MY NAME IS Darrell Hancock. For some years, I have blogged under the name Unca D. At the top of my blog, I described myself as Old. Conservative. Christian. In love with my wife, our boys, Texas, America, Western Civilization, and Jesus. Sorry about the decline of newspapers. This year I added another line: Therefore, a Trump voter.
Today is a good time to quit the blog. It’s national election day. Voting results lie ahead, still cloaked in mystery. I will now have my last say, then euthanize the fictional persona of Unca D and say goodbye to readers who were kind enough or curious enough to read my essays and other postings through the years.
STORED ON MY HARD DRIVE are drafts of Unca D’s Ninety-Five Theses—truths to be remembered and cheered when glasses are raised in memory of the good Unca and his blog.
I worked and worked, but could not finish the project. These days, writing anything longer than a sentence or short paragraph is harder than it needs to be. An hour after completing a draft, I can reread it and know, as one knows such things, not to publish it. So I shall not.
Instead, here are ten mini-essays about what I and my alter ego, Unca D, know to be true and what we recommend to those who care to know. Call it Unca D's last say.
1. God
God exists. His son is Jesus Christ. God loves us. The path to God is through Jesus Christ. That path is open to you. Take that path today.
2. Western Civilization
Western Civilization is an amalgam of the civilizations of Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome, brought to life by Christianity, the body of believers in Jesus Christ. Western Civilization, so formed and animated, has given the world its greatest art, music, architecture, literature, music, learning, and social, economic, and political systems. It has nurtured humanity materially, artistically, intellectually, and spiritually. Of all civilizations, none is better. Study Western Civilization. Understand it. Honor it. Preserve it. Advance it.
3. America
The United States of America is the epitome of Western Civilization. It was founded, not on blood or soil, but on brilliant ideas and noble ideals. In America, one celebrates personal freedom, equality under law, opportunity, religious freedom, and more. In America, one can realize the greatest possibilities of material, intellectual, social, political, and spiritual life.
Were it possible, men, women from all continents would migrate to America by the millions, perhaps billions. Meanwhile, virtually no one leaves America. Citizenship is a glorious privilege. Love America. Preserve it. Advance it.
4. The Family
The single most important social institution is the nuclear family. Mothers and fathers in traditional families are, in the main, healthier (mentally, emotionally, and physically) and wealthier than other adults. Their children do better in school and are less prone to drugs, violence, and criminal conduct. (Science, people. Look it up.)
Families are chiefly responsible for introducing children to God, passing along the heritage of Western Civilization and America, and forming the character of children. Marry. Have children. Love your spouse and your children. Do everything you can to make their lives better.
5. The Fallen Nature of Humanity
Human beings are made in the likeness and image of God, but we are also selfish and greedy creatures. All of us are prone to do bad things. Some are prone to do evil things. Things that are intrinsically good, useful, and necessary—money, sex, and power—can be perverted to drive us past boundaries set by God, civilization, law, nature, and morality. Accept this truth. Live in humility. Fight temptation.
(The Christian footnote here is that we are not, and cannot be, good though our own efforts. Inevitably we fail. We are taught to confess our shortcoming to God and to ask for the Holy Spirit to guide and strengthen us.)
6. The Imperfection of Human Institutions
Because human beings are imperfect, all human institutions are also imperfect. The earthly church has been corrupted by financial and sexual greed. Western Civilization has been rent by war upon war and atrocity upon atrocity. America was a slaveholding nation until 1865. Families are susceptible to infidelity and abuse. Imperfect human beings can and often do corrupt the things they touch.
In passing, take note that the American system of government was designed to work despite, and through, the ministrations of imperfect human beings. Why else do we divide sovereignty between states and the national government? Why else to we have two houses of Congress? Why else can a court overrule the legislature or a president? Why else do we have three branches of government---executive, legislative, and judicial? Why else do we have a bill of rights?
Each device makes it more difficult for individuals and factions to force their will upon those who disagree. The great success of the American system of government is based upon a realistic understanding of human nature.
7. The Radical American Left
The radical American left despises and would tear down the Christian church, Western Civilization, America, and the nuclear family. Why? Because these things stand between the radicals and their single-minded goal: power.
