The Happy Warrior

5 Dec 24

The term, ‘happy warrior’ is often used in politics.  It describes a person’s sunny disposition even in the face of unlikely odds.  Even after a legislative defeat, they’re the ones cheering up their colleagues with the famous Bluto quote, “Did we give up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor!?!”  They take T.S. Eliot’s views on lost causes to heart.  There are no lost causes because there’s no such thing as a gained cause.  The struggle continues.  Sure, we lost the battle, but we’ll continue and win the war.  For the happy warrior, the way we win the war is by drawing people toward our views, clearly explaining our goals, and enlisting our new friend to help us.  As William Butler Yeats said, “There are no strangers here; only friends you haven’t yet met.” - the motto of the happy warrior.

The term was first used by English Romantic poet William Wordsworth who wrote the poem, "Character of the Happy Warrior".  Composed in 1806, it was written about Lord Nelson, hero of the Napoleonic Wars.  He describes the happy warrior as a generous spirit.  “His noble ideas and deeds are "an inward light" that, despite their inwardness, make the path before the warrior "always bright."1  Wordsworth continues, but I think you get the point.  

“Happy warrior”, according to Wikipedia, was first used in politics by Franklin D. Roosevelt to describe Alfred E. Smith at the 1924 Democratic National Convention.  The write-up goes on describing Huber Humphry and Barack Obama as examples of happy warriors.  Ronald Reagan is often referred to as a happy warrior.  William F. Buckley Jr. could sometimes appear to be dour.  I’ve always heard the people who worked for him say he was very much a happy warrior. 

And so here we are.  We live in difficult times.  

The cable news channels are trying to get us angry and keep us angry hoping that we won’t change the channel.  That’s how they make so much money.  It’s like we live in a dystopian sci-fi movie where cable news is blaring in the background in every scene.  It’s easy to be cynical.    

To make matters worse for me, the website’s pretty much been a dud.  The meetups haven’t drawn folks.  The numbers visiting the website and Facebook page have been in the single digits.  The hypothesis has always been that if we just show folks how important local politics, issues, and news is, they’ll be drawn to the website.  That hypothesis is wrong.  As it turns out, it’s really difficult to motivate people to fight their apathy and engage in their community.  Everyone is busy and how do you fit a school board or county council meeting into all the other meetings you must attend?  Like I said, tough times.  But!  We shall not despair.  Learning about local whiskey bars and distilleries is fun.  Meeting people from across the political spectrum helps put things in perspective.  I’ve met many people who I disagree with on national issues.  When I brought up the possible casino being built in the area, we suddenly agreed and enjoyed a few (cynical) laughs about the subject.   

The ‘other side’ ain’t so bad (everyone gasps in horror!).  And if you’re looking at Whiskey and Politics, you’ll realize that there’s some serious shenanigans going on at the county and city level of government.  You'll probably have similar opinions about the shenanigans.  THE BIG SECRET:  The big secret is that we’re more similar than we are different.  Don’t let the parties and news organizations know that we know it!

Now that we know the ‘Big Secret’™, maybe we can get down to the things worth arguing about, like the fact that Eagle Rare is way overpriced and only a fool would pay more than MSRP for it.  Or that Laphroig is the greatest whisky ever made.  You know.  The stuff that’s important!

You can go it alone, but I don’t recommend it.  Better to make connections with other human beings.  I don’t know what we can do about the big, complex, national issues.  I’m not even sure we can have that much of an effect on our local government.  But, you know what?  We have to try. And if we fail, no use getting upset.  We’ll continue shaking hands, drinking whiskey

and making friends - and eventually we’ll succeed.  We are…

the happy warriors.  

Cheers!