Is America still worth fighting for? Are we just wasting our time?

[DFW]

19. All countries go through periods like this. So far, we can be glad to be able to express our frustrations.

Last edited Mon Nov 11, 2024, 08:07 AM - Edit history (1)

There is a legend about a Russian in Germany arriving and asking for asylum.
The Germans case worker assigned to him starts going through the required interview:
"OK, we need to start with the reason for your application for asylum. Are you politically persecuted?"
The Russian: "Can't complain."
"Are you religiously persecuted?"
The Russian: "Can't complain."
"Are you starving? Do you lack enough food to survive?"
The Russian: "Can't complain."
"Then why do you want to come here anyway"
The Russian: "Here, I am allowed to complain."

Go to any of the so-called "paradise" countries, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, Switzerland, wherever, and the people there will ALWAYS have something to complain about. When Bill Clinton was about to leave office in late 2000, the Europeans were telling me, "are you crazy to get rid of a leader like that? Can we have him when you're done?"

Whenever we have leadership that, on the whole, has done the country a world of good, those factions that are not so benevolent, and jealous to a fault, will always make up some ridiculous pretext to convince their followers that good was bad, and they need to make things better (or, "great again," if you prefer). Clinton, Obama, and now Biden have all been succeeded by comparative disasters. Each time, we asked ourselves, will we ever survive this? And, indeed, there have been good people, undeserving of the evil that befell them, who didn't survive.

But we can't give in. Resignation is what I heard when I visited Russia. It's not encouraging, and that was a quarter century ago. Optimism hasn't exactly flourished there, since, either, from what Russian friends tell me. I haven't been back. Resignation, or, rather, the lack of it, has been the one thing that distinguishes us from so many other countries. In France, they say, "C'est comme ça, qu'est-ce que tu veux?" (That's the way it is, what do you want?) What we want is something better. We say so, and we try to do something about it. That is what distinguishes us, take it from one who can see this from the outside. When the Trumpanzees say, "make America great again," we have to answer, "OK, but since you either won't or can't, get out of the way, and we will."