Washington's game of "Let's Pretend" and the Mandate of Heaven.

Instead of sober realism, the Grand Strategy in the War of Ideas today, in and around Washington, is to play the game of Let's Pretend with Muslims, so as to win the hearts and win the minds of the "moderate" Muslims (vide my article "Ten Things to Think When Thinking About Moderate Muslims").

What will it take for there to be a sea change in U.S. policy?

The superb Fjordman has written of a looming crisis in legitimacy as Western populations come to deeply resent the lack of control over or input into decisions that vastly change ethnic and racial composition of their nations. While the Colonel is second to none in his belief that Western populations lack a sense of outrage over cross-border and demographic invasion -- at least one sufficiently hot to overcome the attraction of NASCAR and televised team sports -- there yet may develop a popular explosion that cuts through party lines and mimics the classic card game of "52 pick up."

The Chinese occasionally would withdraw their support from emperors who had, in their view, lost the Mandate of Heaven. There were no newspapers or internet content providers to "inform" them. What led them to this conclusion finally was the popular perception that somehow things had not gone right and that the official line was just too distant from the facts on the ground. Irrational conclusions from too-frequent earthquakes and floods, and chickens that laid square eggs, say, led people to conclude the right thing from the wrong thing, namely, that the emperor and officials weren't getting the job done.

The current situation in the U.S. is intolerable where (a) the hitherto dominant Republican Party cast itself adrift by abandoning what little fealty to limited government it had left, embracing boodle politics, and concocting fairy tales about the nature of the Islamic threat and (b) the Congressionally ascendant Democratic Party is incapable of abandoning failed socialist ideas and depends for its success upon an alliance with rejectionist or privilege-seeking minorities and immigrants.

In the interstices of the ribs of this increasingly bare skeleton of "national policy" we have witnessed a massive invasion of millions upon millions of foreigners of unknown composition, purpose, disease state, and ideological compatibility. This is sold to Americans as a "good thing," just more loyal would-be citizen material lacking for the moment, by unfortunate oversight, the hitherto coveted documents authorizing entry and residence. About which no more need be said than to quote that classic saying, "Don't ____ up my back and tell me it's rain."

There just may be the explosion of popular resentment of which Fjordman writes when the people finally do wake up and decide they are tired of "Let's Pretend" as the Nation's Guiding Light.

If there is not this awakening, it may transpire that what is happening now is not a harmless soap opera to be followed by a station break with the historical significance of making or failing to make the correct choice of window cleaner. Rather, what comes next may be a break with the past that is irreversible, or, alas, reversible only with great bloodshed and internal strife.

"A tribute to Mary Habeck." Hugh Fitzgerald, Dhimmi Watch, 5/19/07.