I write this out of a sense of some of the most acute and severe frustration I have ever felt in my (very, very long) life, a life which has had its fair share of many of the same frustrations we all get hit with in this old life. I must say, looking at some of the posts on Ricochet, it would appear I am hardly alone in the way I am feeling, although my sense of helplessness, for want of a better word, might come from a slightly different place.

I write this as a veteran of many years as a practicing trial lawyer, the kind of a lawyer you rarely see on the billboards or on the TV ads aimed primarily at the hospital wards in the morning hours (what a sordid way to make a living, if that’s living!), but the kind, not to get all virtue signaling about it, who actually got down in the dirty work of depositions, Motions, briefing, more Motions, and actual trials– in actual courtrooms, not movie-like sets.

I write this from that background, as well as one in which I was taught by my parents, my mentors, Law Professors, Judges, Senior Lawyers, Military Officers I looked up to for guidance and teaching, to love the Good Ol’ US of A with everything I had and to despise deep in my bones anyone who would wish it harm — in other words, “enemies foreign and domestic.” One source of my frustration tonight is that I feel, in the true sense of the word, surrounded by scores of people who not only seem to wish our Beloved Nation harm, which means they wish us harm, but who are saying it out loud — and acting on that statement.

As a lawyer of “the old school” (how could I pretend to be of any other?) a major source of my frustration is with the howling mobs of the mainstream media (who we have permitted to “call” the election for Biden, to our shame), academia, the execrable “leadership” of the Democrat Party as well as a few of our own, and even some of our own colleagues here on Ricochet who never saw a corrupt old politician or member of The Lincoln Project or The Bulwark they wouldn’t support and send money to, who profess great urgency in convincing the Trump campaign to “give up the ghost” as there is no way he can develop a path to victory.

As one who spent decades in the vineyards of the practice of trial law, I find these complaints to be, to use the most polite term possible, divorced from the real world of what it takes to develop any case, and especially a case of this monumental complexity which must be investigated, drafted, filed (in numerous jurisdictions), argued, tried in the instances where the Court sets an evidentiary hearing, appealed (especially here where there does not seem to be a Judge in the entire county willing to let these cases go forward) on an excruciatingly tiny timeframe.

But, my disdain is heightened tenfold when these complaints come from those I will refer to in a shorthand manner as “The Lincoln Project” geniuses who are wallowing in their gloating revelry at the prospect of a Harris Administration… how about we try a little realism here… who hold themselves out to be practicing, working, licensed, lawyers, who must, if, indeed, they are what they claim to be, know a little about what is involved in putting these cases together and would be presumed to know that everyone is entitled, as an American citizen, to make whatever legal claims he or she can, in good faith, and this is what causes the break apparently, President Donald J. Trump!

“Unity!” They say. It is only because I honor the C of C here that I restrain myself from saying what I really feel about people who display what may be a whole new level of hypocrisy rarely seen even in the cesspool which our National Capital has become. Fortunately, our friend Dr. Bastiat has kindly provided us with a remarkable summary by an unusually well-suited observer to help us understand what we are experiencing in “Fighting Words.” There, he set forth a recent essay by David Horowitz, CEO of the David Horowitz Freedom Center and Editor of its publication, FrontPage and himself a former far-left radical, which every one of us should read, study, review, re-read, and study again, as it is one of the most perceptive pieces I have seen and may be likened to Mr. Jefferson’s “fire bell in the night.” @drbastiat did all of us a great service in bringing this chilling commentary to our attention, and it bears at least a cursory review here.

Here is his description of the person the Never Trumpers and the Lincoln Project groupies so proudly supported and the “party” he “leads”:

“This is not “playing” people. It is war. They are trying to kill us politically, and we need to respond accordingly, to fight fire with fire. Today’s Democrat Party is a party of character assassins and racists. Republicans know this but are reluctant to say it. That is how a pathological liar and corrupt political whore like Joe Biden can accuse the choice of 73 million Americans of being a white supremacist and also murdering 220,000 corona virus patients. That’s why Biden and his gunslingers can do so with no consequences – without so much as a wrist slap – from “moderates” and independents, who know better. The Democrats’ ability to intimidate well-meaning Americans is that great.

