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A few days ago I appeared on Ricochet’s Land of Confusion podcast (link below). We had a good time talking about all sorts of stuff. About halfway through the show, Don asked me about political yard signs in my area, which for some reason elicited from me a nine-minute discussion of the evolution of leftist movements in America over the past 100 years.
I want to shamelessly say that I called it. Or rather, I nearly called it. I suggested that people start listening at 33:00 when you started to talk about Sun Tzu.
True – where I referred to Sun Tzu’s “Act of War.” Oops. I meant “Art of War,” of course. Dang.
But I wondered what your perspective would be on that section – you’ve written about such things in the past.
Unfortunately, I agree with you. Trump is at best buying a little time. My sister and I are thinking that a Trump victory will give us a bit more time to plan an orderly exit from California. If the Dems take the Senate, less time, but probably more than if Biden wins and they take the Senate.
I did watch (and listen to, and enjoy!) the recommended 9 minutes, and then some. Since I didn’t take in the whole show, I can’t say the concept of The Coalition Of The Fringes wasn’t mentioned by that name. But Steve Sailer writes about it all the time, never failing to remark on its untenability. The fringes that now make up the Democratic Party dislike one another, have no reason to like one another, and probably cannot be managed – certainly not by Joe Biden.
What your bullet points leave out is the destruction of hope which you mentioned on the podcast. This is probably why the leftist movement is so anti-christian and anti-jew. Ironic that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama both used hope as a theme. The left always creates the opposite of what it claims to do.
I found this linked on a blog I like; the author is USMC veteran William S. Lind, who wrote 4th Generation Warfare Handbook.
Sorry, I’m not able to listen right now, but wanted to respond to your bullets anyway.
In the big picture, they never are. I was sure Reagan in ’80 would cause nuke war (so voted libertarian), and that Obama would be the end of America as we know it if he won re election (So voted for Romney). But as of today, this is the most important election. In four years, that one will be.
No, they were vicious long before Trump. If Jeb! had won the nomination and election, they would be just as vicious. But they do hate Trump with a white hot rage I haven’t seen since Reagan.
I agree Biden is irrelevant. But Trump is why. This is, as most second term elections are, about Trump and little else. Biden never would have a chance on his own, I estimate 75% of his support is no deeper than ‘not Trump’.
I put this in the same category as bullet 1. It ain’t over till it’s over, and I still have some faith that Americans have enough of the rugged individualism left in their DNA to overcome the onslaught of groupthink.
If by remaking you mean obfuscating, misrepresenting, and bait and switching, sure. Culture, like climate, is always changing. I don’t yet agree they have stamped out the traditional American culture, but it is getting there.
Like I say, culture does not stay in place, it is constantly in motion, evolving. The culture of 80’s America was quite different than the culture of the ’50, and very different than the culture of 1776. The question is has the population lost the basic underpinning of what made America the most successful and free society the world has ever known. (Belief in individual freedom and distrust of central government) I can only say I hope not yet, but my understanding of history is that someday, it will. It is the nature of humanity.
But do we really have the bravery to fight?
I’m rather in line your thinking too. I have recently finished reading Rod Dreher’s Live Not By Lies, which I will be reviewing here on Rico as soon as I muster my thoughts on it (which, for this book, is challenging). The points Dreher makes again and again and again are sobering:
Anyone who pins all their hopes on a Trump victory to prevent this is engaging in wishful thinking, and one need only look at how these companies are already acting outside of the US to see what they plan to do here. Trump may delay, but he hasn’t shown any ability or willingness to act here, so even if he wins we won’t really see this relenting. Biden is meanwhile a greedy senile vain narcissistic cypher, who likewise will not act. And once these younger cohorts come into their own, they will be unrestrained. As a culture, we have failed to adequately instruct the next generations. Nothing can fix that now.
And like the fools and morons who funded the Bolsheviks and Nazis a century ago, the people who do have the power and money to stop it won’t because they don’t take it seriously – they think in their vanity that they will be spared.
It’s worse than that. They don’t just think they will be spared, they believe they will be empowered. They want to rule the word, and damnit, they deserve to!
