Any regular reader of Northeast Reader could quickly conclude that I have a range of topics I come back to often. They are of course, ones I feel strongly about but my highlighting those causes should not be taken as an indication that the many things I don’t comment on are not as important to me. To the contrary, many are of critical interest. So why don’t I talk about them? A short list or reasons; first is that the expertise needed to comment intelligently or insightfully on a subject is something I don’t possess. Shocker, few if any commentators confessed their limitations. The second, perhaps more important reason is that I must remain silent and leave it to others that are better positioned to speak the changethat’s needed. If I – my words – can’t change it, don’t provide any declaration of action that would positively affect the situation, I must leave it to someone that can or will. Similarly, there are instances where pushing change is far beyond not just someone’s words, but also where an institution is well beyond the reach of anyone’s opinion as the entity is hermetically sealed. There are no absolutes here but there are plenty of functional hard stops.
A cynical response to these reasons might be that I’m a fool to think I can change anything by my words, to which I must respond, in a world full of lies, no truth can be without merit. It’s not up to me to determine or assume who will or will not hear my words. In the digital world, my writing can be six degrees of separation from any real life ‘Kevin Bacon’.
‘God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.’ ‡
Here are some instances where I limit my comments as described:
Courts and judges: Our federal judiciary has turned into a contest of political whack-a-mole. They are political appointees of course, but in most cases, they used to regard ‘the Law’ – capital L – first and a political agenda second, even the Democrats. Too many judges have dropped all pretenses of respect for law and operate purely as activist. The political operatives in robes seeking to rid Joe Biden of a sure opposition candidate is evidence #1. One court decides to rubber stamp the current administration. Surely an appellate court can be found to overturn it, then, another after that to overturn the overturn and so on. Courts now routinely override legislatures and even balloted decisions. It’s a huge game and they’re largely impervious to the citizen electorate. I will comment superficially about the Supreme Court as it’s the final stop with some loose accountability to the Constitution. The justices are famous for defying even those that appointed them. It, along with the Constitution, is the only and final line in the sand against dictatorship.
Immigration violations: The current state of illegal immigration can only be described as anarchy. It demonstrates what happens when the executive branch has been given way too much power over legislatures, courts, and States. While I have previously waded into the immigration pit and was even at one time an advocate for more generous legal immigration, that ship has long sailed. The discussion is no longer, shall they or shall they not be allowed past our borders; it is now: will the President uphold his constitutional oath and enforce the immigration laws on the books or will he be law-breaker -in-chief and allow and even direct unfettered trampling of the laws passed by Congress? The issue is not immigration, it’s dictatorship and the rule of law. I frankly don’t understand the reasons why two out of the three branches of government and fifty states cannot over-ride and enforce laws that a senile rogue dictator is flaunting. Count me out of the discussion until anyone can answer me that.
Congressional infighting and palace intrigue: Washington DC has always had a bad reputation as a friendless snake pit of backstabbing ambitious characters. When Mr. Smith goes to Washington with all the best intensions, we know he will be bombarded by friend and foe alike and forced to compromise his/her values, horse trade votes, be invited to parties where rich and powerful people will give him/her the big ‘or else’, and be subject to the futile quest to be liked in order to get things done. It becomes overwhelming for some. Despite all of this, some still have principles. I don’t envy their tasks. The threat of each election cycle and the simple people back home keep a few in line. Nevertheless, it’s the allies that sometimes present the most difficulty. The halls of congress are long, deep, and dark and…well…’you probably wouldn’t understand what we have to do to stay afloat here’. What gets projected back home is usually pure hyperbolic manufactured fluff calculated to keep the voting electorate anesthetized to the ground level dysfunction that happens in Washington. I don’t pretend to have a handle on what it takes to succeed in the capitol, so I have to stay out of these arguments. I don’t have strong feelings about leadership within Congress unless they become a manifest repeated failure on conservative values, then I will surely say something.
The Race Card: It’s in vogue now for public figures to mouth blatantly racist propaganda masquerading as victimology, hustling for a payout, and as a cover to advocate for all things socialist. There is no shame, nor is there any shred of intelligent sensibility underlying the phenomena. We’re asked to suspend all notions of competence and ethics for the sheer mindless task of elevating a race that suddenly claims to have created civilization, discovered all knowledge, and are higher beings walking in our midst; and yet too many of their leaders say they can’t rise to any well-established and standard measures of merit. They require the constant intervention of armies of well-off fetishizing white-guilt progressives to succeed. Anyone that notices these incongruities is a ‘white supremacist’. Maybe they have a point there after all. Why should I dignify such foolishness? I don’t care if it’s a Fortune 500 CEO trying to promote DEI, Obama laying racist guilt on anyone that opposes him or his agenda, or Fani Willis blaming whites for her being a corrupt DA that had an affair and broke foundational ethics rules in her zeal to get Trump. We’re in a little bubble of history here that will pop quite soon. Those that play the race card have severely demeaned themselves. The politest thing I can do is ignore anyone using it.
‡ One version of the ‘Serenity Prayer’, ascribed to Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr
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