AUTONO—ME

Although America’s extreme right and left are obviously poles apart, they share one characteristic: They cannot abide anything that challenges them. Those who disagree with them are subject to vitriol, maledictions, riots in the streets, and worse.

The January 6 Capitol riot because of the “stolen” election was the product of the far right. The current demonization of the Supreme Court because of its abortion decision is a product of the far left. The Capitol riot that was apparently ready to take over the Congress and that threatened the lives of elected officials; the vicious personal attack on a Supreme Court Justice by the former Democratic presidential candidate in the aftermath of Roe; certain Democrats advocating — with foul-mouthed obscenities — the cancellation of Fourth of July celebrations… We pray that these signs of disintegration are limited to the fringes, but the prescient lines of the famous Irish poet William Buter Yeats come to mind: “.…things fall apart, the center cannot hold; the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity….” Written over a century ago, it is even more relevant today than in 1919. The very fabric holding contemporary society together is fraying — with consequences that raise the question if such a society is sustainable.

For many Americans — and for that matter much of mankind  — objective truth, clear-cut right versus wrong, good versus evil are irrelevant. The definition of good has become simple: Whatever pleases me. Whatever displeases me is bad. If an impartial jury renders an unpopular decision, wholesale break-ins, thefts, and mob rule can be anticipated, because my preconceived views were not sustained. If a national election does not yield what I want, riots are the result.

With the country’s social stability being threatened, sober citizens had a right, after the Roe decision, to expect national leadership to step up and say We disagree with the Court, and will try every legal means to overturn it, but it is the law of the land, and we will uphold it, as we swore to do when we took office. But instead of courageous leadership we have cheap demagoguery. The decision is “despicable,” says a leading member of the Biden cabinet; and President Biden himself calls the decision “outrageous.” Instead of the leaders controlling the mob, the mob controls the leaders.