Its been rough, but we have to hang on – Santa Barbara News-Press

Purely Political, By James Buckley

Were losing it.

I mean, we are really losing it.

The royal We, meaning those of us of a particular political bent, who find joy and inspiration in heated debate, thoughtful discourse and in the first 10 amendments of the U.S. Constitution, are and have been on the losing side of public debate for decades. And the trend continues to travel in the wrong direction.

Occasionally, we get a reprieve with a Ronald Reagan and more recently, Donald Trump, but the aftermaths of their administrations have been short-lived. The progressive agenda moves on, despite the stumbles.

This latest decline began, I suppose, after Inauguration Day 2017 with the accusation that our new president Donald J. Trump had been compromised by some nefarious relationship with Vladimir Putin and Russia.

The salacious and completely fictional Steele Dossier that claimed President Trump had hired prostitutes to urinate on the bed that President Barack Obama slept on in Moscow and other equally sensational falsehoods, had been presented as evidence to a FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) Court of Mr. Trumps culpability to all things Russian.

Most thinking Americans now know that was not only non-existent poppycock, but was fabricated disinformation promulgated and paid for by the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign and sustained by FBI leadership, along with the help of many of Americas intelligence agencies.

Piling on were the mainstream printed press, virtually all news and social media outlets, the Hollywood community, and of course, the Democratic Party apparatus. All of which claimed it to be their solemn duty to harass and destroy this presidents destructive (to the Progressive movement) mission.

They succeeded.

In April 2017, we were less than three months into Trumps presidency when we lost Bill OReilly as Foxs primetime opinionator. Hes still around but he as an influential TV voice has been scuttled. His message has been gutted. His opinion, neutralized.

Then in November 2020, the horrible news that Democrats had cleverly maneuvered a COVID-19-era presidential victory for a masked-up lifelong political hack from Delaware named Joe Biden was delivered the morning after Election Day.

Heading up a lackluster campaign out of a basement in his home, he and his least-popular-Democrat-running-for-president-ever Kamala Harris were named president- and vice-president-elect, even though President Trump had received many millions more votes (74,223,369) than he had in his first election.

Somehow, basement-dweller Biden received many millions more than President Trump (81,282,916) without stepping outside his house for any extended period.

Go figure.

On the morning of Feb. 17, 2021, barely a month after President Biden took over at the White House, we learned of the death of Rush Limbaugh. Rush had filled our late mornings here in California with brilliant insight, cogent analysis and lots of politically incorrect humor five days a week for over 30 years.

We received the awful news of his death at the beginning of his radio show, delivered by telephone by his wife, Kathryn. The Rush Limbaugh Show: began familiarly enough with James Honeyman-Scotts opening bass guitar strains from The Pretenders My City Has Gone theme song. But when Kathryn Limbaugh began to speak (most of us listeners knew Rush had been going through treatment for lung cancer), we voiced a collective Uh oh as we waited to hear what she would say.

Here is what she did say:

I like you very much wish Rush was behind this golden microphone now, welcoming you to another exceptional three hours of broadcasting, she began, voice cracking ever so slightly. It is with profound sadness I must share with you directly that our beloved Rush, my wonderful husband, passed away this morning due to complications from lung cancer.

We knew one day wed hear those terrible words about the man who worked with half my brain tied behind my back, but the reality shocked and deeply saddened us, nevertheless.

Our rock, our hero was no more.

Next, by virtue of President Bidens flurry of executive orders, the building of the Keystone Pipeline had been halted, leases for drilling in a small portion of Alaskas Arctic National Wildlife Refuge were rescinded, and a virtual ban on fracking had been implemented. In less than a month, the U.S. had lost its coveted status of energy independence.

Theres no reason to catalog the series of catastrophic policies and decisions promulgated by President Biden and his team that have not only run up the U.S. national debt, allowed millions of border crossers unfettered access to the American heartland, left the U.S. begging for oil from Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, and whose reckless spending has brought on the worst inflation in nearly 50 years.

We bristle as Trump supporters, whose only crime was to join an invited crowd into the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, are hauled into court, fingerprinted and charged, while rioters and arsonists in other cities are ignored and real insurrectionists rewarded and applauded.

And now, weve lost Tucker Carlson, the most imaginative and effective voice for common-sense resistance to the ongoing madness that we had. The uttered ecstasies of various TV personalities, talk-show hosts and left-wing political pundits at the downfall of our spokesman, our champion at the Fox News Channel leaves many of us both shaken and sad. But dont be fooled: The smarmy comments and lip-smacking elation of his detractors are evidence of the powerful and effective voice that Tucker had.

Hell be back.

We are indeed grappling with an existential dilemma, one that wakes us up at night wondering if our beloved country will ever find its way back to the ideals of its founders or of the writers of our Constitution and its foundational Bill of Rights.

But its up to us to hang on despite continued losses. Because, if we dont, therell be no one around to sweep up the mess these nasty people and their ill-informed voters will have left behind.

Lets go, Brandon!

James Buckley is a longtime Montecito resident. He welcomes questions or comments at jimb@substack.com. Readers are invited to visit jimb.substack.com, where Jims Journals are on file. He also invites people to subscribe to Jims Journal.

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Its been rough, but we have to hang on - Santa Barbara News-Press