Bailout fallout: Living in times that try our souls

Thomas Paine was wrong about many things, but right when he said
the American Revolution was a time that tried men’s souls. Today we
face times to try the souls of even the best and strongest women
and men.

These comments are intended for the human heart, not for balloting.
In a volatile election year, a time Oklahoma author Marc Nuttle
deems a “moment of truth,” American conservatives have lived
through what Charles Dickens deemed the best of times, and the
worst of times.

Those paying attention went from despondency as the preferred
candidates of most conservatives faded in spring primaries, to
near-euphoria after Sen. John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as
his running mate, then back to despair as the breadth of the
massive federal bailout of banks and lenders became clear in late
September.

No one is being marched to the guillotine, and most of us won’t
have to worry, as do our soldiers in Baghdad or Kabul , whether or
not we will face a hail of terrorist bullets on the next drive or
walk. But still, the last few months in America , with a whirlwind
reaped from bad seeds planted over decades, were consequential.

Nuttle told a group of friends at a recent luncheon that one U.S.
Senate staffer told him the choice faced in the bailout decision
was not between bad and good, but between “worse and worser.”
That’s bad grammar, but a good point. A time of crisis, more than
any other, compels that we turn to ways of wisdom, looking at the
totality of issues, and the importance of fundamental principles.

Politics is the art of the possible, not achievement of the
perfect. Ideas count, and fundamental differences in philosophy
have divided the two presidential candidates in 2008. One wants to
impose on business automatic minimum-wage hikes, unfunded health
care mandates, restoration of monopoly powers through the “card
check” syst em designed to kill the secret ballot in union
organizational votes, and further politicization of pension and
retirement systems. The other fellow opposes all those things.

As for that bailout, whether the cost is $700 billion or $2.5
trillion, no one really knows what dramatic federal maneuvers will
yield. Maybe the government will eventually make the money back, as
was the case with earlier Chrysler and S&L bailouts–bad economics
but perhaps tolerable public policy. Maybe bad debt will provide a
way to leverage more Americans into equity.

The next few years will tell if America will join Europe in
democratic socialism, or turn back to traditions of “American
exceptionalism,” a sense of destiny and purpose rooted in liberty
and a federalist system. Nothing is inevitable, but conservatives
better act as if they mean it when they say, “Never again.”

Times such as these might educate us on the limits of politics, and
the wisdom of that federalist system. We might concentrate on these
things: hearth, home, personal behavior, neighborly living, and
direct engagement with those around us. In such arenas, we are best
equipped to deal with what comes down upon us from Washington , or
elsewhere.

In the end, after a lot of suffering and economic failures, rough
times might, in the design of Providence , resurrect deeper
appreciation for neighbors and friends, and political engagement in
which we talk to–not at or past–fellow citizens.

Perhaps these trying times will br ing support for new local
entrepreneurs, of the type who once characterized communities,
people missed in the days of big box stores. Commercial links at
the scale of towns, cities, states, and regions might replace
hedging and greed. That might bring a stronger conservatism to
preserve what is best in our past without living in fear of the
future.

Such things might as well begin right here in Oklahoma . In the
voice of one memorable character in “The Lord of the Rings,” the
late J.R.R. Tolkien reflected that none of us can choose the times
in which we live. What we can do is decide what to do with the time
we have left.

Let it be: “We are not among those who draw back and perish, but
among those who have faith and live” (Hebrews 10:39, NAB). Back to
basics.

Patrick B. McGuigan (M.A., Oklahoma State University ) is a
research fellow at the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs and an
editor at The City Sentinel in Oklahoma City . The author of two
books and the editor of seven, he is currently writing a biography
of former Oklahoma County District Attorney Robert H. Macy.

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