PrintNovember 13, 2010
'Midway' Can Be Both a Condition and a Place
Many readers of American Thinker will recognize Midway as the scene of our first and in many ways our greatest naval victory of World War II. It is not remembered now, but for the first six months of 1942, we were losing World War II. After sinking most of the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese occupied Wake Island and Guam in December 1941. In April 1942, they defeated our army in the Philippines and put it on the Death March.
After Jimmy Doolittle bombed Tokyo in April 1942, the Japanese decided to eliminate the U.S. Navy in a final battle. They sent a very strong force to occupy Midway Island, about 1,500 miles from Hawaii, figuring that this would be a challenge the Navy could not refuse and which would result in a decisive battle of annihilation of what was left of the American fleet.
The Japanese did not realize that we had broken their naval code, and instead of being surprised at Midway, we bushwhacked them, sinking their entire striking force of four heavy carriers. The Battle of Midway, June 4, 1942, is regarded as one of the most decisive naval engagements in history. It was characterized by Admiral Ernest King, the Chief of Naval Operations, as having "restored the balance of power in the Pacific."
We have to remember, of course, that in June 1942, most of the war in the Pacific was in front of us. The battles of New Guinea, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and countless others had yet to be fought. So the Battle of Midway was a turning point only because it was followed by the will of the country to "win through to absolute victory," in the words of FDR.
One way to view the conservative win in the elections last week is as another "midway." But we are also only midway through the struggle for the future of the country.
First, the Left has become so out of touch with the sensibility of the American public, they were bushwacked by the Tea Party movement, which was responsible for the scale and character of the Republican victory last week. Our election victory restored the balance of power in the government. In Washington in particular, with our having taken control of the House, the Dems can no longer ignore conservative sensibilities in formulating laws.
Second, while last week was a great victory, it was not the end of the war. We are midway in that task; there is much more to be done. Tea Partiers -- conviction conservatives -- know this, and we hope Republicans in general know it.
Under the tutelage of both parties, the country has slid far from the moorings of the Constitution -- from a limited government of enumerated powers. The most dramatic result of this is that our finances at the national, state, and local levels are out of control. Our politicians have spent the largest and strongest economy in the world into near-bankruptcy. The fact that they have done so, and done it over an extended period of time, means that there is a flaw in the American system.
We have traditionally looked to our representatives to be stewards of the national destiny while we as citizens attend to our own lives. But this bargain has not been kept by the ruling class. The ruling class has looked to its own interests, summarized by Thomas Sowell as first and last getting reelected. We have known for a long time that in politics, "compromise" has consisted of "I'll vote for your worthless project if you'll vote for my worthless project." The person not in the room for those deals is the taxpayer, who is expected to pay for both projects.
But now the piggy bank is empty. The adults have returned home to find that the children have mortgaged the family homestead, and the debt collector is at the door.
What this means is that the conservative movement, like the country after the Battle of Midway, has the heavy fighting still in front of it. The victory last week puts us only midway through the tasks of (a) further political victories in 2012 and (b) substantive reform of disastrous leftist policies, starting with government finances, including pay of government employees.
It also means one more thing. We have seen that unsupervised, our representatives will not look out for our interests or for the national interest. Herbert Meyer, who writes frequently for American Thinker, has pointed out that we, as individuals, are going to have to become permanently involved in the political process. Yes, that means carving out an additional -- a new -- slice of time from our lives to participate in the activities of our local political party.
But let's not be downhearted by this. It will be fun; it will be a new activity; it will be a higher level of participation in our communities. But it will also be necessary. The Tea Party cannot be a temporary movement. Because without our involvement as citizens, the ruling class will steal the country away from us. Angelo Codevilla, in his excellent article ("America's Ruling Class") and book (The Ruling Class), has provided us with the vocabulary. The election last week has provided us with a victory. We have to provide the will to win through to absolute victory of stewardship, prudence, and fair-mindedness -- first in our finances, second in our borders and education, and then in the scope of government.
This is a new era in the American Experiment, and a thrilling one, because we -- each one of us -- are needed to participate in the political process. We know now that, to paraphrase Clemenceau, politics is too important to be left to the politicians.
