Even More Questions About the Way We Are Now
by Clyde N. Wilson
[Subscribe online to Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture. Click here for details].
If you were a patriotic “American” of Mideast origin, wouldn’t you willingly cooperate with “ethnic profiling” since it would help to save the lives of your “fellow” citizens?
Want to know how many traffic deaths in my State last year were caused by aliens, mostly drunk illegals? 807.
How many Americans are aware that Osama bin Laden is an Ivy League alumnus and a millionaire? Sort of like George W. Bush.
What do you do when there is no “lesser” among the evils?
Let’s see: We should vote for McCain because he just possibly might nominate “conservative” Supreme Court justices, who might just possibly be confirmed, and who might just possibly make “conservative” decisions? Will the Supreme Court help the country much during our wars with Iran, etc.?
Aren’t you just awestruck by the brilliant statesmanship of the Grand Old Party? What would America be without the two (or three) Bushes, Gerald Ford, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Jack Kemp, Newt Gingrich, David Souter, Anthony Kennedy, Dan Quayle, Bob Dole, Condi Rice, Rudy Giuliani, and, of course, that irrepressible beacon of all virtues, “Blackjack” Bill Bennett? We mustn’t forget Nelson Rockefeller, the only American so great and revered that he was placed within a heartbeat of the Presidency without even needing to run! And what would have become of us without U.S. Grant, John C. Fremont, Chester Arthur, James G. Blaine, Thaddeus Stephens, Benjamin Harrison, Warren G. Harding, Wendell Wilkie, Earl Warren and all those other great men? It does not bear thinking about.
Lots of people, especially the “religious right,” are upset because the federal judicial oligarchs have banished the Ten Commandments. They are irritated at the slight to Christianity and the Bible. But do they understand what is really at stake? I doubt if they know that disposing of the Commandments destroys the entire foundation of all law and justice and substitutes man-made “justice.” And that is its purpose.
Is the U.S. war-making in the Persian Gulf designed to guarantee the oil supply? Or designed to make sure that certain interests control the oil supply?
Will America ever recover from the 60s? Obama and McCain, in different ways, are both products of the 60s, the most deformed decade in U.S. history (except for the 1860s). So is Hillary. For that matter, so are Dubya and most of his co-conspirators.
Speaking as an old-fashioned, real strict constructionist, does Obama, son of a foreigner, meet the constitutional requirement that the President be a natural-born citizen? He will be the first President without deep American roots. Kennedy was fourth generation and even Reagan was third generation. Elevation of foreigners to high command is the sign of a regime well advanced into imperial decadence.
Did you know that at many institutions of “higher learning” each athlete now has his own personal graduate student assistant to run academic interference for him? My school recently proudly announced that most of its 14 athletic teams have B academic averages. Except football, basketball, and baseball.
And that, alas, is the way we are now. Pray that we may deserve mercy.
[Subscribe online to Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture. Click here for details].
1 Comment by Sir Charles Grandison on 2 July 2008:
Dr. Wilson: Which Ivy League university did bin Laden attend? I definitely was not aware of this. I know that his younger half brother Abdullah bin Laden graduated from Harvard Law in ‘93 and that the bin Laden Group (i.e., family) has given loads of money to Harvard.
But that Osama actually attended Harvard (or any other Ivy League school, or any American school for that matter, or that he has ever even actually been in the West, let alone America) is news to me. What’s your source for this?
2 Comment by Rob on 2 July 2008:
“Will America ever recover from the 60s?”
Dr. Wilson,
When did the University system begin to crack ? When did the Liberal Arts colleges abandon the defense of their traditions ? When did the quality of student begin to degenerate ? Was the GI Bill a great good for education ? Is there anything left anywhere that even remotely resembles a faculty ? Thank you for your thoughts and your always good posts.
3 Comment by John Zander on 2 July 2008:
A friend of mine wrote they’d done some “profiling” [apologized] and found Osama bin Laden. He’s currently a high school teacher in Crawfrog, it’s the town a couple miles over from the president’s small community of Crawford, TX. He said he interviewed the students and they seem to like their teacher Jon Landen who claims he’s a Baptist.
-?- i guess that’s progress… ?
I just thought it might be interesting in terms of your question Dr. W. : “How many Americans are aware that Osama bin Landen is an Ivy League alumnus and a millionaire? Sort of like George W. Bush.”
Finally when asked if he’s so rich why is he a school teacher in Crawfrog, Mr. Landen explained ‘well it is only temporary but i suppose i could spin it, i’m “giving Back,” isn’t that what rich americans like to say they do?!’
We almost arrested him my friend wrote, but Mr. Landen knew folks in very high places. … ‘you find out today,’ my friend added, ‘when you reach the top, you’re on the BOTTOM… too.’
I don’t know really – is that a good thing? It’s why I read chronicles…to try to find out?!
4 Comment by James Kabala on 2 July 2008:
“Sir Charles” is certainly correct; Bin Laden is not an Ivy Legue graduate, nor has he ever set foot on U.S. soil.
