The American Spectator : Waiting for the Gods

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Waiting for the Gods

By F.H. Buckley from the December 2012 - January 2013 issue

What we will see in the next four years is the monarchical government of a president determined to rule without Congress.

WELL, THAT WAS A BUMMER. Still, there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.The good news is it’s going to get a lot worse.

The bill for Obama’s first term has yet to come due. The administration poured $5 trillion down a rat hole for trendy projects run by political allies without providing any discernible lift to the economy. Instead, it’s increased our debt load and placed us in the unpleasant company of Portugal and Greece.

Remember when Obama said that he thought the United States was exceptional in the same way Greece is exceptional? Turns out he meant it.

The administration added more people to the food stamp rolls than it added to the job rolls, and that’s not about to change. The food stamps have cushioned the absence of jobs, but at some point this won’t seem like an adequate substitute for the recent college graduate, back in his old bedroom at his parents’ house.

We haven’t been asked to pay the bill for Obamacare yet. Oh, we’ve heard of firms that didn’t get started because they didn’t want to deal with it, but that’s nothing compared to what’s around the corner, as companies and employees react to the new measure. We also haven’t seen the rationing of medical care from the IPAB panel that has been given the task of cutting costs, and which bids to make of Sarah Palin a prescient seer.

In short, Obama’s economic policies have been a huge disappointment in his first term and can be expected to be a disaster in his second term. His response is to stay the course, to go on spending, to expand the public sector, to toss more money to his allies on the grift (oops—to well-deserving recipients of social justice). His problem, however, is that this is not sustainable. Margaret Thatcher understood this. She said that the trouble with socialism is that eventually one runs out of other people’s money to spend.

What conservatives must do, then, is wait. Obama’s time will be the years the locusts have eaten. It has been and will be a time of frivolous pursuits and shameless pandering, nastiness and demagoguery, with a president who would make of Sandra Fluke’s bedroom habits a matter of national concern, and who encourages “revenge” against “enemies.” The fall will come and conservatives must be ready for it. We have been told that we can spend like there is no tomorrow, that we can pay for this by taxing the rich, that if we do so they won’t stop working, that we can pay people who don’t work without sapping their incentive to work. Would it were so. Alas, reality is nastier than that, said Kipling. The Gods of the Copybook Headings, who told us we must work, that nothing comes for free—messages we laughed off—are not so easily tricked.

This isn’t the time for conservatives to abandon the free-market principles that made America the richest country in history. We’ve had the right formula for economic growth, and the correctness of our prescription hasn’t changed. We’ve not done this on the backs of the poor. Instead, we’ve shown that real social justice requires economic prosperity to pay for it. When account is taken of future generations, of the children yet unborn who will inherit the debt load Obama is imposing on them to pay off union allies, suspect environmental firms, and other donors, the moral superiority of our message is even more clear.

Like Sir Andrew Barton, then, we will say:
I am hurt but I am not slain.
I’ll lay me down and bleed awhile,
Then I’ll rise and fight again.

In the short run, our watchword must be “No surrender.” I would have supported a “Grand Bargain” had Romney won and our side taken the Senate, one which traded a modest increase in taxes in return for major cuts against current spending, say on the ratio of one to six. No more. The lesson from the 1980s is that every extra dollar from increased tax revenues disappears down a sinkhole of increased wasteful spending, if Democrats have anything to say about spending. One can’t trust them, and any deal with them makes patsies of us.

Republicans cannot credibly threaten to shut down the government and look foolish when they try to do so. That apart, they should do nothing to take responsibility for the looming shipwreck of fiscal irresponsibility. Democrats broke it. Let them own it.

What we will see in the next four years is the monarchical government of a president determined to rule without Congress. He will not be able to pass any measures through the House, assuming our representatives will not become his useful idiots. He will therefore continue to rule by executive decree, as he has since 2011, passing laws by ukase, ignoring laws by dictat. He will do so without serious opposition from his supporters, the mainstream media and the courts. He will continue to transform the Constitution in ways which seemed unthinkable not so very long ago. But he will not create wealth. He will leave the country far poorer than it was when he came to office. His weakness is our opportunity, if we keep faith with our principles. His supporters, who are a majority of voters and our countrymen, will accept Crown government, restrictions on religious practices, the demonization of opponents, payoffs to cronies. What they won’t accept is poverty, however, the poverty that is promised by his policies.

