Desperate Times

My readers know that from time to time I write tongue-in-cheek columns of semi-humorous �predictions� intended to give us some relief from the unrelenting grimness surrounding us. I do this because my old dad taught me, long ago, that it�s unhealthy for your mind and spirit � and probably for your body as well � to stay deadly serious all the time. �Beware of a man who never laughs,� Pop used to say. �There�s something wrong there.�

In the ordinary course of events, mid-year would typically be an ideal time for a column of predictions poking fun at the foibles and inanities of public and political personages who frequent the news. Our top federal officials are often tempting targets for such columns.

Our problem today is that the situations in which we Americans find ourselves are not really normal and are far from humorous. There is nothing funny about:

• Galloping inflation caused by uncontrolled federal spending of printed money;
• Shortages of vital grocery-store commodities;
• Millions of illegals � including unknown numbers of criminals � crossing our borders and being shipped to all parts of the country;
• Dangerous drugs streaming into the country, causing100,000 deaths per year;
• Violent attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers by abortion-advocates;
• Dangerous campaign to push children into transgender conversions;
• A mentally-challenged president who seems determined to involve us in a serious shooting-war with Russia;
• $5-a-gallon gas being used to push Americans into buying $60,000 electric cars for which a dependable recharging-infrastructure simply does not exist.

Besides all that, the country is contending with a steady stream of crazy people shooting up churches, grocery stores, schools and other public venues. Hardly a day passes without another grim report containing photos of dead and wounded citizens who started their day with no inkling that disaster awaited them at the mall or school.

Anti-gun activists are using these incidents as political bludgeons to force the Congress to pass more gun-control laws which � as even a fifth-grader could tell you � won�t stop gun-violence because criminals who commit such deeds pay no attention to laws. Law-aiding citizens will be disarmed, but that will help only the bad guys.

In just the past week the gun-violence stakes got raised when an armed man was arrested outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The California man requested psychiatric help after admitting to police officers that he intended to kill the Justice. Congress was quickly flooded with demands for added protection of the Supremes, but Democrat politicians didn�t seem very eager to increase that protection.

Puzzled commentators and reporters expressed surprise that anyone would oppose more safety for such important officials, but it wasn�t very hard to understand why. As leftists would see it, the assassination of Justice Kavanaugh � or of any conservative justice � would be a win-win:

Win #1: Regardless of how the removal occurred, the vacancy would let Mr. Biden alter the political composition of the Court by nominating a more progressive replacement, who would certainly be confirmed.

Win #2: The violent event which removed the justice would furnish fresh motivation for new gun-control measures � one of the left�s prime objectives. (C.f. Rahm Emanuel famous dictum: �Never let a crisis go to waste.�)

The disastrous consequences that would flow from such an event can hardly be overstated. It would be a political catastrophe which every citizen � of any political disposition � should fear and oppose in the most absolute terms. To say that it could actually destroy the future of our republic is not too great a stretch. It simply must not be allowed to occur.

In light of these threats, one is bound to ask what (if anything) can be done to turn things around and prevent disaster. We Americans govern ourselves within the construct of a Constitutional Republic, so we expect our elected representatives to take corrective action on serious issues like these. But it�s legitimate for citizens to exert pressure on representatives and senators when political foot-dragging seems to be the order of the day. Individuals and organized blocs can:

1. Blitz Congress with letters, telegrams and phone calls. On past occasions, jamming House and Senate switchboards with floods of calls actually caused Congress-people to switch their votes on controversial issues.
2. Demonstrate at the homes of Congress-people. There�s no reason why leftists should own this very effective tactic.
3. Engineer peaceful demonstrations in the galleries of House and Senate. There�s nothing more likely to get media attention than a ruckus in those public venues.
4. Plan and execute major rallies to draw attention to critical issues. Left-leaning media will try mightily to ignore such rallies, or will characterize them as mobs of �white supremacists.� But the media won�t be able to avoid covering them.
5. Eliminate massive mail-in ballots, unsupervised drop-boxes and lengthy periods of early voting. The longer voting stretches out, the more opportunities are created for cheating.  
6. Organize maximum ballot-security at polling places. This is absolutely critical � possibly the most important thing individuals and political blocs can do.

With the Biden administration in free-fall, Republican politicians have been talking big about regaining control of the House and Senate in the November mid-term elections. I certainly hope they can, but I must admit that I haven�t heard much about what they plan to do if they actually gain majorities in both houses of Congress. Talk is cheap, but only actions will have a chance to right the Ship of State and the country.

As I see it, GOP politicians need to plan and act along these lines:

1. Draw up a list of impeachment targets ahead of the November elections. Attorney General Merrick Garland should head the list; others should include Secretary of Homeland Security�Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
2. Be prepared to start impeachment proceedings as soon as new the Congress is seated. We can take a lesson on this from Democrats in the 116^th Congress, who had their impeachment plans ready to go on January 1, 2019.
3. Have a list drawn up of every illegal order or policy issued by the Biden administration. Bring suit in the Supreme Court on every item
4. Obtain legal counsel on ways to remove VP Harris, and work with Democrats on this. Even they don�t want her anywhere near the presidency.
5. Prepare a list of suitable VP replacements ready. Push for Harris-removal. Launch impeachment if no other methods succeed. Democrats should be allies in this.
6. After removal of VP Harris, mount an organized campaign for Joe Biden to resign. Democrats know he can never be re-elected in 2024, so they should want a sensible replacement to be installed as soon as possible.

Some of my readers � maybe most of them � might regard this article as extremely radical. I agree that it�s certainly far-afield from some of my more lighthearted pieces, and I�m sorry to disappoint readers who prefer that. I prefer that style of writing, too, and I earnestly wish the times were different.

But wishing won�t make it so. We are in the midst of desperate times, and things simply cannot continue as they are. Unless we take corrective action at both the public and private level, we shall sink into a new Dark Age that will utterly destroy all that we have loved and cherished in this great nation.

When he was �campaigning� for the presidency from his basement in 2020, Joe Biden promised to �unify� the country. Ironically, he might have accomplished that very thing in just seventeen months. A heavy majority of voters � undoubtedly including Democrats as well as Republicans � would like to see him leave office. This will take radical action on which Republicans must take the lead. But hopefully there are still some Democrat politicians willing to risk their careers because they want the best for the country and its people.

Long ago, in an equally dangerous time, British Statesman Winston Churchill spoke these words to his countrymen:

�The Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us.

�Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.

�Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, �This was their finest hour.��

If you�re a person of Faith, pray for our people to have the strength and will to �brace ourselves to our duties� in this dangerous hour. God bless the USA and all her valiant patriots.