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The Democrats’ Newfound Honesty Might Start a Backlash. Maybe.
I didn’t write this post to rehash the Ricochet oldie but goodie, “Conservatism vs. Libertarianism.” My point isn’t about the Libertarians or the Conservatives, but about the recent power grab by establishment leftists. Democrats have always been, um, rather coy about their true beliefs. They weren’t socialists, of course. They just believed more in cooperation (not coercion, of course!) and less in, um, not liberty, not independence, um, they just believed less in, um … you know, Ronald Reagan is mean! Yeah! Right. So it was hard to say what Democrats actually believed in, unless you ignored what they said, and instead observed what they did. Which most people did not do.
Anyway, I’ve been fascinated by the recent newfound honesty among Democrats. There are Democrats running to the left of Bernie Sanders, who self-identifies as a socialist. Suppose, hypothetically, that Democrats thought they could control the outcome of elections. That would allow them to be more honest, forthright, and thus assertive about achieving their true goals. Goals that look a lot like socialism. Or at least, strong centralized power systems.
If they see an opportunity to press their luck while they have the chance, that’s a rational decision. But having the government tell the citizens people residents of America that their God-given inalienable rights are actually government-granted privileges that can be taken away if they don’t play along — that may wake enough people up to create a backlash. Maybe.
I can see how the Democrats would look at the last election and think, “Heck, we can do whatever we want. If we don’t have to campaign or convince anyone to support our policies, we can just put both feet on the gas. Let’s build a socialist Utopia! Or at least, let’s build a power structure that cannot be challenged. Ever.“
I can see why they think that’s a good idea. Until they start putting sexually explicit books in some mother’s kid’s middle school library. Then you go from Linda Hamilton on the left to Linda Hamilton on the right. All of a sudden.
When the sheep you’re pushing around start to think things over a bit, and when they start to realize that this might be the end game, and when they start to understand that if they don’t stand up now, they may not have the opportunity to do so later; perhaps then those sheep (some of them at least) might turn into wolves. Overnight.
And then, politicians who are accustomed to the placid compliance of the CNN set will be shocked by the appearance of intelligent people who ask reasonable questions. So the politicians lie. And those people challenge them. And then other people start to listen, and start to think. So the politicians are forced into more and more obvious and ridiculous lies. So more people start to think, and then more people ask more questions. And it just gets worse and worse.
And before you know it, some little dog pulls back the curtain, and everyone understands the game. Which is the end of the game.
These are scary times. But this might be an opportunity. Maybe people will reject the Democrat message, now that the Democrats are being more honest about their message. Maybe.
I personally think it’s too late. I also think that the educational system, the media, Hollywood, immigration policy, the administrative state, and so on have spent the last 50 years building a voting block for fascism. Successfully. So I think it doesn’t matter much what American citizens do, at this point.
But perhaps I’m wrong. As usual, I hope I am.
What do you think? Will the Democrats’ newfound honesty create a meaningful backlash?
Published in General
I certainly hope it creates a meaningful backlash.
Ditto.
But, also like you, I really wouldn’t mind if I was just totally wrong.
Unrelated, but I just saw a different version of the Kurt Russell meme.
Schools and society are always pushing a world-view. Our original Christian meritocracy was displaced by atheistic communism. We just need to flip it back; book-by-book, classroom-by-classroom, state-by-state. Most of us won’t live that long, but the revival has already started. If nothing else, say some prayers and send money to MomsForLiberty.org. If you have more energy, plan to get involved in “vote harvesting” in 2024. If you have more time, become a GOP delegate. It is fun and you do have influence.
I knew the 2022 midterms were rigged just from watching how the Democrats made no attempt to moderate even when the polls were bad.
What makes me think we’re past the point-of-no-return is hearing supposedly educated people, some with a STEM Ph. D., say that rights are granted by/come from the government. When I pointed out to one that the Declaration stated governments are instituted among men to “secure” rights with which they are endowed, the response was, “Well, I dispute that.” All I could say was, “So I can listen to you or Thomas Jefferson?” To me, it’s not a hard choice.
It’s hard to disagree with any of this, Doc, except one word. “Fascism.”
I do think that a voting block has been built for something Leftist, something bad. “Fascism” doesn’t seem like a good word to describe it. When I think of “fascism,” I think of Mussolini. Whatever the Left is doing, it doesn’t look like Mussolini.
