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Progressives, Fear the Return of the American Savage
Titus Techera has a great article at Law & Liberty about the Christmas movie, Die Hard. In it he describes how the movie presaged the current conflict between the elites and the broader society. Titus avers that John McClane was the embodiment of the “American Savage” — the individual who won’t be cowed and who, when pushed too far, will join the battle with maniacal relish.
The Progressive Project is intended to “tame” that innate desire for justice and liberty. The Democrats are playing with fire, and may get a reaction that they cannot contain.
Published in General
The current Virginia gun control kerfuffle is an interesting preview of the situation progressives want, but aren’t quite sure how they’re going to get there in the real world. The Democrats know when Jan. 1 rolls around they want to take their first steps on banning guns on the way to gun confiscation, once they control the legislature in Virigina. But they’ve already had the majority of the counties in the state either voice opposition or go through the Sanctuary County movement in declaring any state action to be in violation of Second Amendment rights.
In fantasy world, Gov. Northam sends out his robotic Imperial Storm Troopers and they simply do as they’re told and seize all the illegal weapons. Real world is a little messier, in that the governor is going to have to either order the removal of sheriffs and/or county officials, or mandate that Richmond put the financial screws to any county in non-compliance, and in either case, even if you got the top officials in those counties to go along with the plan, the lower level people in the law enforcement departments (or the National Guard) might not comply.
So how do the Elites tame the Savages? Up in New York State, Andrew Cuomo’s been content to virtue signal much of his draconian gun control law for downstate voters, while not taking it to the mat with the upstate sheriff’s and voters/gun owners who oppose it. Northam may do the same thing, but more than any state other than possibly Maryland, Virginia Democrats’ power comes out of the federal mindset of the Washington D.C. area — i.e., lots of the same people and mindsets that have brought you the past three years of the Trump investigation/impeachment farce live in Virginia, and may want their governor and legislators to use the same type of harball tactics they learned during the Obama years in D.C. on the non-complying gun-owning citizens in Virginia. That’s when the push-back really could get serious.
An interesting social media discussion may be had based on, as the article posits – Progressive elite gov’t/media cabal = Hans Gruber; Tea Party nationalist Trumpers = John McClane.
I have posited elsewhere a similar sentiment but using the VDH concept of an “army of a season” led by the John McClane type:
Thus the “welcome to the party, pal” and “Yippee-ki-yay, [dearest mother]” fit right in.
The problem is that there is a time limit…a “season”…to that kind of “movement of real action” and then the leaders and the army naturally retreat back into the masses. Presumably after a victory…a total victory. Unfortunately, a total victory over the pervasive forces of progressivism is not an easy thing to even comprehend.
Even 8 years of Trump cannot outlast what American Liberty is now up against. He is definitely causing them some pain and delaying their master plans but that is really all it is…and they know it. Much of their current strategy varies between big swings hoping for a home run to just nagging obstructionism to stall and burn his political capital down. (Just wait, they will openly brag about it all in the not so distant future.)
McClane wins at the end of a two hour movie but there are thousands of Hans Grubers lined up in the wings to continue the assault.
Here is a present map (in green) of cities and county’s that have declared sanctuary:
A few years back I read a long and compelling description of why forced gun taking was problematic and doomed. From vets, to sheriffs and sheriff’s deputies, to street cops, hunters and other ordinary citizens, the orders of officials would be ignored and resisted. If the government mustered an “SS”-style elite for this purpose, they would be in for a rude and lethal response.
In one way, I hope you’re right. We will birth some very angry people in response. But will there be enough of them? Most of us don’t want to go to war–will we be convinced that we must join the literal fight? It will be interesting. As @philo suggest, we may end up slipping back into the reticent crowd.
You can go to New York and a number of other Blue states and see the same phenomenon, in that in land mass, the state is far more ‘Red’ than ‘Blue’ but the state government is controlled by the large population centers.
Considering how much progressives were yelping a decade ago about some Hunger Games-like future society where the elites at the Capital control the districts, when it comes to something like gun control, the only way the progressives can project their power out into the hostile countryside is to be the people they claim to hate, and basically force non-complying areas into subservience by starving them of money (which, if they really wanted to do that, would then likely lead those outlying areas to start starving the big cities of food and clothing materials. There’s really no way for them to force the issue without an eventual use of force on the part of the progressives, but then you’re back to the problem that the ‘Savages’ have the guns, and the people who normally join the military and law enforcement department’s rank-and-file — as opposed to the more political types in the leadership — draw most of their people from that subset of Savages).
I think it is wrong to assume such a head on assault would even be attempted. Evil plays the long game:
And when they “break that soul of freedom”or just educate it out of the system (HINT: Nearly complete!) then the family renunciations, betrayals of neighbors, and vast network of stool pigeons will quickly eat away at type of response you imagine here.
