Hennessy's View

Rule by the cleverest brute dominated most of human history. Then came the bizarre notion – in Greece and Rome to degrees, but mostly in the USA – of rule by the governed.

Rule by the governed gave way in 20th century to rule by experts.

Many so called “conservatives” warned against the expert thing. Eventually, conservatives believed, the experts would either fall prey to the clever brutes or to a world too complex for a small group to manage.

We avoided, up to now, the clever brutes. But that complex world, manageable by individuals working together voluntarily, has proven too much for the geniuses like Barack Obama and Ben Bernanke.

The world will change a lot over the next 15 years.  The experts having been discredited, we will choose to trust ourselves and each other—or we will submit a clever brute.

Choose wisely.

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On Saturday, the United States suffered its highest human lost since the Afghanistan conflict began.  At least 38 elite, brave American warriors died in combat.

Flasback to May 23 of this year. That’s when Barack Obama made the surprise announcement that he would begin accelerated troop withdrawals in July.  That timetable meant beginning the withdrawal during the summer fighting season.

Current and former military experts advised the president against this reckless move. People who understand war knew that the President would place lives unnecessarily at risk for his own political gain.

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs, testified to the House Armed Services Committee:

The president’s decisions are more aggressive and incur more risk than I was originally prepared to accept.

General David Petraeus, the NATO commander in Afghanistan, testified to the US Senate:

The ultimate decision was a more aggressive formulation, if you will, in terms of the timeline than what we had recommended.

(source: The Telegraph)

Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham called the President’s decision “an unnecessary risk” and asked him to reconsider (The Daily Beast).

Then Defense Secretary Robert Gates justified the decision, saying it was based on the political situation in the United States, not the military realities on the ground in the theatre.

In the end. Mullen and Gates admitted that the decision was the President’s and the President’s alone. That should make it very difficult for Obama to pass the buck on this one. Still, you know he’ll try.

Eternal rest grant unto them o Lord, and let the perpetual light shine on them. May their souls and those of all the faithful departed, through Your mercy, rest in peace.

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Can you guess the year?

• Scottish scientists cloned a sheep named Dolly
• President Clinton signed a bill barring federal funds for human cloning
• Bank robbers in Kevlar suits staged an epic gun battle with Los Angeles police
• The English Patient wins Best Picture Oscar
• Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister of England
• Timothy McVeigh convicted of pure evil
• Titanic bounced off the iceberg and hit the box office

The year was 1997. Monica Lewinsky still enjoyed relative obscurity. Dot coms had not yet bubbled.

How old were you? How old were your kids?  What was your favorite song? How much money did you make that year, and what was your retirement account worth?

In 1997, did you think America would be teetering on the edge of another Great Depression in 2011?

The word “crisis” is overused.  Everything isn’t a crisis.  But there are crises. We’re in one right now.

You knew that. But you probably didn’t know how long it will last. Or that it’s happened before and will happen again, if we survive this one.

Read this brief passage from a very important book:

Around the year 2005, a sudden spark will catalyze a Crisis mood. Remnants of the old social order will disintegrate. Political and economic trust will implode. Real hardship will beset the land, with severe distress that could involve questions of class, race, nation, and empire.

Howe, Neil; Strauss, William (2009-01-16). The Fourth Turning (Kindle Locations 147-149). Three Rivers Press. Kindle Edition.

Howe and Strauss wrote those words in 1997—fourteen years ago.  They aren’t soothsayers or tea-leaf readers; they’re historians. Their prediction from 1997 came not from looking at the conditions of day, but at the pattern of history since the Etruscans.

Even more sobering:

Sometime before the year 2025, America will pass through a great gate in history, commensurate with the American Revolution, Civil War, and twin emergencies of the Great Depression and World War II.

That means we have about 15 years of turmoil before we overcome the great, final obstacle to a “new normal.”

It’s easy, of course, to dismiss predictions as speculation. It’s comforting to believe that Howe and Strauss sensationalized history to scare people into buying their books.

But something about The Fourth Turning simply feels true today.  Or, maybe, something about today makes  the book feel true.

If these historians were right, then we have a long, hard row to hoe.  We will need with us people we can trust.

We’ll also need a roadmap toward the better world, not a treasure map to a misremembered past.

St. Louis Tea Party Coalition is launching The After Party program to create this network of trust and to paint that roadmap toward the next iteration of our republic.

We’re inviting you to join us.  Each month will involve a short meeting that will introduce an action to be completed before the next month’s meeting.  Then we’ll have a long social hour.   We hope that everyone will stay, have a dinner or appetizers, and talk about the future.

The action plans will be very simple. They will leave time for other civic or political actions.  Those actions will be more effective as your network of trust grows larger and stronger.

