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Kick Me, Kill Me
It seems that the Republican establishment will never learn the lesson of the schoolyard: Act like prey, get treated like prey; Allow a bully to slap a “kick me!” sign on your back, expect his flunkies to line up behind him at the invitation. The Democrats, however, do understand this lesson: both to appease fellow-traveling tyrants and to further their own agenda, they have slapped a “kick me!” sign on America so often that doing so is practically in their party platform. And while the Democrats appease their fellow America haters, the Republicans, while paying lip-service to the dangers of appeasement, insist on “reaching across the aisle” to those same Democrats and slapping a “kick me!” sign on their own backs. The Republicans then they wonder why their base — ungrateful for all their “great work”… work that happens to come with a constant and mocking kick from behind — has abandoned them. Their base understands that a bully emboldened and unchecked seldom stops at just the occasional sadistic kick.
This era of Republican appeasement of Democrats began as soon as Ronald Reagan left office and George H. W. Bush assumed it. It was then that President Bush introduced his policy of a “kinder, gentler conservatism.” And it is this policy, in one form or another, which has informed and advised the Republican establishment ever since: a refusal to even deign to put on a pair of gloves and enter the ring. And with each Republican sniff and refusal to fight, the Democrats have become emboldened. They have not only dropped their gloves, they have left the ring and now hang out in a back alley, brass knuckles and baseball bats at the ready.
The progression of Democrat hostility is not difficult to discern, if one is unafraid to look: from the slanders of the Justice Thomas confirmation hearings, to Hillary Clinton’s claims of a “vast right wing conspiracy,” to assassination fantasy plays and “Snipers Wanted” graphics targeting President George W. Bush, to the mass media mocking of Sarah Palin, to the harassment of her family and late night comedy “rape jokes” about her daughter, to the Tea Party being broad-brushed in government reports as a potential terrorist movement, to the media blaming the Tea Party for every atrocity before any evidence could possibly be gathered, to Republican citizens being physically assaulted in town hall meetings, to President Obama’s street rhetoric of “get in their face” and “punish our enemies,” to the IRS targeting conservative groups, to Candy Crowley throwing the 2012 CNN Presidential debate, to the Democrat party cozying up to a group which condones the assassination of police officers, to a talk show host being vilified as a crypto-nazi, to an old man who wore a Trump shirt being assaulted with a crowbar… to this week when pop culture icon Will Smith remarked about supporters of the Republican presidential candidate, “We get to know who people are and now we get to cleanse it out of our country.”
“Cleanse.”
Admittedly, the preceding list is very, very incomplete. But what, over the past twenty-eight years, has the Republican establishment response to each item on this list been other than to reach across the aisle for yet another fresh “kick me!” sign. And worse, some in the establishment, as Democrat hostility became more aggressive, have also decided that it would be easier to become flunkies rather than to remain victims: to malign their own base as “wackobirds” and “hobbits,” to openly sabotage their own candidates like Chris McDaniels, to play the spoiler in their own presidential primary debate, and now to openly support the Democrats’ presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, she of the “vast right wing conspiracy” claim.
Much political hay has been made of the “unpresidential temperament” of the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, some of it with merit. And many political opinions have been offered as to why the Republican base chose Trump over candidates far more qualified. A good many of those opinions have settled on motivations of “anger” and “revenge.” Such opinions are misguided at best and possibly an admission of sour grapes at worst. Much closer to the truth are the motivations of “frustration” and “fear:” frustration at the Republican establishment for consistently dismissing their base in the face of ever increasing Democratic hostility, and fear that the Democrats’ political culture has begun to inform the Democrat popular culture that words like “cleanse” are now borderline acceptable.
Published in Politics
I have heard the difference between Dems & the GOP is the GOP thinks Dems are wrong, but Dems think the GOP is evil. This Republican, who identifies more as a conservative, now thinks the Dems are evil. Their goals are increasingly totalitarian—no more guise of soft despotism.
I emphatically disagree. And I have done so without coloring my disagreement with words like “emotional,” “tantrum,” “middle-finger,” “preachy,” “self-serving,” “screed,” or “whine.”
This is true, and it’s not a benefit, but it is something that can be used for benefit, and that is they are no longer hiding it. More and more people are seeing them for what they are and have always, to one degree or another, been. Thanks for reading, MollysMom.
Indeed. It all started there. Thanks for reading, Trajan.
Again, indeed. Thanks for reading, R.
Great post!
To your point about Will Smith’s ideological “cleansing”:
we’re at the point where diseases (AIDS, gender dysphoria, the “disabled”) are rights-ised–and unpopular political opinions are treated like diseases.
I recently attended a family dinner which was actually an “intervention” designed to make me realize the danger, the “destructive divisiveness” of voting for Trump. See, I was sick, an addict of some kind. “But you’re a woman! How can you vote for him after the things he’s said?” (Answer, in case you’re wondering: cuz he has hired a lot of us even back when that wasn’t common, paid us well, and has great relations with 2 ex-wives and 2 daughters). “But you’re so smart! A lawyer! How can you be so stupid, so blind to the pain you’re causing?”
Yes, that’s right, people on the Left are apparently so sensitive, so concerned and caring, that just knowing someone in their lives doesn’t see the world their way is agony to them!
When you realize they believe failure to agree with them is a fatal disease (maybe even–gasp!– catching!)— then the use of the term “cleanse” makes sense.
Yes, the GOP Establishment has gotten used to its role as the battered wife. But you ought to see the way it takes it out on tea partiers and Republicans who are actually Republican. First Justin Amash, then Tim Huelskamp, and now Paul Gosar. They can give as good as they get, the only difference being that they take out their viciousness on their own.
Thank you, Hypatia. And thanks for reading.
All true. Thanks for reading, TR.
If this is happening in a widespread manner, I would direct you to this in the OP:
The precious GOP was already reading conservatives out of the GOP, the Tea Party being only the most recent.
Btw, Rick, loved the post. It has been driving me insane hearing how “unpresidential” Trump is in what he says while not a word has been said against what Obama, Hillary, and the Democrat machine have said about us.
But what do I know? I’m just a bitter clinger, right?
“A refusal to even deign to put on a pair of gloves and enter the ring.”
“Frustration at the Republican establishment for consistently dismissing their base in the face of ever increasing Democratic hostility.”
Rick, if the leaders of a political party or the ruling clique of a city-state accepted the core premises and prejudices of the people attacking the party or the city, what you have written is exactly the result you would expect, isn’t it?
The Democratic party is the party of the anti-white coalition in American politics. Those who are its most fervent members resent, despise and hate the traditional American people and their culture. They want to punish you and your children for being what you are and believing what you believe. They would punish your ancestors if they could; instead they settle for defaming them.
“My grandfather fought the Nazis so that I could be called a Nazi for believing the same things that my grandfather did.”
Please don’t argue that “white” has nothing to do with it, that many Democrats are white themselves. Realize that they do not see themselves as white any more than they see themselves as American. Race is irrelevant to those whites just as ethnicity and nationality are.
The GOP won’t fight because they too are deracinated. They also believe their voters are racists. They prefer to channel that “racism” toward their business ends, not fight for it.
How did Barbour attack Chris McDaniels?