What might have been.

Reading this article reminded me of how I was encouraged as Tea Party Conservatives like Mia Love won primaries, beating go-along-to-get-along Big Government Republicans, and then won election to Congress.. idealogues (a complimentary adjective) who had the courage of their convictions.

Mia Love, Paul Ryan, Mike Lee, Justin Amash, Tim Scott, Ted Cruz, and many others that had the integrity and wisdom to move government to the Right. It seemed the arc of history was bending towards liberty and fiscal responsibility. Actual hope and change was on the horizon. The ideals of the Founders were resurgent.

Then the 2016 election changed my outlook.

We inarguably live in an Idiocracy. A yuge, orange, narcissistic, Idiocracy. Now I think Representatives and Senators like those I mentioned will always be a small minority. It's not likely to get better.. i mean schools are graduating people who don't know shit about their own country's history but they are damn sure it's shameful.

People today aren't ideologues, they just want free shit. The popularity of socialism is rising while capitalism and the rule of law, proven indisputably by history as the cure for poverty, are in disrepute. People think the government can create prosperity or wealth out of thin air by simply raising the minimum wage or discouraging trade with foreign countries.

History and economics are indispensable fields of study; now a scant few have any knowledge of either. Lessons that could have been learned in good schools are about to be learned the hard way. Teachers are great. Teachers unions, well, not so much. 

The next 4 years are going to be very interesting times, in the Chinese proverb sense.