NOT READY FOR GALT'S GULCH

Lisa Schiffren says she hasn't heard so much about John Galt since...well, ever.

I suppose, with all the projections of the Obama administration and its confiscatory tax rates on people and businesses, subordination of the productive to the dependent, public schools turned into training camps for radicals and legions of speech/thought police — i.e. — the end of liberty as we knew it — it might be time to start thinking about the mechanics of Galt's Gulch. Actually, this is probably a great time to buy property in the Rockies. Love to see the video for that...

However, I am not ready yet to give up on the possibility of John McCain losingwinning this election, let alone give up on America and Freedom. I think an Obama administration would be catastrophic--philosophically, economically, and from the standpoint of liberty. It would represent a triumph for scum like William Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, Rashid Khalili and terrorist organizations like Hamas and Al Qaeda; it would encourage and enable despots and thugs like Chavez and Ahmadinejad.

In short, Reagan's 'shining city on a hill' would dim and the forces of darkness would be poised to make a dramatic comeback in our world.

I wish I thought diffently, and that I could be as sanguine as all Obama's maniacal believers are that He will usher us into a New Age because he is "The One". I wish I even thought that an Obama victory would be as benignly counterproductive as most Democratic victories have been since the mid-20th century. But I've never been one to remain happily in denial about reality for long.

Nevertheless, the election is not over. Even if Obama wins, it is possible that things may not be as desperate as I think they will be. It is possible that after four years of non-stop Obama nonsense, it will not be enough to bring down that shining city; and that the always resilient, ever-practical, common-sense,no-nonsense, freedom-loving American spirit (the kind that Sarah Palin represents, for example) will be revived with a vengeance.

In the meantime, a little more than one week before the election, Bill Kristol's editorial, "McCain vs The Juggernaut" concludes with a rather inspiring quotation:

But for now, we can only echo the words of the 30-year-old Abraham Lincoln. On December 26, 1839, responding to the confident prediction of one of his political opponents "that every State in the Union will vote for Mr. Van Buren at the next Presidential election" and that Lincoln's opposition to the Van Buren forces was therefore bound to be in vain, Lincoln responded:

Address that argument to cowards and to knaves; with the free and the brave it will effect nothing. It may be true; if it must, let it. .  .  . The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just. .  .  . Let none falter, who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. But if after all, we shall fail, be it so.

As it happens, the Whig ticket Lincoln supported won that 1840 election. So might, against the odds, the party of Lincoln win this year.

Sorry, I'm not quite ready to give up on the greatest country in the history of civilization for Ayn Rand's--or anybody's-- utopian fantasy. I support a cause--one that believes in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness--and in that cause, America has never faltered; but if she does, so be it.

America has never been down for long.