Adolescent America

 A pastor visited a church congregation where his friend played the piano. The piano was dead center in the front of the sanctuary. Yes, it was in front of the cross, the altar, and the baptismal, and the pianist didn’t like it. The church leadership refused his request to move the piano somewhere less central so it wouldn't supplant the visual cues many believers find helpful in worship.

It was a couple of years before the pastor was able to attend this church service again. Most pastors have their own Sunday morning commitments and attending a service in another congregation is a rare treat. This time the piano was off to the side. After the service, the pastor asked his friend how he got the piano off to the side.

His answer: “One inch a Sunday.”

One inch a Sunday.

Let’s turn to the midterm elections. This is an election cycle short on issues but significant—very significant—on the future of liberty. Some states have a real chance of electing socialists to a variety of offices.

America seems to be struggling through adolescence. A sizeable number of Americans, mostly younger Democrats, think socialism is the solution, even though they can’t articulate the problem.

Socialism sounds cool. Each according to his ability and each according to his needs sounds pseudo-biblical. Ronald Reagan said it best. The only place where socialism might work is in heaven where they don’t need it or hell where they already have it.

But it sounds so cool. Everybody gets what they need. No problem, right?

Right, except that the quest for power is much stronger than an unsuccessful philosophy. Power abhors a vacuum, and that is the only place that socialism might succeed.

But capitalism seems unfair. The rich seem to get richer, and the poor get poorer. The latter part seems contrived, since the poorest American is far richer than over half the world’s population. Being richer than 70 or 80 percent of the world's people wouldn’t be much of a stretch.

But socialism is about bettering people’s lives. Our Constitution does not do that. No matter how many times people repeat it, it’s just not true. I suggest rereading our most fundamental document. It’s right up front: Promote the general welfare. This republic has one of its founding principles as promoting better lives for its people.

It’s not perfect. Things move slowly. Some things just don’t seem fair, but in the end, we still make progress without surrendering our liberty. Ditching slow progress for the illusion of progress at the expense of liberty is immature.

It seems that America is struggling through adolescence. When a child goes through adolescence, they reach a point where it seems like their parents became geniuses overnight. The eighteen- or twenty-year-old kid asks their parent, "How did you get so smart?"

Illusions and delusions, fantasies without facts or substance, give way to reality and common sense. Life is no longer a video game. The values those old, unreasonable people known as parents espouse suddenly make sense.

When the nation is delusional, it risks losing liberty not only for this generation but for many that follow. It will not be reclaimed without paying a significant price in American blood.

But what could it hurt to see what happens in a few states? If it doesn’t work out there, they could always vote the other way next time.  Really?

Consider the piano that moved an inch a Sunday. It’s the How to Boil a Frog story. It’s an old one. I probably heard it for the first time fifty years ago.

Put a frog in boiling water, and it jumps out. No way that creature is staying in that water. Get another frog (you won't catch that first frog again) and put it in a pot of room-temperature water, then slowly turn up the heat about one degree every couple of minutes. In a couple of hours, you will have boiled frog.

It was just a degree here and there. It just felt a little warm. It’s still warm; it even seems a little warmer than before. Must be climate change, perhaps El Niño. Nothing to see here.

No more roleplaying the rationalization process of the frog in the pot of water. Small changes that go unnoticed or are otherwise dismissed become big, sometimes irreversible changes.

That is the case with adolescent America, except most voters should have left their juvenile phase long ago. The something-for-nothing lure has worked for so long, and is branching out with new venues.

But I hate Trump. How can I vote for anyone he endorsed? This might sting a little. Suck it up, buttercup!

You’re an adult now. You don’t get to vote for homecoming queen anymore. This isn’t the student council election where the main, perhaps only, issue is popularity. This is your nation's future. It is the future of your children and their children. That should be enough to move beyond hate to the real consequences of how you vote.

Today, you have actual liberty—more than most of the world. In twenty years, those in power will promise you a little liberty in return for not rioting. It won’t be delivered, and riots will be met with domestic violence from the unapproachable government on a scale not seen since Pol Pot.

Two decades from now, adolescent America will awaken and wonder how those dreaded, conservative, even MAGA people knew this would happen. How could they be right and I miss it?

They lived lives that loved liberty and did what was needed to preserve it for their children’s children. They lived with eyes wide open, studied history, and many put their lives on the line for a place like no other in history. They saw that power indeed corrupts, and the model ordained and established in our Constitution was the best the world has ever known at keeping government authority in the hands of the people.  

Individual liberty is not just doing what you want. It’s doing what is right and necessary without being subjugated to a person or council who decides what is right and worth doing without your input.

America is far from perfect, but before the baby goes out with the bathwater, we might want to note the incredible progress this nation has made, while remaining a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people, at least for a little while longer.

C’mon kids. Grow up a little, at least for November. You can resume your TDS rants in December and still have your liberty intact for Christmas and New Year's.

I know adulting isn’t always fun, but try it this November. The republic, your liberty, and the lives of your grandchildren’s children are at stake.