I was listening to the Z-Man’s Friday podcast while exercising this morning. Camera Girl informs me that he sounds exactly like our family doctor. Since I only go for a check-up once a decade, I cannot verify that this is true but she is a very observant and intelligent (if annoying) woman.
Today his topic was about how the dysgenic aspects of our culture were leading to a low IQ population, sort of the Idiocracy theorem. There was a good bit of discussion about how as society devolves local power centers like local politicians (or call them warlords) and institutions that have control over specific functions or technologies (e.g., Silicon Valley) would begin usurping the place of the federal government as it imploded due to rank incompetence.
It was a very interesting discussion and it pointed to a mechanism for transitioning from the current stalemated political situation to a future where local politics and power structures could evolve to benefit a local concentration of competent and cooperative people. Of course, it still depends on the crumbling of our society as the moving force to allow this untethering and we’re certainly not there yet. Even though the beginnings of collapse can be seen in the increase in the frequency of airplane crashes, train derailments (not to mention naval vessels colliding) and the breakdown in law and order in the cities, still, we’re probably decades away from the official fall of the empire.
As I’ve many times stated we won’t have hit bottom until the incidences of cannibalism become too prevalent to make the newspapers (or whatever they call the news purveyors at that point in time). So, this scenario that the Z-Man is postulating is still in the somewhat distant future. But it most definitely makes me think that the idea of a Red State pushing for more autonomy is the correct model for the Right to embrace. And I think that the idea of a Council of Red States is more and more the most effective way for people on the right to affect change.
I was reading an article by Salena Zito about what Ron DeSantis is up to down in Florida. She talks about the fact that both Biden and Trump are bashing DeSantis because he’s the likely contender that both of them would face. But then she spends most of the article going over the things he’s doing in Florida. And even though it’s apparent that she’s supportive of his run for president, what strikes me is that the things he’s doing for his state would be impossible for a president to do without both a veto-proof senate and the house under his control.
So once again, it makes me think that local control of people’s lives becomes more useful than battling for control of the dysfunctional federal government. If DeSantis is actually able to enact Florida Digital Bill of Rights
he will be so far ahead of the rest of the country that the rest of us who toil under the yoke of internet tyranny will curse the fate that left us outside his benevolent rule. Let’s face it, Florida is marching forward, throwing off the culture war shackles of the Left while the rest of us are being dragged backward in our Antifa and BLM controlled hellholes.
I think DeSantis should consider carefully whether he will have more power and more influence as the leader of a group of Red State governors rather than as an embattled Republican president. And that’s not taking anything away from him as a presidential candidate. If somehow he ends up as the candidate, I’ll vote for him certainly. But how he gets there without antagonizing the millions of Trump-only voters is not clear to me. Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis should be sitting down and talking about this election. Even if they hate each other, even if both of them want to win above all else, they should look at all the options and decide what they can do to maximize the good outcomes from their campaigns. In fact, what they should do is agree that whichever wins the other will throw full support to him. And also offer the vice-presidential spot to his opponent first. That would be putting country in front of ego. Although I don’t think DeSantis should leave Florida to be a vice president. He is so much more effective now; it would be a waste. And I doubt Trump would accept the largely ceremonial duties of a Veep. He craves a larger role.
So, these are the things I’ve been thinking about today. I try to stitch together the various bits of information and find commonalities and synergies. And maybe it’s all just part of my echo chamber. But today I heard things that give me a little hope for the future. And for a Friday that’s pretty good.