A WAITING STRATEGY might not seem particularly exciting. It might not appeal to those who think, against all evidence, that “this is a center-right country.” But this is the hand we have been dealt. Our part is to sit back and watch the mess that the president and his party will make of things, of allies abandoned and wealth squandered. And be ready, when the time comes, to pick up the pieces. We will not take pleasure in our country’s decline, but along the way we might permit ourselves to ask our friends on the left, “How do you like them apples?”

In the meantime, there is something for conservatives to do—apart from supporting their families and being productive, good citizens. The conditions which supported Obama’s victory were the abandonment of schools and colleges to the left. In the humanities, universities offer students an expensive but empty credential, devoid for the most part of anything of educational worth. Its graduates are fitted for life on the picket line of an Occupy America protest. They aren’t trained for employment, which in Obama’s America is not a problem, since there are no jobs for them anyway. But at some point they’ll figure out that they’ve been conned, and we conservatives must offer them a plausible alternative. Then too, there are a significant number of free-market conservatives in the academy. They keep their heads low and quietly pursue their careers, but have true grit and are often the smartest people in their departments. They are scorned by their colleagues and generally ignored by conservatives outside the academy. That should change.

Above all, let’s believe in our free-market ideas. Let’s not apologize for them or muzzle spokemen like Paul Ryan. It’s been pointed out that, had Romney received the same number of votes that McCain did, he would have won. Do you know what made the difference? We didn’t have Sarah Palin this time.

About the Author

F.H. Buckley is Foundation Professor at the George Mason University School of Law.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (67) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 12.7.12 @ 6:31AM

The Republicans need a new leader in the House. Boehner has done a horrible job explaining what is needed. Someone in the House must be capable of doing it.

LONE STAR| 12.7.12 @ 8:10AM

Absolutely...Oust Boehner and elect a Speaker who is a conservative and represents true Republican values. There are plenty of qualified candidates-- Darrell Issa, Steve King, Justin Amash, Michelle Bachman, etc. But first get rid of Boehner.

TLP| 12.7.12 @ 4:14PM

Contest at Monday's Story: Artist as Ethnographer.

Join us.

It's a Scene, man.

Al Brooks, bleedingheartlib | 12.7.12 @ 7:11PM

I see Obama as a three year (until the '16 NH primary) reprieve from Bush 5.0

Rhoetus| 12.8.12 @ 9:56PM

Jeb Bush should retire from politics and do penance at the Cato Institute for what his brother and father did to our country.

spike59| 12.10.12 @ 6:07AM

"I see Obama as a three year reprieve from competence in the White House"
===========================.
there, fixed it for ya

KennesawJack| 12.7.12 @ 6:47AM

Never thought I'd live to see the day that a majority of our countrymen "would accept Crown government". Not very PC to say, but the Western notion of the primacy of the individual, so deeply ingrained in the psyche of our Founders has, obviously, been bred out of us. We are a nation of cultural mongrels, victims of a false claim of equivalency.

Von Mises Jr| 12.7.12 @ 9:09AM

I would not throw the towel in so fast with Mr. Buckley, KennesawJack. This is not the real deal Mr. Buckley, but a lawyer telling us about economics.

Did you know that 16 States had previously said "Hell No" to setting up OsamaCare Exchanges? Six more said "No unless little barry foots much of the bill." Eleven were undecided with 9 of those States led by Republican Governors. Yesterday, Chris Christie whom I have been critical of voted "Hell No." Thank you Governor Christie.

We talk about the Blue States versus the Red States that are mostly contiguous (that means next to each other Perp) and we have two Americas. Well one America is telling Obama and Boner (who claims OsamaCare is the Law of the Land) to take a flying leap at a rolling donut. Stay tuned.

Al Adab| 12.7.12 @ 2:50PM

Yes Jr, there is much hope to be found among the several states. Nonetheless, the very real danger is that the economic collapse that will follow the administration policies will lead not to a rebirth of liberty but rather toward a totalitarian solution.

