As we look at historical trends, even in very recent times, the results of this year’s elections cannot be said to be in the least surprising. The short-term drifts (2018, 2020, 2022) were indicative, but the longer movements, over the last 60 years or so, show a decidedly leftward movement in the country. America is being overwhelmed by the tide, and nothing seems to be able to hold it back.
Republicans got trounced again this year. They lost big in Ohio on moral issues (abortion and marijuana), the Kentucky governor’s race wasn’t close, and they now control neither house chamber in Virginia, though, for some chimerical reason, they had hoped to win both. They did hold on to the governorship of Mississippi (whoopee). It was a catastrophe for the GOP, pure and simple. But again, an unsurprising one to anyone who knows history.
Now the analyzation will begin. Donald Trump will surely receive a lot of blame, and probably justifiably so. He came onto the scene, a new face, and won the presidency in 2016 against a politician who most Americans despised, even though he received fewer votes than she did. Never forget that last statement. Thank you, Founding Fathers, for protecting us against the tyranny and stupidity of democracy. But what happened in 2018? 2020? 2022? And now, 2023? Trump will get some blame, the guy at the top always does, and the numbers don’t lie.
Republican leadership is atrocious, and doesn’t have a clue how to win elections. Ronna McDaniel is utterly incompetent, but, of course, the Stupid Party put her back in her position again this year. And lost again this year. You can’t cure stupid, and the Republican Party is drenched with it, especially at the top. They never seem to learn.
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But then, as a historian, it is difficult for me to blame anything but...history. What is happening in America has happened to every other great nation/empire in history. They have a good run. They get rich and powerful, and then want to enjoy that prosperity. So, they get fat and lazy, weak, degenerate, immoral, and pleasure-loving. Those characteristics never produce growth, success, and prosperity, they only result in decline, decay, and destruction. And America is smack in the middle of that right now. We have turned our back on God, and we are suffering the consequences of it. And no nation in human history has ever reversed things from such a decline. There might be the occasional blip on the screen, the Hezekiah or Josiah, but the general trend is downward. And that is the direction America is headed right now, and has been for over a generation.
The only answer is a return to the positive spiritual values the country was founded upon and that made it a great nation. That doesn’t appear in the offing, and it never has happened before. The majority of Americans have succumbed to a degenerate evil and self-absorption—mimicking the country’s leadership. The Democratic Party makes its living off of it. They have no motivation to change it. The answer, the cure, is in the human heart. But the heart of the Democratic Party is pure evil. How do you reform that?
And nobody wants to look there. The Left certainly isn’t going to because they want nothing but power, and their power comes from evil. And America sleeps. Fisher Ames (1831) is attributed with the following statement: “Falsehood proceeds from Maine to Georgia, while truth is pulling on his boots.” Mark Twain supposedly added the variant, "A lie will fly around the whole world while the truth is getting its boots on." Regardless of who actually said it, many wise people have recognized the truth of it. The apostle Paul’s “evil companionships corrupt good morals” ought not to be so—good people should lift the evil to a higher plane—but unfortunately, his statement is reality, not the ideal. As more and more evil spreads, then, well, more and more evil spreads. As Plato said, the greatest victory a person can have is to conquer himself. Only a few ever do that. Just look at America today for proof of it.
“Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never.” -John Adams.
Is there hope? Well, yes, in a sense, there is hope. There is always hope. The future hasn’t happened yet so we don’t know what it will bring. Let’s be optimistic. In other words, let’s not look at history and see what has happened to EVERY OTHER COUNTRY that did exactly what America is doing today. Sure, there’s hope. What else do we have?
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.” -Alexander Fraser Tytler
The jungle, left uncontrolled and unchecked, grows and sweeps everything in its path. Garbage, uncollected, spreads and attracts vermin and rats. Barbarians always find a way to breach the walls. Usually when good people are asleep. And when the evil are in power. It’s called “history.”
Republicans get trounced again. Is it possible to stop it? Possible, but not likely. For, when the people “have eaten and filled themselves and grown fat, then they will turn to other gods and serve them; and they will provoke Me” (Deuteronomy 31:20). History. We can hope. And keep our powder dry.
Listen to my podcasts on “Wisdom From Our Founders” (paid subscribers only, sorry) on my substack mklewis929.substack.com. You want to hear that. Many other articles/podcasts as well (free). Read my western novels, Whitewater , River Bend, Return to River Bend, and Allie’s Dilemma all available on Amazon. Follow me on Twitter: @thailandmkl.
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