Many of my previous articles deal with problems and failures in America. Bungles the Clown’s administration is an easy target. Sure it’s low-hanging fruit or that which has already fallen to the ground. Still, I try to offer a different perspective or view as I see it but rarely discuss the other costs associated with the dilemmas.

Brother-in-law David sent me an article by Victor David Hanson. If you don’t know his work, I recommend you become familiar with him. This particular article deals with Gavin Newsom’s weird idea of freedom. It spurred the idea of the following commentary…

In my previous articles, I cover the financial costs of our political forays into the fantastic, but I rarely discuss the collateral, hidden, implied, or non-monetary associated damages.

That’s where I’m going today.

I’ve said many times nothing is free – there are costs to everything, yet we fail to consider incidental impacts outside the usual box. We frequently exclude non-monetary expenses like reputation, diminished respect, ambivalence, and apathy. These are unquantifiable but impactful nonetheless.

When someone broaches the topic of politics, my immediate reaction is panic, which turns to categorical fear. I immediately expect a sales pitch or religious prostylization. The old axiom, “opinions are like assholes, everyone has one, and it always stinks,” is an immediate mental warning.

Shields Up!

I enjoy a spirited and intelligent conversation on most topics, but religion and politics will curdle buttermilk for me. There are only a handful of people – less than five – with whom I will even entertain these two subjects. My issue is that they are synonymous – politics is a religion, and religion is political.

Here is an excellent example in line with the title of this article.

Our passions for religion and politics have blended and inextricably connected them. The mention of one invokes thoughts and fears of the other.

I should mention that I don’t care what god or gods you pray to or if you believe that the Great Green Arkleseizure or Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe – and then – neither did Anthony Fauci. That’s your faith, and I have my own, thank you. But when you insist that you are right and that I must believe as you without empirical evidence, we are on different planets and speaking different languages. We will probably never consider politics or religion as conversational topics again. That is if we ever talk again.

Politics and religion are like the two faces on the coin, except that this taboo coin has politics on one and religion on the other, rather than heads or tails.

I use a coin as a metaphor for having two choices: religion and politics. They exist independently but are seen as united by the coin. One is rarely considered without the other.

Religion and politics are methods and tactics used to subjugate people. These ideologies are responsible for all the wars and problems facing humanity. It’s a convenient vessel into which we cram all our problems and failures and use them as the basis for our decisions – it’s become our excuse.

Which aspect that came into play first is a coin flip.

They arouse irrational and preposterous behaviors in generally sane people, provoking insanity in those so predisposed.

The “peaceful demonstrations” during the 2020 “Summer of Love” are an appropriate example. $2B in damages, and twenty-five lives lost, all because of the “Trump Derangement Syndrome” (TDS) – a political, ethical, and moral cost resulting from the religious persecution of a political figure as instigated by a political opponent and the religious fervor of the media.

I’m compelled to ask – what price is too high?

Apparently not; we continue to beat that drum.

The ceaseless persecution of the “Violent Terrorist Insurrectionists on January 6th” is the adjunct political- result. It smacks of religious zealotry. Doesn’t this entire spectacle resemble the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, the Auto-da-fe’, maybe the Nazi Kristallnacht? The allegation of FBI collusion and instigation is also in play. The value of victory is perceived as enormous, or the actors would never contemplate this transaction as viable.

Is this the new normal?

Sho’ ’nuff! The unprecedented FBI raided Mara Lago, President Trump’s home in Florida adds to the ledger. This political transaction is still in process but smacks political/religious persecution.

Cost: America now resorts to “banana-republic”, third-world tactics to eliminate a political rival. Welcome to Northern Venezuela. If you don’t like the political playing field, weaponize the DOJ to deal with them. If there are any students of Socialist Tactics, you’ll find this one in the playbook.

I seriously doubt we’ll return to normal, whatever that looks like, but I hope we remember the lessons of this folly.

Again, I have my doubts.

This concocted character assassination permanently adjoined religion and politics, irreparably fracturing this country. Moreover, it critically wounded America’s faith in our justice system and those who should safeguard it.

The incidental and unquantifiable cost? Consider your current opinion of:

* The Executive Branch

* The Judicial Branch

* The Legislative Branch

* The Cabinet

* BLM

* The FBI

* The CIA

* The NSA

* Defund the Police

* The Speaker of the House

* Donald Trump

* The Violent Terrorist Insurrection of January 6th, 2020

Does this massively expensive government satisfy our needs? But then again – they are ALL broken branches!

Are you more assured that our interests are in concert?

Are we now a banana republic, no better than any third-world country?

Although political, these instances arouse an innate and nearly religious response. We believe that what we know all about these circumstances and actions. We trust they are factual portrayals of these events. We chose to ignore that everything we know about them is someone’s interpretation of the situation.

Very few of us experienced or participated, yet we believe every word as gospel; still, those we trust for this opinion were not even there.

It’s like the gospels, according to CNN, MSNBC, or Fox, courtesy of the Altar of Enlightenment.

The linkage between the religion of politics and the politics of faith is now firmly and inexorably analogous. Religion became political in the ancient world, but politics became a religion in America.