KennesawJack| 12.7.12 @ 3:52PM

And perhaps, Al, that's when the Tree of Liberty will thirst once again.

Al Adab| 12.7.12 @ 5:07PM

In all liklihood Jack, and I doubt thast it will be pretty. In fact the possible outcome is a breakup of the Union into cultural-socio regions. See Colin Woodard, American Nations on the subject.

KennesawJack| 12.7.12 @ 6:31PM

Thanks. I will.

LONE STAR| 12.7.12 @ 11:52PM

One advantage we have is that our conservative states are contiguous...Theirs are not...There is a big divide between the leftists of the NE and those of the west coast...Divide and conquer. Liberal states are dead and rotting...ours are alive and well...
Hold firm and take heart...trust in the Lord.

SilkyWiley| 12.8.12 @ 2:05PM

They have said "hell no" and then Sebelius with her unlimited power says that they will be fined 3.5%. Where this power comes from, out of thin air apparently. We have come to the end of the road to serfdom. We are there. We need to rethink whether we want our offspring to go under this yoke. The USA is no more, its just a bleeding out of wealth and genius that is coming. Sorry to be such a downer, but I look around at the Godless socialists I live among and believe I am in a foreign country. As Dosvesky posits, mankind will give up all for the promise of food and security. Whatever angels guided the birth of our nation, they have been chased away. I will still have my belief and my values in a foreign country. I'm not ready for sackcloth and ashes but almost.

Appleby| 12.7.12 @ 7:03AM

Stand back and let it crash. That is the only answer. Give them all they ask for and let them eat the meal they have cooked. Don't vote for their programs, don't support their programs, and don't participate in their programs. Just stand back and let it crash.

A. C. Santore| 12.7.12 @ 9:45AM

"Letting it crash" is exactly what Obama wants.

For several years on here, I've been referring to him as the "proto-dictator." Now he is ready to drop the "proto" part.

If he gets his wish to be able to control the debt limit, it will be as good as done. One congressionally-approved abrogation of a fundamental Constitutional provision, and the door is open for anything else he wants to do to wreck the Constitution - just as he is wilfully wrecking our economy and culture.

So he can rule absolutely.

Remember, no dictatorial government can take hold in a country with a strong ecomomy, a strong legal system/government (Constitutional), and a strong culture.

He knows he has to wreck all three first, and he's well on his way there.

Stkman| 12.7.12 @ 11:30AM

Congress can hand him whatever they want including the debt limit. But there is one problem to that. It's isn't constitutional and it will not survive in the courts, and it would most defniately end up in the courts.
Secondly, Congress keeps forgetting one minor detail, they do in fact still work for us. If they don't think we won't revolt then they really are out of their everloving minds.

Rhoetus| 12.8.12 @ 9:58PM

AC: Where is our Pinochet now that we need him?

Irv Lipschitz| 12.12.12 @ 11:24AM

He rules absolutely as long as those who would resist remain on the couch.

Anthony| 12.7.12 @ 9:13AM

Yes Professor Buckley, we didn't have Sarah this time around, but don't tell that to Messrs. Murphy and Schmidt, they're too busy kissing leftist establishement ass.
May I suggest that your students are blessed to have you as a law professor.
Coming from the great academic institution of George Mason, surely you know in your heart that real America will tolerate Obozo the Monarch.
We have fought the shackles of tyranny in the past, we will do so again. Mark my words.

Pecos Pete| 12.7.12 @ 9:14AM

We don't have to "let" it crash. The US is on a high speed train headed toward a cliff that has no bridge. We couldn't stop it under any circumstances. There is NO "letting" to be done. Some might try to slow down the train ... and they will be run over. Much better to get out of the way.

However, the author is correct in recommending that we will pick up the pieces once all is shattered.

squalis| 12.7.12 @ 9:46AM

"...at some point they’ll figure out that they’ve been conned..."

Uh, no.

squalis| 12.7.12 @ 9:58AM

To prove my point:

http://xfinity.comcast.net/art.....hero_media

spike59| 12.10.12 @ 6:09AM

if they haven't figured it out by now, odds are they never will

notfooled| 12.7.12 @ 10:16AM

Gee, suppose, just suppose, the Bum succeeds in appointing himself to a third term after he has wrecked us in his second.
What's to stop him if he does all the stuff he has targeted.
Guess reps will have a really long wait it that happens!!

