Are the Good Times Really Over?

We’ve been warned so many times. 

Ronald Reagan, long before the was president told us it was “a time for choosing.”  Paul Harvey explained what he would do, if he were the Devil, to destroy America.  Merle Haggard’s 1982 hit, “Are the Good Times Really Over,” has turned out to be prescient.  Merle longed for the days “when a girl could still cook and still would.”

This Bible verse on the University of Texas Main Building is not revered by the institution. (Photo by Lynn Woolley for WBDaily)

The much-berated conspiracy theorist Alex Jones first went on public access years ago and wasn’t always wrong.

Rush Limbaugh came along and told us what the American Left is, in stark, plain terms.  So did Glenn Beck.

And then came Tucker Carlson.  At first, Tucker was just another TV host, inviting Democrats on his show to make fun of them.

But as Tucker’s power grew at FOX News, so did his understanding of the crisis we face. 

He began to interview people off the beaten path – many had been fired or (in today’s parlance) cancelled.  People like Glenn Greenwald, late of The Intercept, Beck, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  They were not political soulmates to Carlson.  Rather, they were people who had ideas that made other people want to shut them up.

I began to watch Tucker, almost as religiously as my close friend and writer Ben Barrack used to watch Glenn Beck.  Ben loved Beck when he was on FOX News because he was unlike anything else on cable news.  And so it was with Tucker.

At first, I thought: “why is he bringing these people on his show?”  But as the months rolled on, I listened to the interviews and found that valid points were being made.  More voices amount to greater understanding.

Tucker’s “firing” became the last in a series of recent incidents that made me rethink my approach to politics and talk show hosting.

Of course, years of listening to Mr. Limbaugh had taught me to look between the lines, think outside the box, look for the reasons behind the reasons, and so on.  Nobody was better at it than Rush.   I’d give a pretty penny to hear his commentary on what is going on in today’s society.

But here are the recent developments in my life that have given me pause.

1. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s inability to define the word “woman” during her hearings.  I can see this in a loony college professor, but for a Supreme Court nominee, this seemed frightfully ominous.
2. Listening to Glenn Beck’s radio show recently I heard his guest intone that we have but two presidential election cycles to save the United States of America. The guest turned out to be Kevin Roberts, President of the Heritage Foundation, and a good friend of mine.  I can’t think of anyone whose opinion I respect more.
3. The firing of Tucker Carlson on the same weekend he spoke before the Heritage Foundation, and the abruptness of the firing was shocking to say the least.

Think about it.  The contrarian voices in national political discourse are vanishing from the Mainstream Media.

I realize that Reagan, Harvey, Rush, and Merle have all passed on to a better place.

But Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Megyn Kelly, and Tucker Carlson have all had major network or cable shows, and none of them do now.  They’ll all do fine, but they’ll do it without FOX News’ 3,000,000 or more viewers that tuned in for Tucker each night.

What’s different about these people?  That’s easy! 

Each of them went beyond the standard left-versus-right model that you see on CNN and MSNBC constantly and on much of FOX News.

They were prone to saying things that are whispered in Washington, but never said out loud.  It reminded me of that “60 Minutes” piece by Steve Kroft called “Washington’s Open Secret” that remains my all-time favorite.  It was the finest expose of political corruption I’ve ever seen on TV and it was without regard to party.

As Kroft said, it’s not what’s illegal that corrupts our politicians; it’s what legal.  I’ve not seen a story like this since.  Kroft’s brand of journalism is dead at CBS.

And then, there’s something Tucker said after his show was cancelled.

It had to do with digging deep. Finding what’s really important to our country and to the world.

I can go on my show each day and run funny clips of Joe Biden making gaffes and Kamala Harris’ stream-of-consciousness “word salads” that make her appear precisely as intelligent as she likely is.  That’s fine, and I’ll keep doing it, but you can get that all day on FOX News.  The same old same old.

Lou Ann Anderson and I had a long discussion about all this on Planet Logic and Political Pursuits. 

In an episode entitled “The American We Knew Is Already Gone,” we pondered what really matters.  It’s a 45-minute program, and you should listen carefully, and then share.

We had difficulty cramming in all the ways that the United States is being subtly attacked and denigrated by politicians of both stripes and by outsides forces.  Yes, the Democrats are worse, but the Republicans are not innocent either.

