New Years Musings

Starting with some Trump dumping

It technically is still 2023 (I’m starting this on Saturday 30 December), but we’re close enough for me to project these musings forward to Monday morning 1 January. There is a real duality in my life right now, one in which I am personally very happy and content, living a life of important work and good friends alongside a wonderful woman. Yet the broader world causes me a greater level of anxiety than at any other time in my life. Don’t be worried for me—I’m still quite selfish and oblivious. But to the extent that the short hairs on the back of my neck are capable of rising, they are standing straight up.

Trump

There. I said it. The main cause of the anxiety and trepidation I feel as the year unfolds is this most execrable of human beings, our former President. Others will read this and say “Bryan, you’re too wrapped up in politics. Lighten up. Drive some meals to the infirm” or some other such. I wish I could. I wish I could ignore the growing evil that he represents, the darkness that animates his candidacy and his most fervent supporters. But I can’t. I come by this fear honestly, seeing this man as a national security threat in the Fall of 2015 when I wrote an essay laying out my thoughts only to have wizened grandees tell me not to worry, he had no chance of winning the nomination. I did not go forward with that essay, but it did become the basis for this (in retrospect, tame) statement of non-support by the right of center national security community.

Donald Trump is an obvious and continuing threat to the national security of the United States. Two holiday conversations serve as exemplars, and I strain to protect the identities of my interlocuters through extensive use of the passive voice.

In the first, a person who voted for Trump twice told me that they would “never vote for him again.” His many personal faults were recounted as justification for the decision, and I was pleasantly surprised by this person’s evolution. But at one point, the fact that friends (of theirs) are saying things like “I think he’s a pig and disgusting, but he did some things right so I will vote for him” came up. I asked for examples of what he had done right, and (as I’ve heard countless other times) “the economy” was pointed to. My friend expressed real sympathy for those holding this view. “But he tried to overthrow the government” I said, intimating that maybe whatever the perceived economic benefits, they were not worth another four years of a man so decidedly dangerous to the republic. My interlocutor downplayed the events of January 6th, questioning whether he had really done anything illegal. I was struck at this moment. Of course it was important to hear that this person would not vote for him again. Where I was flummoxed was the reason. It seemed that the entire case was built around personal revulsion about the man, things that were obvious for all to see from the day he took that fateful escalator trip in 2015. These things had finally worn down resolve it seems. But when I pointed to the very obvious fact that he summoned, instructed, incited, and directed an angry mob to Washington DC on the ONLY DAY POSSIBLE to have an impact on overturning the election—this MOST egregious of unconstitutional acts—was minimized. When intelligent and involved people do not recognize real threats to our nation, I become concerned. Care for another?

I was talking with some people I know, implacable foes of Donald Trump. Several are also very liberal, infused with the righteous fist of social justice, people who ordinarily would come down on the side of excruciating due process rights of those accused of crimes, citing (among other things) their perception that often times, law enforcement is “the problem”. We were discussing the novel approach to denying Trump a place on the ballot in 2024 derived of the Fourteenth Amendment’s post-Civil War proscription of those who had engaged in rebellion. I think there are good arguments on both sides of this issue, but I come down on the side of there having to be some duly constituted process that actually determines guilt of insurrection and rebellion, before the Fourteenth Amendment trigger can be pulled. Again—my interlocutor's would BEND OVER BACKWARDS ordinarily to support the rights of the accused. In this case? “What more do we need? We all saw it. He’s guilty.” Friends—just as the notion that what happened on January 6th did not amount to a threat to the Republic (or that Trump’s actions did not rise to the level of being charged with crimes) constituted a threat to our national security, the notion that Trump has no legal rights, that the court of public opinion is sufficient—is also a threat to our national security. The bottom line is that our national security CAN BE THREATENED FROM WITHIN, and I see those threats emanating from both sides of the electorate.

Just Gimme That Old Time Religion

I am nearly finished reading Paul Johnson’s magisterial history of the 20th Century “Modern Times: The World from the Twenties to the Nineties”. It has proven worth every ounce of the praise it has received. I want to use an extended quote from the book to introduce an idea:

What is important in history is not only the events that occur but the events that obstinately do not occur. The outstanding event of modern times waw the failure of religious belief to disappear. For many millions, especially in the advanced nations, religion ceased to play much or any part in their lives, and the ways in which the vacuum thus lost was filled, by fascism, Nazism and Communism, by attempts at humanist utopianism, by eugenics or health politics, by the ideologies of sexual liberation, race politics and environmental politics, form much of the substance of the history of our century.

Here, Johnson uses this paragraph to set up his difficult to dispute holding that in the 1990’s, for the majority of the human race—religion continued to be an important part of their lives. What I find even more interesting is the degree to which he diagnoses the pathology of advanced nations, and the United States chief among them, stemming from the “vacuum” thus lost. In that century, fascism, Nazism, and Communism attempted to varying degrees to fill the hole in the soul. Toward the end of the century, health politics, sexual liberation, race politics, and environmental politics began their rise. Now—23 years deep into the 21st century—it seems clear to me that these worldly passions are more dominant than thirty years ago when Johnson was writing.

