Columns

The Yuba Scold

Don Russell

February 19, 2026

Why am I surprised? I should be used to the government lying to me. I remember the hushed tones when as a kid I enquired about Tailgunner Joe’s red scares. I recall my staunch Republican father’s disappointment when Eisenhower insisted the U2 spy plane was a strayed weather observer. I recall the Pentagon Papers’ exposure of the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the covert bombing of Cambodia, Kent State, Watergate, Iran Contra. Iraq’s mythic weapons of mass destruction. A stolen election. Protesters being shot then called rioters. Like second marriages, have I let hope overcome experience? Or am I just so cynical to know no improvements come in this country until people die for them?

Ah, there was one four year period where I heard no lies. But the American people preferred happy talk and corruption, so Jimmy Carter was not reelected.

But something has changed, We have even given up hypocrisy, that meager tribute vice pays to virtue. The current federal administration lies up front; baldly. Transparently. It is taking this part of western civilization down with it.

We, the people, are evidently not strong enough to spurn a government based on lies.

The good Christians of this one nation under God have decided the almighty needs help deciding which of the creatures created in his image are worthy of living in and amongst us.

The brave patriots of this exceptional nation have long agreed that “liberty and justice for all” includes practicality; regulations the founding fathers foolishly, naively, ignored. We proudly enroll in the cast of our red, white and blue theatre: if safety requires being strip searched at airports, so be it. Still, our president has changed the understanding that just us white folk has been narrowed to justice rich folk.

And we like it like that. Count our votes.

The lunatic Left calls Congress slothful. This is obviously untrue: sloths have spines. Congress simply accurately represents us in this land of the home, free of the brave.

This leaves the greatest president of all time to take on the tiresome chore of foreign policy. It is simple for the simple man: kill them all.

A couple of the 10 Commandments warn about coveting what’s not yours. But Moses couldn’t have known about Greenland and Panama, so didn’t ask about exceptions. One might think the Presbyterian in Chief would be somewhat wary about coveting Putin’s invasion of another country, but it’s god’s will. We’re just doing His work.

Before television people read, and a well informed person read at least three newspapers of differing political persuasion. Understandably, the labor of changing channels is nearly as exhausting as turning pages. That lapse explains why the very concept of self government is on the table. Perhaps it is just too much work.

One of the books we ought not trouble ourselves reading, being found on elitist college campuses, is called a dictionary. It has a description of our system of government. If you must trouble yourself, it is called a Kakistocracy.

It was good while it lasted, the Republic.

“Manners are of more importance than laws. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine….” wrote Edmund Burke, father of modern conservatism.

The sad sack who thinks he owns the White House ain’t got none.

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