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
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  1. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    Mark Camp (View Comment):

    Then we will have stated a meaningful question before seeking to answer it. If I may be critical, that is a critical critical thinking skill that wasn’t apparent in the first thread. As a result the old thread went critical and blew up.

    Well done. From Kirk to Spock to Scott.

    • #91
  2. TeamAmerica Member
    TeamAmerica
    @TeamAmerica

    James Gawron (View Comment):

    Henry Racette: 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.

    Henry,

    They preen about their higher vision but really they are just gutless wonders looking to opportunistically aggrandize themselves at the expense of party and country. A few, admittedly, are just so out of touch they haven’t the slightest idea what is going on. Those ones are even more frightening.

    Regards,

    Jim

    The problem as I see it is that we now have two generations, especially the university-educated, that have received an intense leftist indoctrination- Antonio Gramsci’s dream come true. So my concern is that the Silent Majority we had in 1968 may now be gone. Millenials now outnumber baby boomers for the first time. Iow, God help us!

    • #92
  3. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    TeamAmerica (View Comment):

    James Gawron (View Comment):

    Henry Racette: 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.

    Henry,

    They preen about their higher vision but really they are just gutless wonders looking to opportunistically aggrandize themselves at the expense of party and country. A few, admittedly, are just so out of touch they haven’t the slightest idea what is going on. Those ones are even more frightening.

    Regards,

    Jim

    The problem as I see it is that we now have two generations, especially the university-educated, that have received an intense leftist indoctrination- Antonio Gramsci’s dream come true. So my concern is that the Silent Majority we had in 1968 may now be gone. Millenials now outnumber baby boomers for the first time. Iow, God help us!

    I can’t believe that kids can be that gullible these days.

    I had a militantly feminist Stalinist as TA for my Cultural Anthropology class. I spent the entire semester making fun of her, and this was during my libertarian phase.

    • #93
  4. Paul Stinchfield Member
    Paul Stinchfield
    @PaulStinchfield

    Tex929rr (View Comment):
    Trayvon Martin wasn’t an innocent honor student, and on and on

    Indeed. He was shot while smashing Zimmerman’s head repeatedly into the concrete–which was sufficient gr0unds to use deadly force to stop him. Seems like he was a thugette destined to become a full thug. The fact that BLM  activists–well, “moderate” liberals too–will treat a thug as a holy martyr is all you need to know that today’s left is utterly corrupt; morally bankrupt.

    • #94
  5. Paul Stinchfield Member
    Paul Stinchfield
    @PaulStinchfield

    Percival (View Comment):
    I had a militantly feminist Stalinist as TA for my Cultural Anthropology clas

    I have been assured many times that there are no communists in the schools and universities. The people who have so confidently told me this were Marxists, Marxist-Leninists, Stalinists, Maoists, and God knows what else. :-)

    • #95
  6. Paul Stinchfield Member
    Paul Stinchfield
    @PaulStinchfield

    Juliana (View Comment):
    Although the public schools keep telling you they are teaching critical thinking, it is nothing of the sort. They are indoctrinating students with progressive ideas and teaching them to be critical of anyone who does not think like them.

    They are teaching not Critical Thinking but Critical Theory, which is Marxism dressed up in fancy new post modern garb. But perhaps I should say “an amalgam of Marxism and fascism…” since Critical Theory contains a heavy dose of racism.

    • #96
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