the Democrats into permanent federal power, reduce our economy to that of a Third World nation, and eliminate the notion that Americans possess any rights the government is required to respect.

     Where are our prominent Republicans? Why haven’t they been trumpeting all of this non-stop since last November 4? Are they too pusillanimous to speak out, or are they secretly in league with the Democrats, playing along for a seat on the gravy train?

     Though it may anger some to say so, Donald Trump’s supposedly crude style is a minor side issue. President Trump kept his campaign promises. He actively fought for the interests of the American people. His public style was rough-hewn, as we should expect from a fighter, but it was never unjust. Highly placed Republicans striving to move the party away from Trump are attempting to distract us from their true agenda.

     The consequences are mushrooming. An increasing number of conservatives have said that their support for the GOP and its candidates is over, never to resume. Their reasons are consistent: The Republican Party has betrayed its supporters. Are the party’s kingmakers aware that ever-larger waves of public disgust and distrust are battering their edifices of prestige and perquisites? Do they expect their “friends” among the Democrats to help them to retain their positions come election time, or do they comfort themselves with the notion that “They” – meaning us — “have to vote for us” – meaning them — because “After all, we’re all they’ve got.”

     Political parties are not immortal organisms. American history has seen the rise and fall of several. The strategists and kingmakers of the GOP had better look to their levees, for the water lashing them is being driven by a shrill and bitter wind.