The state of the union, in the immediate future, will depend upon the state of the national Democrat Party. In the distant future, we are all dead.
The American mind generally is instantly captivated by
matters of interest, labors over them for a short time and then, exhausted, “moves
on,” as the politicians say, forgetting even yesterday in its hectic rush
forward.
President Bill Clinton – a child of Camelot and the last
President to have balanced a national budget -- adopted as his campaign theme the
Fleetwood Mac song “Don’t Stop.”
Don't stop thinking
about tomorrow
Don't stop, it'll soon be here
It'll be here better than before
Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone
The song enshrines a frame of mind, buoyantly optimistic,
that consigns yesterday to the dustbin of history -- and not only yesterday, but
every
yesterday. Tomorrow is always a blank sheet upon which transcending politicians may writer whatever they please, unobstructed by political principles or history.
The current Red Czar of Russia, Vladimir Putin, is counting
upon the West’s powers of forgetfulness. After he rolls over with his tanks
Ukraine’s bloody resistance to Russian tyranny, certain that he owns the
airspace over his victims, Putin has only to wait for tomorrow when everything will
be forgotten and forgiven – until the next tomorrow. And when yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone,
politicians in the West will come around. Putin will, to be sure, make sure
that a future tomorrow retains no memory of a heroic Kiev resistance.
It seems only yesterday – pun intended – that practical
atheists in Connecticut and elsewhere were warning us of the inutility of
prayer. Prays are not enough, tears are not enough, to repeal the errors of
history, because errors are attended by monstrous consequences. Suddenly,
Connecticut politicians such as U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal – the “senator from
Planned Parenthood” – are visiting Ukrainian churches during campaign rounds,
praying fervently with those who do believe in the efficacy of prayer.
When Joseph Stalin, the Red Czar of Russia, was cautioned
by Winston Churchill, during the waning days of the Second World War, that he
might be wise to consider the views of the Vatican when reassembling a war
broken Europe, Stalin responded, “How many divisions does the Pope of Rome
have?”
Ruthless temporal power, Stalin knew, can always overcome
spiritual power – at least in the short run, and the long run is very long
indeed. Putin’s communist catechism remains a Stalinist directive, and Putin is
now showing the world that he is a faithful son of Stalin.
A good part of Biden’s State of the Union speech was devoted
to a robust denunciation of Putin, who had, much earlier during the Obama/Biden
presidency, annexed Crimea, giving land-locked Russia access to a prime
seaport on the Black Sea.
The resistance on the part of the Obama/Biden administration
to Russia’s aggression in Crimea was mostly rhetorical. Apart from sanctions --
offset by the construction of Russia’s European gas pipeline -- the current resistance
on the part of the United States to Russian aggression in the whole of Ukraine
is mostly rhetorical. None of the sanctions will save a single life in Kiev, and
it is by no means certain that Putin’s ambitions, much too big for his britches,
will be effectively repelled by a United States that is pledged to lead the
resistance – failing in Ukraine from a lack of early and sufficient war
material shipments – from behind.
Here at home, moderate and right of center Democrats and unaffiliated
waited in vain for some indication in Biden’s State of the Union address of a
course correction, crossing their fingers and praying pointlessly that Biden
would have the courage and good sense to break free of the suffocating
postmodern progressivism that has captured his party.
The southern border is still porous. Inflation is raging in
the United States. Taxes, some of them hidden in the rising costs of products
and services, are up. Spending is way up. Current polls measuring Biden’s
approval ratings are dangerously down a year before the upcoming off presidential
year elections. And now, “Son of Stalin” Putin is poised to crush a valiant Kiev
resistance, while American politicians loudly congratulate themselves for
standing in solidarity with Ukrainians – by standing aside.
Putin has apparently decided that Russia’s future lies with
the East rather than the West, a fatal error in judgment that effectively sells
true Russian interests to China for a mess of political pottage. For his sake
and the sake of a cowed but restive Russian population that regards writers
such as Dostoyevsky as national prophets, perhaps Putin should revisit
Dostoyevsky’s Diary of a Writer,
where he outlines a proper, moral and humane relationship between a Russian
protectorate and the country’s neighboring states.
China, Russia’s traditional Eastern enemy, is prospering,
thanks to American billionaires, under the soft belly of Russia. Such are the “interesting
times” we live in. We should all recall that the Chinese benediction – “May you
live in interesting times” – is a curse.
Comments