Mark Steyn has a magnificent essay up today.
"Those Who Can't, Govern."
It's from his National Review "Happy Warrior" column.
Before I get into my own thoughts about the column, I have to say being a, or "the" preeminent "Happy Warrior" of the entire Western world is a very, very tough gig.
The happy part-well, that's very hard work.
Because being happy is pretty f&cking serious work.
It's a pretty f&cking serious choice to make on a daily basis.
Yeah, that's right, I said choice.
You know why?
Because life throws big, huge curve balls at you all the time. Crappy things. Sad things.
I won't bother listing all the things that my family and my friends are dealing with right now. If you heard the list, you'd be pretty damned happy that you have only YOUR stuff to deal with.
It's just so bloody easy to moan and ring one's hands about how bad things are. It's much harder to put on your happy face and just get to it. Not just for yourself, but for the people around you.
Being happy is a big responsibility and an enormous gift to give to the people around you. The people you love. It's a way of showing your gratitude for your life. When you are happy, you show your thanks to G-d for each day.
Churchill fought his "black dogs" all the time.
Those of us who have been there, in the depths, in the don't want to get out of pajamas, don't want to wash, dark days know what it means. You have to double down and fight it even harder.
The warrior part? Also exhausting. I'm getting exhausted just thinking about it.
Why?
Because so few want to lead and to fight.
Those who do are constantly being asked for more-more leadership, more fight, more inspiration.
Sometimes, there is no more. Even the most ferocious warriors need respite time.
Thus, one must consider the wise words of the Happy Warrior with due respect. Because we have an uphill battle on our hands.
This is what it's about:
"For the last half-century, Obama has simply had to be. Just being Obama
was enough to waft him onwards and upwards: He was the Harvard Law
Review president who never published a word, the community organizer who
never organized a thing, the state legislator who voted present. And
then one day came the day when it wasn't enough simply to be. For the
first time in his life, he had to do. And it turns out he can't."
"Politics, the late Christopher Hitchens used to say, is show business
for ugly people. But it's also ugly business for show people."
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
And then:
"There are lessons here beyond the abysmal failure of one misconceived
government program, lessons about what our esteemed (if not terminally
self-esteemed) elites value as "smart," and about the perils of rule by a
poseur technocracy. As for Obama, he's not Jay-Z, nor even Justin
Bieber: He can't sing, or dance, or create a government bureaucracy that
functions any more efficiently than a Soviet supermarket. He broke the
lifelong rule that had served him so well — "Don't just do something.
Stand there" — and for the first time in his life did something,
terribly. It will bear his name forever."
These are outstanding observations about the narcissistic and pathetic, reckless incompetent who is sitting in the Oval Office right now wrecking the American Republic and trashing its Constitution.
The liar and fraud.
All the lies are true.
And shame on all the enablers who preferred their own self-soothing, masturbatory narratives about the empty suit rather than deal with reality.
