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Beware the Reptiles Among Us…
“You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil?” Matthew 12:34
This morning I came across an opinion piece in the local newspaper titled, “Trump Impeachment, no unity until his defenders repent.” Although I did not have my sackcloth and ashes nearby, I believed that I just had to read the article. It was instructive for a number of reasons.
After reading the title, I skipped to the bottom to get some background on the author. As it turns out, Tom Nichols is a “Professor of Security Affairs” at the Naval War College. (Evidently, he comes from the Max Boot School of Combat in that he has never spent one day in uniform.) Also, the background included the useful blurb, “He is a Senior Advisor to the Lincoln Project.” A ha!
As I was anxious to determine the exact reasons concerning my need for repentance, I dived into the article. I was particularly struck by the smooth tones of conciliation,
“We have had enough violence and rancor among us, and we need no further confrontations in the ranks of the American Family…These voters (Trump’s) are not my enemies. This about patriotism, not politics.”
Sounds good, doesn’t it? Who wouldn’t want to sign up for that? But, just a minute. If this is about “patriotism,” why do we Trump voters need to repent?
Don’t waste time agonizing over an answer; there is none. No time need be squandered over people, such as those from the Lincoln Project, who have made an art form of speaking out of both sides of their mouths.
I really don’t have much of a problem with people such as Charles Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and the like. They have made it very clear that they are the enemies of freedom and, as such, are my enemies. I don’t even have that much of a problem with AOC and her squad, even though their latest addition, Cori Bush, is busy calling for the resignation of my elected representative. They make no effort to hide their agenda and, as such, they are the enemies of freedom and, by extension, my enemies.
However, what is particularly repugnant about “conservatives” such as Nichols are their reptilian assertions that we, who voted for and supported Trump, “are not my enemy.” Yes, Mr. Nichols, you are my enemy and I despise everything about you.
When I am out in the wild and I encounter a reptile, I will, invariably, head in the opposite direction. When I encounter one next to my house, well, my reaction will be quite different.
Published in General
Smiting the victims does not and cannot foster unity.
I see posts like this, and comments like this, show up on Ricochet at times – the really acidic , vitriolic and hateful ones – and yet people still insist that the violence done at the Capitol must have been by false flag lefties.
Interesting choice to quote Christ in a post expressing hatred for your fellow countrymen, and that passage in particular. The rest of it:
“…For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.
But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted and by your words you will be condemned.” Matthew 12:34-36
Tom Nichols is great. I hope that you can find some podcasts of him.
Moderator Note:
Please do not engage in personal attacks on other members.So then you sign on for everything he stands for since he is Great.
I will go to my grave before I repent to the likes of him or the likes of you for supporting Trump.
How dare you imply we should. And don’t claim you don’t meant that, because all you had to say in response to the OP bashing Tom is this. There is no way to interpret it other than full support for Tom’s article that the OP is based on.
How [redacted] you are, that you sign on to no peace unless we repent. How [redacted] and [redacted].
And you talk about your “Sainted Mother” and you want her to have repent?
Dear Bryan,
This is where we differ, my friend. If I like 80% or 90% of what Tom Nichols says, that doesn’t mean that I am signing on for all 100%.
I hope not.
You know, I am 68 years old. I have never before in my life seen anyone who refused to accept that they lost an election with the exception of Stacey Abrahms, and even she did not whip up a mob and storm the Georgia Capitol and send them after the Georgia legislators.
Well, my sainted mother is 90 years old and thanks to the mess of getting the vaccines out, I have not been able to visit her. If she were to tell me that Trump had won in 2020, well, I would respond to her as I did when my father dementia took hold and he could not remember anything. I would smile and nod and then ask her if I could get anything from the kitchen for her, and I would bless her for being my mother, consistent with the Ten Commandments to Honor my Father and Mother.
If someone who is younger told me that Trump had won, I would try to say as civilly as possible that I believe in that the Earth is Round, that the Holocaust really happened, that 9/11 wasn’t an inside job, that Obama was born in Hawaii, and that Trump lost by 7 million popular votes and 36 Electoral College votes and until they were willing to talk sense, I could not have a serious conversation with them.
If they said that Trump was robbed by the Dominion machines, I would tell them that that issue had lost dozens of times in Court because Trump had not litigated it, but that there was a pending defamation lawsuit against everyone who had not retracted the “big lie” about that, and would suggest that we get back together after the jury verdict in that case.
Gary
Has Nichols been worshipping at the altar of John Brennan, one of the more odious civil servants of the last decade?
This is very serious. The country was and still is similarly divided about Abraham Lincoln.
Biden is certainly not interested in friendship with the Republicans.
Calling Trump a “despot” is good for the Democrats’ ongoing fundraising pitches.
