Tom Riggins: Interesting times

There is an old Chinese curse that says, “May you live in interesting times.” Historically, “interesting” can be a euphemism for “hold on, it is going to be a bumpy ride.” Sleepy Joe is now President of the United States. By hook or by crook, mainly, the latter, he achieved that goal. How long he stays in office is another matter. His inaugural address was touted by the toady media as the best one in a long time. To me it was nothing more than old, tired mealy mouth platitudes, but the rush to cover him is on. His words and his actions do not match. He promises to unite the country, yet said nothing against the impeachment action against Trump. Unlike Ford, who pardoned Nixon in 1974 to “heal the nation.”

Biden’s first actions on the bumpy road were numerous executive orders to undo much of what Trump accomplished. The change of which, in my opinion does no one any good but the Washington elites. But we knew that early on. There are a lot of angry people out there, somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 million, and a lot of doom and gloom predictions. Some may become fact, others probably not. I expect, and hope for, chaos in the legislative branch as some Democrats may not be on board with their full agenda. We shall see.

I subscribe to an investment newsletter. Its author, who I will not name, had an interesting view. Since he has been right on nearly all macro issues, I give his views some credibility. He believes we are on the edge of a cultural war. While rarely political, his statements concerning Biden were less than complimentary. He views VP Harris as dangerous without “any redeeming values, beyond ambition.” He views her as extremely detrimental to the country.

He sees a moral and cultural war, perhaps evolving into a civil war, citing the fact that people in blue and red counties can’t even talk to each other anymore. He says, correctly, that you can’t solve moral and cultural differences by passing more laws or more government mandates. He suggests that the best possible outcome that we can have today is for the people in the left-leaning, so-called blue counties, and the right-leaning, so-called red counties, to separate in the manner of cantons in Switzerland. Swiss cantons pay a relatively small national defense tax, with all other government functions and taxes being local. Since the federal government has intruded into every aspect of our life, and will probably continue to do so at an accelerated rate, in my opinion this may be a long shot.

Deep philosophical differences divide Americans. We may now be looking at irreconcilable differences. Families often cannot now have any meaningful discussion. The best way to solve this may be for people to go their separate ways, as opposed to fight for control of the central government and then impose their views on the losers. Of course, Democrats want overall control so this will be vehemently opposed.

The aforementioned author expects the U.S. itself to change form radically over the next few generations. In another seemingly outrageous prediction, he says the U.S. will probably break up into different regions. America was more than just a piece of land. It was a unique idea that its citizens shared. But now many want to rewrite history and disavow its principles and ideas.

There is a huge amount of dissatisfaction and unrest. Millions of voters are taking the same stance of an illegitimate Biden Presidency as the Democrats took with Trump. Will the will of the people override the media and the Washington elite? Only time will tell.

Democrats have vowed to punish Trump supporters. I don’t think they can fully accomplish that with 75 million voters, but they may make a concerted attack against the vocal ones. The federal government can make life miserable, from IRS audits to privacy intrusions to arrest without due process as “terrorists.” And make no mistake, Democrats would like nothing more than an excuse to declare martial law.

With that in mind, I urge you to speak out, but choose your words wisely. Vocalizing support for armed insurrection will backfire on you and possibly on those you associate with. Keep in mind that what you say can harm you, if not worded properly. More importantly, let’s think about solutions rather than just vent. With solutions, someone will take the lead. We are living in interesting times.