Mark Steyn is my favorite author and columnist. I used to enjoy his appearances on Fox News, but since I crossed Fox off my list many months ago, I have to be satisfied with his written commentary. Yesterday, his commentary was decidedly pessimistic, but I could not see where he was getting it wrong. Here are some excerpts:
. . .
The biggest-selling book with
American conservatives right now argues that the answer to all of the above [litany of government-caused problems] is
"constitutionalism". On the other hand, the radio host
Jesse Kelly says:
We're not a serious country and we're not a country that will be around
much longer.
I incline to the latter view
myself. At this point, conservative complaceniks tend to trot out Adam
Smith: "There is a great deal of ruin in a nation." But not this much
- not Covid lockdowns and open borders, Afghan "translators" and
Haitian "refugees", Big Tech and Big Trans, BLM and CRT, ID for the
IHOP but not for the voting booth, China as America's manufacturer and
America's loan shark...
. . .
To go back to that Jesse Kelly
line, "we're not a serious country": A nation where a pasty
privileged pajama boy can demand the ruination of his professor because he
traumatized the class by making them watch a Laurence Olivier performance is
too unserious to survive, and doesn't deserve to.
If the Constitution is the bulwark
against madness, then it has already failed; if "capitalism" is the
bulwark against express-elevator descent into full-blown madness, the only
thing holding that up is the chimera of the US dollar's status as global
currency.
. . .
"Land of the free and the home
of the brave"? Both are conspicuous by their absence.
The full column is here.
Grim, but highly recommended.
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