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Knowing the Enemy; and Yourself
When I last speculated here about the grave danger we have placed our necessary and definitive culture in, I mumbled something about the need to reasonably identify the real enemies of that culture. Since the first few hours and days of any new year are often spent in reflection on improving ourselves for the seasons to come, this might be a good time to lay out some standards for that identification. I will ignore that most often those reflections are shoved far from our consciences by mid-January, never to cross our minds again till sometime beyond the next winter solstice.
I have heard far too much lately from several directions about the threats to “our democracy” or to our Constitution. And almost every time the real threats, the real dangers, to each are misnamed, often deliberately and more often foolishly.
The first thing to get out of the way is to drop the term “democracy.” It is overused and misused by too many who have little regard for Liberty. What we have, at least in name, is a self-governing republic. I will go ahead and shock by saying that I have little interest in democracy, any more than I do some form of egalitarian, majoritarian arrangement which is what is usually meant when democracy is so loosely thrown around. I have a great deal of interest in my individual rights and their practice and protection. I have the same interest in yours, by the way.
What is threatened first and foremost is that culture of Liberty which drove us to create that republican system to begin with, one steeped in the Judeo-Christian tradition of individual worth and rights. Kill that culture and the Constitution is the same as dead no matter how high you pretend to hold it or proclaim it. The culture came first. The Constitution came to try and preserve it, enhance it and allow it to grow among a free, self-governing people. I value the Constitution because I so value the culture of Liberty.
Within hours we will be bombarded with an “anniversary” of an event most enemies of that culture would like to have remembered as an “insurrection” or attempted “coup.” It was a riot that need not have happened. Those responsible for the protection and security of the Capitol that day (the Speaker of the House and Capitol Police) failed to provide enough manpower despite several “heads ups” and an offer of thousands of National Guard troops by the sitting president. Those who entered the Capitol represented a fraction of a fraction of those thousands (probably hundreds of thousands) who came to support that president or at least call more attention to an election marked by chaos, multiple unconstitutional changes in state election law, and a growing body of evidence that was being rejected out of hand by bias media, self-interested politicos and an intimidated judiciary. The intrusion into the Capitol certainly didn’t serve that president well. Any people who honestly believe that he wanted it or intended it have allowed personality and prejudice to override principles and reason. Those who foolishly took the bait and became a part of that intrusion only helped create the media mischaracterization of an “insurrection” (useful idiots — intentional or otherwise — can be found in multiple places, not just in college faulty lounges or breathlessly reading the Bulwark).
Far be it from one as simple-minded and unsophisticated as myself to offer corrections to anyone who has spent a lifetime convincing themselves they belong among the political class. I have only a layman’s impressions sorted out in the clarity of creek-bank air and reasonably priced whiskey. I will try not to embarrass myself with my simple, basic observations or move too slowly for the quicker and more sophisticated among us.
This will not be a complete list of all the genuine threats to our Liberty and Constitution. Many will be simply subsets of an overarching threat.
For example, a real “coup” attempt might be if an administration conducted surveillance on the campaign of another political party’s presidential candidate.
Another might be if military leaders actually told their counterparts in a hostile foreign government that they would not follow directives from a sitting president or give them a “heads up” in case of military action. There are even some simple minds that would see that as a treasonous act.
I would content that sidestepping the Constitution to change election law without the state legislature was totally in opposition to “rule of law” which some seem to hold so dear only in certain, isolated cases.
The abuse of FISA Court regulations by the agency in charge of federal law enforcement is a far greater threat than freelancing numbskulls.
When senior members of the Justice Department feel free to “protect us” through political intrigue, the rule of law has been discarded.
The changes in election law and procedures that the Democrats are so intent on passing before 2022 voting are a genuine threat to the Constitution and will only aid those who are so determined to change the nature of our republic.
Setting up the Soviet-modeled January 6th committee, setting aside standard procedures and practices to get the predetermined result, is more of a threat to our Liberty than the event itself.
Open borders and the flood of unvetted into our nation is, and has been, far more destructive.
Command-and-control health care certainly belongs on the list as well as a command-and-control economy.
The examples of excesses from federal enforcement agencies across the board are a much greater threat. Doubling the size of the IRS is a greater threat. And it is meant to be a threat, one to be used to not just to take their “fair share” but to keep all in their place.
The actions of George Soros prosecutors and other office-holders at various levels are direct assaults on that culture of Liberty.
Every bill written by the Democrats in the past year is a direct attack on the function of this republic and its foundations. That is true regardless of what road you might have thought was helpful to your region.
A determined effort to force dropping of the Senate filibuster and “pack the Court” with no checks and balances is intended to do nothing but assure advantage for those determined to fundamentally alter our society for good.
All of these and probably dozens more (I still have quite a few written down in front of me – a list that only took minutes) are symptoms of a government that has long since become unmoored from the Constitution that created it and the culture which provided the document.
The January 6th committee itself is an example of the political class simply “playing government” instead of performing their intended roles. It is a product of a Congress that for too long has not done its job. Legislators are supposed to legislate. But with the growth of big national government that extends itself into far too many corners of our lives and economy, both the Congress and president have simply passed on both legislative and enforcement powers to the unelected.
We cannot have “checks and balances” when so much is delegated. And those sitting in their elected seats spend most of their energy in political theater. From that, we get all the Faucis of the world, self-important tyrants serving the politicos who will keep empowering them. They just don’t crush our Liberty whenever they can get away with it, they will undermine federalism itself.
