The Way We Were

Do we still believe in us? Do I still believe in us?

Cass Elliott and John Denver, 1972. The way we once were. Source: YouTube Screencap

Well, family, the day is almost here. Tomorrow is Tuesday, November 5, 2024, the day we decide whether to retain the services of Kamala Harris or give Donald Trump a second try. I feel like I’ve said everything that needs to be said about the election without telling anyone who to vote for, so I’ll keep this short (LOL). We’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow.

First, go out and vote if you’re registered to do so. You all should sense by now that I’ve long since soured on American democracy, or at least what’s become of it. I think it’s very clearly a spent force and if the country isn’t a dictatorship yet, it’s certainly in a transitional phase. That said, voting is the most we’ll ever get to impact the political process, so while I doubt 2024 will be the last election ever, still vote like there won’t be another election afterwards. If nothing else, voting is something most people of the world cannot do, at least not in safety.

Second, understand that whomever you vote for, it won’t change the trajectory of this country. The Fourth Turning comes for us all. It’s been going on for over 15 years now and no, Donald Trump didn’t show up and ruin a perfectly good time in 2016. Anyone who honestly believes this wasn’t paying attention. We’re dealing with forces well beyond the ability of anyone to control, political leaders included. Paradoxically, if it comes down to a vote on the question of whether this country goes off a cliff or not, it’s already too late. Voting is about whether to raise tax rates, not what kind of country we’re going to be, how many genders exist.

One of the reasons I hate (yes, hate) the Regime - as represented by Kamala Harris - so much is the number of lies they force us to swallow in exchange for living in a country they themselves have such great disdain for. No, democracy isn’t served better through diversity. Diversity is nice for many reasons, but democracy isn’t one of them. The paradox of the system is that it works best when there’s less to argue about. It’s a mechanism for consensus and decision-making, but it cannot resolve our differences. The only way to do that is through free association and living separately, but we’re not allowed to do that anymore either, are we?

Still another lie we tell ourselves is the one about why we need to keep our borders open to the Third World masses. We’re told it’s because they make our country better, even though we all know they’re the ones who come here because our country is already better. Nobody immigrates because they think they can add value to some place else, they immigrate because they want an improvement over what they had where they’re coming from.

There’s nothing wrong with that, but when people lie about why immigration happens and the impact it has on our country, claiming that our country is worth nothing without it, it’s perfectly reasonable to feel like immigration is a raw deal, especially as the benefits of living here dwindle, coming at a higher cost despite promises otherwise, our trust low, and the social fabric non-existent. Even immigrants ought to feel short-changed: this isn’t good for them, either.

Another lie we’re forced to swallow is the sanctity of democracy. No form of government, especially this one, is sacrosanct. The Regime will attack just about everything about our country except for its democracy. Yes, Donald Trump went too far in challenging the results of the 2020 election. But if we can’t question our system of government, even at the risk of sounding anti-democratic and anti-liberal, is it really a democracy? And if democracy has limits, maybe not everyone should be allowed to vote?

I think most Americans prefer the illusion of choice over the responsibility of governance. In other words, we prefer thinking we control our government while actually having no control over any of it versus knowing we have no control over it and living in accordance with that reality. A sure sign of decadence is our inability to confront very obvious truths about our existence. None of us truly believe we control the government, but since to confront that truth would be terrifying, we’ve come to a sort of Faustian bargain where we get to vote so we don’t need to.

A few weeks ago, it was pointed out that the United States is a “flawed democracy:”

Source

It drew consternation from many in response. I don’t take these ratings as the gospel truth and anyone who thinks there isn’t an agenda behind it is a fool, but is it a false claim? If you ask me, a flawed democracy is exactly what America is. A democracy doesn’t mean the people get exactly what they want, but it does mean they do have a say and the final outcome is, ultimately, determined not by fiat, but by a process that takes into account popular will.

