Friday, June 22, 2018

Have We Reached Peak Insanity?


Over at the Powerline blog John Hinderaker writes that we have reached peak political insanity. One would be hard put to disagree:

Over the last few days we have reached peak insanity, especially on Twitter. I can’t begin to recount all of the outrages. Apart from the whole nonsense at the Southern border that dominated the news, we had Peter Fonda, a former actor who was washed up decades ago, threatening Barron Trump to the extent that Melania Trump referred him to the Secret Service. We had a gang of socialists accosting Homeland Security Security Kirstjen Nielsen while she was eating dinner in a restaurant, and much more.

One member of the gang of socialists works at the Justice Department. Why does she still have her job? As long as these new Brown Shirts and Red Guards go unpunished, they will believe that their cause is righteous. Be clear that theirs are the tactics perfected by the Nazi Storm Troopers and Mao’s Red Guards.

These demonstrators and defamers are not liberals. They are radical zealots, the sort that are perfectly well described as fascists. They are running a domestic insurgency, like the French Resistance. As you know, the French Resistance was essentially a disloyal opposition.

Why are they fighting against Trump? They are continuing the Obama legacy of turning America's power against Americans, of refusing to fight Islamist terrorism but to tear the country apart over thought crimes. The Obama policy agenda might have turned to dust, but the Obama cultural legacy is alive and well.

They defy the most basic democratic norm, that being, respecting the winner of a fair election. And they will do everything in their power who supports the Incarnate Devil that is Donald Trump.

Liberals try to rule any support for President Trump out of bounds. Anyone who expresses even the mildest support for Trump is read out of polite society. He is shunned; he should be fired from his job; if he writes anything, it shouldn’t be printed; he is publicly denounced and inundated with hate; his home, in some instances, is besieged and his children terrorized. If he ventures out into public, he is harassed by bullies.

They do not care that Perhaps Trump won the election. These new fascists will do everything in their power—beginning by destroying the lives of those who work for him—to ensure that he cannot govern. As always, the press does not care.

And it is evil. It is incompatible with democracy or any kind of civil society. And, above all, it is completely crazy. After all, Donald Trump won the election. Donald Trump is the President of the United States. Liberals are trying to dictate, through mob rule and control over the press, that any support for the President of the United States is unacceptable and, if at all possible, career ending.

Hinderaker suggests that conservatives employ the same tactics on these radical zealots. It is not very kind of suggest it, but, in truth, it is inevitable that people on the political adopt the same tactics. After all, the leftist attack on conservatives does not date to yesterday. Many conservatives voted for Donald Trump precisely because they believed that he could match the left's bullying tactics.

8 comments:

Ares Olympus said...

Stuart: They do not care that Perhaps Trump won the election.

Perhaps?!

I wonder what the "nonsense at the southern border" is about? I think David Frum has a good overview of the predicament, and calling for reason in a sea of emotion on both sides.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/06/need-for-immigration-control/563261 But the decision will surely be better made by means of rational discussion than in response to emotive images. You want to be different from Donald Trump? Fine. Do what he does not do: Think.

Sam L. said...

Insanity says, "Hold my beer! Watch THIS."

sestamibi said...

The Duluth Model.

Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...

Militant morally-magnificent malcontents, full of self-congratulation. That is who these people are. They’ve got it all figured out. Just ask them.

Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...

Here’s what’s messed up in America: that Kirsten Nielsen could not have been legally justified — in her own self-defense of person and privacy — by getting up and socking this punk Antifa bitch in the nose. Had Nielsen reacted this way, it would’ve been — for reasons that escape me — considered “assault.” Which is complete nonsense. It’s self-defense. What stopped Nielsen was polite decency, something these insane Antifa (Democrat Socialists) don’t show anyone else. A few bruises, broken bones would go a long way toward ending this kind of thing. This is NOT free speech. This is not “speaking truth to power.” It is an ambush, an assault. The alternative for Nielsen is fear — intmidation driving her to eat at home under mob-imposed home arrest. And we can’t ask voters for picture I.D.??? We’ve lost all understanding of what intimidation really is.

Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...

And yes, this crazy DOJ employee should be fired. Yesterday.

Stuart Schneiderman said...

The Resistance was disloyal to the Vichy government... Huh?