The Chaos Has Begun
Don’t you love farce.
My fault, I fear.
I thought that you’d want what I want.
Sorry, my dear.
But where are the clowns?
Send in the clowns.
Don’t bother,
They’re here.”
Send in the Clowns – Written by Stephen Sondheim (1973)
Recorded, amongst others, by Frank Sinatra (1973) and Judy Collins (1975)
…..
I started this blog nearly two years ago with the premise that we were entering a period of chaos in politics, economics, culture, society and foreign affairs. The chaos has begun. The House of Representatives this week is an obvious example, but there are others outlined below.
The House of Representatives: As I predicted in last week’s missive, Speaker McCarthy put a “clean CR” on the floor which has always been the thing to do to avoid a government shutdown and buy time for an agreement. This triggered a revolt from Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and his band of 8 rebels who, in concert with united Democrats removed the Speaker. The plan from here is for the Republican Conference to vote on a new Speaker on October 11th and then take that to the floor. So, the House will be without a Speaker for at least nine days and probably longer.
I think what those 8 Republicans did is moronic. They say they are concerned about the deficits and debt. They should be and I’m sure they are. But their actions have the opposite effect and almost ensure that no progress can be made, perhaps for years, on said debt. There are 537 elected people in Washington. Eight of them cannot impose their will on the rest in a democracy. The only way to deal with any problem is to get a majority of those 537 to agree with a policy to fix it. You do that through elections and persuasion. This selfish stunt has made the chance of persuasion or victory in the next election much less likely. If Republicans choose a new Speaker candidate on 10/11, how can that person get the necessary votes without making the same or greater commitments to the moron caucus that McCarthy was forced to? And if they make those commitments, which is basically nothing passes unless those eight agree, then the House will get nothing done and the government will shut down perhaps for months. As the song at the top of this blog says about clowns, they are already here.
So, DC is in chaos. The divisions between the parties have been growing since 2008. They continue to grow. Republicans are divided internally by the Gaetz and Trump factions and are therefore ineffective and likely to lose the next election barring a harmonious epiphany. The Democrats, on the other hand, are united and disciplined and effective. But their unity is behind a destructive leftist and authoritarian agenda. I am not a Trump fan as regular readers of this blog know. However, many of the charges being brought against him are worthy of Soviet justice. If any of you have ever tried to value an asset or your future income as high as you possibly could to qualify for a loan, then you are as guilty as Donald Trump and jail time is in your future. Additionally, the newest Senator from California has actually been living in Maryland for some years and may be considerably to the left of anyone else in that body. This sort of appointment would have been impossible and unheard of just a decade ago. But now, it proceeds with little protest. Why?
Cultural Chaos: California Governor Gavin Newsom choose to appoint Laphonza Butler to the Senate overtly to be “the first black, female, lesbian” in the US Senate. Residency, experience, and capability are unimportant. Barbara Lee (D-CA) who is black and female but not gay, is running for that seat in 2024. She could not oppose the nomination without coming across as anti-2SLGBTQQIA+++. (yes, the letters and numbers used to define this protected and superior class of people has been officially expanded by none other than the Prime Minister of Canada). So, Congresswoman Lee could only tout her own experience in defense of her quest for the Senate. These cultural divisions, like the political ones, are widening daily.
Societal Chaos: Suicides, drug overdoses, Fentanyl deaths, crime, loneliness, and other societal ills are all on the rise and in some cases at record levels. Meanwhile, people who identify as atheists in America are also at an all-time high and those who believe in God and attend religious services regularly are at an all-time low. I do not think that correlation is just a coincidence. Much activity at the four churches in three states that I attend, is devoted to evangelism on other continents. I admire this and it shows a devotion that I’m afraid I do not possess. But, I think we need to do more evangelical work right here at home. When you are on an airplane, they tell you in case of a loss of cabin pressure to put your mask on first so you can help others. We cannot help others in foreign lands if American devolves into a Godless cesspool of despair and longing. We have big societal problems right here and, at the moment, they are getting worse.
Economic Chaos: I have written a lot about this and will continue to do so. The economy is growing and people are spending and unemployment is low so looking out the window it all seems fine. But the national debt and the trajectory of deficits may now be reaching the point that many of us have feared for some time where it feeds on itself in a “doom loop”. Many non-political economists are citing this now. Corporate debt, real estate debt and personal debt are also at levels that look unsustainable. The Auto Workers strike, and now Kaiser Permanente, are not the garden variety strikes of old but have greater economic effects. The clouds are building over the horizon.
International Chaos: You may have noticed that there is a war in Europe. Over the last 400 years or so, wars in Europe rarely stay confined to Europe. We have 10,000 illegal, undocumented, and unchecked aliens coming over the border every day. Where will they live? What jobs will they have? How many are criminals, murderers, or agents of foreign governments? These people come from almost every country on earth. Who is going to clothe and feed them? And there are wars in Africa and Asia and continual unrest in South America. We may be entering a new Soviet-style cold war with China. Anti-western alliances are forming that we have not seen since the Cold War.
My purpose in this blog is not to have you looking for a window to jump out of. It is to wake you up to the multi-dimensional aspects of our problems. Unfortunately, the chaos has just started and is likely to deepen before it recedes. The 1960s were another period of great generational unrest with the threat of nuclear war. We had massive inflation, a war in Vietnam, and a decade of economic stagnation, but we otherwise got through to “morning in America” in the 1980s. We can do that, or better, again. But we also had a similar period in the 1920s and the 1850s. Those periods did not end so well with war, depression, and much pain.
Each of us is a tiny cog in a great big wheel. We will all work for more of a 1980s ending than a 1940s ending. We do what we can to try and get through this as best we can. But we need not have ourselves and our families fall victim to the forces around us. We do not live in a vacuum, but we can survive the chaos better than most, if we are prepared.
I may sound depressing. But I am not depressed. Hard times come and go. The strong will survive and prosper.
With God’s help, we will all prepare and navigate through this together.
I remain respectfully,
Congressman John Campbell
Drive Fast & Live Free