"Mobs" Are Back!

 

So...it's been an eventful couple of days!

Here are some of my thoughts:

First, on the subject of the Georgia runoffs, I'm disappointed, as you can imagine.  Frankly, I think President Trump bears some of the responsibility for our losses.  He refused to concede, which may have been the right thing to do, but it left the status of the Senate in limbo.  Had Georgia voters understood that to vote for Ossoff and Warnock meant giving unfettered control of the federal government to one party, I suspect the outcome might have been different.  Trump also raised the issue of the $2,000 checks at the 11th hour, putting his own party on the back foot.  Presumably, he did so because he was trying to purchase the good will of the voters and thus ensure his own reelection, but if that was his goal it was a very naive strategy.  And of course we have to hand it to the Dems, who poured money into Georgia and mobilized their voters very effectively.  I wouldn't, however, jump to the conclusion that we were beaten "fair and square," because all the imperfections that plagued the vote in Georgia during the presidential election were operative in this contest too.  Similarly, the Republicans were ahead, until the last counties to count their votes did so, which just happened to be counties that were heavily populated and heavily Democratic.  Naturally, by that stage, they knew just how many votes they needed and -- surprise surprise! -- they came up with the right numbers.  Was there hanky panky (I mean, besides out-of-state voters, non-citizen voters, dead voters, etc.)?  We may never know for sure.  I hope what we're seeing isn't a pattern of malfeasance, because if that's what it is then we may never see another Republican Senate, or another Republican President, in our lifetimes.  Of course, our lifetimes may be pretty brief under Marxist rule anyway, so that's the good news!?!!  To summarize, then, I'm disappointed in the voters in Georgia, I'm disappointed in President Trump, who helped to precipitate our loss, and I'm disappointed in law enforcement and the media, which, because of their animus towards Republicans and conservatives, never seriously investigated questions of election integrity...and they never will, unless and until doing so would benefit Democrats, of course.  I'm increasingly dubious that our democratic system will endure, therefore, and I'm not even sure it's still operating now.  That's dispiriting, to say the least.  It's one thing to lose an election.  It's another to lose the LAST election and to know (or suspect) that you'll never have a shot at holding power again.

As for the mayhem at the Capitol yesterday, naturally I reproach anyone who violates the law or attempts to advance a political agenda through violence.  For most of 2020, it was the Democrats who fit that description, as we all know, and who have faced nothing in the way of a reckoning for their repeated violations of democratic norms.  Be that as it may, yesterday it was Trumpers running riot, and they did their cause and their beloved leader no favors.  Trump has been condemned for not disowning the rioters more forcefully or earlier in the day, but the fact is that he didn't call on anyone to storm the Capitol or to use violence, and he didn't speak approvingly of those who did.  He's certainly guilty of inciting people to anger and to protest, but he didn't call for or condone a riot, and that's an important distinction.  Nonetheless, if Trump was hoping that a mass demonstration outside the Capitol would deflect Congress from its stated intention of certifying Joe Biden's "win" in the electoral college, that was always extremely unlikely.  Republicans, conservatives, and Trumpers need to accept a harsh truth: the rules for leftists and for right-wingers simply aren't the same.  A movement like BLM can spawn massive amounts of violence and property destruction, but, in the eyes of the establishment and of the media, the justice of its cause is unaffected by the mayhem it unleashes.  More often than not, that mayhem will simply be ignored.  If necessary, it will be blamed on someone else, like false-flag white supremacists, or it will be excused as the inevitable consequence of generations of systemic racism and oppression.  In other words, when the Left is violent, the establishment and the media will shrug and say, in effect, America had it coming.  The important point, though, is that the use of violence on the part of leftists can be EFFECTIVE, and therefore, in a sense, even arguably morally defensible, because our elite culture is already sympathetic to its aims, and thus will forgive its methods.  For conservatives, however, violence is ALWAYS self-defeating, because it will automatically be stigmatized, and it will be used to paint the entire right as extreme, bloodthirsty, irrational, and dangerous.  There simply is no logical or moral case for the use of violence by conservatives, therefore.  It benefits no one, and it especially harms the movement itself.  I, in any case, do not blame President Trump for all the excesses of the rioters yesterday.  I doubt very much that he had a riot in mind, since it would be hard to imagine how he would benefit from such a melee.  Trump did, however, cause a large group of angry Trumpers to be deployed outside the Capitol, and one has to ask: what was the purpose?  There was no chance that Congress would change its mind about who won the election, and Trump has given us every reason to believe that, despite repeatedly airing his grievances, he is willing to leave office on January 20th...or at least he has never had a coherent plan to remain in office, if Congress, the Vice-President (as President of the Senate), or the courts didn't facilitate it.  One could certainly argue, therefore, that Trump's actions over the last few weeks have been futile, at best, and destructive, at worst, because he created the conditions for a riot at the Capitol and the loss of the Republican majority in the Senate, without achieving anything of value in return.  And that, I fear, is the most damning attack that any conservative is likely to level at President Trump: he appears, all too often, not to know what he is doing, or why.  Since November 3rd, his strategy, such as it was and is, has been to complain...and to hope that his complaints lead someone, somewhere, to give him what he wants: four more years.  Perhaps, if he had been bold enough, Trump himself could have solidified his grip on power, but he clearly has not known how to do so, and nor has he had the courage to follow through on some of the more extreme proposals that have been aired.  Just to use one example, if Trump believes that it is in the gift of the Vice-President, as President of the Senate, to disqualify any contested electoral votes, then why did not he not insist on Mike Pence's resignation WEEKS AGO, to ensure that someone pliable would do exactly that?  That is, after all, what a diabolical super-villain or an aspiring dictator would do, is it not?  But Trump never rose to those heights, or sunk to those lows, despite what his critics might allege.  The last four years have featured a lot more stumbling than subjugating.  We might as well be honest about that.

And so we come to the end of a long, strange trip, with Donald J. Trump at the helm of the Republican Party, the conservative movement, and the United States of America.  Soon, the Swamp will be back in control.  Truth be told, it was never out of power anyway.  Donald Trump achieved the hardening of the U.S border with Mexico, a few feeble jabs at the PRC, and little else, save for the confirmation of a slew of conservative judges.  Those judges, one suspects, will be his brightest legacy.  They may slow down the evisceration of Western Civilization just a little, which is probably the best we can hope for these days!  Trump also deserves credit for restoring nationalism to our political lexicon, and putting issues like illegal immigration and trade fairness back on the agenda.  He also disproved once and for all the idea that the Dems can win elections simply by calling everyone who opposes them "racist!" and "sexist!".  Trump was pummeled with those derogatory terms, and plenty more, for five long years, and he withstood the assault remarkably well, as did his movement and his supporters.  They toppled us in the end, sure -- but we made them work for it!  There's some satisfaction in that.  But if we ask ourselves: did Trump fundamentally change the direction of the country, or even of federal policy, in the main we would have to acknowledge that he did not.  The tide against which he was swimming was just too strong.

What are your thoughts?  You may well be feeling as despondent as I...  Whatever your reactions to the present state of affairs, as always, I want to hear about them.  Chin up, fellow "fascists"!  We'll live to see another day.

***

Here are Trump's latest comments, which needless to say you won't see on Twitter or Facebook!

https://rumble.com/vcj3a3-president-trump-addresses-the-nation-on-capitol-hill-siege.html?mref=22lbp&mc=56yab

 

However you feel about Trump, it's worthwhile to consider Ann Coulter's perspective.  As always, she pulls no punches!

 

https://townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/2021/01/06/the-election-is-over-heres-the-truth-about-trump-n2582677