When Michael Medved admitted to the darkness I knew it was real. After all, he fancies himself the epitome of rational thinkers, impervious to the wretched excess of liberal emotion (Yea, I know - I'm laying it on thick ;-)
But I heard him say it - that there was a heaviness to the air, a vague feeling of dread, of impending doom. Medved, like many, is insulated from a lot of the same forces that shove us peons indiscriminately this way and that. He isn't stinking rich, but wealthy enough that he will do just fine pretty much whatever may come. So when he remarks that he senses the storm I know it's gonna be a bad one.
As for me - well you know......I've been living on the ragged edge for four years now. When your life is already a living hell then it's difficult to quantify the degree to which anything could measurably get worse.
Caught up in the moment
You know the sensation - it's the holiday season and everything seems to be bubbly and effervescent, with laughter and song in the air, glad tidings, peace on Earth and goodwill to all. You're caught up in the moment, in the spirit of things. Now imagine the air is suddenly quiet, the song and the levity gone. The movements of people around you may continue along their proscribed paths, but you notice nothing but the artifice of it. That's where I reside.
All last year I watched the sullen and grim-faced determination of the players during the election race. I was reluctant to share my predictions because, well because I am Joe Btfsplk (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Btfsplk) and I'd rather not share my private gloom. I noticed throughout the course of the race the lack of enthusiasm on both sides, and thought, "How curious". It was as though no one's heart was in it. Later, when our collective fait was accompli and our worst fears were realized I braced for the gloating that curiously never came. "How unusual" I said to myself. This is so unlike the left.
In the months since the election most of my usual foes on the left have crawled back under their rocks. They do not appear to have any interest in fighting. They do not appear to have any interest in defending their "champion". Most of them look like I feel. It is so difficult to describe but it is almost like they knowingly made their pact with Satan and now quietly await their doom. They know it's coming; they know it's inevitable; they know they could have stopped it at any time; but they know they were powerless to stop themselves.
Even with the re-emergence of the gun control issue where the leftist leaders are hellbent for leather, I don't see the passion in play by the rank~n~file to the degree that I anticipated. On the other side of the aisle I see the apprehension of otherwise "soul of the heartland" people. I see flashes of panic, of fear, and I hear the anger. Lots of anger. Everywhere I go I hear it.
Defiant, righteous, outraged anger.
"Hier standt ich. Ich kann nicht anders"
Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.
They've taken my family, my peace of mind, my hope for a future. They threaten my livelihood, my health, my pocketbook, and now my civil rights. I've lost everything that ever meant anything to me.
Tell me why I should care even the slightest about their continued mortality?Edit: altard-proofed