‘Uneducated clowns, the spawn of Satan, and the corrupt and sinful’ can always gain redemption and salvation the usual way. It’s their choice, I do not condemn them. You people condemn yourselves.

I wish you well in future endeavors.

Cheers,

Bobby”

Translated into plain English:

“If you’re not a member of my religion, my imaginary sky-fairy is gonna send you to hell just, y’know, because.

I wish you well in your future endeavors.

Cheers,

Bobby”

Man, that Bobby really loves his supernatural delusions, doesn’t he? :-)

Oh, and M. King? If you’re so sure our country is in decline, you can always leave and try to find a better life elsewhere in the world. You might try Eurpoe. Oh wait, our unemployment rate is decreasing (at 7.9%, where it was when President Obama took office) while Europe’s is at 12% and still increasing. Dunno about the rest of the world’s economy but it seems that America’s economy is going to continue to improve over the next four years, assuming the Congressional Republicans get over their aversion to taxes on the wealthy and don’t drive us over the fiscal cliff. And if we do go over the cliff, the Republicans will deservedly take the blame for it.

So it looks like you’re not going anywhere and you’re stuck with us.

Sucks to be you, I guess.

I am just coming across this cri de coeur, and I hope my message reaches you. It is weeks after your essay’s first publication, and distance allows deeper reflection.

You are still right. Your essay is still on target. Don’t flag, don’t falter, don’t fail: your critics do not understand.

And it is precisely this lack of understanding from your “get over it!” and “what an embarrassing exaggeration!” critics that is so disturbing about the disconnect from our fellow citizens. If they were on the same page, we wouldn’t be so disturbed. Their giggle fits demonstrate we aren’t anywhere on the same page; indeed, we may be reading entirely different books.

Look, no single election solidifies a nation’s destiny. But gradual trends exhibit spectacular moments of confirmation, such as this year’s ballot. The confirming event isn’t the cause of our “cry from the heart” but rather the stark moment of its prompting. The tragedy is the trend, and now we must stare the reality of that trend in the face in a way we could still avoid (through optimism, hope, and wishful thinking) prior to November 6′s clear and unmistakable declaration.

We don’t want to hear about the failure of GOTV phone apps or near-even electorates or you’ll have another chance in two years. That’s all beside the point. The trajectory is clear, and now it’s locked in. A Romney squeaker wouldn’t have altered the trajectory; at best it would have kept it from being locked down for a presidential term. Anything but a resolute statement opposite to the electorate’s lethargy would have stemmed the momentum of decline even momentarily.

Decline is a choice, and in our “time for choosing” we sent a word of indifference, ambivalence, and sloth (at best) when a robust spirit of renewal was required. That apparently minority spirit still remains, now seeking an outlet. If November 6 foreclosed the possibility of political deliberation — as all the crowing about demographic change and the obsolescence of “old” “white” “men” indicates — then it will be channeled into apolitical efforts. It must go somewhere.

We are not shocked that our side lost so much as that divisiveness was rewarded, that slicing-and-dicing constituencies and cobbling them together to make 50.7% is now politically operable. We are okay with losing legislative fights, so long as we know our voice is part of the discussion and seriously considered. We are okay accepting “taxation” so long as there is “representation” of our interests. Every major legislative, executive, and judicial decision (save a few token, and perhaps pyrrhic, court victories) of the last four years was passed not just without our consent, but with open contempt for the very idea of our consent.

The horror of what’s happening has nothing to do with the candidates or their shortcomings. Rather, it has everything to do with the quality of our political reflection, as you indicate in your essay. That your expression of anxiety brought out more evidence of the decomposing nature of our public discourse only further demonstrates the wisdom of our concern that “this time” it really is “different.” The fact that these concerns are not just lingering but intensifying weeks later shows to us — we who choose not to whistle past the graveyard but rather maturely contemplate our mortality — that the separation is even more advanced than we feared. “We might have been a free and great people together….”

For some, September 11 went away weeks after the shocking event. For others, such as me, it still defines their lives. This is not nostalgia or obsession with the past. This is how seasoned thinkers and actors approach occurrences of the magnitude worthy to be considered as defining events. The election this month was one of those events where living in denial became impossible. There will be no passive solution — that seems clear if not obvious now — and therefore all good men must begin to contemplate whither to invest their “Lives,” their “Fortunes,” and their “Sacred Honor.”

In Truth,
M. King

You tell me we committed a grievous sin by electing what I truly see as the equivalent of a European moderate — what you call a “socialist” — and I tell you, you are a damn fool and can take your lecture straight to hell.