Stkman| 12.7.12 @ 11:31AM

.762 will stop him.

bison cookie| 12.7.12 @ 10:46AM

OBAMA: GIVE ME DICTATORIAL POWERS OR I’LL TAKE YOUR COUNTRY OUT. Well…well. The Obama has finally begun his now-open for all to see and hear demands for a dictatorship over the [former] United States of America. A few days ago, Dictator-in-Chief Barack Hussein Obama laid out his demands to Congress for not yet pushing the current USSA (aka “Amerika”) and … READ MORE: http://bwcentral.org/2012/12/o.....untry-out/

c. j. acworth| 12.7.12 @ 10:47AM

"He will rule by executive decree..."

Yeah, about that. Doesn't anyone have standing to sue and stop his illegal executive orders? Or at lesast make him justify them in open court? Seems to me he is treading on the constitutional prerogatives of congress when he issues these diktats of his. If the Stupid Party really wants to gum up his plans, there is one way to do it. 'Course, that would mean they would have to grow a pair...

Stan Redmond| 12.7.12 @ 2:52PM

Remember what he said to the strawmen that might date one of his daughters? "Predator Drones"

What kill list?

Al Adab| 12.7.12 @ 3:05PM

The several States do have standing to bring suit against executive action. At last count this president has issued almost 1000 such executive orders. As we see in the case of health care exchanges, the States are in fact taking a stand. Where this may lead is unknown and many dangers about.

Rhoetus| 12.8.12 @ 10:01PM

Where is congress?

Citizen Jerry| 12.7.12 @ 10:49AM

Yes, the fall WILL come. Nixon was re-elected in a landslide in 1972. Look what happened to him within two years.

This regime is like food poisoning. There's nothing we can do about it. We can only wait it out and hope it doesn't kill us before then. But rest assured, the body politic WILL purge this poison from itself.

Petronius| 12.7.12 @ 11:12AM

We can expect some staged uprising by rent-a-mobs as an excuse for declaring Marshal Law, disarming us, and nullifying the Second Amendment. Our other Rights are already gone. The NSA reads all our posts and e mails. The EPA prohibits the use of private property and the Community Reinvestment Act and Section 8 Ruins its value. What's next? Formerly prosperous business people will be compelled to quarter the homeless and support them without being allowed to claim them as dependents on their tax returns. Then the biggie: Soviet style rationing. But you can fornicate like rats so long as you don't enjoy a cigarette after. And if you're White and don't show up for the 2 minute daily hate in front of the portrait President Ronald Reagan at the nearest public school you'll do hitch at the Ministry of Love, (buggery for the brain), run by MSNBC and CNN. Health care? My doctors will surrender their licenses and quit anyway. All I can do now is remember the best years of my life during the late 80's. I enjoyed travel to Europe every year, started a portfolio, and planned for the days which I thought would come when every middle class citizen could accumulate enough wealth to become economically independent and very much a sovereign entity and law unto himself. Such an idea is anathema to all who wield institutional authority in and out of government. Ask Congressman Amash. He'll tell you.

Irv Lipschitz| 12.12.12 @ 11:36AM

With the theme from Dr. Zhivago playing in my head, I see some of Europe has come here, saving you the travel. Sadly, it's the socialist bit.

I do not believe patriots will take this lying down. At some point, they will rise to deliver another revolution to our history, and it will be more dramatic than the first. There is no shortage of Americans who believe it is better to die on their feet than live on their knees. They are the ones with the frontier spirit in their veins, the ideas in their heads and commitment in their hearts to win the fight ahead. The obamunist army of welfare slugs, waiting for their government handouts cannot bring the kinetics needed to prevail when the going gets tough.

