Keep Right — Column by Ralph K. Ginorio
Mythological Hercules undertook twelve labors to demonstrate his worth as a semi-divine Olympian hero. Each of these tasks seemed to be beyond the ability of mortal man. Through his wit as well as his epic strength, Hercules demonstrated that either he was superhuman or that humans were capable of unexpected accomplishment; a bit of both, really.
To me, the most vivid of these tasks has always been the cleansing of the Augean stables. Imagine stables so caked with accumulated filth that only a literal Herculean effort would be needed to cleanse them. To make matters worse, he only had a single day to accomplish this deed.
Hercules determined that only by redirecting the flow of an entire river through these stables could he possibly succeed. Being Hercules, he was able to alter the river’s course so that the current would scour the stables clean. But it was not merely this physical act which was the key to his success.
Despite his prevalent image in modern times as being a musclebound simpleton, it was Hercules’ clarity of mind that made possible his success. Having committed himself to this task and being pressured by an implacable deadline, Hercules thought his way through this problem.
Hercules’ reason, motivated by his determination to perform, was the essential component of his success. Only when he scrutinized the problem with the full force of his mind did he intuit that only an unconventional solution could resolve this conundrum. It was then that he noticed the nearby river and considered its untapped potential. Employing his creativity more than his brawn, Hercules passed this test.
Today, we Americans are faced with an Augean Stable of our own making. As citizens, a critical mass of us for decades has permitted the nation to operate on automatic pilot. We allowed our elected leaders to rule in our name, trusting that they would keep us at peace, both prosperous and free. We assumed that the free press would fairly inform us if our leaders went off-mission. We allowed our civic duty, to be vigilant in defense of our freedom, to lapse.
The disastrous results of the proverbial silent majority’s dereliction of duty only became impossible to ignore in the 2024 election cycle. The awakening of this group of Americans is a rare and precious thing. It has only happened twice in my lifetime.
In 1980, after the cascading disasters of our defeat in South Vietnam, the Watergate scandal, and the inflation, malaise, and humiliations of the Carter Presidency, Ronald Reagan was given a mandate to rein in big government and win the Cold War. By God’s grace, awakened citizens supported Reagan as he transformed America’s despair about our future into real hope.
In the years immediately following the terrorist atrocities of September 11, 2001, Americans awakened to the true nature of the human condition. The fall of the Soviets did not bring about any “End of History” because human nature is a constant. From Grod the Caveman to Captain Kirk the Spaceman, we human beings remain captive to our fundamental nature.
As Homo sapiens sapiens, our propensity for evil is unlimited. Whether we attribute our fallen nature to original sin or to the instincts that brought us triumph in three million years of merciless Darwinian struggle, we have it in us to damn our souls and doom our world.
Only when we dedicate ourselves to overcoming our base natures can we justify our own existences and be a blessing to others. Only by deciding that life is about more than self-satisfaction and maximizing our own chances of survival can we fulfill our potential as self-aware beings. Only by dedicating ourselves to a higher calling, such as to God, family, nation, or a guiding philosophy, can we make that leap of faith which transcends the despair of our own mortality.
Unfortunately, the savages and thugs who have struggled to take control over most modern nations represent that demonic potential in our base natures more than they echo the angels of our better natures. Remember that we Americans are in the minority in electing our leaders. Most nations are ruled by bloodstained despots who have killed their way to power and rule by the application of force and terror.
It is this stark lesson that Americans woke up to as the Twin Towers burned. However, inevitably, the many imperatives that demanded our attention distracted us from the unpleasant reality that we live in a world of monsters. In such a world, we must be strong enough to deter attack. Given human corruptibility, we must be vigilant in monitoring those who we entrust with power. Unfortunately, it is quite rare for events to become so bad that they bestir us from our dreams of easy liberty, inevitable prosperity, and effortless security.
Decades of bureaucratic creep have given birth to a prideful, isolated, and tyrannical federal government. An Administrative State acts as a fourth branch of government, and has eclipsed the power of the other three. Since the 1890s, neither any President, nor both Houses of Congress, nor the Judiciary has been able to trim back its authority to anything like its legitimate Constitutional limits. Only a few, such as Ronald Reagan, even tried.
For this precious moment, we are awakened. We have elected a champion to cleanse the Augean Stables of Washington D.C. Within a very brief window of opportunity, President Trump, a Republican Congress and Senate, and a conservative majority on the Supreme Court could scour the federal bureaucracy and restore power to federal elected officials, to the States and to the people.
This is not a normal time. It requires heroes and it demands our civic engagement. Neither the RINOs in the U.S. Senate nor the North Idaho Republicans appreciate the historical significance of this moment. These archons of “business as usual” cannot be permitted to protect their cushy privileges at the expense of our reclaiming control over our own government and institutions.
Trump and MAGA are Hercules. The Deep State is the Augean Stables. Moderate RINOs are the failed stable hands that permitted this filth to take over. We awakened Americans must be that river which, when unleashed, will strip away the accumulated filth and restore a clean and worthy government dedicated to the preservation of our natural, God-given rights. Nothing less will do!
