The Senescent Man

Victor Davis Hanson has a piece in today's WSJ Opinion Journal about what kind of society confronts and wins against terrorism. An excerpt:

The hard-won effort of the Western Enlightenment of some 2,500 years that, along with Judeo-Christian benevolence, is the foundation of our material progress, common decency, and scientific excellence, is at risk in this new millennium.

But our newest foes of Reason are not the enraged Athenian democrats who tried and executed Socrates. And they are not the Christian zealots of the medieval church who persecuted philosophers of heliocentricity. Nor are they Nazis who burned books and turned Western science against its own to murder millions en masse.

No, the culprits are now more often us.

But read the whole thing.

Just prior to Thanksgiving, Chuck Colson wrote this piece on the American Indian Squanto, from whom Rhode Islanders get the name for "Squantum" Club and so forth. But Squanto the real life 17th century Indian of the Wampanoag tribe (that's tribe, not trail) had a very interesting life. A life worth remembering this time of year. RIers would be wise not to forget its rich past.

I forgot to mention the "Yellow Dog" syndrome in my previous posts. Nation wide, voters decided to vote for a Democrat even if he or she was a yellow dog. I think the election of Mollis for RI Secretary of State is a good example. We'll be going through quite a few election cycles before the dogs are chased away by some cool cats.

My colleague in crime, DAT, has suggested we return to a time of more theoretical poltical ruminations. I agree. Here is an excellent resource on some of the best excerpts from Milton Friedman, the most important economist in the 20th and 21st centuries.

I haven't had much time to ruminate on the election results these past several days since the debacle on November 7. Tied up with personal and business matters.

It was interesting to see how accurate David Brooks was in his view several weeks ago that congressional moderates would get the boot. That's when I realized Chafee was doomed, and that the likely outcome in RI would be a Democratic sweep.

Chafee made no effort to pull in Laffey supporters, probably out of fear he would be deemed to be too right wing and too much of a warmonger if he did. But since the election, it is clear there is no love lost in either direction. He simply could not bring himself to gain the support of Republicans period, to the point now where he is considering a change of political parties. If he changes parties, I wish him a fond adieu.

As for me, as I have reported, I did vote for him in the hopes of holding a majority in the Senate. And had he won, we would have had a Republican Majority Leader, but so what, really. Chafee's pacifism and general left leaning views would have been giving us all fits everytime a controversial vote ensued. Better that he's not there. I'll admit, my striving and anxiety, on this issue at least, amounted to nil, as is the wont of striving and anxiety.

So now we enter a rebuilding year.

We will be in the vantage point of viewing from the gallery, and now the Democrats, having "caught the car" so to speak, need to deliver.

It's their chance to lead. We'll see what happens now. I am not all that optimistic, and expect to see division among the more militant anti-Iraq war Senator elects, like Webb of Virgina, in the coming days.

It appears I was sadly prescient in my predictions for election day nearly three weeks ago. The only thing I appeared to have missed was the Senate actually going to the Democrats, with Kean, Allen and Talent all losing. What a horror.

The US Senate race in Maryland is a statistical dead heat as of today. This week, Lt. Gov. Michael Steele (R) picked up an unbelievable endorsement from the state's leading Black democrats, including the son of the former head of the NAACP, from Prince Georges county. PG county is the second largest political jurisdiction in the state, heavily Black and democratic.

From Investors Business Daily:
"The endorsements are "going to go through the black community like a rocket," predicts University of Maryland political scientist Ron Walters. "It's going to be the talk of the county, the state, maybe even the nation."

Steele, a Catholic who once trained for the priesthood, was inspired to join the Republican Party by Ronald Reagan's failed 1976 presidential bid. Steele demonstrated in an appearance at the party's 2004 convention that he has charisma, warmth and a keen grasp of public policy. He's also demonstrated this as lieutenant governor, a fact not lost on Maryland's black voters and leaders."

"That giant sucking sound you hear is the wind leaving the Democrats' sails."

Only a few more days of suspense!