Friday, February 7, 2025

By Providence and Resolute Courage

Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.” -William F. Buckley

With the re-election of President Donald Trump to a second, non-consecutive presidential term, Democrats have demonstrated an increased disconnect from the reality of the situation. Only a few weeks removed from the inauguration of President Trump and Vice-President J.D. Vance - whose ascent to that office should be celebrated in its own right instead of slandered - it already has reached a fever pitch. The reality is that American voters resoundingly balked at continuing the extremist liberal agenda of the Biden administration under Kamala Harris - no doubt yet another potential extension of former President Barack Obama's administration - and which currently is in the process of being dismantled. The disconnect is a failure not only to accept this circumstance but also to comprehend why this is happening. Democrats seem to have the misguided delusion that the Trump administration - in tandem with a full Republican majority in Congress and a right-leaning Supreme Court - would keep intact and maintain the former's calamitous and destructive leftist policies, rather than swing the pendulum back under a conservative agenda for which it has been duly elected into office to implement.

Democrats as a political party have to reconcile that their ideology and worldview has been stymied by an electorate that rejected it. For the soul of the nation to heal from the wounds inflicted by those disastrous policies, it is beyond time for them to take their medicine. Sensitive to the devastation and loss caused by the latest California wildfires, they nonetheless are a prime example of leftist policies literally going up in smoke. While the situation is indeed man-made, it easily could have been avoided decades ago with proper standards of forest management and water collection that radical environmentalists and their monied politicos lobbied against. Like the nation as a whole, Californians hopefully will realize that it is the failure of their elected officials to enact those necessary climate-related policies - rather than defaulting to the usual boogeyman “climate change” hoax - and cast them out of office. Calls by Democrats to be included in the conversation about pertinent issues, many of their own making, is enlightening if not hypocritical; having had years to address these matters, they suddenly feign interest to undoubtedly hinder the effort.

Most people dislike having their worldview challenged, and politicians especially fear losing influence and power, so anyone attempting to is dismissed as either unhinged or unqualified. Of course, it is extremely difficult to even penetrate let alone expunge the brainwash after years of manipulation and propaganda. This is acutely evident as concerns Trump’s cabinet nominees, who have faced an onslaught of melodramatic hyperventilating from the bureaucratic swamp and underlying deep state that is terrified of full exposure and accountability. The reeking hypocrisy alone is insufferable. Moreover, Democrats clearly learned nothing from their election losses and even less its significance given their self-moralizing behavior and lack of introspection. This is highlighted by their recent leadership selections, the newest crop of laughable officeholders nauseatingly recycling and poised to double down on issues and policies that previously alienated voters and failed at the ballot box. More things change the more they stay the same - or, at least, that is how Washington operated before lawfare and assassination attempts. Now, Trump is determined to reverse the chaos propagated by the Biden administration.

Author and humorist E. B. White once wrote, “Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half the time.” (The New Yorker, July 3, 1944) In that vein, Republicans have to continue the momentum and govern on campaign promises made during the election - a notion that oftentimes has evaded them once in the leadership role. Conservative by nature, they must stay on offense rather than default to their usual entrenched defensive posture to buttress the unrelenting efforts by out-of-touch Democrats to wrest back control. Fortunately, the unburdening already has commenced away from the continued decline that could have been under even more catastrophic leftist policies and toward the prosperity that can be over the ensuing years. Time is ripe not to squander this generational opportunity to harness and usher in a renewed American exceptionalism as a beacon of hope that will benefit the cause not only of the United States but also all mankind.

©2025 Steve Sagarra

Friday, December 29, 2023

'Tis (Not) Season For Grinchy Humbugs

Several years ago, I decided to no longer own an automobile as it seemed ridiculous to pay for and maintain something only sporadically used. As such, I mainly walk or ride the bus, occasionally renting a vehicle or using a ride-sharing service when necessary. Of course, this assuredly will change and I will rejoin the great American car culture in the near future. Riding the bus, I have observed that typically everyone keeps to themselves and desires to be left alone - a sentiment I fully embrace and understand - with their faces buried either in their phone, tablet or other gadget. To my point - and this equally pertains to social media as well - although we are all connected in our modern lives, are we really communicating with each other? It is not baseless to believe that this undoubtedly is a contributing factor to society's current ills, to say the least.