It is hard not to recognize the tenets of religious fundamentalism in the modern climate change movement, and the social justice and DEI movements, served up without the religion itself, without recourse to first things of a divine nature. These types of movements have been with us for a long time, giving those for whom traditional religion asks too much something to nourish their God-given souls, however imperfectly.

What troubles me even more than these worldly substitutes has been the failure of 21st Century mainstream, American, monotheistic religion to live up to its own responsibilities. Evil—real, persistent, and impactful—is on the march, and while the worldly substitutes above are utterly incapable of dealing with it, religious faith has always been the best counter. Donald Trump’s popularity is the product of the darkness that exists in ALL human hearts being effectively networked and amplified. He has succeeded in not only networking that darkness, but in doing so, convincing people that it what they are feeling isn’t dark at all. How can it be, when so many of my friends and neighbors share these feelings? American religious faith SHOULD be the most effective counter to this network of darkness and hatred, but it isn’t. In fact, for a goodly number of professed American faithful, Donald Trump is the realization of their faith, the “imperfect instrument” of God’s will.

Bullshit. Human weakness, hatred, and despair are at the heart of Trump’s appeal, and gussying it up with references to King David isn’t going to change that. No, I think we’re going to need some kind of a modern “Great Awakening” to put this darkness behind us. I’m not sure what form it can or will take, but it occurs to me that it will start with these words:

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. “This is the first and great commandment. “And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matthew 22:37–39).

Gentle readers, I am no religious fundamentalist, no “born again Christian”. I have a deep and abiding—largely personal faith, and I have felt the hand of God in my own life. But I am worried for the country and its people, and I pray for God’s blessing on this very troubled land in 2024.

2023 Was a Year of Reading

Let’s face it folks, this little ditty of a Substack is small beer next to some of the really great writing that this site features, and my life is being improved by exposure to a ton of new content. Thank you to everyone who pledged money to me on this site on the off-chance that I ever try to monetize it. I’ve got just enough of a culturally-appropriated Protestant work ethic to realize that charging for this drivel would obligate me to improve it and produce it with more regularity. So it will remain free, and I will remain grateful to anyone who thinks enough of it to pledge.

I want to bring to your attention yet another outlet for reading, but this one is aimed at those of us who long for the feel of newsprint in our hands. The product is County Highway, which bills itself as “A magazine about America in the form of a 19th Century newspaper”. I saw some people talking about it on Twitter, and because I respect them and their opinions, I subscribed, receiving my first issue about a week ago. Produced in the form of a 20-page broadsheet newspaper, County Highway is utterly delicious reading, although my aging eyes longed for a tad bigger print size. I sat under a muted light in my kitchen next to the fire and read it in one (extended) sitting, amused and better educated as a result. It publishes six times a year and I am already looking forward to my next issue. In the most recent, I learned of the wonders of dandelion root extract, and I ordered up a little bottle for daily injection into the first cup of coffee of the day.

Although I received a few hard copy books as Christmas presents, my reading continues this year primarily on the Kindle app. I am reading three books right now without having to lug them around with me and without burdening my heirs with their disposal. I quoted one of them above, the Paul Johnson work. Having lived through some of the period treated in Johnson’s book (essentially end of WWI to end of Cold War), reliving events I was only somewhat aware of as a youngster at a deeper level has been a great joy.

I’m also reading Jane Austen’s “Emma”, or re-reading it to be precise. In fact, I’m making my way through all of Austen’s novels, which is another great delight. The third book is one I’m only nibbling at right now, as I want to get these other two out of the way before I focus on it exclusively. It’s a forensic examination of George W. Bush’s road to war after 9-11.

Resolutions

In the ancient history Conservative Wahoo blog, I used to do annual resolutions and predictions, neither of which seemed consistently to bear fruit. Undaunted, I will try again. Here are a few resolutions:

• To be a better listener. I need to try and keep a clear mind when in conversation, so that I can respectfully process what others are saying, rather than what generally happens now, which is me thinking up my next pithy statement and longing for a chance to interject it.

• To be less passionate. There is little in my life that could not be improved by a more passive and uninterested mien.

• To be more healthy. Try as I may, I have been unable to identify any subgroup of humans gifted with long lives who eat the flesh of pastoral quadrupeds with the frequency that I do. I also need to put my helmet on and get into the “hey, my father and two older brothers have had heart issues, how’s mine doing?” game.

Predictions

• The University of Virginia Men’s Basketball Team will not make the NCAA Tournament.

• Donald Trump will be the first convicted felon elected President.

• China will not invade Taiwan.

• The War in Ukraine will not be over by 12/31/2024, but its end will be in sight.

• The War in Israel—at least the one we are focused on today—will be over.

• There will not be a great religious revival in the United States, my summoning of one notwithstanding.

• On 12/31/2024 the Dow Jones Industrial Average will be over 40,000.

• LeBron James will retire.

• The Cleveland Browns will win the Super Bowl.

Happy New Year, all.