Just my two cents but I would really like to see you expand on the time after about the 30 minute mark. The sound is not as good as it could be on the recording and I really liked what I heard…but am WAY too lazy to actually attempt to transcribe it or even to take good notes. Strong points that deserve a little discussion, so go for it!
I’m not sure I understand exactly what you mean…
Socialism doesn’t require government ownership of the means of production, just the control of it. With the Green New Deal, the government would control anything that uses energy to be created or delivered–everything!
I think this election is very important, not as much because of the person wins, but because it will tell us what path Americans have chosen. It is 1619 or 1776? It is Lenin & Marx or Lewis & Clark? Is it Teapot Dome or Tea Party?
I felt the same way in 2012, and again in 2016. It will be a long battle.
Everybody feels that way all the time. I’m with Dr. Bastiat. This is a matter of decades if not generations.
As my Elders are recommending this book I’m looking forward to your review. Speaking with facts is difficult at best but seems to me the best we can hope for is to slow the rate of decline or to just enjoy the toboggan ride.
“There is a great deal of ruin in a nation.” – Adam Smith
IOW – The nation is big and complex. People behave in surprising ways. It’s not over until it’s over.
So keep fighting the fight. It’s not like you have anything better to do.
It is over. The fact so many people want to vote for Biden proves it.
Most Americans are too fat and stupid to care about liberty and freedom. They want handouts. Especially the middle class who will find they are no longer middle class.
They hated W at least as badly as either Reagan or Trump. I had relatives who, when Bush was televised sharing Thanksgiving turkey in Iraq with the services, prayed for the terrorists to end him right there. These are really sweet, sweet people.
You aren’t exaggerating.
No, I’m not. They were as gleeful as a demon at Auschwitz.
According to Lucifer, demons associated with hell have been neutral in human matters for over 4,000 years.
Yes, he loves a bad joke.
Quoting myself from comment 24:
Well, in a very amusing turn of events, here is a great article called “Why Millions of Freelancers Fear a Biden Presidency May Put Them out of Work“:
Life takes some interesting twists and turns sometimes.
I used to laugh at Obama’s suggestion that self-employment will be the answer to unemployment. He used to talk about this all this time. I would to think to myself, “Ha ha, and it will be the kiss of death for the Democrats. The tax advantages for self-employment are very high, and when the IRS figures out that it is losing a lot of money, the government will try to corral everyone back to work for large employers. I have news for the Democrats. People aren’t going to go. They will love self-employment for many social and financial reasons.”
The next few years will see some surprises! :-)
Concerning the bob sled, there is only one end, and the question is how we get there, fast with no injuries, or all bunged up and limping down the course. The end of the course doesn’t have to be a debauched and degrading society, though that seems certainly to be the course we are on now. But there is another possibility. And it’s miraculous. And that is a massive change of individual hearts toward Christ. It’s happened before I think at least twice in America, and was the result of prayer and preaching and prayer, so I’m told.
The Great Awakening was in the 1730s and 40s. The Second Great Awakening occurred mostly in the first half of the nineteenth century. These were not so much through the working of men, though men were involved. But they were the working of God in response to prayer.
Jonah preached to the Ninevites, and they repented and Nineveh was spared in their lifetimes. So anything is possible with God. Maybe the young of today scorn Christendom just as the Ninevites did, through ignorance, and might be grateful for a change if exposed to preaching Christ.
Your Jesus thingy makes people happy. It really seems that the SJW types are deeply unhappy. People over time move to beliefs that make them happy.
It’s said that terminally ill patients often rally at the end. I’ve witnessed something like this twice and the hope it inspires, then crushes, is heartbreaking. I’m generally pessimistic about America’s future, because I’m generally pessimistic about human nature. But people have a way of surprising, and Americans have a history of pushing back, and pushing back hard, when the walls of tyranny are closing in. Indeed, our country was founded on such an effort. And we’ve seen such movements even in our lifetimes: Reagan, the Tea Party, now Trump. Each time they give me hope. And each time I wonder if I’m being set up for heartbreak.
Jesus thingy??
Yeah, you know you’re not just insulting me, you’re insulting a lot of other Christians as well, not to mention the “religion” you like so much.