Nah, it couldn’t happen here.
Merry Christmas everyone.
Isn’t it funny how predictions of the past have a way of coming true. Back in the 1960s, gun control was a very big issue. Did you know Lee Harvey Oswald bought his rifle through the mail? All he had to do was send a money order and a copy of his phoney driver’s license.
Back then, as still today, it was argued that gun control through registration was necessary to keep weapons out of the hands of criminals and children. Opponents argued, allowing government to have a list of gun owners would lead to confiscation, just like in Nazi Germany. Gun control supporters argued that would never happen here. In America.
Yes, Virginia. They will come for your guns.
The Left would have us believe that the country can simply “ban” all violence. From bullying, to brawling, to calls for an end to all contact sports, to the laws against violent crime, to the denigration of all things military, in the liberal-progressive mindset, they believe we can neutralize and eliminate man’s predatory nature. We can’t. In fact, liberal-progressive policies render us defenseless against our very nature. Humans can be predatory and violent creatures. Yet, in schools, facing threats of violence, our boys can’t fight back. In our major cities, our citizens can’t shoot back. Our cops and soldiers are handcuffed by silly rules of engagement or worse, they are deprived of funding for training or weaponry. Our founders provided the 2nd amendment for a reason: to allow for self-defense. No doubt weapons are not as necessary a tool as they once were when our country was developing, however people have not changed. People are as violent and predatory as ever. Turn your cheek and lose your property or worse. Arm the prey and the predator will go elsewhere.
A hypothetical (for now) just for fun:
The other thing is the rank and file in law enforcement live among us. They are our neighbors, our kids play with their kids, we go to the same church. If an order comes from down on high (Richmond or any other capital city) to confiscate guns, they have to look their friends and neighbors in the eye and tell them what they intend to do – or not do.
This is why registration is important to the left. They can create a task force of enforcers from out-of-town to go door-to-door demanding citizens turn over their registered weapons. The question is, how long will they last . . .
Yes, it does all come down to individual calculation … until someone acts. I think it was ABC that ran some programs about how people react ( or don’t) to events they observe. People stayed put until one person moved. Then several joined in to confront the situation. So people will be intimidated … until they are not.
In 1775 thr British could do whatever they wanted. They then marched on Concord. That set it off. Not the tea party. Not the Boston Massacre. It was the shot heard round the world. After that point, the redcoats were trapped in Boston.
We can’t know the spark, but it will happen. We are not the Baltics, or Germans.
Excellent analysis and well written statements.
Hopefully the governor and his staff won’t be as smart as Gov Jerry Brown was in Calif.
Brown went after segments within segments of the gun owning population. So hey every body: don’t worry – we will only take your guns if you are a veteran with a mental illness or a prescription for anti depressants.
Then a year later: don’t worry – we only want your guns if you have a drug conviction, even a misdemeanor drug conviction.
So since the whole populace of gun owners wasn’t attacked all at once, Brown got away with more confiscation than he should have.
I’m not sure it is the first movie that depicts the “elites” versus the regular guy. To me, it was more about the regulatory state–the by-the-book police response that was unable to adjust to the situation at hand–than the little guy versus the monied guy. The Japanese guy who owned the company was down to earth and very nice to everyone. Also, I think the mixing of people from all of the different social strata shows up powerfully in the old World War II movies. Everyone was respectful of everyone else. There was a “we’re all in this together” attitude and humor in all of the movies.
There is an ad running in N.C. already I have to admit I haven’t paid a lot of attention to for what seat in congress but the (conservative) candidate says he opposes “sanctuary sheriffs” – meaning ones who let illegals go even if they have committed a crime. This is what caught my ear. The voice says this is crazy, and it should be. But it means we can’t necessarily think that craziness is just in elite realms. It might be creeping into those who should already be on the front line of our basic forces of social order. I’d like to know how it was discovered and how widespread it is, and what would make cops do this – just discouragement that liberal d.a.’s won’t back them up or a threat to their own jobs from somewhere? And if cops are letting this slip, how many steps until they WILL take your guns?
You take over the schools, the bright independent kids are a minority, but with time they’ll win if not dominated by the mobs created by the educational organizations. Just free the schools from overarching authorities, let parents pick the schools they want that their kids qualify for and it can solve itself. The bright independent kids can influence the others rather than mobs being formed by the establishment as seems to be happening now. Under the current system, we’ve been loosing and we shouldn’t kid ourselves.
I find the lack of self-awareness on the Left grimly fascinating. They don’t recognize themselves in Hunger Games (Capitol City and undue urban influence over rural areas? Bueller? Anyone?) or in Thanos (solving the distribution problem of limited resources through population control). It’s very impressive.
