A sickness has descended upon America. It is wrapped in dishonor, carried with disgrace, and it strikes with greed and fear. Its tentacles reach back 50 years to a time and place when little men were in search of a clinging vine upon which to attach their hopes of fulfillment. They found their enlightenment in a curve that became known as the “Laffer Curve.” It was their horn of plenty. This revelation, sketched on a napkin, revealed that by sending less and less money to Washington DC, those who carried its message could amass huge amounts of wealth and income. It carried a hidden price. That price was freedom. And honor. And justice. All became lost to their cause.
Today we know this collection of thoughts as an ideology, now elucidated in Project 2025, the distillation of the Heritage Foundation, a group of misfits known in illiterate quarters as a “think tank.” Its new price is loyalty to an emperor, with a disdain for trust, and decency, and sharing, and caring. The world is the emperor's oyster as long as it has a tariff attached to it. Truth comes from asserting it. No need for research, and analysis, or evaluations, and drawing limited conclusions. Those activities are the methods and tools of science, a subject that the emperor wants stricken from all the schoolbooks in the land. No need for vaccinations, or a department of Education, or a Constitution, or immigrations. Just install half-wits to run those offices. Trust is irrelevant. The new glue that holds them all together? Loyalty. Wherever there is a need, just sign an emperor's proclamation. And reward the most obedient with a Presidential Medal.
There is an old term that has found new life for the coming years. It is “chaos.” Even the best and the brightest do not know how to deal with chaos except perhaps to corral it, and let it destroy itself while the emperor's sycophants search for men and women with talent and goodwill to rescue them. My hasty AI search suggests that New Zealand is the last refuge of honor. Time is money.
Democratic Dilemmas and Divine Inspiration examines the significance or relevance of the idea that the U.S. Constitution was, as many believe, divinely inspired. How much did that belief matter to founders of the nation and how much does it matter no