Then again, like someone once said, if our votes really mattered, they wouldn’t let us vote. Writing in City Journal, Jacob Siegel explains the extent to which American democracy is managed:

The assumption that voting in national elections is a neutral process that belongs to neither major party but allows American citizens to choose freely between them is, at this point, inaccurate. Americans casting their votes in November will do so within the guardrails of an increasingly managed democracy, designed to grant party elites control over its outcomes. This does not mean that the election’s results are already determined, or that individuals should not vote. No one knows what will happen; even a “managed” election could still come down to narrow margins in a few states. Much space remains between what the elites want and what they can accomplish.

And:

What has changed in America that brought us here? For most of the past century, the country was governed through a system of distributed rule wielded by local parties, individual voters, civic institutions, independent power centers such as the press, and competing regional elites. Over the past two decades, this system has been replaced by one that is highly centralized and dominated by a party of concentrated wealth, state-corporate collusion, and progressive monoculture. Recognizing the long-term trends in digital technology and economic globalization, President Barack Obama and other progressive leaders built a new kind of vertically integrated, national political organization. The key was unifying America’s professional-managerial class and federal bureaucracies with its progressive billionaires, especially those in Silicon Valley, in the mutually supportive structure of a party-state.

Siegel offers a multitude of examples to support his thesis. If after all that, you still think we’re doing it right, well, there’s nothing I else I can say to convince you otherwise. I wish you well.

The economy is also something of a lie. Lyn Alden, my go-to financial analyst, explains why there’s such a disparity between the statistical performance of the economy and what millions of Americans seem to be experiencing:

Source

Historically, the disparity between the economic prospects of property owners versus non-property owners, when it gets bad enough, is a pre-revolutionary indicator. But we don’t need to get into that right now.

Finally, there’s the lie we’re forced to swallow about gender relations. There’s the absurd idea that men can become women and vice-versa; transgenderism may be a real phenomenon, but it doesn’t mean it’s the same as being biologically male and female. It’s one thing to acknowledge the existence of transgenderism, it’s another to re-fashion our society to accommodate their version of reality.

Worst of all is how we’ve been made to think a society can thrive based off competition between male and female. There are few beliefs which have proven quite as damaging as that. Male-female competition has never worked before because it’s biologically impossible: males will always prevail over females due to disparity in aggression and strength. The only option is cooperation, but you’re never going to escape biology. No amount of laws and political force will change it. Gender isn’t a social construct; it’s scientific reality.

This isn’t a call to abuse women or to make them subservient; anyone who thinks it comes down to a choice between utopian feminism or The Handmaid’s Tale isn’t a serious person. But gender relations must be reality-based. Our existing social order is attempting to deny reality through government power. Whatever benefits women derive from it is coming at the cost to society as a whole.

It’s tough to find a silver lining. Perhaps things really aren’t that bad, and I don’t think they are, but you can’t give “our democracy” any credit for it. In this moment in our history, it’s become a liability. Quality of life in America defined by its standard of living, not by its level of political freedom. When people are punished for speaking out against the program, when the state works this hard against the public interest, there’s no way to call our democracy a success.

I realize I’m coming dangerously close to endorsing a candidate, but you all ought to have a good idea by now which way I lean politically. I know we’ve been hearing our entire lives how every election is the most important of our lifetimes, but I genuinely believe it this time. Elections during Fourth Turnings take on a whole new level of significance. The 1932 election which brought Franklin D. Roosevelt to power occurred during the last Fourth Turning; I doubt anyone thinks it wasn’t one of the most important elections in our history. Same goes for the 1860 election during the Fourth Turning before that, which brought Abraham Lincoln to power.

I doubt 2024 is going to be the one that sets the country alight or decisively determines America’s future. It will, however, be the one where we either choose to continue living by the aforementioned lies or where we begin the slow, discomforting process of coming to grips with reality. You should also know by now which candidate represents which choice.

X account “Pine Baron” accurately explains what a Harris presidency amounts to:

Kamala isn’t going to turn America into the Soviet Union or Maoist China.

But she is going to turn it into England.

A place where you can’t own guns, it’s virtually impossible to start or run an innovative business and you will go to jail for jokes on Facebook.

A place where you can vote for populism - and win! - and get absolutely nothing that you voted for. A place where most of the population is getting poorer, but a few urban areas are ultra-wealthy playgrounds for Arab and Russian and Chinese money.

It’s a pale shadow of a formerly great global empire.

