Sunday, January 22, 2017

Pull your hat down

                                                       Pull your hat down
America’s Barbarian
Hail the Outsider!
By Stephen L. Wilmeth

 
            There were at least two of them wearing hats.
            At least two Sons of the American West appeared on our new president’s inaugural platform. One was Dick Cheney and his little silver belly fit the part of a gentleman from Wyoming. The other was unknown to me, but he, too, wore a silver belly that could well have been a 4½” brim with a low crown cattleman crease. If he wasn’t used to wearing it, he was trendy in the style that the young fellows are wearing. They alone were equipped to weather the rain storm. In Vice President Cheney’s case, his health was protected because of his felt lid. In the case of the unknown fellow, he wore the hat as if he knew how.
            There is so much to be hopeful for in this transition of power. Perhaps we can get some western influence in that political cesspool of Washington, D.C. I didn’t cheer until my President spoke and talked to me rather than the politicos. I liked what he said, but that has been the case since the start. I expect him to continue to tweet because, like him, I have absolutely no trust in 95% of the press. They will misconstrue and misrepresent him so let’s hear it direct. We need to treat them like the crétins they are.
            I cheered loudest, though, when the big green helicopter took off and left for a connecting flight to Rancho Mirage. The fellow on it needs to stay away from Washington and our television screens. He long ago failed the test of reading convincing words.
            We will take our barbarian, our American barbarian … for the duration.
            I will bet President Trump won’t get the Nobel Peace prize in his first year of office. I suspect he won’t get it the last year of his tenure either, but that is only fitting. He has a monstrous job ahead, and he will be fought every step unless or until it is politically correct to support him. Rest assured it won’t only be the democrats that undercut him. The republicans should be expected to undermine him with the same albeit less obvious resistance. This country is $20T in debt and it wasn’t just the dems that drove that debacle to its teetering height. Leadership’s combined absence of resolve has put Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security on a path to bankruptcy. They spend our money as if it is endless. They have driven the debt to equate to more than the nation’s gross national product. No leader can be judged adequate with that performance. No leader can be honored.
The insult to the American taxpayer is crushing.
            People over Corruption
The parallel of President Trump and Andrew Jackson only grows.
            Jackson came into the presidency after a bitter partisan fight against the political establishment and America’s then ruling class. He pledged three basic things. He said he would view the Constitution in original form. He said he would defend and uphold the power of the states, and he said he would eliminate the national debt. Under that platform, he undertook his “task of reform” and went after the “unfaithful and incompetent hands” who had staked out permanent claims in the federal system. He despised career bureaucrats.
            A sense of foreboding and dread spread as to what Jackson would do when he became the permanent resident of the White House. Although they were surprised at Jackson’s tasteful attire when he arrived in the city, the elite were equally surprised he could speak and articulate the king’s language.
            The spectacle of the other Westerners who descended on the capital to celebrate his victory inflamed them. A reference has one spectator noting that those who arrived were an “uninterrupted stream of mud and filth … many subject for the penitentiary”.  Washington was offended by those uncouth Westerners, and perhaps, too, how they had made their way on the frontier by their wits, guts, and ambition.
            The one thing I admire most about Jackson was his abhorrence of debt. The year he left office the nation’s debt stood at a miniscule $37,000, the lowest balance in the history of the nation up until that time, and certainly lower than anything since.
             “People over corruption” was his mantra. There is not a more appropriate resolution in this hour of our history. Long live that spirit, and, let’s only hope that our new president has the gumption and the wisdom to follow the same path.
            Our Barbarian
            Standing there in the rain with telepathic arrows being slung from the resident political foes at his back, he spoke to us.
            As we experienced a sense of continuing encouragement, there is little doubt that the federalists and the grant program classes were experiencing a rising state of meltdown. They hate him. They hate us, but there is little room before economic stagnation and debt bound permanence suffocates us all.
            We must have a barbarian that is singularly focused and relentless in making real cuts to the spending orgy that pervades the halls of congress. There is simply no other leader on our political horizons that could succeed in this mess. Dramatic cuts are absolutely necessary as are dramatic reversals of the rampant extralegal executive orders that are not even suggestive Washington hears the pleas from out here where we wear hats as a matter existence. The pendulum needs to swing wide before it settles back to an equilibrium that reminds everybody that the equal branches of government must be balanced and that agendas will only be addressed if and when the original system intent is carried out.
            Long live our Barbarian! May his days be fruitful, and …may he remain true to his words and divine guidance.

            Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Let’s all pull our hats down, take a deep seat, and get that far away look in our eyes!”

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