Oh, the Republicans. Have you ever seen such moaning and crying over
a political party’s losses? Maybe if you were a Democrat in 1994, and
had to watch the [1] Republicans take over for the first time in 40 years,
you know the pain the GOP is supposedly suffering now. Let’s recall why
the Democrats lost so badly in 1994. Bill Clinton was a failure as
President at that point, not just the failure as a person he is now,
with goofs like a botched takeover of the medical industry headed by
his wife Hillary and her secret meetings team. Clinton wasn’t as bad as
Jimmy Carter, whose one term ended with a [2] misery index
of 19.72, but at the start of his Presidency, Clinton’s misery index
was 10.56. In contrast, George W. Bush’s misery index averaged 8.10,
much less than his father at 10.68 and Ronald Reagan at 12.19.
[3]
Oh woe, the Republicans. It’s not just the Democrats that are
attempting to shove the elephant in the coffin and pound in nuclear
nails; we have any number of bubbly chipmunks on our side chattering
goofily about “new ideas” but mostly interested only in advancing their
own public profiles. Patriots? It’s a punk riot.
It’s time to get Biblical, here in this Christian nation ([4] sorry you didn’t get the memo, Mr. President). We remain, despite any word to the contrary from the chattering class, [5] a majority Christian nation with 76% of U.S. adults in 2008.
There is a Biblical parallel in what is going on in America. It’s [6] the story of Joseph,
from Genesis in the Bible. Here are the main points, in case you missed
Sunday school or never read the story that is generally held to be
historical fact:
The son of Jacob and Rachel, Joseph was the first born of his
mother. He had brothers who were born to Jacob from three other women.
Later, Rachel gave birth to Joseph’s brother Benjamin. Jacob (who did a
lot of begating and was much admired) was in his nineties when Joseph
was born, and the young boy spent copious time with his dad and became
Jacob’s favorite.
His brothers didn’t like Joseph, particularly when Jacob gave Joseph
a many-colored coat. Joseph often reported his brothers’ misdeeds to
their father, and spoke of his dreams about becoming an important
person one day. This was the ancient equivalent of no-talent Hollywood
executives being busted on expense reports by a first-time director.
So one day, instructed by his father to check on his brothers,
Joseph followed them, and they tossed him into a pit. They took his
coat and sold him into slavery to a caravan of traders. They smeared
the coat with the blood of a slaughtered goat, and convinced Jacob that
Joseph was dead. Special effects, you see.
Joseph was taken to Egypt, where Potiphar, the head of the kitchen
of Pharaoh, liked him and placed him in charge of his household.
Potiphar’s wife tried often to seduce Joseph, but he consistently
turned her down. So one day, she framed Joseph and he was sent to
prison. It is not noted if she later ran for office, but it’s fairly
certain she has at least one female descendant hailing from San
Francisco.
Luckily, the warden liked him, and when Joseph interpreted some
dreams for prisoners who happened to be the Pharoah’s butler and baker,
his predictions came true. The butler promised to help Joseph when
released from prison in a few days, but he didn’t follow through until
a couple of years later, when the Pharaoh had troubling dreams his
magicians could not interpret. When the butler told Pharaoh about
Joseph, the ruler sent for him. (It’s likely the butler was campaigning
to be head of staff, and the added cogitation about same jogged his
memory.)
Joseph listened to the Pharaoh’s dream and said it predicted seven
years of feast followed by seven years of famine. He suggested that a
wise man be placed in charge to gather and store food in preparation
for the famine years. Impressed, the Pharaoh made Joseph his
second-in-command and gave him a wife. No doubt this verily grieved the
butler, but it’s entirely believable given that most of the members of
the Pharoah’s staff were ex-cons.
Came the famine as predicted, and Jacob sent his ten sons to Egypt
for food. (This was before anyone knew anything about TARP money.) The
brothers didn’t recognize Joseph. Perhaps because they drank a lot and
were obnoxious (they’d have done well on Capitol Hill), he accused them
of being spies and put them in jail. It was a ruse to fool his brothers
and find out more about his family. So finally, when the brothers made
another trip to Egypt for food, Joseph revealed who he was. His
brothers were stunned, and even more shocked when Joseph said that he
was not angry. In those days, people would smite people over just about
anything, but Joseph wasn’t smiting. So then Joseph was reunited with
his beloved father, who was by then 130, when he and his people came to
Egypt to live. (If he’d lived that long in Canaan, one wonders why he’d
move, but he was a dedicated family man, and then again maybe he wanted
to begot with some fetching Egyptian lasses.)
After 17 more years, Jacob died and Joseph took the body to Canaan,
to the burial place of his fathers. Joseph’s brothers, thinking he’d
now take revenge on them after all those years, offered to be his
slaves. (They were used to the welfare, you see, and wanted to at least
make it permanent.) Instead, Joseph told them God had wanted him in
Egypt, because he saved many people, and that he would take care of his
brothers and all his family. This set a bad precedent that is now
represented in our current administration, but let’s not get too far
off the story.