Do not lose hope, but be prepared to abandon the comfort zone.

djn1313| 12.7.12 @ 11:12AM

obama thinks he is a dictator or emperor of some third world socialist welfare dump in Africa. He has no regard for our Constitution or how our government should run. He has made Congress and the Supreme Court irrelevant, puppets to do his bidding. obama is our greatest enemy.

spike59| 12.10.12 @ 6:11AM

obama is our greatest enemy.
======================
not really; our greatest enemy is an electorate that, even after living thru a four year train wreck of an Administration, decided that they WANTED four MORE years of it

JJC| 12.7.12 @ 11:17AM

Regarding the business of Romney recieving fewer votes than McCain, do you think that was remotely possible without a lot of vote tampering and other shenanigans? I for one will never believe it. The election was stolen, I am sure, and what is incomprehensible is the absence of anger, indignation and legal action from the GOP. Pitiful.

GobBluthe| 12.7.12 @ 5:40PM

Romney got over one million more votes tha McCain. The author is clueless.

OregonBuzz| 12.7.12 @ 11:18AM

Our so-called "Congress" has been reduced to the lowly status of a Politburo, and they did it to themselves. This is especially true of the House. They are supposed to control the purse strings, yet Boehner kicked the true conservatives off the team because they weren't following the party line. Meanwhile the Traitor in Chief stalks the halls of government cackling to himself with inordinate glee. Cicero had something to say about this.
"A nation can survive its fools, even the ambitious, but it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly, but the traitor moves against those within the gate freely. The traitor speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and wears their face and their arguments. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear." Marcus Tullius Cicero

Louis Jenkins| 12.7.12 @ 12:40PM

"We haven’t been asked to pay the bill for Obamacare yet."

Well, today I heard about our local children's clinic. The physicians have been cut back by regulation into seeing only 22 patient's a day. (The flu isn't helping the case overload.) They, or rather he,used to see approximately 28 patients a day. As a result, the overflow is now being sent to the local hospital's out patient clinic which equals to more money changing hands for the patients, the children are not seeing their normal physician's group, and there is a greater waiting time. So limits in physician dx/tx time is now coming into being. I know that this may not mean much at the moment, but it can have ramifications.

The God has arrived, but he's not the God we refer to. He's the godless one, the savior, that was voted into office again.

RCV| 12.7.12 @ 1:50PM

What regulation is that, Louis?

Ronsch| 12.7.12 @ 12:58PM

Mr. Buckley,

The problem with being a "good, productive citizen" is that the Left expects those of us who carry that moniker to pay for the takers...Why should I be "good and productive" when the .gov plans to take all of the fruits of my labours?

Ronsch| 12.7.12 @ 1:06PM

For anyone that missed it this morning...The cooked unemployment numbers show it is at 7.7%...two prior months were "revised" yet again...Apparently the push to prove NerObama's socialist policies are working marches "forward."

RCV| 12.7.12 @ 1:37PM

"It’s been pointed out that, had Romney received the same number of votes that McCain did, he would have won. Do you know what made the difference? We didn’t have Sarah Palin this time."

It would be nice if Mr. Buckley actually checked his facts. The 2012 votes have not even been finalized. But as of this morning, Mr. Romney in fact has more popular votes than Mr. McCain -- 59,142,004 versus McCain's 58,343,671. Morover, Mr. Obama's total now stands at 62,615,406 -- so the canard that Mr. McCain's 2008 total would have beaten Mr. Obama's 2012 total is clearly false.

It's sad when right wing posters just pass along false facts they pick up from other blogs. It's even sadder when a published article on TAS does so.

Pej | 12.7.12 @ 3:52PM

RCV, the point is, that no one really cares who got how many popular votes. Obama won. The article is about Conservatives getting clear on being able to wait until Liberals begin stewing in the juices of their own cooking.

RCV| 12.7.12 @ 7:17PM

If no one cares, then it was a silly point for Mr. Buckley to end on.

You'll be waiting for a long time if that's what you're waiting for. In the meantime, you might do a little introspection on your failures to persuade the American people on the wisdom of the course you propose. ... and adding Sarah Palin to the ticket wouldn't be the right lesson to draw from your defeat.

SilkyWiley| 12.8.12 @ 2:20PM

RVC," introspection of your failures to persuade the American people"

I don't believe I can persuade the American people any more than I can persuade any other failing socialist country populations. I don't even care. I consider myself living in a foreign country. I have no allegiance to this Godless land. Apparently, if there wasn't fraud, the people put rulers back in power who denied God three times at their convention. I have no allegiance to that. Now my only allegiance is to God and to the safety of my offspring in the coming violent collapse of the country formerly known as "land of the free".

