A Sacrifice for the Nation?

I know this is a very “Catholic” way to look at things, and also a little too supernatural for some. Indulge me, please.

All parts of the US government, every president since Carter – yes, even President Reagan – played down the aggressions of the islamofascists for 30 years. For thirty years, we’ve watched endless reams of tape – “Death to the Great Satan!” Every president has been burned in effigy. And nothing was done. Talk, talk, talk. Nothing done. Until that big fat hen came home to roost.

All parts of the US government, every president since Carter, or prerhaps even Nixon – and yes, even President Reagan – played down the effect of unchecked illegal immigration. For thirty years, we’ve watched the saga, seen protests. Every president has watched it. Talk, talk, talk. Nothing done. And now, that bill has come due. And it is a very strange and muddled bill.

All parts of the US government, every president since Carter, has played down environmental concerns. President Clinton laid aside the Kyoto treaty (the Senate rejected it to, remember, unanimously). President Bush <a href="http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=080305E"<worked out an admirable alternative which has been ignored, because he's in the wrong party. Now we hear a past-president moralising about global warming. Talk, talk, talk. Whether that dubious bill is coming due or not, the press would have you think so; the public is buying it. Another bill-collector coming to the door.

Perhaps it is because we took a “vacation from history” for 8 full years before reaching this point, although – to be fair – these three issues I’ve highlighted were pushed aside for decades, by everyone.

After decades of inattention to so many issues, it seems like literally every single boil on the butt of the world is needing lancing on President Bush’s watch. I wonder how much more he can take?

This is a little like watching the crucifixion. Let us use this whip; let us use that whip, – let us mock and jeer and curse – let us make you an entertainment. Now, now carry this on your bowed and bloody back – keep carrying it. Get up – do not rest – do not look for sympathy. Get up, get up, and carry some more. Now, let us hoist you, now let us steal your breath. Now, you suffer, now you die; you are nothing. You are less than nothing, you are food for vultures…

I’m beginning to wonder if President Bush’s whole presidency is not a sacrificial fire meant to (somehow – we pray) purge and redeem this blessed nation, and protect it from the unholy Other.

If that makes you uncomfortable, I am sorry, but there are things seen and unseen, things natural and supernatural. And perhaps since September 20, 2001 there has been a touch of the supernatural in Bush’s (and – on the issue of our time, Tony Blair’s) immovable stance and the quasi-silence on their parts which so many find “cagey” or “stubborn.” And the energetic, tireless and deranged hate that attends this man certainly seems, sometimes, almost supernatural, as well.

Perhaps President Bush (and Tony Blair, re Iraq) are not “cagey and stubborn.” Perhaps they are only being faithful to a calling which we cannot hear. To what – or to whom – is the hate being faithful to?

We must be careful what we open up to. There are tipping points all over the place.