The idea of acknowledging one’s “sins” to seek forgiveness is very reminiscent of Brennan’s communist roots. He’s not a good man. The question is how many of his fellow Trump-haters feel the same way. I’m guessing quite a few.
Pretty sure that disgusting communist Brennan is all on board for running “struggle sessions” on those who don’t “repent” of Trump. The chicken-hawk Tom Nichols too.
@garyrobbins, how about you? Are you in favor of struggle sessions?
My only argument with this is that reptiles are pretty high up the evolutionary chain for where Tom Nichols is.
Yeah, we have a lot to repent for. After all, we didn’t put a Chinese agent in the White House as Nichols did.
Could someone here at Ricochet, that has passed their literacy test, please point out where I insisted “that the violence done at the Capitol must have been by false flag lefties”?
Wasn’t referring to you, CAC, which is why I said “people,” speaking of literacy.
nice try…
Just read the post title and was relieved you were quoting Matthew. For a minute there I was worried you were going full David Icke and would be talking about the shape-shifting lizard people from Alpha Draconis. 😬😬😬
Speaking of literacy test, didn’t you hear? Its “whataboutism” to oppose the malicious unequal enforcement of law and policy.
John Brennan, an expert in corrupt, divisive, and dishonest. The director whose CIA surveilled members of Congress with impunity. Who better to echo a message plagiarized from the Maoist Commissars of the Cold War. Who was it that won that, again? My memory is fuzzy.
As for Nichols being a Conservative, don’t rush there just because he serves in the military. The military has been just as much a target for infiltration by the Left and the CCP as the media and academe and, of course, the Biden Crime Family.
Could still be. We haven’t seen Nichols’ blood work yet. Brennan, either, for that matter. Remember the Puppet Masters, where you could detect the quislings by having them take off their shirts?
Yeah, regarding the War College and the Naval War College, one would think that the officer attendees would have the intellect to separate the facts and the propaganda but, given our current crop of Senior Flag Grade Officers (ex. last weeks memorandum to the troops), I’m not convinced.
As for the service academies, it’s been well documented that some civilian instructors haven’t hesitated to put a leftist spin on their teaching.
More on the disgrace of West Point shortly. Digging out from under quarterly paperwork.
Yeah, find the one where he’s on Jon and Stephen’s old “Conservatarians” podcast, and he rants about how President Trump is destroying the constitution among other silly assertions. And not once did either Jon or Stephen challenge those assertions or ask for an explanation of how the President was supposedly destroying the constitution. That was disappointing. But also expected when three Trump-haters get together to slander the President.
Professor Moobs is a True Believer in the whole Russian Collusion hoax (which we know is a lie). Or perhaps he knew it was a hoax, but it suited his goals to spread the lies.
Pretty sure chicken-hawk Moobs has never been in uniform.
Looking forward to it. BTW, I just received a curious “breaking news” item from the Defense One folks (a progressive website), “Troops at Inauguration Pre-Screened for Extremism, Says DC Guard Commander”. The first paragraph of the story stated that,
“The roughly 25,000 National Guardsmen deployed to the U.S. capital to ensure President-elect Joe Biden is able to be sworn in peacefully went through an additional background check to weed out any whiff of domestic extremism.”
Huh? Anyone who has undergone the military’s background checks knows that it is quite a lengthy process. Just what did this extra screening entail? The standard screening weeds out those who ‘fess up to involvement in any extremist organization. Just what did they hope to find?
Bizarre times we live in; even in the military…
If we have to repent from political offense, does that mean his politics are his religion?
I always knew Donald Trump would end in tears, I expected it during the primaries – He spent the early campaigns juggling grenades. I figured one of them would explode in his face and end his career. But they never did.
We can just get those magic sunglasses to see them for what they really are.
That’s the way that works, right?
Sounds weird to me.
What I think is missed by many Dems is that Trump addressed, or appeared to address the travails of millions of American citizens. These travails are valid. They must be acknowledged, and not dismissed. While I disagree with Trump’s methods, I think that a starting point is to acknowledge the hopes and fears of many, many fellow Americans.
Of course not. Fixed. Thanks.
Loyalty tests will now be routine. The curse of McCarthy has seized the elite.
It all depends on how you read these things. There are people who voted for Trump and there are people who support Trump. So here is the issue, the column says:
”They have made it very clear that they are the enemies of freedom and, as such, are my enemies.”
This may require a re-think. Your fellow citizen is not your enemy. And if we want to be clear, no one has been more hostile to freedom than Trump with his efforts to overturn an election he lost and his authoritarian tendencies as president.
One may hold a view that some things accomplished by the Trump administration are positive. But if you are a supporter of Trump, and remain so, it is problematic to claim support for the constitution.
Metaphorical expressions such as “the American Family” are disturbing. The United States is many things, but it is not a “family.”
People who describe it that way usually think they know who the parents should be, and who the rest of us should be.
Three cheers for this!