In a recent article the writer explains what she believes are the causes that keep us deeply divided. She lists among causes, personal biases, fear of a changing demographic, a deep distrust of one another and cites two examples of violence against minorities. She unfortunately pivots to a hasty generalization when she wrote “Richard Spencer, David Duke and others from the various strains of the far, far right have heaped praise on Trump. They recognize his dog whistles. They turn them into their bullhorns.”
This while a scant number of news sources reported that the Black Panthers dressed in their finest regalia and carrying assault rifles marched proudly down Atlanta’s main thoroughfare for Stacy Abrams Democratic candidate for governor in Georgia.
My first thought after reading this article was a H.L. Menken quote “The urge to save humanity is almost a false front for the urge to rule.”
Indeed, the left has shown its political platform to be a contest of power but not ideas.
My second thought was to ask, is it not divisive to hurl false accusations at the leader of our nation? It’s legitimate and even welcome to disagree with the Administration’s policies but quite another to continue false character assassinations whose only purpose is to obstruct. More to the point, those who believe Donald Trump is destroying this nation, mistakenly believe he had the ability to interrupt political discourse at a very high level.
Clearly this is a cultural war wherein opposing parties are entwined in a continuing wide divide because of mutually exclusive priorities. The left is steeped in identity politics, fostered by public institution, politicians and large corporations. The left’s focus is on social justice, open borders, redistribution schemes (socialism), celebrates victimhood and in essence wants to remake America in their image and belief which essentially ignores the U.S. Constitution. This is in direct contrast to the right which believes in individuality, traditional values the rule of law, resilience, self-reliance, borders to define and defend a nation and a free enterprise system.
There is too much to distill in this short space to explain the net effect of opposing priorities but here is an attempt. In response to the importance of the rule of law and abolition of agencies such as ICE James Wilson, Legal Theorist and Founding Father (circa 1790) wrote: “without liberty law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression” and “without law liberty also loses its nature and name, and becomes licentiousness”
Our nation was built and depends on the sanctity of the individual over the collective and hence identity politics is a direct threat to our democracy. Identity politics is not a community, it is a collective that has done more to disenfranchise individual thought erode civil discourse and encourage hate than anything else here in America.
There exists a contingent of political and financial elites that would have us believe that there is no middle ground between the pursuits of society and the liberties of individuals. By no strange coincidence these are the same high-level bureaucrats that push along the propaganda that Donald Trump is an existential threat to this nation.
The left’s desire for socialism is a result of academics who learned more and more about less and less passing it onto successive generations of students. Simply ignoring to teach economic history and in particular the post World War II economic history of the United States, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela is a case in point. Ronald Reagan said it best. “Socialism works in only two places, Heaven where they don’t need it and Hell where they already have it.”
The never- ending histrionic behavior on the left since the 2016 election results points to the fact that the left cannot discern the difference between outrage and criminality. That difference needs to kept clear, otherwise that power can and will be used against a perceived political enemy. The politicization of the FBI against the incoming Trump Administration is a case in point. So was the left’s theater of absurdity during the Brett Kavanaugh Judicial Confirmation process.
The left’s priority of social justice comes at the loss of free speech. The public rebuke of both Brett Kavanaugh and Megan Kelly are just two examples. But there is more here. The old adage when “no offense is intended, none taken” does not apply under social justice because feigning offense is an opportunity to exercise power. To wit: We have Don Lemmon who continues to make egregious comments about angry white men. And, why is it that an Andrew Gillum can claim racism when asked a legitimate question concerning an ongoing FBI investigation? These are examples of the application of the above reference adage, making it abundantly clear that it is an offense only if the left says it is an offense. In that Eius dem generis (of the same kind) meaning an equal and fair application of due process has no place on the left.
To quote Ronald Reagan again, “A country without borders is not country. The left reckless pursuit of open borders and defense of sanctuary cities is gravely misplaced leaving wide security, safety and health gaps. This nation has always welcomed immigrants but the selection must be based on merit, individual vetting of those seeking entrance and the assurance of assimilation because it means the difference between a melting pot and a boiling pot. The net goal of immigration should be an increase per capita not population.
I could continue down this divisive path providing a myriad of examples dealing with moral equivalencies that blunt the left’s condemnations, but frankly I am tired of all the Trumpian kabuki theatrics and, I believe so is most of middle America. The mid- term results are in and the left has recaptured the House of Representatives. How will they govern?
Dennis Petrucelli is a resident of the Village of Bonnybrook and a frequent contributor to Villages-News.com
