Politics is downstream from culture.

Andrew Breitbart

By Dr. Jim Ferguson

I've never been a fan of comics. Perhaps the only exception is the single-cell comics of Gary Larson. I loved Larson's caricatures and creatures, and his witty and pithy observations. And I liked Charles Shultz's Peanuts comic strip. I could identify with the neighborhood kids, having remembered the likes of the hapless Charlie Brown, the talented Linus and the scruffy Pigpen from my own childhood. I never cared for the duplicitous Lucy. We've all known someone like Lucy who will say "Trust me," and then pulls the football away at the last minute. I suspect Lucy is a Democrat and Charlie Brown is a Republican.

Since our kids are grown-up and gone, Becky and I no longer put up a big Christmas tree. I used to be like Clark Griswold of the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. A big tree for our great room was a must. After Thanksgiving, we now bring out of storage our version of Charlie Brown's Christmas tree. However, we haven't figured out what to do with boxes of Christmas tree ornaments, collected throughout our lifetime and travels. Perhaps we will offer these baubles to our kids. But they probably won't want our "stuff" because mementos are only meaningful to the collector.

I learned a new word recently, although Mr. Webster says "neopaganism" was first used one hundred and fifty years ago. In medical school, I learned that the prefix neo- derives from Greek and implies something new. For example, a newborn is neonatal. Neopaganism is the contemporary practice of paganism. Examples are the worship of nature, fertility or Wicca, the largest of the modern pagan religions. Interestingly, paganism was a "term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism or ethnic religions other than Judaism."

Words fascinate me. They are the tools we use to exchange ideas. Since we are discussing conceptual tools, Hebrews referred to anyone not a Hebrew as a gentile. And Romans called anyone not a Roman a barbarian. The Romans often adopted aspects of other cultures. The concept of a barbarian comes from ancient Greece. When the Greeks began to encounter people who did not speak their language they described such speech as gibberish, sounding like "Ba, ba, ba, ba..." From this we get the word barbarian.

People are trying to make some sense out of what happened in the November 8 election. There was no "red wave;" barely a red trickle. The Democrats were relieved that their destructive policies did not wipe them out. And the anti-Democrat party forces (Republicans and others) were as flummoxed as Charlie Brown trying to kick Lucy's football.

The television talking heads and the political commentariat continue to pontificate on what happened in the midterms – as if they understand the American people. I don't presume to be an expert, but given the destruction of the last two years, I cannot understand how anyone could vote for any Democrat in this election cycle. But that's just me.

What we know is that the pollsters were wrong again, and should all be fired. And apparently, groupthink and tribalism (brand) "trump" common sense and realpolitik. Furthermore, the election system has been corrupted and is broken in places like Arizona. And in my opinion, people without loyalty to the country and who have little or no skin in the game can be bought by politicians.

As an example, pollsters predicted that 20% of the Z generation (18-29 year olds) would show up to vote. Actually, 27% showed up and they overwhelmingly supported left wing policies of higher taxes, late-term abortion, open borders and Democrat candidates. Perhaps the "October surprise" was Biden's promise to forgive college loans, even though this is patently unfair and will undoubtedly be ruled unconstitutional. No matter, it influenced the election, just like the elite media and the FBI tampered with the 2020 election by suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story. And to complete my point, a report by intelligent.com and CNBC found that 73% of college debt forgiveness recipients plan to use the bounty on nonessential items including travel, dining out and new tech.

Of course there are many other reasons for the "red trickle," including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's spiteful refusal to use funds to support candidates endorsed by President Trump. But there are many other reasons including gerrymandering of districts, voting illegalities, the sickness of the Trump hatred syndrome and the influence of clueless Holly-weirds and "Zucker-bucks."

The FTX crypto bankruptcy is the latest money laundering scandal, where nearly $40 million was scammed and given to Democrat campaigns this midterm. And yes, I realize that more than 90% of the media are liberal Democrats and their slanted/deceptive reporting has become the modern "norm." However, in my opinion, the biggest issue is alluded to by Andrew Breitbart in the header above.

American culture began to change after the Second World War. (Read my May 16, 2022 essay "What Happened?" in the Focus Archives.) The Greatest Generation survived the Great Depression, won the Second World War and wanted a better life for their Baby Boomer kids. Perhaps they spared the proverbial rod and the Counter-Culture of the 60s was born. Those radicals were groomed by Frankfort School professors and teachers, and the radicals now run Biden and control the mainstream media. Trickle-down generational indoctrination is being normalized through America hating, socialism, CRT, BLM, anti-capitalism, anti-God, climate change, abortion on demand and the entitlement philosophy.

The solution to our problems will not come easily or quickly. Change will have to be generational, but we must start somewhere. We must change the culture as leftists began to do 75 years ago. We have to stop trusting the Democrat Lucys of the world. The Democrat party is all about elitist power and the debacle of the last two years is proof. We The People must be the movement which governs our leaders. The other way has proven disastrous. We do not need career politicians as titular leaders; the old fossils of Washington DC must go. And we must humbly return to the philosophy of "In God We Trust."

There is hope. Don't let Leftist Lucys normalize their destructive groupthink. And always keep looking up.

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