“Is this too blanket a condemnation? Where, then, is the Democrat who was outraged by the four-year Russia collusion hoax and the failed coup and impeachment attempts – all of which accused the president, without a shred of evidence, of treason? Where was the Democrat who dissented from the public lynching of an exemplary public servant, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, over an incident that never happened 37 years ago at a time when he was a high school kid? Where is the Democrat who has condemned the violent street criminals of Antifa and Black Lives Matter who got away with conducting the most destructive civic insurrection in American history, orchestrating mayhem and disrespect for the law that led to the murders of scores of people who happen to have been mainly black?” (Emphasis added)

But, the centerpiece of the Horowitz essay was, in my opinion, at least, his “brief vocabulary for understanding the political war that has engulfed us”:

” … When it is used by enough Americans who love their country, it will cancel the surreal universe that Democrats’ lies have imposed on us, and the war will be on its way to being won.

“Democrats are not democrats; they are totalitarians. They have declared war on the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, the Electoral College, the Senate, the Supreme Court, the election system, and the idea of civil order. They have called for the Republican President of the United States to be de-platformed and jailed. Their obvious goal is a one-party state that criminalizes dissent. To them, support for such basic necessities as borders and law enforcement are racist. If you oppose their efforts to legalize infanticide, they will condemn you as enemies of women, and if you make videos of their confessions to selling body parts of murdered infants, they will – like Kamala Harris – throw you in jail.

“Progressives are not progressive; they are reactionaries. They are out to abolish liberal value systems and create a status hierarchy where race, gender, and sexual orientation define and confine you to an unalterable place in their new social order. If you are white or male or heterosexual or religious – Justice Kavanaugh was all four – you are guilty before the fact.”

In conclusion, he gives one of the best short rebuttals to the incessant accusations of “systemic racism” I have seen, and finishes with a sad commentary on the squishy composition of Republican backbones and what we, as individual patriotic Americans need to do to combat this horde of barbarians:

“Systemic racism” is an assertion made reflexively by Democrats that is never accompanied by evidence. For good reason. Systemic racism has been outlawed in America since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. If there were actual instances of systemic racism in 2020, there would be lawsuits – plenty of them. Even making the racist assumption, which the Identity Politics crowd does make, that all white people are white supremacists by dint of their skin color, there are tens of thousands of black lawyers, prosecutors, district attorneys, attorneys general, and elected officials who would be filing lawsuits over a practice that is illegal. You never hear of massive lawsuits over systemic racism, because “systemic racism” is a myth. The myth lives because it is an indispensable weapon wielded by Democrats to advance their anti-democratic agendas and quests for power.

But the only reason Democrats are able to do this so successfully – even going so far as to justify the arson, looting and general destruction in more than 600 American cities this summer – is because Republicans, and conservatives generally, are too cowardly to confront them. This war will continue until patriotic Americans summon the courage to call Democrats the racists, liars, character assassins and aspiring totalitarians that they actually are. And to do so in so many words. Blowback works.

A similar recommendation as to what we, as individual Patriots may well be called upon to do, is found in the most recent issue of the Claremont Review of Books (very highly recommended) in which the brilliant scholar and novelist, Mark Helprin, in an essay entitled The Revolution of 2020, issued this stirring clarion call to action:

“No”is one of the most difficult yet liberating words in any language. Though it often comes at a steep price—of peace, tranquility, livelihood, and even life—it is the master key to independence and freedom. Were every American made aware of this inherent power, we would then see how much courage and character we have left. For the simplest declaration is the most potent, and sometimes it moves like wildfire.

How difficult would it be to say, when the demand comes, when the threat comes, when the command comes: No, I do not agree with your redefinitions. No, I will not do as you tell me. No, I will not say what you order me to say. No, I will not surrender my freedom of speech and expression. No, I will not accept your revolution. And I will not stand against my country.

To shamelessly “borrow” from Mr. Horowitz’ questions: where are the lawyers who care deeply about the Rule of Law who will admit that President Trump has exactly the same right to pursue every single, possible, valid, good faith claim under the law that I have or you have or your neighbor has or, yes, even Messrs Kristol and Conway and French and Goldberg and their esteemed Never Trumper colleagues have as American citizens? Where are the lawyers, other than, Thank God, such warriors as Guliani, Powell, Ellis, Wood, etc., who will stand with this American citizen until the last claim is adjudicated and the last appeal is rejected, as they would with any client they represent? Where are the citizens who will say, with Mr. Horowitz and Mr. Helprin, NO! This will not stand; and I will NOT stand against my country?

No!

[Author’s note: the title assumes the reader is familiar with the nickname Rush has given to Joseph Robinette Biden for many years as a result of his hair transplant (plural?) years ago. ]