Before he died at age 110, Joseph told his family members that God
would raise the Jewish people up from Egypt and take them to the
Promised Land. Oh, the power of dreams. A century later, when the Jews
left Egypt with Moses, he carried out Joseph’s bones and buried them in
the land of his forefathers.
[7]
And now to today. America remains a promised land for people around
the world, largely because it was founded upon and continues to operate
on Christian principles. Thank you, Jesus. The wisdom and forgiveness
and acts of being his brothers’ keeper despite their attempts to do him
in displayed by Joseph should be remembered by Republicans today. After
all, it was by the Man from Galilee.
It’s obvious ruling elements of the Democratic party want the
Republican party not just defeated but destroyed, or at least reduced
to a position of slavery in a helpless minority. It’s equally obvious
that a great many of our American brothers and sisters in recent years
have betrayed principles that benefit us all out of their own
self-interest. We can’t banish them to hell, so what do we do?
When Ronald Reagan swept into office, it was akin to Joseph’s worth
and fortitude being seen by Potiphar, who represented the ruling
Pharoah. Stay with me here. The American people are the rulers of this
land, and enough of them who had been slavishly dedicated to goofy
Democratic party ideas for decades didn’t like our country under
Carter, so they switched and Ronald Reagan defeated him. Reagan then
refused to be seduced by bad ideas (maybe because he’d spent a lot of
time in Hollywood), and in conjunction with Margaret Thatcher and a
brave Pope who ventured to Poland and inspired the revolution in his
homeland, the Soviet Union fell and the world was transformed. Solidarinosc!
And the U.S. economy didn’t do badly, either. Thank you, [8] Arthur Laffer.
In 1994, the wisdom presented in the [9] “Contract With America”
so impressed the ruler of the land (the American people), the
Republicans were put in charge. Balanced budgets followed as Newt
Gringrich and his fellow patriots forced Clinton to comply, and years
of prosperity followed. Of course, Clinton and the complicit media
(almost all Democrats) gave him all the credit. Just think of what
would have happened if Joseph’s brothers had controlled the media back
in the day. Shudder.
Back to the almost present. Though it’s convenient to forget, during
the current malaise, the country did fairly well under George Bush. At
the very least, it remained safe from attack after 9/11.
So are we now looking, like Joseph in Egypt, at seven years of
economic famine that began in late 2008? Let’s hope it’s only in
California, which you can blame on the Democrat social club in
Sacramento and the Hollywood actor that’s their court jester. To avoid
disaster across the country, the Republican party would do well to
display the type of foresight and wisdom displayed by Joseph, and pay
more attention to the basic dreams of Americans, which fit perfectly
with long-term Republican principles.
It’s fine to speak out about the current administration’s outrages
that are a march toward socialism, which is an enslavement that sours
the soul while proclaiming the grand benefits of collectivism yet
always benefits only those running the society into the ground. That’s
not what we need to solve our problems. Most of our brothers’
principles are so crazy they’re only believed by Hollywood actors who
often didn’t even finish high school.
We would be wise to forgive the trespasses of our brothers, who
acted in their own self-interest when voting into office those who
often now seem inept at best and aggressively determined to destroy
everything that has worked best in fulfilling American dreams.
In short, the principles that sustained this country and the
Republican party at its previous bests will help it transcend the
current misery, if thoughtfully applied. Hopefully, we will have
someone as wise and thoughtful as Joseph who will step forward to lead.
It will probably be someone with one-name recognition, who puts up with
all the garbage and is still beloved by strangers. Meanwhile, we are Joseph, and should act with that kind of wisdom and equanimity as we create our American future.
We vote again in twenty-ten. It’s fairly guaranteed that the misery
index then will be much higher than it is today. It will be lowered as
people of great character, unwavering through indignities, do what is
best for their world at large. As you cope with present difficulties in
your daily life, you might ask yourself, what would Joseph do?
[10]
Article printed from Big Hollywood: http://bighollywood.breitbart.
URL to article: http://bighollywood.breitbart.
URLs in this post:
[1] Republicans take over for the first time in 40 years: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
[2] misery index: http://www.miseryindex.us/
[3] Image: http://bighollywood.breitbart.
[4] sorry you didn’t get the memo, Mr. President: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
[5] a majority Christian nation with 76% of U.S. adults in 2008: http://www.gosanangelo.com/
[6] the story of Joseph: http://www.newadvent.org/
[7] Image: http://bighollywood.breitbart.
[8] Arthur Laffer: http://www.heritage.org/
[9] “Contract With America”: http://www.house.gov/house/
[10] Image: #
– Big Hollywood – http://bighollywood.breitbart.