In his inimitable style, the great English essayist, Samuel Johnson, boomed (he rarely spoke) that what is known isn’t always obvious and what is obvious isn’t always present. Before I am charged with stating the obvious, let me remind readers that Alfred North Whitehead said it takes extraordinary intelligence to contemplate the obvious. So, let’s consider the obvious for a moment.
The upcoming November elections are nothing short of critical to the future of this county. All elections are, of course, important, but that this one is more important than most midterm elections may well be obvious to everyone, but not everyone may understand why. Here are important points to contemplate, especially for voters classified as independents. Their votes will determine many close races across the country.
There is, first, of course, Congress. A wag once said that the opposite of progress is Congress, and while that may well be true, the last two years have proved that the party in control can do either a lot of good or irrefragable bad. Although the president is sworn to defend the Constitution and Congress to protect the United States from foreign and domestic enemies, neither this Congress nor this president has done either.
Russia, China, and North Korea have never been as unstable or willing to oppose us. Hunter Biden continues to sell U.S. access like a Chapter 11 stock fire sale. On more than one occasion, the president has not only not defended the Constitution but even disparaged it when it did not meet his demands. Not to put too fine a point on it, but he and Democrats that do his bidding are forever guilty of catachresis: when they talk about democracy, they mean socialism. Socialism is control, mandates, masks, vaccinations, lockdowns, isolation for any who refuse, gender dysphoria, abortion up to and including the final trimester, even at birth, open, chaotic borders, and runaway inflation. Remember when Democrats used to laugh and say, “It’s the economy, stupid”? (but no more).
This midterm election is a chance for the House and the Senate to come under conservative Republican control and begin the tedious process of reversing this trend until 2024, when a conservative president is elected. But without this first stopgap measure, the latter will not occur, or it may be too late if it does.
All politics are local, as the saying goes. School board elections across the country are essential to restoring order and learning in our nation’s schools. Under the Democrats, public school enrollments have plummeted, mainly owing to what parents learned what schools were teaching during the pandemic lockdowns. In a word, nothing of substance and more content pointing to the smell of rancid indoctrination. Critical Race Theory taught students that white people are the only evil. Social-emotional learning (SEL) taught elementary school students that what you feel is more important than what you know. Two plus two does not have to equal four unless you feel good about it. Wrong answers are the stuff of white privilege. There are no wrong answers. Moreover, you can be female one day and male the next.
Much of the gender flapdoodle public libraries across the country, supported by the far-left American Library Association, undergirded student confusion when they are especially vulnerable to books pushing an LGBTQ agenda. While public libraries touted balance in their collections, finding even one book that disputed this indoctrination often proved a needle-in-the-haystack hunt. Gay Pride and now, during October, Gay History Month, it appears there is a global recruitment movement underway.
School board elections will help deter the left’s rage on schools, while state House and Senate races may help to forestall the rest. Electing bold, conservative politicians is easier said than done. All too often, politicians who campaign as conservative lose their way after election. But it is where we must begin.
If you want more of this putrid pottage, more inflation, more social obliquity, more open borders, more school indoctrination with little to no real learning, and more gigantic losses in your 401K, more crime, higher gas prices, student loan forgiveness at yours, not the students’ expense, inflation higher than it has been in 40 years, and strict gun control, then vote with the Democrats who have given you all this and will gladly give you even more.
On the other hand, if you want a change, this November is the time to vote for conservative Republicans across the board. It’s time for intelligent contemplation of the obvious instead of doubling down on the rot.
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Opinions of guest columnists on Carolinajournal.com do not necessarily reflect the views of Carolina Journal or the John Locke Foundation.