Decent leftists -- commonly known as liberals -- cannot believe radicals would destroy things that they, the decent ones, love and respect. Keeping decent leftists on board, politically, is why radical leftists so enthusiastically and cynically pretend to be moderate leftists.
8. The Ground of Battle
The radical American left has three arguments. The first, inarguably correct, is that Christianity, Western Civilization, America, and the family are imperfect.
The second argument, desperately wrong, is that the these institutions cannot be reformed, that they are worse than imperfect, that they are inherently evil, that there’s nothing good about them, that anyone who says differently is racist or worse, that these institutions must be torn down and rebuilt from the ground up.
The name the radical American left gives this tearing down and rebuilding is fundamental transformation. The implication, rarely articulated, is that this will bring perfection, heaven on earth. Books have been written on how socialism could bring heaven on earth. President Obama once said he was "confident that we can create a Kingdom right here on Earth."
The radical American left already plans destroy the Supreme Court by packing it; to destroy the Constitution with a packed court; to destroy the Senate by admitting new states to guarantee banana-republic-style one-party rule; and to destroy consent of the governed by corrupting America’s elections and opening them to easy fraud.
The third argument of the radical American left is that only they can be entrusted to do what must be done. All others, as candidate Clinton reminded us in 2016, are racists, sexists, homophobes, whatever. Part of this same argument is that the radical elite may use any means necessary to achieve Nirvana.
The left's formula for using its power, addressed to the less enlightened citizen—meaning you and me—is (a) shut up, (b) give us your money, and ( c) do as we say.
From this formula, as from a fountain, flows speech codes and other efforts to criminalize free speech, bans on fracking and other attacks on the hydrocarbon-based economy and the market economy generally, defunding the police (so money can be diverted to more congenial agencies of leftist government), ever-higher taxes, and regulation of the smallest details of ordinary human life.
9. The Good Alternative
Stand up for God. Even if you are not a believer, stand up for freedom of religion. Celebrate the glories of Western Civilization. Say without apology that you love America and act accordingly. Make your family a haven of love, peace, and joy.
Identify and reform the shortcomings of every institution. Cooperate in this project with all men and women of good faith who share your love of these institutions.
As for radical leftists who would destroy these things, resist fiercely, as you would resist all barbarians. Fight them and defeat them.
10. Donald J. Trump
The bizarre reality of November 3, 2020, is that a supremely imperfect man—Donald John Trump—is champion of all who love Jesus, Western Civilization, America, and the family.
These is little reason to vote for him except these three: (1) He has done a good job as president. (Wish I had time to give the list.) (2) He is mentally, physically, intellectually, and morally superior to the candidate he opposes. (3) His policies are better, on balance, for Christians, the West, America, and families.
Standing against President Trump is a candidate who, through age-related cognitive decline, clearly lacks mental capacity to serve as president and whose body will soon betray him, as well; who has grown wealthy in office and cannot credibly deny that his family has corruptly used his public offices to enrich itself; and who will, if elected, be used by the radical American left to carry forward the grand project of tearing down things that are good, though imperfect, and replacing them with things that are worse.
It’s too late to ask you to vote to reelect Mr. Trump. Be sure, however, that the fight will continue. After today, do what you can when you can. Find ways to withhold your money and good opinion from politicians, newspapers (The Houston Chronicle, for example), universities (Rice University, for instance), and other entities (National Public Radio, the National Basketball Association, and churches that love socialism more than they love Jesus, for instance).
Defend, and never apologize for, loving Jesus, Western Civilization, America, and the institution of the family.
Thank you for dropping by. I treasure your readership and friendship. May God bless you and yours. May you live always in truth, beauty, and goodness, and in peace and joy.
This is Unca D’s last essay. Unca D, my alter ego, has now expired. He is not pining for the fyords of Norway. He has passed on. He is no more. He has ceased to be and has gone to meet his maker. He’s a stiff, bereft of life. He rests in peace. He’s pushing up daisies. His metabolic processes are history. He has kicked the bucket, shuffled off his mortal coil, run down the curtain, and joined the choir invisible. THIS IS NOW AN EX-BLOG!