I hope we have enough John McClanes, but I listened to the hysterical teens (not just Greta) screaming about Climate Change yesterday on Klavan’s podcast, and I have some experience with the indoctrination happening in our public schools and universities, and I remember only 10% of the population belonged to the Communist Party at the height of the Soviet Union and… there’s that old aphorism, it only takes one bad apple to spoil the whole bunch. Americans aren’t Europeans, but the Left has done its damnedest to increase the resemblance. Obama’s eight years could have had the motto — Let’s be more like the oh-so-enlightened Europeans!
I believe Donald Trump’s presidency is a temporary reprieve. Who is the next John McClane to save us from the power-mad Left? I see no one up-and-coming.
The one saving grace — so far — with the millennial and now GenZ yutes is that their desire for immediate gratification usually wins out over the courage of their instilled progressive convictions as they age. They think Climate Change is urgent … but not enough to give up their energy-hungry devices that make modern creature comforts possible.
Nobody told them in school that Saving the Planet might mean periodic rolling blackouts, and if it happens when their devices aren’t charged, someone’s going to have to answer for that. In the places where the progressive mindset is already established, it may take some real-world experience with their quality-of-life being interrupted before they rebel, but sooner or later most people reach their level of maximum tolerance with the outcome of their political views, and go in a different direction (NYC in the 2 1/2 decades before Giuliani was an example of that).
A lot of them get really, really mad when you point out that the denizens of Capitol City look like fashion-victim Democrats, and that most of the rhetoric uses in the movie is leftist, and some of them lose their minds when you mention how right-wing the heroes of the movie actually are…
It’s sort of like with Robin Hood, where the left loves the “Steal from the rich to give to the poor” tag, but hates being reminded that the ‘rich’ in this case was the government, and the sheriff also served the role as Nottingham’s tax collector. Robin was giving the poor back their own money, taken by the government.
The most important insights in Titus’s article:
Very well done, @titustechera.
Western Chauv: I find the lack of self-awareness on the Left grimly fascinating. They don’t recognize themselves in Hunger Games (Capitol City and undue urban influence over rural areas? Bueller? Anyone?
I mentioned in another post I had just rewatched much of the Star Wars Franchise. What was interesting to me was the “Rebels” in the movie series described themselves as “the Resistance’, which is the same phrase the Left in present day has also taken to describe themselves against Trump. The irony of course is that the Resistance in those movies are fighting for freedom and against Authoritarian Control and our Anti-Trump Resistance is fighting to snuff out all freedom and impose a draconian Elite driven Authoritarian government. It is more like we have created Empress Palpatine Hilary and Supreme Leader Snoke Obama, with their legion of stormtroopers led by General Comey and Mueller.
Today’s Left cannot also describe themselves as the “Rebels” for they control almost all of government bureaucracy in the much of the country.
Also what is funny to me is how all these present day Leftists grew up cheering fighting for freedom and now fight for tyranny. The lack of self awareness of the glaring conflict between what they are preaching in concept and what they are practicing and supporting in real life is staggering.
To amplify that point, I have a conservative friend who paints what some might consider apocalyptical paintings and was in a show with a bunch of other artists recently in West Hollywood. In that show of course there were number of artists who had Anti-Trump messages in their paintings including this one street artist known for his “OBEY” posters that were ubiquitous for a while around LA. In their painting and other explanatory info was much railing against government control, fascism and how The Man is suppressing thought side by side angry comments about Trump and positive comments for Impeachment.
Again the disconnect was staggering. Both me and my friend commented h0w disconnected their message was from reality. But was also evident was how these artists had self regulated themselves against crossing the boundary that is the Progressive Narrative. No one crossed that line and one could see how their Art had diminished over time because their kind of art particularly demands one to address what is True and what is not to be relevant , but no one dared to confront the Truth of the present day and how Progressives are squeezing the life out of our freedoms. Not one dared to assert anything in their very political ranting and ravings that could be construed to be against the present day Progressive Resistance Message. All fell in line like brainwashed automatons ready, willing and able to crush the freedoms they once sought to protect.
“The Resistance”, as the term is used by the Left, is not analogous to the national resistance movements against the Nazis…rather, it is analogous to the Nazi (and Communist) resistance movements against the Weimar Republic.
This highlights the religious nature of progressivism. When you believe your soul is at risk you will be able to deny anything that runs counter to your “salvation” and commit horrible crimes in its name. It is a perversion of the religious impulse that places men and governments below the Almighty to ensure liberty and personal autonomy.
Also note how that “legal expert” at the impeachment hearings was so afriad of TRUMP wanting to start a “monarchy.”
I would have said “Hey, don’t worry – the Clintons already founded one”.
And the Dems would run Michelle in a heartbeat!
I would submit that there are some Hans Grubers out there, like Soros.
But the Progressive elite gov’t/media cabal = Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson.