“As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!”

~ Rudyard Kipling, “The Gods of the Copybook Headings”, (1919)

Kipling’s century old poem is as relevant today as it was the moment the ink dried in 1919.

I love the American people. All of them. Every one. Even progressives, the children of the woke, black, white, yellow, brown – all of them.

I have three adult children. I love them, too.But their mother and I have loved them enough to teach, punish and correct them when they were younger so that they could both enjoy the successes they carved out on their own and withstand the failures that would also inevitably come as well. We taught them right from wrong and how to tell the difference. We taught them that a life lived well will always have consequences, good and bad.

I have traveled to 85 countries around the world in the course of my life and business career and while I enjoy the diversity of the people and the environments, I kiss the ground every time I deplane here in America.

But let me tell you something I am coming to believe.

I have always said that American progressives and socialists don’t hate capitalism. They want just enough capitalism to pay for their adventures in socialism. They need something to create wealth to cover their debts and mistakes.

It’s true with what is happening now – they expect the people who do not participate or buy into their catastrophic forays into governing to pay for the damage they do, essentially bailing them out on financial, ideological and philosophical levels. That way the pain is localized, covered up and the progressives get so slink away to ruin again without recourse, penalty or admission of guilt.

As much as I hate to say it, the non-progressive side of America have to stop paying for the progressive side.

The cries from prog mayors and governors that the looters came from other places has nothing to do with the damage done – because these mayors and governors let the damage happen. They sat back and let businesses be looted and buildings burned.

This was about avoiding responsibility and getting federal money to cover for their incompetence.

Capitalism and conservatism always pay the tab for progressive orgies. That has to stop. If the mayor of Minneapolis and the governor of Minnesota allowed Minneapolis to burn, it’s on them to pay for it. If their policies and inaction allowed bad police to do bad things, that is on them.

Capitalists and conservatives should not be paying for the failures of socialists and progressives.

This is the equivalent of offenders being arrested and then summarily released to offend again (as in programs in New York, Dallas, St.Louis and LA).

It’s got to stop. Progressivism and wokeness have consequences – their followers need to feel those consequences and they need to feel them good and hard.

If we do not, the Gods of the Copybook Heading will most certainly return.