Here in the Great Land, it's been a pretty typical summer, a tad cooler than some, perhaps. For the last month we've been seeing the usual August weather in the Susitna Valley; rainy spells interspersed with a few sunny days here and there. That's a tad frustrating when you're trying to get your house painted, but that's just something one has to deal with; as the old saying goes, everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.
Alaska summers are beautiful, but they are short. And this morning, we were reminded again of that inevitable passage, that circle of the seasons, as today marked the third morning in a row when we awoke to a hard frost. Upside: The mosquitoes and no-see-ums are pretty much all gone. Not-so-upside: Fall is here. Yes, it is. Fall comes early here. The birches and poplars' leaves are yellowing. The snowline is already working its way down the Talkeetna Range to the east and the Alaska Range to the north. The summer birds are leaving; the swallows are long gone, the sandhill cranes have formed flocks and headed south, and even our little juncos, who don't so much migrate as just start to drift to the south in fall, are thinning out. My Mom always said that the fall travels south at the pace of a man walking, and that old man is already on his way.
This is a wheel that never stops turning, whether we think about it or not, whether we notice it or not. Living out in the woods where we do, we can't really help but notice it, we know winter is coming, as the trees and the frost remind us: a long, cold, dark Alaska winter. But we have ample firewood and a full heating oil tank, along with a freezer full of fish and meat. We'll be fine. So, we are free then to focus on other concerns, on human concerns. Because the human world, while still perforce part of these natural cycles, operates in a rather more linear fashion. Our lives are punctuated by events: Births, deaths, graduations, weddings - and elections. And this year, this midterm election, well, it's shaping up to be a doozy.
I follow politics like lots of guys follow sportsball, and have done so since the Carter Administration. I have never seen the level of vitriol from the Left as we have seen since 2015, who has been gunning (in some cases, literally) for President Donald Trump since he came down that golden escalator in 2015 to announce his run for president as a Republican. That vitriol seems to grow worse day by day, and it has expanded past President Trump to Republicans in general. The Democrats, most notably their "democratic socialist" wing, intend to win this November. They intend to take the House of Representatives and the Senate. They intend to stack the Supreme Court. They intend to prohibit election ID requirements and proof of citizenship for voter registration. They intend to throw the borders open again. They intend to enshrine coverage for transgender treatments and surgeries for minors. And they will raise taxes, eliminate our newfound energy security, and send our economy into a tailspin.
These are the odds. This is what is at stake.
I’m old enough (barely) to remember Richard Nixon’s appeal to the “Silent Majority.” That is, in large part, who we are. Most people to the political right aren't regularly out on the streets, waving strangely identical printed signs and screaming like lunatics. We have jobs. We have work. We have taxes to pay. And, from now until November, we will be inundated with competing advertising. The season has started.
But the key will be November. The games, the rhetoric, the attacks will end on Election Day, and then the Left will be able to see the bitter fruits of their demonization of political opponents. That's when our time comes. That's when the silent majority has its say. That's when we vote, and vote we must. If you can vote early, vote early, get that vote banked. If your state has a process to track your ballot, do so; make sure it is counted. If your state has mail-in balloting, don't drop it in the mailbox; take it to a formal ballot box. It's still an awful system, but at least that way you eliminate one variable. If you are voting on Election Day, let nothing stop you. Vote. Take a friend to vote, take your spouse to vote, take your family to vote, take your neighbors to vote, as long as they are Republicans. (If they are Democrats, leave them to find their own way.) If you have to walk to vote, walk. If you have to drive ten miles in the rain or snow to vote, drive it. If you have to wait in line outside in said rain or snow, bring an umbrella and suck it up. And, as I've said many times, if you have to crawl in your hands and knees through ten miles of scrap iron and busted glass to vote, then get to crawling. It's that important.
We need every vote.
By November, there will be snow on the ground here in the Great Land, or at least, in our corner of it. The bears will be denned up. The moose will probably start munching on our favorite ash trees and our raspberry bushes, as they seem to do every year. The nights will be growing longer and colder, with overnight temperatures very possibly already below zero. Those things will happen no matter what we do.
But we can prevent the other, even colder weather that would ensue from a Democratic Congress. That's what makes this election so important. That is why, at all hazard, at any cost, every person to the right of center, every Republican or Republican-leaning independent, has to vote. We have to make this too big to rig, beyond the margin of shenanigans. In the name of freedom, in the name of law and order, in the name of the republic, in the name of liberty and property, we have to win in November.
Let's get this done.