Oftentimes, my general aversion of people and overall disdain for humanity is misconstrued as an outright, if not perchance irrational, loathing of both. However, it is quite to the contrary - for the most part. This attitude stems mainly from the study of history and the harrowing atrocities of which individuals and groups alike have been capable of throughout it - and that their contemporary equivalents continue to perpetuate, frustrating any potential wasted by such actions. Having landed on the Moon in 1969, there measurably should be a permanent colony on it by now - if not beyond on the outer reaches of our solar system - to further explore the fundamentals of existence. Instead, humanity continues to devise ways to annihilate itself from existence on this singular body we zealously remind ourselves as our only home.

Like countless others of a certain age, I grew up watching Bob Barker and The Price Is Right - especially on those glorious mornings home “sick” from school. During that one hour of the day, you cheer on and root for strangers to win. This is partly the reason I still tune in:  the  hope that it inspires. Hope not only for individual contestants but for humanity as a whole to succeed. Mr. Barker's genial and considerate demeanor exuded a lot of this optimistic sentiment, passionate in his encouragement toward everyone appearing on the game show; Drew Carey, of course, continues the custom in his own animated and kind way. Imagine if that message would extend past that hour, though, and engulf the world, desperately in need of it, beyond a television screen? One can dream, as many have before.

Merry Christmas and, hopefully, a Happy New Year. To, and especially for, all mankind.

©2023 Steve Sagarra

Friday, August 11, 2023

Truth Lost in Divisive Acrimony

Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” -Friedrich Nietzsche

Society has become a discordant cult of petulant grievance mongers. Deviancy is normalized and sanctioned, while normalcy is considered deviant. Lawful citizens are relegated and superseded for illegal immigrants, unrepentant criminal offenders prioritized over helpless victims. Compliance to this status quo is unconditionally mandatory, any dissent perceived as specious heresy by an aggrieved class that perpetuates the endless cycle through lies and manipulation. The situation is maddening to the point of insanity in a progressively self-inflicted, if not deliberate, cultural suicide.

Those in power, even the most benevolently intended, always have ruled by feeding off anxiety and fear - especially those who tout doing so in order to preserve and save a way of life. Whether either from benign or catastrophic forces, circumstances often will present the scenario ripe for exploitation by duplicitous individuals and groups to whom it can, and will, opportunely benefit. All of these efforts supposedly are meant not only to rescue civilization from itself, but most especially from ourselves. This faction are the alarmist mongers, whose main purpose is to incite and exhort the aforementioned grievance mongers and other blocs.

A culpable mainstream media that is not objective in its reporting serves only to exasperate the problem. Self-serving “journalists,” i.e. propaganda mongers, conspicuously regurgitate narratives that supposedly corroborate questionable news stories rather than investigate them to their impartial conclusion. These are the new mythmakers. Ancient civilizations created mythologies to describe and understand the world in which they were born; maybe those myths were true, maybe they were only stories told with no basis. Either way, they created the necessary effect in their own time: power over and control of the masses coerced to believe in them by those who interpreted and relayed their meaning.

One might predict, if not hope, there exists a sensible majority of voters who have grown weary of this frustrating state of affairs. The question being is this in itself simply based on contending grievances, fears or propaganda? Or is it legitimately a disquieting actuality brought about by the combined three? As T.S. Eliot noted, though, “humankind cannot bear very much reality.” While curiosity may well be fatal to inquisitive felines, apathy regarding the grander scheme behind both domestic and world events nevertheless is, and will be, equally destructive. As such, humanity must restore truthfulness in spite of its more acrimonious inclinations.

©2023 Steve Sagarra