Brett Kavanaugh’s seating on the Supreme Court marks a high political victory for moderates and conservatives.  It marks, for now, the end of the activist court, a rebalancing of our government – a significant step in stemming the headlong tumble into unrealistic fever dreams of the Left.

And yet this last week has not been one for celebration, it has been one of analysis about how ugly the battle got and for trepidation about what is to come.  There seems to be no healing of the wounds of war.  Instead there is a hardening of the lines and preparation for the next fight.  This last week has been a time of grasping tightly to our souls lest we lose them in the battles yet to be fought.

Darkening my personal mood even further has been significant bouts of a very ugly flu experienced by my wife and I.  While so suffering, my mother passed away, a close cousin has been diagnosed and treated for cancer, a friend has fallen and broken both a hip and a shoulder, and a close friend of decades has been in hospital for a month undergoing treatment for newly diagnosed leukemia.

And then Hurricane Michael.

Indeed it has been a bleak time.  But into this time came yesterday…

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Much commentary this week about whether the Hard Left, with a lot of Democrats in tow, has jumped the shark.  They just don’t seem to be making sense anymore.  Hillary Clinton contends that there can only be civility when Democrats are in office.  Apparently, storming the doors of the Supreme Court does not constitute “a mob.” Oh, and Eric Holder proposes kicking political opponents.  There have been times when such things would not even make the news, and until very recently, even if they did they would be quickly dismissed as the rantings of silly people.  But in the modern age, when we live in a stew of bad ideas, this sort of thing makes a sort of sense – at least enough to have to give it reasoned attention.

Consider:

• We live in time when it is considered bad form to tell a child they have failed at something.
• We live in a time of ideological socialism – “My ideas are just as good as your ideas.”
• We live in a time where churches talking about sin is rare, very rare.
• We live in a time when youth sports leagues do not keep score lest anyone think themselves a loser.
• We live in a time where everybody claims a identity based grievance, so much so there is much fake scholarship in the field.
• Identity is everything and everything is identity.
• We live in an age where religion, all religion – and especially Christianity – is considered oppressive.
• We live in an age of moral relativism.

It is not surprising that people raised in and educated about such things would behave the ways we are seeing.

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I sat down with Ambassador John Bolton in the OEOB Thursday at 11 AM:

Audio:

10-12hhs-bolton

Transcript:

HH: Mr. Ambassador, thanks for talking to me. It’s good to see you again.

JB: Glad to be with you.

HH: You’ve prepared your entire life for this job. And you arrive with the most disruptive
president since Andrew Jackson and a world order that is collapsing. Is the job what you
thought it would be, given all the years that you’ve studied the NSA?

JB: Well, I think it’s, it’s a job that really gives you an opportunity to serve the president who’s in
office. And every president has a different style. I think the job of the National Security Advisor
really is to make sure that whatever the style of the president, that he gets the information he
needs to make decisions, that he has the range of options that he needs, and then that those
decisions are carried out. So that’s my job. I think it’s fine that we’ve got a disruptive president
even in a kind of chaotic world because there are a lot of changes that need to be made. We’re
seeing a lot of due bills come due from the Obama administration so it’s very fast paced. But I
wouldn’t trade it for anything else.

HH: Let me ask you about your old job since it’s now open, United Nation ambassador. Your
recommendation to the President – twofold – what kind of personality, and should this be a job in
the Cabinet or should it be sub-Cabinet?

JB: Well, you know, on the second one, it’s really up to the president. He can make any job
cabinet rank. And he’ll make his decision as he sees best. I, I did not have Cabinet rank when I
was UN ambassador. I don’t think it affected me in any way either up at the U.N. or in my
dealings within the administration. I think it’s a job where you have to be prepared to get deep
into the substance of issues. I think it’s very important in implementing policy. And mostly what
you do at the U.N. is implement policy, that you understand the significance of the actions you’re
taking, and that you be part of a team. I felt very privileged when I was there. I helped make
policy, but I helped mostly to carry policy out.

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So, the topic du jour yesterday seemed to be about whether the president’s rhetoric was responsible for creating the incivility in our current political  climate.  Of course there were all sorts of talking heads contending that the Dems started it.  At first my mind turned back to this press ambush of Mitt Romney, then this one.  But then it turns out I did not need to turn back the clock.  the current conversation got, shall we say, a bit testy.  See it here.  Somewhere there was a producer waxing eloquent about that being “good television.”  I just thought it answered the question under discussion.

And people wonder why I don’t watch TV “news.”