Sunday, January 31, 2016

O God, I Give Thee Thanks that I Am Not as the Rest of Men...

Turtlenecks über alles

Many Americans have turned their brains off.

If you vote for Hillary Clinton or Chris Christie, that's rational and acceptable. If you vote for Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump, you're angry, have stopped thinking and are preparing the way for dictatorship.

Or so it is claimed.

Father emotes again:
Why Everybody Loves Bernie….and Donald 
January 27, 2016 by Fr. Dwight Longenecker 
All the innerleckshuls are consternated, frustrated, irritated, annoyed, befuddled, confused and amused by the popularity of the Donald and Bernie show. 
“Why are they so popular? What is the attraction? How can so many Americans be in love with an unrealistic, pie in the sky socialist on the one hand and a fake tan, fake teeth, fake hair, fake everything casino owning creep on the other?” 
The Republicans actually have an impressive line up of candidates. They aren’t angels, but they’ve got ideas, policies, experience, money, expertise, brains and energy. Even Hillary Billary Clinton comes to the game with experience, expertise and brains. She may be as corrupt as a cesspit, but she’s been around long enough to know how to turn on the lights and get a good team around her to run the country. 
But none of that counts because America has stopped thinking. David Frum makes a great case here about why that might be… 
"The angriest and most pessimistic people in America aren’t the hipster protesters who flitted in and out of Occupy Wall Street. They aren’t the hashtavists of #BlackLivesMatter. They aren’t the remnants of the American labor movement or the savvy young dreamers who confront politicians with their American accents and un-American legal status. 
"The angriest and most pessimistic people in America are the people we used to call Middle Americans. Middle-class and middle-aged; not rich and not poor; people who are irked when asked to press 1 for English, and who wonder how white male became an accusation rather than a description. 
"You can measure their pessimism in polls that ask about their expectations for their lives—and for those of their children. On both counts, whites without a college degree express the bleakest view. You can see the effects of their despair in the new statistics describing horrifying rates of suicide and substance-abuse fatality among this same group, in middle age. 
Why do conservative, Evangelical Christians think a thrice married, bankrupt Trump is great? Why are liberal young people (who are supposed to be suspicious of old white guys) flocking to Bernie Saunders? Because they’re not thinking, and they’ve turned they’re brains off not because they’re dumb. They’re not thinking because they’re mad. 
They’re mad at the corruption. They’re frustrated by the establishment same old same old. They’re fed up with the feds, angry with the immigrants, worried about war, tired of political correctness on the one hand and stupid bigotry on the other. 
They’re so mad that they’ll fall for anybody who offers them a quick fix. They believed the “hope and change” mantra of Obama and now they’ll believe the “I’ll Make America Great Again” bromide of Trump. 
This is true enough, but there is another sickness at the heart of America. 
Everything seems like chaos. We’re living through enormous cultural, technological and societal change and most Americans don’t have the roots to keep stable or a star to steer by. 
What I mean is that we do not have a shared creed and belief system. We do not have a shared ambition and aim, and without a vision the people perish. 
So what are the angry Americans really looking for? Let’s be honest. They’re looking for a savior. They’re looking for someone who will solve the problems and make things good for them again. 
They want someone who will make them happy. 
If I’m right, then the situation is even worse than the most pessimistic of the prophets, because when a people stop thinking and cry out emotionally and irrationally for a savior the society is ripe for a dictatorship. 
To put it bluntly, when people are ready to sell their soul for a savior…. 
….that’s exactly what they will do.

4 comments:

  1. Agree. The Catholic Church has the answer but somewhere along the way joined the opposition becoming part of the problem. Case in point: Pope Francis is Bernie Sanders in drag.

    The anger that drives folks towards Trump or Sanders is the same that drives orthodox Catholics dissatisfied with the Vatican II agenda and the leadership of the Church. Vatican II is all about MAN. Orthodox folks want GOD back.

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  2. I wish Fr. Longenecker hadn't been ordained.

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  3. He is always the consummate self-appointed Voice of Reason, it cracks me up.

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  4. They already did! We've been living (or dying) under that savior now for 7 years. 347 days to go.
    Now here we are with one candidate an avowed socialist and on the other side a capitalist. I'll go out on a limb here and say Trump will be on the right and if not Sanders...well Hillary is a socialist too. I'm for Trump- a free market capitalist with common sense who speaks plainly- if colorfully and has a enormous drive to get things done right. I live in NYC. I remember when Trump stepped up to do Wollman skating rink. City Council had been playing it with it for 6 years and was 12mil over budget. Trump finished it 2 months earlier than the 6 he promised and cost 1.95 mil which was also less than estimated. That says it all to me.

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