We need to get to know each other better. We need to develop stronger bonds of trust than we’ve known in generations—since the 1930s and 1940s to be exact.

If you want to be fully prepared for the next 12 months and the next 15 years, read The Fourth Turning by Howe and Strauss.

The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy – What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America’s Next Rendezvous with Destiny

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Answer: Bondbonds.

Sometimes the only option is humor.  Maybe it’s time to laugh . . . at ourselves, at our pre-occupations, and at our president.

We elected him. And, in a republic, you always get the leadership you deserve.

Now what?

Now focus. Public displays of anger only hurt us. Anger is a tactic.

Yes, I’m angry. Furious. But acting out on anger does us no good.  Instead, wise men and women focus that anger into a steely resolve to electorally destroy the cretins that destroyed America’s credit rating, liberty, and economy.

What makes United States Marines, Rangers, Delta Force, SEALs, an the like so deadly is not bloodlust . . . it’s discipline.  Had an angry mob descended on Usama’s compound in May, he’d be alive and the mod would be dead.

Steely determination to electorally destroy.  Lacking that discipline will hurt the cause.

The next meeting is September 15 at 7:00 at Crowne Plaza Hotel in Clayton.  Please bring a cold, steely resolve.  But leave room for a warm smile for friends.

For more on S&P’s downgrade of US debt, see WSJ Weekend

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Do you ever feel like Dan Blackford?

Dan is an original Tea Party organizer. He’s been at it since 2009. And he’s just about worn out. According to the Wall Street Journal, Blackford’s given up his position in the  Houston Tea Party.

All the protests, the organization, the fundraising, the block-walking, has it done anything? Are we better off than we were two years ago? I say ‘No.’

How many other people feel the way Dan feels?  Do you think the past two-and-a-half years were a waste?

You Are Not Alone

Sometimes I do.  Since the end of 2009, I have been ready to throw in the towel many times.  Each time, my friends bolstered me.  They reminded me how far we’d come since February ‘09.  The reminded me that nothing has stopped our movement, locally or nationally.

So now it’s my turn to bolster the spirits of those like Dan Blackford.

Rome Didn’t Fall in a Day

First, let’s get something straight: your expectations must match reality.  The United States has been on the path to bigger government, more debt, and less liberty since the Constitutional Convention.  Larry Elder points out:

Congress began ignoring its lack of authority for charity before the ink dried on the Constitution. When Congress appropriated $15,000 to assist French refugees in 1792, James Madison – a Founding Father and principal author of the Constitution – wrote, “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution, which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”
Read more: Charity: Not in the Constitution

The tendency of government to grow is not new.  Nor will it go away. Let’s accept what we cannot change and move on.  Please don’t make the mistake of assuming we could roll back sixty years of rapid government growth with a single election. 

Everybody’s Talkin’

Next, let’s look at what we have accomplished.  Let’s begin with the fact that Dan Blackford gets quoted on the front page of the Wall Street Journal more than two years into the Tea Party era. 

Do you know how many nascent movements and organizations are born and die in any two year period?  Do you know how rare it is for a movement to survive 30 months?  Do you realize much rarer it is for a movement that’s only two years old to drive 100 percent of the conversation about government?

Sure, it’s easy to say, “conversation” is all the Tea Party’s gotten for its work.  That’s what Ellen Gilmore of LaGrange Tea Party told WSJ.  I would tell Ellen that driving the conversation is a very big deal in a republic.

Tomorrow’s decisions—in primaries, in general elections, in school board meetings, and in Congress and the Supreme Court—evolve from to today’s conversations.  In 2008, no one cared what Ellen Gilmore  or Dan Blackford thought about anything. Today their thoughts are on the front page of one of the most read papers in the world.

If we give up now, Dan and Ellen will be correct: it will have been a waste of precious time, money, and energy.

But we’re not giving up.  We’re not standing still.  We are still advancing.

The After Party

Over next several weeks, we will roll out a plan. The plan builds upon our accomplishments and strengths.  It looks reality squarely in the eye.  And it begins to fill the void we feel in our movement and in ourselves.

Once we fill that void, we’ll begin moving the debate a little faster.  We’re going to launch an upward spiral of effective action.

Beginning  Sunday, August 7, read every episode of The After Party series on www.stlouisteaparty.com.  And put a placeholder on your calendar for the 3rd Thursday of every month. 

It’s time to launch the next wave. And you won’t be alone.

**IF YOU WOULD** St. Louis Tea Party Coalition is taking on an ambitious project. Your prayers and any financial help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.  Please use the Donate button on the sidebar at stlouisteaparty.com.  Thank you.

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