There’s a real possibility we will wake up Nov. 7 to the news that Barack Obama will be president for another four years. If he wins reelection, whether the Republicans take control of the Senate is moot. Obama has shown he is capable of governing without the legislative branch. (Fault the Congress and Senate for this: Over the years they have ceded far too much to the bureaucratic wielders of executive power.) For another presidential term we will be subject to an increasingly oppressive, intrusive, vindictive government, a reversal of our founding principle that government is the people’s creation.
What’s probably worse is that, in the event of an Obama reelection, progressive forces will be unleashed with such vicious fervor that we will genuinely fear for our lives and livelihoods. The law, with no basis in the constitution or morality, will tighten like a noose on parts of our lives we thought were our own. To the progressives, nothing is your own. Everything is political. That is the essence of totalitarianism, the giving in to the temptation to create a divine human society. The lives totalitarianism claimed in the last century alone number over 100 million. It was a living hell for the rest.
The immediate conclusion we should make is that the fight must go on. We will be tempted to throw in the towel, but our faith will sustain us. Our community, which preceded Obamacare but which arose spontaneously in 2009 to oppose it, also will sustain us. In his 1978 Harvard commencement address, Alexander Solzhenitsyn said that the people living in the Soviet Union
have been through a spiritual training far in advance of Western experience. The complex and deadly crush of life has produced stronger, deeper, and more interesting personalities than those generated by standardized Western well-being.
Regardless of what happens to the country, we will become better people. I have friends and family who have grown leaps and bounds in the past four years. We have had to drill down to the bottom of ourselves to try to explain what it is we believe, who it is we are. Hardship builds character. Four years’ more suffering will make many men out of us boys.
The next conclusion we should make is that arguing facts and figures to convince people to join our side is a tactical failure. Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said “you are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.” Commendable, but instead of “facts,” he should have said “truth.” In our media-saturated age there is simply too much information available, causing people to draw radically different conclusions about the same issue. Information is meaningless unless you emotionalize it. We must appeal to the truth of people’s lives. (Some of our leaders are learning that, but they still haven’t taken off the green eyeshades, if you know what I mean.) It is a self-revealing and risky method of discourse, but it will be worth it.
Thanks for another great post, Joseph! You are exactly right. There are actually a great number of Americans who NEED to experience a bit of hardship. Only then will they recognize the greatness of the American experience as designed by the founding fathers. If Obama is elected it is what the nation deserves. I only hope that God will answer the prayers of those of us who still desire to put Him first.
Posted by Rob | October 28, 2012, 7:12 pmJoseph, great post. You’re exactly right. We need to not worry so much about facts and figures but more about the hardships that Obama has brought and how they won’t even compare to the hardships he’ll bring once he has the flexibility he promised Putin after his re-election. This is a scary election. No matter which way the election goes, I am worried. These are scary times.
Posted by Cucciolo | October 29, 2012, 12:03 pm