Not This August

"Not this August, nor this September; you have this year to do what you like. Not next August, nor next September; that is still too soon... But the year after that or the year after that they fight."

- Ernest Hemingway, Notes on the Next War

When I was in Missoula, Montana earlier this month, I was browsing through a used book store called The Birds Nest. I happened to come across an old, out-of-print science fiction novel published in 1955 by the late C.M. Kornbluth titled Not This August. The above Hemingway quote appears at the novel's beginning.

The story begins ten years in the future from the author's standpoint. The year is 1965 and the United States has lost World War III, the country's last defenses having been overrun at El Paso, Texas by a combined Russian and Chinese army. But as our occupied country, re-named the North American People's Democratic Republic, slides into a dark night of communist repression, a farmer in Chiuga County, New York named Billy Justin makes a startling discovery that just may turn the tide against the Reds.

The novel is a quick, captivating read - I finished it in a couple of days, before I returned to Texas. I thought of it again recently, though, as I was watching a documentary about the 2008 presidential election called Media Malpractice: How Obama got Elected and Palin was Targeted. If you haven't seen it yet, do so. Produced, directed, and narrated by John Ziegler, a Los Angeles-based radio talk show host, Media Malpractice examines the flagrant pro-Barack Obama, anti-Sarah Palin bias shown by much of the American television news media during the 2008 campaign.

The documentary is just under two hours long and absolutely gut-wrenching to watch. Time and again, Ziegler demonstrates how Barack Obama, the least-qualified candidate of a major political party in this country's history, was given a free pass by most of the major television networks when it came to questions about his background or qualifications. Sarah Palin, however, was mercilessly grilled on both, most infamously in a heavily-edited interview with CBS News anchor Katie Couric.

No doubt, media bias played a big factor in Barack Obama's victory over John McCain last fall, but what likely sealed the deal was the financial crisis that hit in mid-September. Shortly thereafter, Obama took the lead in all of the major public opinion polls and never relinquished it.

It is all very difficult to endure - seeing the continuing attacks against Sarah Palin and her family and watching the Obama administration commit blunder after blunder. I wonder if the GOP will be able to make any headway in next year's presidential election. They will have a good chance , I think, but voter fraud and a continuing left-wing domination over much of the news media will be difficult obstacles to overcome, as will the ever-present meme pushed by the media and entertainment industries that conservative and Republican candidates - and their supporters - are stupid.

The "Republicans are stupid" meme is an old one, dating back at least as far as the 1950s when liberals tried to portray Dwight Eisenhower as a buffoon in contrast to the allegedly cerebral Adlai Stevenson, whom Eisenhower defeated twice by landslide majorities. Personally, I remember the meme quite well from when I was growing up during the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush presidencies and was not at all surprised to see it return when Bob Dole sought the presidency in 1996 and George W. Bush won it four years later.

Being historically knowledgeable helps one notice such patterns. Regrettably, most people are ignorant of history, and in the case of those on the the pseudo-intellectual left, willfully so. Hence, the election of an unqualified dolt like Obama. One of the best parts of Ziegler's film comes when several Obama supporters are interviewed at random, revealing their basic ignorance on such matters as which party controls Congress and the identity of such prominent Democratic leaders as Barney Frank, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi.

But hey, Obama was the self-proclaimed candidate of "hope" and "change". What else mattered? As Calvin Coolidge, one of the better presidents of the twentieth century, once said, "It is characteristic of the unlearned that they are forever proposing something which is old, and, because it has recently come to their own attention, supposing it to be new."

So now we are stuck with the candidate of the unlearned as president. Is there any hope for deliverance? Not this August.

Update:

Perhaps there's a glimmer of hope with the burgeoning Inspector General-firing scandal? Check out Robert Stacy McCain's latest post at the Hot Air Green Room, and read more at his blog. But consider this caveat by McCain: "...the White House press corps does as much hard-hitting investigative journalism as the Jonas Brothers fan-club newsletter."