Stan Redmond| 12.7.12 @ 2:58PM

Mr. Buckley you state "He will continue to transform the Constitution in ways which seemed unthinkable not so very long ago."

Obama is not transforming the constitution. He is ignoring it. And the SCOTUS and Congress are ignoring it too. Obama has set the precedent that the president is now the King and that the Congress and SCOTUS are only there to support the King's decrees. To hell with the constitution, there's Obamaphones to give away. The only hope I see is the next republican president will have this nearly unlimited power to reign in this monstrous federal beast. Can the republicans field someone willing to take the heat? I doubt it but that's the only hope I have anymore.

TLP| 12.7.12 @ 4:16PM

Contest at Monday's Story: Artist as Ethnographer.

Join us.

It's a Scene, man.

SilkyWiley| 12.8.12 @ 2:22PM

The Supreme Court has been ruling for federal primacy for decades, they are part of that federal system and benefit from it in wealth and power. They are enemies of the free.

Al Adab| 12.7.12 @ 3:09PM

It would be very helpful if the AmSpec editors compiled a list of the impending taxes and tax rate increases due in January from the Dr.s visit tax to the banking transaction tax and so on. How many are there and what are the applications and implications of each? It would be good for us to have the definitive list.

Pej | 12.7.12 @ 3:44PM

Mr. Buckley,
I agree entirely. I began to realize some time ago that the country is on a path of decline that can only be changed by sufficient crisis. The values of the people have been degraded over time by a false sense of unlimited wealth, and by compromise with Liberalism, to the extent that nothing short of disaster will change their views.

And, in that regard, Obama will provide sufficiency.

Let's rumble| 12.7.12 @ 9:16PM

YOu think the courts will stop him? Har, lets see what happens when that old prune retires and he appoints one or two more lesbians. And you just know Judge Roberts will find a way to rule for Obama. He turned himself into a pretzel to find for Obamacare. The man has total power.

TruSkeptik| 12.8.12 @ 7:24AM

The "waiting" strategy is indeed unpalatable. It's success depends upon any number of questionable assumptions, not the least of which is whether enough of the American electorate will in four years even remember the democratic system that contributed to this country's greatness. It seems very clear to me that a sea change has occurred, as it does with all things. Fewer than 250 years does seem a bit truncated but one might suspect that America's meteoric rise could in fact be followed by a just as meteoric decline. This is certainly what Obama has in mind. Rather, I would look to the lessons of history in this matter. For every nation in desperate internal trouble that "waited" for a solution, how many redeemed their heritage with sacrifice, resolve, steel and blood? Massive co-ordinated civil disorder is called for and I don't believe any right thinking person would disagree. I personally like the "tax refusal" approach. This is not a new idea, but there are far too few IRS agents (and even the Big O couldn't find enough of them fast enough) to deal with a massive refusal to pay federal taxes. (Sounds a bit like Boston in the late 18th c., doesn't it?) We can sit on our bumms and wait and "hope", or we can take action. This country was founded on the latter, while the former is precisely what Obama is relying upon.

Pej | 12.8.12 @ 9:12AM

The problem is that the government has grown to enormous size and importance, and the leadership of that government depends on the democratic majority vote, and 40% of the voters think they live in Lalaland, where magical animals and spirits can make their lives full and wonderful if the King is handsome and wise.

While it is true that a minority always determines the path of a nation, it is difficult for a minority whose beliefs are based in reality and common sense to compete against the magic of the Lala King in winning the hearts and minds of the free spirits of Lalaland.

Thus, the theory that when the candy canes, Lala chits, and free phones fail to prevent a harsh winter, reality may have a shot. Or, maybe not.

Try this--go out and have a conversation with an average Lalalander and then decide.

Petronius| 12.8.12 @ 11:55AM

The best and only way to kill Liberalism is a starvation diet. Farmers should plant only enough to sustain their local populations. Business owners and their productive employees should lay in a years provisions covering all necessities; food, fuel, a camp kitchen, detergents, toiletries, and arms to hold on to all of it. Then close their businesses and bar the gates. PAY NO TAXES. And all who have investments should pull them right after their holdings go x-dividend.
Merry Christmas and Crappy new year.

