TILTING AT WINDBAGS*

Untitled, Pencil, 20" x 15", Richard J Van Wagoner, Courtesy Van Wagoner Family Trust* (sketched in preparation for his *Christ Ministering to the Homosexuals in Salt Lake City)**

Why do we elect and re-elect people who refuse to solve existing problems, people who fail to advance meaningful solutions to foreseeable problems, who, when things inevitably go awry, take no personal responsibility, and blame others?

My naïve understanding of what is in people’s interest, what matters or should matter the most, is out of sync with a large swath of the population. Reveling in owning the libs feels soooo good and serves as fodder for political rallies, money ministries, and target practice, but, if I am not mistaken, does not come with heat, water, food, or shelter.

What is really at play?

Flush with the darkest of money from the narrowest of corporate interests, identity politicians tell lies, and repeat them, to keep you off “socialism’s” slippery grid (electrical and otherwise), all while deregulating and subsidizing their high dollar, dark-money donors. Why? So they stay in power and their benefactors disproportionately increase their wealth. You are good with that, even if you are on the wrong side of the zero-sum equation, because your problems are caused by the libs who want to take away your guns and religion, or the immigrants, or the Muslims, Black Lives Matter, or the gays. How’s your health, by the way? Making ends meet?

The latest Texas disaster, and many folks foretold this story, is not just metaphor for the last administration and Republicans’ continuing science denial and refusal to govern. A Democratic administration coming in to solve the disastrous failures and destruction left by its Republican predecessor — seems like we’ve heard this one before, and before that.

When things turn to shit, as they always do, who steps in to help? Who do the wannabe secessionists call for relief from the disaster they caused or refused to solve? Asking for a cynical, helpless windbag, “flyin Ted,” according to Pod Save American, who just returned from his starring role in the latest installment of “Insurrectionists Gone Wild.” Hey, at least CanCruz mustered a feigned apology — after he was busted. Antifa, Hillary’s emails, and a stolen election must have been too much of a stretch, even for him. So, he blamed his daughters.

And no, AOC and O’Rourke are not saving lives in Texas just to make the most disliked senator in Washington look bad. He earned that distinction all on his own.

*My brother the very talented fiction writer and novelist, Robert Hodgson Van Wagoner, deserves considerable credit for offering both substantive and technical suggestions to https://medium.com/@richardvanwagoner and https://lastamendment.com. Rob’s second novel, a beautifully written suspense drama that takes place in Utah, Wyoming, and Norway, dropped on November17, 2020. Available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple Bookstore and your favorite local bookshop, this novel, The Contortionists, which Rob himself narrates for the audio version, is a psychological page-turner about a missing child in a predominantly Mormon community. I have read the novel and listened to the audio version twice. It is a literary masterpiece. The Contortionists, however, is not for the faint of heart.

**Richard J Van Wagoner is my father. His list of honors, awards and professional associations is extensive. He was Professor Emeritus (Painting and Drawing), Weber State University, having served three Appointments as Chair of the Department of Visual Arts there. He guest-lectured and instructed at many universities and juried numerous shows and exhibitions. He was invited to submit his work as part of many shows and exhibitions, and his work was exhibited in a number of traveling shows domestically and internationally. My daughter Angela Moore, a professional photographer, photographed more than 500 pieces of my father’s work. On behalf of the Van Wagoner Family Trust, she is in the process of compiling a collection of his art work. The photographs of my father’s art reproduced in https://medium.com/@richardvanwagoner and https://lastamendment.com are hers