We have some very dangerous foreign enemies who would gladly help us fall. But they will never see it as long as we are the model of our Founding. It is those who so happily work to destroy that model who are our most dangerous enemies.
In the last 30-plus-year period, our Liberty has constantly faded – regardless of political party – except for the brief time when federal regulations actually decreased, a real attempt was made to control the southern border, more money was left with taxpayers and an administration followed as closely as possible the campaign promises made. The major obstruction to following those promises came mostly from entrenched politicos of all party dominations. But the same could be said of the Reagan years and the 20 years before that.
Defanging an all-too-powerful federal government with so many growing branches of delegated regulation is what that those behind five years of actual “coup” efforts fear.
As a rule, election polls and elective results have drifted center-right for some time. But those results have not slowed the leftist march that has all but taken over our vital institutions, both governmental and social. The elites of both political parties share that guilt.
The real core issue here is the state of those institutions and their relationship to those Judeo-Christian traditions embracing the individual as well as the moral order that comes with it. That is where our Liberty and our future will be lost, or salvaged for at least a little while longer.
The purpose of this committee has little to do with who entered the Capitol that day. And yes, its immediate goal is to strike at Donald Trump in another contrived way. But the real target is an engaged citizenry. It is those who show up at school board meetings or during the school day itself to have a say in the education of their own children. Or those in city council meetings. Or those who voice directly to their state legislators. The political class (both elected and not) has long since stopped being a reflection of the citizenry and have “ruled” without much concern for it.
That citizenry has begun to realize that their children are at stake.
Donald Trump is only an issue because he didn’t just address the decay of our institutions, he made progress. True, his words in 2016 might have been somewhat of a threat enough to try and sabotage his campaign but it was that he followed through with most of them and had some success that makes him such a target. The “people” don’t need to have the smell of those successes in their nostrils for very long, they might expect more of it!
No, this is hardly a “cult of personality.” Trump is not nearly as important to those citizens, or the future of our republic, as the direction. It is the direction that will save the republic. Whoever is at the wheel will, and should, change regularly. Despite plenty of human flaws he can all list, Trump began what all in the political class were either too self-interested or too cowardly to actually attempt seriously. He may have already served his purpose. That will be seen. But it was desperately needed regardless of the vehicle.
I have already overstayed my time here without the clarity I hoped for. But this “anniversary” and all the hyped drama that comes with it is, in my thinking, to be largely ignored. Those of us who would save those vital institutions certainly have to engage, desperately but with focus and conviction. Our message has a real and deep audience. But most of our time and concentration should be on those who will at least listen.
Those who are intent on destroying those institutions will hardly listen with honesty. Those who are foolishly their unwitting collaborators rarely intend to listen honestly either. They are distractions and, for the most part, intended to be. They yell and parade for the attention they somehow believe they deserve (or at least want). Move on to something or someone who can matter and leave them to their own ramblings and delusion.
Reinforce conviction with clarity from those places where it can be found. Then move on the spread that conviction and clarity to those who might actually hear it.
Published in General
Well said!
Thanks for that, Ole Man. Clarity. Liberty is a difficult thing to expose. There are those who believe it to be freedom from want, to be liberated from life’s responsibilities and strife. But that idea is the biggest lie of all. No one can legislate happiness. It is a pursuit. No one can legalize fairness. We will all have struggles and obstacles, some more than others. What we can do is allow every individual citizen to pursue, to struggle, to fail, to get up, to persevere and to succeed with dignity and without interference. That is liberty.
For once, I would like someone to explain just how DJT represented a threat to our constitution. He questioned the election result in 2020? No where in our constitution does it say that elections are incorruptible and that results cannot be disputed. Trump posed modest challenges to the bureaucratic state. He pointed out the media’s obvious bias. He asked our allies to live up to their agreements. He negotiated trade agreements on our behalf. He enforced our immigration laws. He imposed tariffs when others took advantage of us. He acted as our president, in our interests. This exposed the true corruption in Washington. He was a threat, not to the US citizenry, but to the swamp.
But he was true to the Constitution and never a threat to it, only to those who would pervert it for gain, revenge, envy or simply to declaw us and render us as irrelevant as Greece.
I’ll guarantee if they say that, they must be anti-Trump Republicans because mentioning the Constitution is already off-message for Democrats. They all say a threat to “our Democracy” which demonstrates clearly they are talking about where they want to take the country, not where it has been for over two centuries under the Constitution.
I suggest what you describe here, the usage of the term “democracy” , may be how some who don’t know better describe the existing American Republic. I think those schooled in the basic Marxist precepts are referring to where they want to take the country in the future, when they call it “our Democracy”. They never mention preserving the Constitution because that is not their aim.
yes, “democracy” is used by most in the same way that “voting rights” and “equality” are thrown about to try make it appear you oppose virtue when you point out the flaws in their thinking. The issues involved with a deliberative republic can be skipped over by throwing these terms about without actually discussing what is at hand, least that is the intent.
That is a subject worth coming back to when I sit down the next time – the importance of process if we are to have a deliberative republic to prevent tyranny by the “mob” or anyone else.
Good call.
Not a chance. I’m not going to drop that term. Why should I give up the weapons I can use against the left?