SilkyWiley| 12.8.12 @ 2:29PM

There has been a capital flight since 2006 and a brain drain since the Clinton administration. Like every other failing civilization, the intelligent and healthy have created a diaspora. I have family outside the US and they are prospering. One in Hong Kong and one in Scotland, working for big oil and international corporation. Hopefully they will help my granddaughters get out of the country. We haven't seen anything yet as to what is coming in disaster for this country. Unfortunately I will be to old to emigrate. But I will be prepared for the last stand.

Marc Jeric| 12.8.12 @ 3:18PM

Public records tell us that 157 Princeton faculty and staff contributed to the presidential nominees this year. One hundred fifty-five contributed to Obama, two to Romney. The two were a visiting lecturer in engineering, and a janitor. (The janitor, interviewed by the student newspaper, said he made his donation out of pro-life convictions.) Those professors consider themselves as educated, knowledgeable, well-informed, and reasonable – and cannot for the life of them understand how anybody could think otherwise. In my youth I saw similar intellectuals pass by the firing squads of the new communist regime in its first “cleansing” campaign.

Gretchen| 12.8.12 @ 5:25PM

BHO's "Gotterdaemerung" is to be devoutely wished for.

Ted R.| 12.8.12 @ 8:00PM

What a bunch of loons on this site. History's losers. All your prescriptions - doubling down on obstruction, right on up to breaking the law - are only going to entrench conservatism as a minority political force. So please, go ahead. What is the average age of a poster on this site? 67? Progress happens not when the defeated are smart enough to know they've been beat, but when they've finally retired from the field, and no one comes to replace them. At least you dead-enders have Amspec. You'll always have Amspec...

spike59| 12.10.12 @ 6:20AM

"doubling down on obstruction"
-----------------------------------------------
there it goes again-the absolute and utter stupidity that is the hallmark of a liberal 'thinker'...ObaMao won HIS election, not ALL of them-the GOP controls the House because the people ELECTED them, which means that they (GOP congressmen) must hew to the wishes of their constituenta, not the foot-stamping juvenile demands of the idiotic Liberal demi-monarch that currently disgraces the Oval Office

Ted, i'm sure that you are not an evil person, but you espouse a viewpoint that is poison to this Republic, and you (and other ObaMaozombies) worship at the feet of an evil and corrupt individual; no, you're not evil, you're just exceedingly stupid-and that's what your master at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue desires, requires, and enjoys

Buck Carson| 12.8.12 @ 9:38PM

Brilliant essay. We are indeed waiting for the Gods and now is our time to shine.

The stark reality is that we will be confronted with a period of very serious introspection. I believe that the financial reality can no longer be hidden.

Our simple conservative principles are the only principles that survive time. That is a very powerful asset and the people are ready- they have to be.

It is indeed time to stop mourning and begin the process of leading. Thank you for your leadership,

Rhoetus| 12.8.12 @ 10:05PM

Rules for Conservatives:

http://www.saveamericanow.us.com

Martin kzovich| 12.9.12 @ 8:32PM

My hope that if Boehner caves he is roundly denounced and asked to resign--he and others.
But if we go over the "cliff" we need to be very clear and loud to blame Obama. One other thing, there are surely intelligent people in Princeton but they are not smart in everything. In fact they can be down right stupid in one might call common sense and lack for that matter any sense.

Al8184| 12.29.12 @ 1:35PM

Why bother? He'll just be replaced by another Republican who will do exactly the same thing. Short of a second Civil War, you are never going to see a return to the traditional Constitutional USA.

Steve D| 12.9.12 @ 8:41PM

'social justice'

is an oxymoron

Al8184| 12.29.12 @ 1:33PM

Both parties are equally to blame for what has transpired in this country, going back to the abdication of Congress of its constitutional mandate to an unconstitutional private bank - in direct contrast to the stated advice of the founders.

What we will really see over the next 4 years is just how deep and wide and extensive the corruption of the US government has become. And we will also see nobody doing anything about it at all.... except talking and arguing and nattering endlessly about political pretend games.

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