I don’t want to live in the shadow of greatness. I want to make America great again.

Will Tanner had an informative thread about how a Harris presidency would lead to the further “South Africanization” of the U.S.:

Is becoming more like England what you desire for America? Then by all means, vote for Harris. Just don’t pretend like it was reasonable to expect anything else.

As for a Trump presidency? It’s harder to say because governance isn’t really his thing. Trump has always represented a range of ideas, rather than any well-defined ideology. What I do know for a fact is that the Left and the Regime will make governance impossible. Even if he manages to take office, there’s a chance he may not even make it through his term. You can come up with any number of reasons why that might end up being the case.

Anyway, I’m shouting into the wind at this point. I’ll leave you with something our Founding Father George Washington, our Irreplaceable One, said when he left office. Consider this my last-ditch attempt to appeal to anyone for whom being an American means anything more than just a hustle, an opportunity for a slice of the biggest pie ever to exist:

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together; the Independence and Liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels, and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.

“You Vote For Who You Believe In.”

Every Election Day, I’m reminded of this wholesome moment from August 19, 1972. It aired on The Midnight Special, a music show that was televised on NBC starting the same year to 1981. It’s a duet between John Denver and Cass Elliot of The Mamas & the Papas, a wonderful performance in its own right. But the reason I’m posting it here is that this took place leading up to that year’s presidential election; listen to what Elliot has to say about it before they begin singing:

In case you didn’t watch, Elliott had been explaining to Denver that she’d been encouraging people across the country to register to vote. One of the most interesting points she makes is that there existed, in her words, a tremendous amount of apathy. Remember: this is 1972, still very much in the shadow of the 1960s, the Civil Rights Era, and the U.S. was still engaged in Vietnam. You’d think everyone was politically engaged, but it turns out that wasn’t the case at all.

Here’s the most important message Elliot sends:

I don’t think it’s so important who you vote for; you vote for who you believe in. But the important thing is to vote, because it’s our way; it’s the best way. It’s why I’m here and it’s why you’re here, too.

President Richard Nixon won the election by a landslide; like most entertainers, even 50 years ago, I doubt Cass Elliot voted for him. Still, she told everyone to vote for who they believed in. What a contrast from today, where celebrities all but tell us to vote for Democrats up and down the ballot. It says a lot about who we were and the way we were as a country back then. Perhaps we were were fools, but if we were to stay together and be a nation (save your lectures about how we never were for another time), we had to believe in us, just like any relationship.

Do we still believe in us? Do I still believe in us? I don’t know. Judging from everything I wrote in this space the last three years, I’d conclude that I don’t, not anymore. It pains me to say that. Being an American to me as important as being a brother and a son. But reality-denial is something I don’t partake in, as you know. If I see that it’s failing, I’m not going to pretend everything’s alright and it’ll all return to normal. It doesn’t work like that.

Once upon a time, though, we did believe in us. That’s why I shared that video of Cass Elliot and John Denver. Today, you’d never see entertainers, those who represent our culture, speak as they did. They spoke as they did because they were proud to be Americans and they believed in us. That’s what it takes to be a nation: a belief that an “us” exists and that we can overcome everything life throws at us. How many of us really believe that today?

It’s our way; it’s the best way. We didn’t deserve them. We didn’t deserve this country. It all just might be taken away from us. Maybe that’s what we deserve. We were given this country, but we never earned it.

Maybe that’s also what we need: to earn it, as our fore-bearers did. We may end up not having a choice in that regard.

She Was Out Of Our League

I don’t know what lies ahead. None of us do. Maybe I’ve been too dramatic all this time. What I do know is that in times of uncertainty, being upfront is the most important thing. So before it’s too late, before I never have a chance to say so, I want to tell America and everyone who allowed us, if only for a short while, to enjoy life to its fullest potential:

You were out of our league You were more than just a dream.

What are your thoughts? Is this the “Most Important Election Ever,” for real this time? What do you think is at stake? What do you think will be the consequences, short- and long-term, of this election?

Talk about in the comments section.

Max Remington writes about armed conflict and prepping. Follow him on Twitter at @AgentMax90.

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