By the way, there seems to be some problem with Dr. Wilson’s posts, in that certain phrases automatically link to Amazon.com books that he might or might not approve.
5 Comment by Sebastian on 2 July 2008:
“Does Obama, son of a foreigner, meet the constitutional requirement that the President be a natural-born citizen?”
This is an interesting subject actually. My parents are not American-born, though part of my family is very old Southern American yet ended-up abroad, and I have always thought that I am, or should be considered, too foreign to attain certain government positions. This in no way imputes my patriotism, which is solid, but it does touch on softer cultural issues, like what stories someone hears before bed or what nursery songs one first heard, or the oral traditions in one’s home. People like me end in a Jamesian, trans-Atlantic world, which is fine and has many advantages – but it should also have disadvantages and consequences, like not having access to classified information either here or in Italy (insert other country). It has always sacred me a little that people like me, who have roots in more than one community, feel no sense of awe or respect for the traditions they are assuming and dismiss any opposition to their presence in certain public posts as simple bigotry. The fact is that a certain hazing or initial disapproval of foreigness is a healthy thing for a community if it eventually allows full membership to those who have proven themselves in some way. No blood yes, but show your merit first. Just showing up should not be enough.
Our current Homeland Security Chief is a dual-citizen of the US and Israel. This is a real problem and, as Mr. Wilson notes, reminds one of late imperial Rome.
6 Comment by robert m. peters on 2 July 2008:
Dr. Wilson:
Your words:
“Lots of people, especially the “religious right,” are upset because the federal judicial oligarchs have banished the Ten Commandments. They are irritated at the slight to Christianity and the Bible. But do they understand what is really at stake? I doubt if they know that disposing of the Commandments destroys the entire foundation of all law and justice and substitutes man-made “justice.” And that is its purpose.”
It would also seem that that the religious right and others have simply accepted that sovereignty – which belongs to the individual states, the state being the unique cultural and traditional manifestation of the people living out their lives there and not the polity, bureaucracy and abstraction thereof – has been usurped, at least the domestic aspect of sovereignty, by the nine divines, an unelected branch of the general government which is the agent of the states and the creature of their action and not their lord. We have allowed this fundamental usurpation to put us in the position of choosing a President based in large part on whom he might appoint to be a member of the nine divines. I note that the President and the gray and faceless bureaucracy of his “office” have already usurped, quite completely, sovereignty in matters foreign.
7 Comment by Daniel Maxwell on 2 July 2008:
“Warren G. Harding,..”
Dr. Wilson, you’re awful hard on old Harding. Even though he had the typical GOP administration of cronies, I dont think he was that bad. I notice you left out Mr. Coolidge however, certainly a good president and probably the best of the 20th century.
8 Comment by Daniel Maxwell on 2 July 2008:
I add – I agree with you though, aside from a few bright spots from 1921 to about 1968, the GOP has always been bad. For every Robert Taft, John Bricker, Barry Goldwater and Calvin Coolidge we had we had Richard Nixon clones to match them tenfold.
9 Comment by Steve Berg on 2 July 2008:
I agree with most of what Dr. Wilson says here, but I must spring to the defense of Warren G. Harding. Dr. Fleming once quoted Harding as saying that under his administration, none of our sister republics were going to have a constitution thrust down their throats on the points of our Marines’ bayonets. This was a direct slam to one of our worst presidents, Franklin Roosevelt who did these things while an assistant undersecretary of the Navy. I would think that while many of his private proclivities resemble a clintonian Democrat, his public stances put the good Mr. Harding more into the Old Right Camp.
10 Comment by Clyde Wilson on 2 July 2008:
Sir Charles, you are right. I made a wrong assumption about the nature of the tribe’s relation to Harvard. I will go to bed without supper tonite.
11 Comment by Horace Grady on 3 July 2008:
I wish you would publish all of your posts in book form. It think it would really help to raise conciousness. This is a divine edict!!!!! Now get on with it.
12 Comment by John Zander on 3 July 2008:
Dr. Wilson – don’t beat yourself up too badly. James Kabala no doubt a dual-citizen or is that dueling-citizenships with the most genetic pre-empting got a chance to sound-off, along with Sir Charles, if they’re not one and the same? Ok, no dinner but have a late night snack. (Me, i’ve fibbed as usual saying i wouldn’t post for a week. darn. that’s at least honest admitting i fib. sorry.)
13 Comment by Clyde Wilson on 3 July 2008:
Dear Horace, thanks for your compliment. I will not go into the 40 years of discouraging encounters I have had with publishers, especially “conservative” publishers. Not to mention the “conservative” journals that have reneged on articles after acceptance. This has been true especially since 1981 when the great Reagan took office and “conservatism” became almost overnight neoconism.
14 Comment by Horace Grady on 3 July 2008:
Does anyone have any ideas as to how Clyde Wilson can get his blog published into a book? It would make a great Christmas and birthday gift.