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Begun, the Statue Wars have
Forgive the truncated tweet. You get the gist of the pith of his marrow.
Got it? Trump is waging a Statue Culture War. The people who topple anything that looks, y’know, old, and hence racist – that’s just, like, an expression of Real Feelings, and hence sanctified. If they tear down a symbol of Wisconsin Progress or an Elk or an actual Abolitionist, well, omelettes, broken eggs and all that.
That’s not war; that’s a way of starting a discussion.
If you don’t accept the premises and the direct action and the verdict of the topplers? You, not them , have decided to declare WAR. Prosecuting the people who tear down monuments is not a reaction to a culture war, it is starting a culture war. Proposing the creation of a national statuary center that celebrates the accomplishments of remarkable American individuals is waging a culture war.
The author of this tweet, according to Wikipedia: “Kenneth Paul Vogel is an American journalist and author who currently reports for The New York Times. From 2007 to 2017, he was the founding chief investigative reporter at Politico.”
Published in General
Trump builds things. The left destroys things.
Trump gave a very uplifting speech last night at Mt. Rushmore – everything he said needed to be said – the record is now straight, in case there’s any confusion. The idea of a new national park with statues and monuments dedicated to great Americans was a great idea – tear one down – put two more up!
Vogel – national apologist for criminals, tweeted stupidly today.
Yeah. It’s like the mayor of a small town starting a crime war by prosecuting criminals.
Bring on the Memorial Park
By the way @jameslileks, thank you for posting on Ricochet. As a long time member, I miss the old days, when Troy and Clair and Molly would all post a bunch. It is nice to see your smiling yellow Avatar (assuming there is a smile under that mask). I know I am going to get something pithy.
As President Trump put it last night: The American Revolution was the real deal, the bringer of liberty and equality. What is going on now is a counter revolution and it must not succeed. We cannot preserve our freedoms while letting the counter revolutionists rewrite our history.
Do we have to keep pretending that the democrats aren’t taking a trip down the Third Reich rabbit hole?
The LA Times did not like his speech. Neither did the usual suspects.
https://twitter.com/CShadegg/status/1279297704108015616
I liked it and I’ll bet I was not the only one.
Nope. And people need to realize that the animating ideology of both the Nazis and the Progressive Democrats have a common source.
As seen on Instapundit:
and
I’m thrilled he delivered an outstanding speech straight and on-script. His demeanor was serious and purposeful. And it was nice to see Melania smile.
Can we talk “dog whistles?” The new one this morning is “dark and divisive,” the neo-Marxist term for “the mother frappers won’t surrender!”
While the NeverTrumpers scramble to either throw their vote away this November or justify their vote for Dementia Joe, they will lie to themselves and say, “If I genuflect in public the crocodile will eat me last!”
Folks, that crocodile is very hungry. He will get to you sooner than you think.
At this point, if you don’t oppose the Left with every fiber of your being, I don’t consider you a conservative or a patriot, and I want nothing to do with you.
So, ONLY they can decide, and we can ONLY accept? It’s only starting a culture war if we respond to their aggression? OK, got it. Shows how you can just invert everything coming from the left and get close to the truth.
I didn’t hear the details, but a statues park sounds pretty smart: Easier to protect and if the haters don’t want to see them, then just DON’T GO THERE.
I thought the speech was excellent but the delivery was much lower-energy than we have heard from Trump in the past. He looks and sounds very tired–totally understandable, but hope he recovers his energy very soon.
Did anyone else get this impression from the speech?
I chalk that up to his wanting to walk the line between a national event and a political rally. His content at points veered in to rally as he needed to highlight the forces at play (name and shame) to undermine the Republic. So his delivery needed to be a bit less energetic than that on display in his rallies where he revels in the entertainment value that it represents.
Perhaps James could write a parody email exchange between BLM and Antifa sharing their exasperation in being unable to find any statues of Jews* to tear down.
* Other than that Jew who pretended to be Jesus.
Well, remember, the Nazi Party became popular with the middle class in Germany because they were the only ones who would stand up to the Communists in the streets. Law of unintended consequences.
Listen to this interview of the Secretary of the Interior if you don’t already know how organized these vandal groups are. These aren’t impulsive acts of angry crowds. It’s terrorism and deliberated revolution.
I hope federal investigators find sufficient evidence to prosecute the financiers.
Sadly, as politicized as those investigative agencies and prosecutors have been, I wouldn’t be surprised if they stall or otherwise assist the insurgents.
He’s from the New York Times, because of course.
They took the symbol and name from the Communist Antifaschistische Aktion organization in Weimar Germany. Original on the Left, current domestic Antifa ironically on the right….
As to the validity I can’t speak. It was in a tweet and supposedly copied from a Reddit subforum.
I’m surprised the left isn’t spinning that first tweet about the arrests as Trump beginning the roundup of his political opposition.
How soon before his speech did the memo go out from the DNC to their press minions to use “dark” as the operative adjective?
To say that prosecuting one vandal for one crime in a wave of lawlessness and destruction is “starting a culture war” is like saying that when from the deck of the USS West Virginia Dory Miller trained an anti aircraft gun at Japanese warplanes during the attack on Pearl Harbor, he started WWII in the Pacific.
Well put.
Glad to have read your comment before I posted. I was just going to say the exact same thing. It was the first thought that came to my mind while listening to Trump’s speech last night.
The substance was terrific, the ambiance was spectacular, the President seemed a bit subdued. I would love to see him give that same speech with his usual spark and energy. Be EMPHATIC Mr. President.
When isn’t it nice to see Melania smile? She’s gorgeous.