Year 2023 is the third year of waiting for the Biden administration to make things better. That’s a fact, right?

His singular accomplishment is that now, in wintertime, in some places, the price of gas is down to the high watermark under the Trump administration. Yay, we’re back where we were before, after lots of suffering. You could rationalize that as a win. But only if you’re exceptionally creative, and not in a good way. It also comes after having splurged the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, for sake of affecting elections, when it’s supposed to be disbursed judiciously in times of extreme emergency for sake of national security.

Let’s be honest: I am judging the democrat party unfairly here. I’m not measuring them according to the yardstick they provided, or expected. It doesn’t build its agendas to appeal to people who monitor situations over time, and remember things. There is no “Year Three” of something in that party. It’s a peacock party, a show-off party, a flash-in-the-pan party.

They say: People are oppressed, and we need to re-build the economy so it works for everyone. Then they get into power and we see they have no standards. Are the oppressed still oppressed? In what way?

What standards are to be applied to the economic policies, and their results? President Biden commented on these policies in his usual creepy way, whispering into the microphone, “It’s working.” When is it not working? How do we assess?

This is an important aspect of leadership. A core component. Standards. Direction. Bearing and vector. Where are we? Where are we headed? It’s fine to head out into the tall grass if you know what you’re doing, but beyond that lies a cliff. So you should always know where you are, and you should never conclude “It’s working” just because that’s the narrative the “leaders” want to put out there. They’re always going to want to put that out there no matter who they are, so you need some other criteria.

At the end of 2023, it’s something like: Prices are still going up across the board because there’s still inflation, but the rate of inflation is going down. Is that a standard? Consider that, if the prices were still going up because the rate of inflation was going up, they’d be able brag that the rate at which the rate of inflation is going up, is going down…and why are you peasants not happy? Oh yes. They’d say that. And they’d get pissed as hell at you for not taking them seriously.

That’s the situation. Form your own opinion about whether or not “it’s working.” I’ve formed mine.

As a final sign-off, I should add that I’ve got a good feeling. It’s true that democrats are experts at crafting and disseminating narratives, because they need to be. And their most emotionally invested constituents are suckers for them. Right now, they run everything, and they’re taking it in the chops because of it. America, as a whole, is running out of patience. This may mean 2024 is a ghastly year for them, which would be good, or it may mean we need to do some more suffering before enough people learn the lesson. If justice be done, this coming year is 1980. If not…then it’s more like 1996.

We’ve survived both. That’s how I see it.

People think of Christmas spirit as: Hey look over there that’s a homeless guy. Shivering in the cold. Let us bring him warmth.

I’ve been given occasion to think about this. Fifty-eight Christmases. And I can’t help but think something needs re-working here. I mean…what are you doing, ending the year on a high note? Assuming the homeless guy you see is representative of the people who really need your help, which is stretching it a lot now. He’s supposed to make it January 1 to December 15th or so just slowly wearing away? Kind of like your underwear?

It makes no sense. Starving to death is slow, but it’s not so slow it takes eleven and a half months.

I think the whole point to the season is…needs to be…that we’re all beloved children in the eyes of God. This is why we feed the hungry. It’s not for the “homeless community,” it’s for the people who cannot repay us. There’s a difference. “Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” Matthew 25:40.

Consider our “normal” behavior throughout the year. We do kind things for each other all the time. That’s easy. If you look a little closer, you’ll see people are doing nice things for other people who can do nice things in response. They may not say so. They may not explicitly expect, let alone demand, a reward. But you’ll see the people who can’t ever hope to pay it back, are neglected.

The people who are sufficiently disciplined to wait for gratification, and go without so others can have more — they end up doing a lot more than just waiting. If you pay attention to the situation, they end up neglected entirely. It’s in our wiring. Masters and slaves.

The older I get, the more i see that is the very definition of human history. Uppers and lowers. These people up here are supposed to get everything they want, and in the moment they want it. Those other people down there are supposed to wait…we’ll get around to “rewarding” them later…and later still. And then, not at all.

It used to be slavery. We got rid of that. And we replaced it with tax-and-spend — these people are supposed to toil away, so that those other people can enjoy the fruits of their labor. Reparations. Carbon offset vouchers.

Serves ’em right. They exist solely to gratify the uppers, right?

That’s the real point of Christianity, right there, the way I see it: No. That’s not right.

Doesn’t mean Christ was a socialist. No, in socialism that’s actually where you have the uppers and lowers. That’s not a correction of our natural inclination; socialism is our natural inclination, our flawed wiring. It is the sermon of Satan. “It’s this guy’s place to say where the effort goes, your place to provide that effort,” uppers and lowers. Christianity is what gave birth to western civilization, and it says: The little people count. To go without, entirely, womb to tomb, is not anybody’s place. And if you see that happening, you are to act. Not wait for some angel to come along and fix it.

These are not entirely jolly thoughts I am having on this Christmas. But to a practicing Christian, this shouldn’t be news: We were built for a glorious purpose, and then we bit out of an apple and ruined it. Now, our place is to repent, and repentance calls for action. That doesn’t mean waiting for Governor Gavin to pump a few billion dollars more of stolen taxpayer loot to enable the bums and druggies living in tents under the freeway. It means to act, and think, yourself, correct real injustice, and treat your brothers and sisters with the dignity they deserve, as fellow children of God. Peers, whose place it is to live alongside you, not to toil away endlessly and without recompense or acknowledgement for you. Next to you. Not beneath or above you.

Don’t be poor, to help the poor. Adding to their numbers doesn’t do anything for them.

Live better, and find a way for others to live better as you do. Teach, when you have something to teach and the student has appeared. Learn, when you’re ready to learn and the master has appeared. Earn, then share…then, engage the people with whom you’re sharing, so they can earn and share. Even more than you ever could. That’s okay. Not a competition.

Merry Christmas.

People frown upon it and they often disallow it, but they don’t understand it. “Arguing about politics” is pondering the effects of decisions made. It is evaluating consequences. It is examining the situation.

It is a mere extension of voting…which, if that were to be suddenly taken away from them, would make people scream and whine about it, including the people who grouse away about arguing about politics. It is reading a room before making a speech. Finding out if the wedding is Jewish before you bring ham. It is figuring out how shallow a lagoon or cove is before you pilot your boat into it. It is looking up from your cell phone and out the windshield when you’re driving a car. Very fast.

We haven’t been doing too much of this.

Indeed, as people look around and notice how ludicrous things have become, with the homelessness and the statues being torn down and the arrows on grocery store floors telling you which way to point your cart, the ruination of Indiana Jones, James Bond, Justice League, Marvel and X-Men superheroes, the shaming of men in gyms in the TikTok videos, protests over this, that, and some other thing, kids in universities learning less and paying way more than they used to pay…all these households with months or years worth of unsecured debt, no emergency funds, so little security, so much instability, the feeling of apprehension all around…

That’s all the result of not “arguing” enough.

Too much sounds-like-a-swell-idea, full-speed-head. Not enough inspection. Too much go. Not enough look/think. That’s what has brought us here.

And you’ll notice no one is happy about it. We have all these “leaders” grabbing power they didn’t used to have, forcing us to do this, making us pay for this, stopping us from doing that. And nobody, even the people who voted for them, has any real confidence in them.

It comes after decades, generations even, of “No discussion of politics allowed at this table / in this bar.”