Some are even willing to kill for their beliefs!

How do you define your political faith?

Are you Republican, Democrat, Socialist, or Liberal?

There are 420 political persuasions.

There are 4,300 religions in the world.

The result is 1,806,000 combinations.

Which do you believe?

President Thomas Jefferson described the 1st Amendment as erecting a “wall of separation between church and state.” It protects both the free exercise of religion and against an “establishment of religion.”

The media and big tech destroyed that wall on our watch.

Our obsession with the politics of religion and the religion of politics is the cost of letting someone think for us, as is our flagging faith and belief in America.

Yes, I mean that too few people think for themselves.

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) was sacrosanct. Their decisions and interpretations of our laws are accepted as the laws of America – or they were.

Remember him – VP for #44 – Dan Quayle thought that Roe vs. Wade was Washington’s two alternatives for crossing the Delaware River.

We turned this SCOTUS ruling into another religious war over a political party’s intentional misinterpretations and misleadings and lackeys, the Media and Big Tech. We bought another bridge.

SCOTUS stated that abortion was not a constitutional right and should reside at the state level. That was the decision. None of the other bullshit attributed to SCOTUS is true. They are political interpretations by the media to reinforce the ideology of the DemoSoc party. A political party turned to the religious zeal of their ideology to further the cause. Flip the coin – which came first, politics or religion. Aren’t they the same, now?

This decision was so polarizing that an acolyte from the PRC (People’s Republic of California) traveled to DC to assassinate Justice Kavanaugh.

Was it religious or political fervor?

Maybe a bit of both?

This time the coin stands on edge.

The only way for the DemoSocs to win was to mislead America by playing to the religious-like zealotry and passions they fabricated surrounding this judicial decision.

The sentiment among the faithful was that this decision represented a clear government overreach to squash women’s and LGBTQ+ rights. That’s an intentionally misleading opinion – The Gospel, according to Big Tech, the Media, and their owners, The DemoSoc party.

There was no impact on any rights, except that it removed abortion from the constitutional rights list, moving it to the States where it belongs. But politics is religion, and religion is politics, forever linked in the hearts and minds of most Americans.

Blaming someone for your failures is a convenient albeit temporary dodge. Eventually, you’re found out when the lies you fly come home to roost. Your honor and integrity suffer. There’s the cost of lying.

The past twenty months have been an exercise in misdirection and obfuscation. Every failed policy, decision, or action was blamed on someone or something else.

Aesop’s fable about “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” comes to mind. I’ve used this fable sever times because it exemplifies the price of lying.

It’s one thing for a bored shepherd boy but an entirely different situation for a head of state. Even though the job description is similar, the warning applies equally to all.

When Bungles the Clown addresses the country, do you immediately believe him, or do you question his motive and examine his rhetoric, at least the intelligible parts?

Are you predisposed to trust him, or did the media and big tech convince you that his babblings and stumblings are cognitive degeneration and confusion?

Do you wonder who’s really running the country?

My father died from Dementia and Alzheimer’s. I watched the man I idolized waste away. I know the signs. I see the same indicators in Bungles the Clown. But he’s the high priest, the Grand Wazoo, the leader of the free world. We have to follow him.

Over the cliff?

His mendacity damages the country internally, but more importantly, on the world stage. A simple examination of cause and effect divulges all. It’s not the financial calamities but the Bungles the Clown’s honesty and integrity that suffer permanent harm. That’s the cost.

My assessment of our position as a world power is that I find it appalling. The people we’ve entrusted with our country have allowed it to be so blatantly corrupted and contaminated for political and financial gain.

Their negligence and greed piss on the grave of every patriot who died for our liberties. Allowing this charade to continue not only desecrates America but opens the door to our destruction by enemies, foreign and domestic.

The barbarians are no longer at the gates but through them and in control!

It’s not enough that politicians and bad actors pander to Bungles the Clown to garner power, but they profit from their treachery by selling America to the highest bidder. Bungles the Clown is worth millions due to his position in government. His allegiance is to his portfolio, not to America.

I’ve lost faith in my government.

They’ve lost my trust.

Gaining it back will take some significant work.

That’s the cost!

August 22, 2022

~ The Author ~
Charles R. Dickens was born in 1951, is a veteran of the Vietnam war, for which he volunteered, and the great-great grandson of the noted author, whose name he shares.

He is a fiercely proud American, who still believes this is the greatest country on the planet, with which we’ve lost control and certainly our direction. He grew up in moderate financial surrounding; were not rich by any stretch, but didn’t go hungry – his incredibly hard working father saw to that. As most from that era, he learned about life from his father, whose story would take too long to tell, other than to say that, he is also a fiercely proud American; a WWII and Korean war, veteran Marine.

Charlie was educated in the parochial system which, demanded that you actually learn something, and have capability to retain it before you advance. He attended several universities in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree, and chased the goose further to a master’s, and has retained some very definite ideas about education in this country.

In addition, Charlie is a retired blues guitar and vocalist – a musician. This was his therapy career. Nothing brings him as much joy as playing music, and he wishes that he could make a living at it… but alas… life goes on!

That’s Charlie… a proud, opinionated, and passionate American.