Living out the consequences of having nowhere to go

There are no recognizably American options for political affiliation in mid-2022

I often say about my blog, Late in the Day, that I’d relish a set of circumstances that would necessitate changing the name. What would be more heartening than to see real evidence that America’s and the West’s prospects for a bright future had improved?

I feel the same way about this Substack. To have reason to conclude that we’d stepped back from the precipice would be cause for celebration indeed.

Alas, the names of these outlets continue to be grimly valid.

The FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago has brought into sharp relief the cold, hard fact that a plurality of the American populace, in a country desperate for serious grownups, has signed on to a cult that consumes a person’s entire mind every bit as much as those of Jim Jones, L. Ron Hubbard or David Koresh.

Donald Trump’s grip not only on the Republican Party, but nearly all right-of-center media outlets and grassroots organizations, and a good many think tanks and journals of opinion, has not lessened.

Internet forums in thrall to Trump are calling for war, and they mean it literally.

A dozen Republican House members flocked to Trump Tower for a we-stand-with-him photo op.

There was talk a few weeks ago about Ron DeSantis’s political heft increasing to the point at which he might consider a presidential run. In some quarters he was perceived to be sane and principled, a viable foil to the Very Stable Genius. He had an impressive resume, it was said. Yale. Harvard Law School. A stint as SEAL Team One advisor and one as Special Assistant US Attorney. The House of Representatives. And as Florida governor, he has spearheaded reforms to public education and forthrightly taken on Disney when that corporation aggressively mischaracterized the parental-rights law.

He’s now proving to be the latest walking admonishment to not set store by any Republican figure who had a fleeting period of admirable conduct. The list of dismaying abandonment of character is long, and he’s now unquestionably on it, with his endorsements of election deniers Kari Lake and Doug Masriano.

And as I pointed out in June, Democrats have not provided Americans with an alternative to to this state of affairs. The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act is a rebranding of the Build Back Better legislation that failed to get over the finish line. The new iteration has a pared-down price tag, but it’s still full of free-market-skewing subsidies for prescription drugs and play-like energy forms. It imposes a 15 percent corporate minimum tax.

And, of course, there is the imposition of “equity plans” in federal agencies and departments ranging from the State Department to the EPA to the Smithsonian Institution to the USDA to Homeland Security.

A number of former Republicans and Democrats have merged their organizations to form the Forward Party, but beyond “diverse thinking,” “grace and tolerance,” “listening” and “working together,” it doesn’t appear to offer any anchoring principles.

Principles First initially held out a lot of promise, but has lately shown signs of drift.

It takes real work these days to resist being jaded, cynical, scared, or taken in by smooth talkers.

Just what kind of mindset is indeed required to deal with the fact that a recognizable America is not going to be restored?

I still have to stand by what I say on the About page here at Precipice:

I invite you to join me on a journey, a search for genuinely solid ground, on which we can plant our feet and not feel perilously close to free fall.

If our toes are truly gripping the edge of the precipice, is there time for such a search?

I’d argue that there is no other sensible use of our time.

The alternative is to give up.