
Inchoate and impassioned, the young are always in need of a tempering and guiding influence.(I’ve witnessed firsthand the inchoate and impassioned student protester in action and he or she was always the deadbeat, though clever, student seeking to exploit any excuse to avoid work. Adult tempering and guiding is in short supply.) This latest generation to enter adulthood is in need of tempering and guiding as much, if not more, as any previous generation. Surely progressives of the older generations, closer to their final reward, full of wisdom and erudite knowledge, will provide that tempering and guiding influence with insights on stoicism and patience.
No, instead of tempering the histrionics of their philosophical underlings, the progressive older generations inflame passions. They stand arm-in-arm with the underlings: they commiserate, they cry, they whine, they bleat in agony as they contemplate the horrors to come.
Has a Pol Pot, a Kim Jon-il, a Joseph Stalin, a Mao Zedong ascended to dictator of the United States? Mass murders all, to be sure, but mass murder can be readily rationalized if philosophical bents jibe, and Pol Pot et al.’s philosophy of egalitarianism, redistributionism, and socialism jibe with the progressive philosophy of the faculties and their teachers’ pets at most major U.S. universities.
If it were only a Pol Pot. Something much worse troubles the progressive mind; something impossible to rationalize away -- the inconceivable philosophical disagreement, Someone, somewhere questions Marxism, thus the uncontrollable progressive boohooing and foot-stomping response.
Talk about lack of perspective. Given the philosophical trajectory of the political electorate over the past 50 years, why the histrionics? Trump is no more than a brief interregnum, if he is that, on the progressive's unstoppable Fabian march to full-blown fascism.
What’s more, we have precedence. We’ve driven down this road before, and we’ve driven down it as recently as 2007: the last time Republicans steered the agenda in both the executive and legislative branches of government.
And it was oh so oppressive in those dark days, wasn't it? Every progressive's stereotype of a Republican was legislated: blacks were enslaved, homosexuals were herded into concentration camps, women were reduced to chattel, Christianity was legislated the state religion, U.S. borders were closed to foreigners born between the tropics, schools were mandated to teach laissez faire, federal welfare spending was slashed, kindergartners and octogenarians starved en masse, World War III erupted, the average daily climate temperature climbed 15 degrees.
Of course, none of it is true (though to the serial fantasizer, the fantasy morphs into virtual reality). What happened post Nov. 7, 2006 (a nonpresidential election) was a mass recruiting of progressive minds to fantasize such fantasies. And now, after the latest election go-around, the number of progressive minds recruited has multiplied exponentially.
Emotion cloaks real reality with delusions of catastrophes that never occur. If politicians of both parties are united in one desire, it’s the desire to spend other people’s money. Entitlement spending has trended only higher over the past 100 years. And higher the trend shall go.
Trump’s power to reverse the trend is a puerile fantasy.
First, Trump lacks the means. As president, Trump has but two legislative powers: He can sign bills approved by Congress and pass them into law or he can veto them. And if he were to veto a bill, Congress can still force the bill by securing two-thirds votes in both of the houses. Democrats are aligned against Trump, but so, too, are many Republicans. You’d be hard pressed to call Trump and the powers that be in the Republican Party kindred spirits.
Second, Trump lacks the will. The tough campaign rhetoric was all wind and false bravado. The welshing on promises made during the campaign has already begun.
So, fret not our rectopathic powder puff. Console yourself with the knowledge that Trump’s Republican compatriots are no less inclined to cut entitlement spending than, and are equally as willing to maintain entitlement spending as, their Democratic counterparts. Now, you might not get everything you want when you want it, like a crying infant, over the next four years, but you’ll get most of it eventually. In the meantime, show a little dignity and cease with the demonstrative temper tantrums. In other words, grow up.