November 24, 2017

MY CORNER by Boyd Cathey

What Thanksgiving Really Means for Our Country in 2017

Friends,

In the euphoria that accompanied the election of Donald J. Trump last November 8, many of us felt that a tremendous curse had been, at least partially, lifted from this nation. We—we deplorables—had been in some way granted a miraculous respite, some breathing room, one more opportunity to roll back at least some of the more noxious effects of the Deep State, which had seemed before that date to be irreversible. The election of Hillary Clinton had been confidently predicted by the entirety of the media, by nearly all “informed” pundits (including such Bush-era luminaries as Karl Rove), by almost every poll; even the day of the election we beheld the specter of various “serious,” furrow-browed political experts speculating in measured tones on what the impending and overwhelming defeat of candidate Trump would mean to the Republican Party and how quickly the GOP establishment would regain its former control.

We know what happened.

But ominously, since President Trump’s inauguration this past January 20, we have witnessed not only the refusal of the establishment Deep State to recognize the results of the election, but a frantic, frenzied and all-out multifaceted attempt to essentially nullify those results and unseat him, using most prominently the “Russians Did It!” canard. In addition to hysterical and unhinged opposition to President Trump and his agenda from the Leftist political establishment—from the totality of the Democratic Party, from the educational elites, from Hollywood, and from the media, the president has also been met with similar, if more sinister and cunning and usually less public, opposition and obstruction from the leadership of much of the Republican Party, most especially centered in the US Senate and amongst the elites of the so-called “(neo) conservative movement.”

The recent  “explosive” and not-so-veiled attacks by former President George W. Bush and Senators Jeff Flake and Bob Corker, the undying enmity and continual sabotage by Senator John McCain, the various underhanded attempts by Senator Mitch McConnell to thwart the election of a true “drain the swamps” traditional conservative in Alabama, plus the incessant daily attacks by such pseudo-“conservative” journals as The Weekly Standard (e.g., Steve Hayes) and National Review (which despite their nominal “support” have never been reconciled to a Trump presidency…at least not one in which they did not dictate policy), fully illustrate this mind set. And what is ironic—and of significant value to observant conservative grass roots voters—is that the election of Donald Trump literally forced these supposed “conservatives” out of the closet, revealing for all to see that their first allegiance is bound up with their subservience to the very same Deep State managerial establishment that manipulates the Left.  It is there where their bread is buttered, where the goodies and sinecures come from…and despite their dishonest protests that they represent us and defend us against the “ravages of the far Left,” they are essentially collaborationists and enablers. Or, as the old saw goes, “With friends like these, who needs enemies?”

So that battle rages on both the national and state level. And thus we behold the spectacle of approximately forty Republican US senators announcing that before any allegation or accusation is verified or proven, that Alabama senatorial candidate Judge Roy Moore “must step aside,” “that the women must be believed.” It’s what I’ve called the “Mitt Romney Rule,” and if fully applied it would mean that any time, any place when a woman makes an (unproven) charge against a traditional (non-Establishment) conservative, the woman must be immediately believed, no matter that no evidence has been adduced. In effect it states: “If you are a traditional conservative and are accused, you are automatically guilty, no proof or corroboration required.”

Can you imagine this scenario if Luther Strange had won the GOP senatorial campaign, and such accusations of similar supposed happenings forty years ago had all of a sudden surfaced five weeks before the general election? Mitch McConnell and John McCain and Mitt Romney would have undoubtedly run lickety-split to his defense, demanding that unimpeachable proof be provided before any judgment could be made.

The Inside-the-Washington-Beltway Republicans and Potomac River punditry appear smugly confident that their posturing and solemnly condescending pronouncements about Alabama—and about those, you know, “rednecky” Alabama voters—are infallible and will be heeded by those fly-over country folks. Apparently, those politicians and “informed opinion makers” (and their polls) continue to believe the rest of us to be rubes who must continue to absorb dictation dribbled out in pontificated doses by their outlets and spokesmen.

I don’t think so. My belief is that what has occurred since the election of Donald Trump has in large part removed the scales from the eyes of many of us. As never before, we see revealed in the faces and praxis of those elites all the fetid ugliness and prostituted and naked corruption that they have attempted to obscure for decades. That does not mean we shall “kick the bums out” right away, not at all. Indeed, one year after the election of President Trump they continue to control most of the means of communication and the “conservative media” (with a few notable and salutary exceptions), and they still dominate much of the national Republican Party. The impending departure of Senators Flake and Corker from the Senate and the possible election on December 12 of Roy Moore may just be a harbinger of a much more generalized and ruthless intraparty “civil war.” And that, if it occurs, would be a good thing, something long overdue.

Last night, as I have done for a number of past Thanksgivings, I shared the celebration with the extended family of a dear friend. He lives about five miles from me just over the county line in Johnston County. I would say he is representative of all the good solid citizens who have, over the years, made America a success and an admirable place in which to live and raise a family. Like millions of other North Carolinians he is active in his church, he has been a wonderful father and now grandfather, he is a loving and considerate husband, and he has worked hard and successfully for his entire life. He is conscious of the many graces that have been granted to him.

Folks like my friend once were a large majority of America’s citizens. And like most of those folks, he supported and voted for Donald Trump.  And so did the entirety of his family.

One of the customary practices for that family on Thanksgiving is for everyone to offer individual thanks for something specific that has meant a lot to them during the past year. As the “thankful” paper strips were being read out, I noticed that many of them, most of them, after expressing their thanks for “God, country, family, and our military,” also mentioned: “for the election of Donald Trump.”  And in talking to a number of the folks, it was clear that they understood far better than the Beltway pundits and GOP elites in Washington what had happened since this past November—and indeed what should and must happen if this nation is to be made “great again.”

None of them seemed to underestimate the difficulties, and, certainly, none of them possesses the kind of wealth or the type of bully pulpit that normally are required to make their voices and influence immediately heard. But there was a firm conviction that reflected a faith that reminded me of what America, in its best days, had meant and symbolized. I have not seen that kind of determination since the heady days of the first Reagan administration, and even then, the times and environment were quite different and the “national crisis,” less severe.

I only wish that their numbers were much greater.

So, my hope and prayer is that the glimmer of light, that door cracked open last November, that nearly miraculous reprieve granted to us and to this country, may offer for us a path, if difficult and painful, in the direction of recovery and restoration. I do not underestimate the extreme hazards and the immensity of the forces arrayed against us—we have no divine promise that the American “experiment” will survive. The odds are heavily one-sided. But armed with our faith, and our assurance and Hope, and the knowledge that our fight is right, we go forth to do our duty.

For if not, we recede into the unlamented memory hole of a “once great people of a once great civilization.” That is not the kind of future my friend and his family—and millions of other fellow citizens—wish for their grandchildren