Finding comfort and inspiration in Winston Churchill

Question for all of you: A friend thinks that we shouldn’t get our hopes up over November and beyond. He thinks that, aside from the concern political junkies are exhibiting, most Americans actually don’t care enough about the political scene to vote for politicians who would put a stop to this. They got their voting excitement out of their system when they collaborated to put the first black man in the White House. He freely concedes that, living as we do in the Bay Area, our view about “most Americans” is pretty warped, but still….

So, do you think that the political junkies are getting exercised, but that this will go nowhere? And even if it’s trying to go somewhere, do you think that the MSM, which is ululating in delight over the bill’s passage and using Alinsky tactics hard and fast to paint the bill’s opponents as racists, homophobes and whack jobs, will successfully whitewash the whole thing so that American voters are pacified and inert by November?

As for me, I think the battle is over only if we give up. Abject despair and surrender are a guaranteed recipe for failure.  Think of Winston Churchill, who had a miserable political failure during WWI, was a political outcast during the 1930s, and led the only nation standing up to Hitler in the first years of the War. Unsurprisingly, he had a whole lot to say about not giving up (and about the freedoms and system for which we fight):

A man does what he must – in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures – and that is the basis of all human morality.

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.

Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.

Do not let spacious plans for a new world divert your energies from saving what is left of the old.

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.

If you are going through hell, keep going.

If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time – a tremendous whack.

If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.

In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.

It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.

Kites rise highest against the wind – not with it.

Never, never, never give up.

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

One ought never to turn one’s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.

Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

There is no such thing as a good tax.

This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.

To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.

Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.

War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can’t smile, grin. If you can’t grin, keep out of the way till you can.

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.