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Only the GOP Can Stop the Left’s Radical Agenda
What we are seeing around the nation today is the opportunistic exploitation, by Black Lives Matter and Antifa, of a specific tragedy in order to push a radical agenda. The specific tragedy is an act of criminal police misconduct (alleged, but almost universally assumed, and for good reason) that led to the death of George Floyd. The radical agenda includes calls for an end to capitalism, an end to policing, an end to incarceration, and various other similarly preposterous “woke” nostrums.
What makes this situation unusual is the efficiency with which these radical organizations have leveraged a single outrage into a semi-coordinated national campaign. What makes this situation depressing and somewhat terrifying is the degree to which otherwise sensible-seeming people have rushed to embrace the self-destructive idiocy of these radical movements.
It is hard to look at the nation and not conclude that we are in a precarious place from which a return to normalcy is essential but by no means assured. We’ve experienced similar social convulsions before, most recently in the late 1960s. We survived that in part because the electorate chose to reject the more radical path in favor of what was perceived as a conservative administration. This prevented at least the worst of the progressive agenda from gaining a foothold in law.
If Democrats win the White House and both houses of the Congress in November, it is entirely believable that they will enact portions of the radical agenda that is currently animating the left and capturing surprising popular support. This would include novel assaults on the free market and law enforcement, as well as a renewed emphasis on gender identity radicalism. In the current climate it could also include steps toward imposing reparations for past racism, a national guaranteed minimum income, nationally mandated voting reforms that make elections wildly unreliable, and further regulation of health care. All of these are things that would flow naturally from the current virus and race relations crises.
What stands in the way of that? Realistically, only one thing: control of the House, the Senate, or the executive branch by the Republican Party. In this extremely volatile and deeply irrational moment — which blue state governors may yet be able to prolong for several months through misuse of their currently exaggerated powers — it is essential that the unchecked ability to implement federal law not be handed over to a Democratic Party unwilling or unable to resist its most radical factions.
I think the Republican Party, as imperfect and often frustrating as it is, is the bulwark, the wall, between the civil society we still enjoy and a swelling tide of increasingly unhinged radicalism. We must hold on to something, anything, in November.
Published in Elections
Is there still a silent majority and will they speak in November?
No idea. But let’s act as if there isn’t, just in case.
Well, I thought this was going to be about the other Bulwark, so that’s a neat piece of wordplay. But let’s go there. Should we take any (alleged) conservative seriously who furthers the ascent to power of “a Democratic party unwilling or unable to resist its most radical factions.”
Mail in voting will be a disaster.
Don’t take people seriously. Take ideas seriously.
I think the plan is to declare Biden the winner no matter how the vote goes. Biden has already said that Trump is engaging in election fraud, and that he has generals who will remove Trump from office if he doesn’t agree with the election results.
It’s the ideas furthered by that set of people that I’m talking about.
I find that hard to believe.
We need it all in November and it could still be nip and tuck.
I know, Hoy. I’m suggesting that we try to avoid letting this devolve into a personality thing. The message I want to communicate is pretty simple: this is an extraordinarily dangerous time to let the Democrats control the entire federal law-making apparatus. Anyone opposed to the radicalism of the moment should support Republican victories in November, wherever possible. This isn’t about personalities.
I think so.
Yes. If you want to know what they won’t do ask yourself what would offend the money people behind the Dems. Very little that you and I would care about.
And with that question, the post may as well have been about the other Bulwark. Unfortunately.
That he said it, or that he had generals willing to do it?
It’s going to be very interesting to see how the Trump Campaign, Republican candidates, and the RNC portray recent events in campaign ads, speeches, and rallies.
I am tempted to say that anyone that is willing to support the Democrat agenda over the Trump agenda is a traitor to constitutional government. But that discounts the ability of good people to imagine that Trump is the anti-Christ and truly seeking authoritarian and genocidal rule. I think they are insane to believe that, but that is how bad things have gotten. Its very discouraging.
Both. I could be persuaded to believe that he said it, since all that requires is a quotation. But I don’t believe that he would have the loyalty of a sufficient number of general of such poor judgment — recent evidence of the poor judgment of generals notwithstanding.
That’s a scary thought . . .
It isn’t about Trump. It’s about an opposition party — a Republican party — bulwark against runaway radicalism.
Is there still a silent majority? Maybe
Will they vote in November? Most likely not. Why should they? They know there is no upside. PTB are going to do what they want and those that do not vote correctly may be identified for harassment.
But he did say it. From my memory, Biden was asked what he would do if Trump loses the election and refuses to leave the office. Biden answered, in an edited cut, that four generals (I think retired) said that they would remove Trump with haste. We don’t know the middle part of what Biden said, or even if the two phrases were answers from two different questions pasted together, but even if he, or anyone in his campaign, is talking to generals about ousting Trump, then they have a real interest in potentially ousting Trump.
This is enough to be rather disconcerting but would be of no real point, unless Biden accuses Trump of cheating in the election, a la third-world-type election fraud. But in the same interview Biden accused Trump of already doing this very thing.
It looks like Biden’s team is already preparing the framing of the election results to be null and void if Trump wins.
In other words, there’s now no way, in Biden’s mind or in those of his campaign, that Trump can legally win the election. And so removal is already being readied in case he does win.
Added: But on the good side, I was wrong about 0bama declaring martial law and not leaving office. So there’s that. (Or was I wrong?)
We have two parties, the Democrats that do and steal what they please and the
GOPDemocrat light that allow the Democrats to do what they wish as long as they get a taste.WA already has 100% mail voting, and Seattle basically runs the state. We are lost.
you were wrong in that he would not leave office. you were right if you thought he would not leave power. It looks to me that he is running a shadow government and influencing the bureaucracy to undermine the current administration.
On a lighter not, when I read, I hear the words in my head. (I cannot imagine what it’s like to read without hearing the words — even ee cummings.) When I read your words, they come out muffled because of the mask you wear in your icon. :)
You are correct except that elections will be completely reliable. Democrats will always win.
These are two very different things. If Trump loses the election but refuses to leave office he needs to be removed. Removing him because he wins and you don’t like it is something else entirely. Besides, I think it’s much more likely that the Dems will cheat on the election process than the Republicans.
Biden’s accusation was that Trump was already acting to steal the election. Biden has already questioned the legitimacy of a Trump win. This accusation is not going to go away.
The implication is that even a Trump “win” would be illegitimate. He said that he spoke to general officers who assured him that Trump would be removed from office if he didn’t win the election and this also obviously refers to an illegitimate win.
The Democrats actively want to destroy the country, then.
If we could only get Trump to support Republican victories in November.
Hey folks, those of you who feel compelled to throw in the towel already, try to do it quietly so that the rest of us can feel better about staying in the fight.
Sheesh. It’s June. We’re still digging out of two national crises. Let’s not surrender quite so quickly.