A tipping, or tripping, point?

In one week from today America will go to the polls and the result will have enormous effects.  It will be one of those moments which future historians will turn back to time and time again in an effort to find out what went right or what went wrong.  The Democrats find themselves in much the same position as Adm. Jellicoe at Jutland, it is not absolutely essential that they win, it is only crucial that they do not lose.  Their chances of an outright win are remote but a 'score draw' will do if it saves their president's face and provides him with enough leverage in the Congress to insist that Republicans compromise and respect the decision of the people.  This will be as good as a win for the Marxist ideologues who infest the White House and the upper reaches of the Democrat party and the media.  It will give them a further two years to consolidate the immense gains they have made so far.  The Republicans, with their 'pledge to the people', seem determined to undo much of what Obama has created but given the American system of government that is going to be tremendously difficult, if not impossible in the face of presidential vetoes.  Only an outright win of both Houses will give them enough power to at least attempt to coerce parts of a demoralised Democrat party and perhaps, just perhaps, a lonely president into line.

Perhaps all of this sounds just like business as usual in Washington but I do not recall anything even approaching the momentous nature of the decision the American people are going to take next Tuesday.  To me, from 'over here', the sight and sound of the USA turning into, at best, some sort of Scandinavian welfare state, or at worst, into a monstrous replica of Chavez's Venezuela, is utterly incredible and frightening.  According to David Deming in The American Thinker, what happens next Tuesday is irrelevant because it's all over for America whatever the result.  In a deeply pessimistic essay he warns that even a Republican victory will be too late:

I'm beginning to acquire an appreciation for Paul's doctrine of Original Sin. The nation that began with freedom of religion has progressed to freedom from religion, freedom from moral constraint, and freedom from responsibility. Just as Plato described in the Republic, the "horses and asses" are "marching along with all the rights and dignities of freemen," and the ultimate result can be only that "tyranny will spring from democracy."

Elections matter only in the short term. Every long-term social index I am aware of is negative. The plain fact is that the American people are too morally degenerate to be capable of effective self-government. The Roman satirist Juvenal understood. "The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things -- bread and games!" I can find no reason to be optimistic. It is only our blind vanity that lets us pretend that the United States can endure forever. Rome fell, and so will America. For all intents and purposes, it is already over.

It is an excellent essay and strongly, almost bitterly, argued but I don't quite believe it, probably because I don't want to believe it.  I still hope and believe that the American people will awake and seize back their old ideals of exceptionalism, of States' Rights, small Federal government, low taxes, individualism and de-regulated capitalism.  If I'm wrong then my only contentment will come from the knowledge that I, personally, will not live too long into this coming century because with a feeble America it will become a highly dangerous time for everyone.

Comments

[JK]

Lest we forget:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=5879591&page=1

[JK]

You'll like this - we've elections/campaigns in Arkansas too.

http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2010/10/25/divorce-case-touches-supreme-court-race

[dearieme]

Democraps, Republicanned, does it matter?

[JK]

Nope.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/5-Campaign-Fibs-About-the-usnews-2615553179.html?x=0

[JK]

Well DM, at least the Kentucky Republicans provide more entertainment at their rallies:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhjg2W7vlMc

[David Duff]

"Democraps, Republicanned, does it matter?"

This time I think it does, DM. I grant you that the old-style, lazy, sleazy Republicans will still wish to wallow like hogs in the Washington trough but hopefully the voters will make clear their support for the radical new, er, 'knights in shining armour'. Mind you, as I have indicated before, I'm not too sure how long it will be before the rust sets in their armour - in the long run Washington wins!

[David Duff]

Sorry, I forgot, JK, thanks for the links.

[JK]

"Democraps, Republicanned, does it matter?"

Actually David, this time I think there maybe something to it:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_exclusive/20101025/pl_yblog_exclusive/poll-whats-wrong-with-washington-its-the-people-in-charge-not-the-system

There's something else too - though this is so far anecdotal, we'll have to wait for the actual returns to be counted - America's third party (Third Party! America has something apart from the free-spending Democrats and Republicans? Well yes actually, there is the so-called Green Party (I say "so-called" only because here in Arkansas the Greens normally have to petition the entrenched Parties for ballot access) but anyway, it appears the Greens here at least, will be getting the 12,000 votes that it takes to automatically stay on the ballot.

And candidly, JK admits to pushing the Green button himself for not only his House of Representatives candidate, but for Governor of Arkansas too. As well as for six other State candidates.

Admittedly there was a "side reason." Four of the Greens have finer legs than Sarah Palin and the remainder have something resembling a brain.

[David Duff]

If you've found a Green with brains, JK, register it, it could have rarity value!

[JK]

I only said "it resembled a brain." This electoral year I have actually thought it important enough I should probably make the effort to vote. So, I took the time from my "busy schedule" to watch the debates.

While it was kind of fun to listen to the traditionals slinging verbal dog poop toward each other, whenever a moderator asked a substantive question, only the Green was able to muster a reply that didn't include some variation of "My opponent is an effing idiot."

And besides, our version of Greens don't seem to resemble the sorts of Greens I see on TV from your side of the pond. You did read I implied their answers seemed to be coherent?