A Walk in the Clouds
There is a wonderful 1995 film with Keanu Reeves and Anthony Quinn called A Walk in the Clouds. It is set in the vineyards of Northern California and is an epic tale of a family’s struggle to maintain its heredity among the changing winds of time that buffet the world after WWII. There is something about that time and place that resonates with me and whenever I see or think of that movie, I am always glad to dedicate two hours to take myself back to those dramatic times. This morning as we sat on the chilly outdoor terrace of the Hotel d’Africa here in Rome and prepared for our walk through the city to nowhere in particular, we got to talking about the situation in Ukraine and the unusual times we are living through. We talked of Zellenskyy and Putin and then harkened back to JFK and even Ronald Reagan. We spoke of liberal democracy and all the prosperity it has brought so much of the world in the post-war era and the fact that those totalitarian countries that are clinging to power and their past have done nothing to advance the cause of humankind for their people. It is most amazing that the stark realization about what works for everyone (including the wealthy that so often lead the charge to maintain the status quo) is not so visible to everyone. The outcomes seem so very obvious to me.
So why do so many people choose to believe that there is a better way than liberal democracy to achieve broad-based prosperity? I understand perfectly well why that is so for the small cadre of elitists that form the oligarchies around the powerful autocrats. Those people are much easier to understand than the masses that comprise what we have come to know as the “base”. Rick Scott, the Republican Senator from Florida has finally done what no other republican has done since 2016, which is to publish an agenda, a platform about what he believes is the likely outcome of a Republican leadership initiative for America. This is useful to Americans because it doesn’t help rational decision-making to have one group saying what they believe has to have happen and having the other group simply say, “Not that!”
The Scott program lays out as eleven key points or action steps. Scott’s manifesto is called a “Rescue Plan” or “What Americans must do to save our country”, and as such it spends the first two pages laying out all of what Senator Scott feels is wrong in America. It follows the typical Republican plan to scare its electorate by playing up their dislike for LGBTQ, progressive reform, cancel culture, the whole “woke” trend, immigration, urban blight, “overreaction” to climate change, the intelligence community and any and all attempts to level the minority playing field. Here is a summary of the plan:
1. Education: Force kids to say the pledge of allegiance and salute the flag, refocusing on the three R’s and disallowing the teaching of critical race theory (even though that is not being taught in schools).
2. Color Blind Equality: Eliminate disclosure of race, ethnicity or skin color on government forms to eliminate any affirmative action.
3. Safety/Crime: Refund the police and strengthen their right to harshly deal with criminals. Zero-tolerance for “mostly peaceful protests”.
4. Immigration: Build the wall, secure our border and name the wall after Donald Trump.
5. Economy/Growth: Grow America’s economy, starve the Washington economy and stop socialism. Shrink the Federal government and reduce staff by 25%.
6. Government Reform/Debt: Eliminate Federal programs.
7. Fair/Fraud-Free Elections: Stop left-wing efforts to rig elections (which Democrats call “voting rights”) and pack the courts.
8. Family: Protect, defend and promote the American family, which he says is “God’s design for humanity”.
9. Gender/Life/Science: Men are men, women are women and unborn babies are babies.
10. Religious Liberty/Big Tech: Americans must be free to welcome God into their lives and not have more political correctness…particularly for Christians and Jews.
11. America First: We are Americans, not globalists.
So, here’s the funny thing about this to me, I’m in favor of education, equality, safety, immigration, growth, debt fiscal control, election integrity, family, science, religious freedom, and promoting American industry. All that and yet I find the Scott agenda woefully lacking in all of the most important elements that insure that those things do what they should. It is amazing to me that people who share a common language can define things using the same words and yet do so with such dramatically different intent. I read his agenda as follows:
1. Education – lie to our children to justify our way of life
2. Color Blind Equality – white supremacy forever as it should be
3. Safety/Crime: Police states are best for safety
4. Immigration: Keep everyone not like us out
5. Economy/Growth: Trickle down, even though it doesn’t work
6. Government Reform/Debt: No more social welfare safety net like social security, Medicare, Medicaid and certainly not Obamacare
7. Fair/Fraud-Free Elections: Only people like us can vote
8. Family: No more LGBTQ
9. Gender/Life/Science: No more LGBTQ or Abortions
10. Religious Liberty/Big Tech – Christians and a fe Jews first and no more social media
11. America First: Nationalism…let ‘em all go to hell, we don’t need them.
This man is a danger to every American, perhaps mostly to conservative Americans. I have rarely seen someone other than Hitler or Marx put together such a strongly stated manifesto. It is quite a risk. It may be his grab for the brass ring in 2024. Whatever it is, it fills in a void in the Republican Party by putting out there a platform in the absence of any alternatives. To the extent centrist Americans (whether they be Democrats, Independents or Republicans) should and likely will recoil from this agenda, realizing that Senator Scott is trying to undue a full century of American progress in one fell swoop. Do his followers not see the destructive and backward nature of what Risk Scott wants for America? The man is seriously deranged and walking in a fog of misguided religious/historic mist. He has taken to a serious walk in the clouds and taking us all over the cliff with him.