I don’t have a term to effectively describe it.
This deserves to be seen and enjoyed at full size!
Mark Levin calls it American Marxism
I call it Corporatism, where the Woke corporate powers join with the state Establishment against the people.
We have a lot lot of that, too.
The fact that the Democrats aren’t hiding is very scary. I don’t know what will happen.
The Democrats’ open embrace of hard-left socialism, environmental extremism, promotion of divisive racial and gender policies, and an authoritarianism that has many echoes of fascism has not produced any backlash among pro-Democrat Never-Trumpers, or even second thoughts. You have yet to hear anyone from the Bulwark or the Dispatch say, “maybe supporting Democrats to spite Trump voters was a mistake.” Or, perhaps that grift is just too good.
This is strange. Isn’t it?
My optimistic theory is that the leftists, by taking control of all our major cultural institutions, have paradoxically created an environment that weakens them, and strengthens the Center-Right.
Democrat ideas are shallow, weak and stupid. This is because they are never subjected to the only process by which ideas can be deepened, strengthened and rendered usable in the real world: Discussion and robust, energetic and informed debate. Objections are disallowed and dialectic eliminated. The result is a lot of spindly, ridiculous notions that ought never to have gotten past the first draft of an undergraduate Victim Studies essay. In the short term, eliminating debate makes Left-Land a more salubrious environment for the wanna-be totalitarians, the Wokestapo and the snowflakes whose anxiety disorders they both cultivate and exploit. But in the long run…the ideas simply fail.
Democratic politicians are shallow, weak and stupid. This is because they are not subjected to the intensive critical scrutiny of the mainstream media. A Republican would have a much more difficult time amassing the decades-long career in pure, self-aggrandizing corruption of a Biden or a Pelosi because the press pays attention to Republican malfeasance, mendacity, hypocrisy and all the rest, and so are voters. In the short term, the blanket ignorance is nice for Democratic politicians. In the long run, it makes for…spindly, ridiculous candidates like Kamala Harris and “leaders” like President Joe Biden.
We can be grateful, in a way. We could be watching a takeover by competent, ideologically driven totalitarians, rather than a power grab by absurdly incompetent, goofy, greedy buffoons motivated by nothing more impressive than their own enrichment.
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So are their voters.
Nicola Sturgeon,
FührerFirst Minister of Scotland, got the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill enacted. Transgendered women applied for reassignment to womens prisons. A few of these were rapists, pedophiles, and assorted other sex pests. Parliament (the real one) struck down the law for beingdumber than instant haggisnot conducive to the safety of women.There had been an amendment offered to this collective brain-fart that would have made an exception for prisoners and prevented prison reassignment. Sturgeon nixed it, because such concerns were “not valid.” Now there is a temporary ban, possibly to become permanent. Which means that trans women are not the same as women. It also means that Nicola can tell the difference, an intellectual feat that is beyond Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson without further education. This discovery of nuance would seem to put Nicola Sturgeon on the same side of the issue as the Most Hated Woman Ever, J. K. Rowling.
And maybe … just maybe … the voters of Scotland might be getting tired of this nonsense.
I was one, for about three decades…sigh.
Nah, not strange at all. The Never Trumpers revealed who they are during the TV program featuring the panel on Fox news station several days before the 2016 election.
First the panel stated they didn’t think either Trump of H Clinton was worthy of being a candidate for the US presidency. (Remember – just days before the election.)
Then a day or two later, they decided on Hillary, as her people had called them to offer some most important information. They explained that the Trans Pacific Plan, (aka TPP,) which would benefit the Big Investment crowd to the detriment of working class and middle class people across the Pacific Rim nations, and also delete in total sovereignty for the USA on any matter that the TTP was regulating, was something which Hillary was all in on.
Never Trumpers care in the main only about their investments, be the investments items helping to strengthen China, or strengthen outfits like those behind the TTP.
Within a few weeks of Trump’s election, the TTP matter failed in Congress, probably as he would have seen to it being rescinded once he was sworn into office.
You didn’t have the advantage of Jimmy Carter underlining the stoopid for you.
And a lot of our children.
The OP says it’s too late.
”The children of Israel were armed when they went out of Egypt.” (Exodus 13:18)
And then the sea split, the people crossed over safely, and the enemy in fast pursuit drowned when the waters returned to their former state.
Prepare for war and then, perhaps, a miracle will happen.