Here’s the list:

• Breakup of the family
• Gun control
• MAPS (Minor Attracted People)
• Defund the Police
• Climate change
• Abortion on Demand
• State your pronouns
• Gender affirming care
• Woke oaths at medical schools
• ESG
• Diversity/Inclusion/Equity
• Left-wing media
• TheCurrentThing-ism (hyping a story & ignoring others)
• LGBTQIA+ agenda
• Rise of drag queens
• Takeover of language (cisgender, choice, pride)
• Open borders
• Drug culture
• Woke military
• Indoctrination in schools and colleges
• Cancelling women
• Cancel culture
• Renaming of military bases and posts
• War on fossil fuels
• Soft on crime DA’s (George Soros influence)
• Lawfare (Trump indicted, Dominion lawsuit)
• Rise of woke churches
• Rigged elections
• BLM and race relations
• CCP infiltration
• Woke school superintendents & school boards
• Public school monopoly
• Rise of gambling

In addition, I’ll list three long-term movements that advance this current societal rot:

• Sol Alinsky’s book “Rules for Radicals” that provides the Left with how to isolate and destroy political opponents.
• Cloward–Piven Strategy that holds that you can spend a country into insolvency, and then can reform it as a socialist government.
• The 1619 Project, which teaches that America was born in the sin of slavery and is still systemically racist.

Do I have an answer?  Yes, but you won’t like it. 

I don’t like it either, but America is at a precipice.

The first step is to tell the truth.  Expose what’s going on in our schools, woke corporations, and in the Halls of Congress. Let’s see if there are enough traditional Americans to fight back.

Remember Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness? 

Life is under bitter attack, devalued on the streets of cities like Chicago and Baltimore, and also in surgical suites where unborn humans being are dismembered and discarded for the sake of convenience.   Liberty is fading.  Your right to legally own a gun or even to drive a gasoline-powered car or use a gas stove is almost gone.  And without life and liberty, happiness is a pipe dream.

The answers are not easy.  Another revolution?  That’s how we started the United States.  Or perhaps Texas takes the lead and secedes, but what about our big cities like Dallas, Houston, and Austin that are more akin to Portland and Seattle than they are to rural Texas?

It’s a thought that Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana might form a union within the union – a conservative sanctuary.  Other states might join in.  No, I don’t know how it would work.

But failing that,what do we do when the nation is defaulting with debt that could go beyond $50 trillion, rampant crime with a neutered police force, and more drugged-up homeless people stealing tents from Walmart and shacking up in downtown public spaces?

The future as the Left sees it is not bright.  It is no future at all, because China will own us. 

Remember what Kevin Roberts said:  two more election cycles.  That ‘s what we’ve got.  I will do what I can.  What will you do?  What will our brain-dead cellphone-addicted young people do?  I can’t say.

I can say that we need voices that speak outside the box.  Thank God for The Epoch Times, the New York Post, and the online news sources that have popped up in recent years, because ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, the New York Times, and the Washington Post cannot be trusted.

I still follow Glenn Beck on his radio show.  I follow Bill O’Reilly and I’ve reacquainted myself with Megyn Kelly.  I’m even watching Bill Maher and listening to what Elon Musk has to say.  Wherever Tucker Carlson winds up, I will be there.

I want to hear voices that I may not always agree with.  Tucker has opened me up to that.

Then, there’s Joe Biden who uses the term “MAGA” as a pejorative.  Joe, sweetie, it means “make American great again.’  Trump did that.  You destroyed it in just two years.

Can we recover?  Can we bring back the America we all knew?  Or, are the good times really over?  I’m somewhat pessimistic, and somewhat cautiously optimistic, and I’m open to new ideas.

Lynn Woolley is a Texas-based author, broadcaster, and songwriter.  Follow his podcast at https://www.PlanetLogic.us.  Check out his author’s page at https://www.Amazon.com/author/lynnwoolley.  Order books direct from Lynn at https://PlanetLogicPress.Square.Site.  Email Lynn at lwoolley9189@gmail.com.

A note:  The third (and final) book in my fiction series is at the printer.  It’s called “Stitches In Time: a Trilogy.”  I’ll keep you posted.