You usually hear that phrase in connection with honoring our troops – and rightly so. But the blood of our fallen is not the whole price of freedom.
Part of that price is eternal vigilance – and not just from those who guard our shores. We the People must also remain ever vigilant. We are charged with the task of governing ourselves as a nation. Part of that self governance is keeping a sharp eye on those we entrust with power – the other part is confronting that power when it has gone astray.
Most Americans are aware of this – even if we aren’t always very good about doing it. We have the advantage of having lived in the freest nation on Earth and we are more sensitive and reactive to encroachments on that freedom.
Oh, I know what you’re thinking – what about all the lockdowns and mandates? Who stood up to those? Well, most of us did – but not in the ‘grab your pitchfork, it’s a riot, Ma!’ sort of way. Because our legacy media is confined to LA and New York, they don’t see – or report on – just how many people across this nation simply didn’t abide by any of this. Or how many states had little or none of the hysterical overreactions – and have gone on with life without worrying about masks or not going to work.
Many states that did enact such measures got rid of them as soon as they could because the politicians didn’t want to face the growing backlash. Or they didn’t actually enforce what they had enacted for the same reason. The over reactions affected urban, blue states far more than the rural red states and the metro areas worst of all.
In the meantime, suits that had been filed almost immediately worked their way through the courts along with the many more to follow. The courts were initially far too supportive of the government overreach – but time and the very real desire to keep their jobs has begun to swing the judicial pendulum in the opposite direction.
Politics are slow and messy – and that beats the heck out of fast and deadly. It takes time to straighten out a government that has lost its collective mind – but Americans were on that job from Day One. And we aren’t going to stop until we have secured our rights and taken out the trash that would restrict our rights.
I suspect – it’s too early to know for sure as 2024 is a long way away – that the first big indication of just how much pushback the American people are giving will be in the midterms. Unless Russia invades or China starts lobbing bombs AND Biden miraculously does something right, I don’t see a way to save the Democrats. Cheating only works when no one is watching – and now EVERYONE is watching. State legislatures are already having some significant upsets – nothing looks good on the midterm horizon for Democrats at the moment.
The nice thing about having so many actual players in our political game is that there’s more than one way past Go. All the existing amendments to the Constitution originated in Congress – but there is a very big back door through the states. This gives us a lot of flexibility as we make changes to ensure there isn’t a repeat of this nonsense. And to make that more likely, the states are increasingly red.
Don’t mistake red for only Republican – that party is very much on notice. America is pretty strongly centrist – and that means a lot of shared values between Red and Blue when we aren’t convinced that the other side is the spawn of Satan, of course. Studies have been showing a widening gulf between left and right – but those studies are based in polling that frankly hasn’t been done particularly well in over a decade. The good kind of polling that gives reasonably reliable results is hideously expensive and getting more so even without inflation. I seriously doubt any university has ponied up for that kind of study so I’m dubious that such a huge gulf developed in such a short time. Very dubious.
What that means is that the United States has an excellent shot at not only righting the ship of state but actually patching the ol’ girl up – even get her a new coat of paint.
As long as we don’t give up while we’re winning.
