Politicize All the Things!!

I do not know if I've noted it on this blog, but the Left has a tendency to try to politicize everything.  Some even demand everything be politicized.  This is part of their totalitarian streak.

Yes, yes, there are non-Leftist extremists that can be that way, too.  But it is much more frequent from the Left.

This morning, I see an example both annoying and amusing from an alumni group I am in.  One alum, who constantly makes political posts from the Left, replied to an admin’s very polite insistence that the alum group was not the place for political posts with the following:

With all due respect to you, there are no spaces that are inappropriate for politics. Doing politics is an ethical demand which must be carried to ALL spaces and the idea that there are or should be spaces in which politics are inappropriate is complicity with fascism.

It is precisely in spaces *like this* where doing politics is most important.

He followed it up with this:

Spaces where people feel uneasy about politics are the spaces in which doing politics is most important.

We dont have time to play around any more. The fascists are in power and the jet stream is collapsing. Theres no time for polite company. [Punctuation and logic his.]

Well there you go.  If you want a little space or time apart from politics, you are complicit with fascism.

But it seems to me that it is rather “fascist” and even totalitarian to insist all spaces be politicized.  But that’s just me.

And isn’t it funny that many of the same people, who insist you listen to them at all times and in all places, shout down and even assault those that dare disagree with them.

So I suspect I am right that Leftist attempts to politicize all the things come from a totalitarian streak.

San Francisco Declares the NRA a “Domestic Terrorist Organization” (And you may be next.)

Yes, it is easy to laugh it off as isolated Left Coast looniness. But I’m not laughing.  For San Francisco declaring the NRA to be a “domestic terrorist organization” should not be seen in isolation.  It confirms and demonstrates disturbing traits of the Left in the United States.

The resolution typifies the predatory hatred of the Left towards real Americans.  What is more American than a peaceful voluntary organization of millions of Americans dedicated to defending the 2^ndAmendment of the Constitution?  But San Francisco smears the NRA as domestic terrorists.  Meanwhile SF is a sanctuary city, not to law abiding citizens and Constitutional freedoms, but to illegals, including criminals such as the killer of Kate Steinle.

Oh, but they aren’t illegals; they are “undocumented immigrants.” And they aren’t criminals; they are “justice-involved persons” in San Francisco.  For the Left puts illegals and criminals above peaceful law-abiding American citizens.

And the Left has that totalitarian trait of abusing language to conceal and destroy.  Illegals and criminals are the natural allies of the Democrat Party and of the Left, so their evil is disguised, and they are protected clients.  On the other hand, real Americans who give a damn about the Constitution and its freedoms are the enemies of the Left. So just as Communist China smears Hong Kong demonstrators are terrorists, San Francisco smears the NRA as a “domestic terrorist organization.”

Again this is how totalitarians act.  It is not to be written off as irrelevant nuttiness. The Speaker of the House is a Congresswoman from San Francisco.  The Left demonstrates these traits wherever they are found in the United States.  And if we do not defeat the Left again and again, those of us who care about Constitutional freedoms will also be smeared, vilified, and targeted for banishment and worse.

To think this is just a San Francisco thing is to repeat the sadly mistaken false comfort many gave themselves before they were the victims of totalitarians in the 20^th Century – “It will never happen here.”

Democrats Want Votes for Trump Outlawed

No, I am not kidding.  And this is not satire.  I’ve pointed out that Democrats only seem to respect democracy and elections when they win.  Now some are taking it a step further.

Democrats in New Jersey and Washington State are seeking to ban Donald Trump from the 2020 ballot in those states under the pretense of allowing only those who release income tax returns on the ballot. Well, that is between Trump and the voters.  If a voter is that provoked by a candidate not releasing their income tax returns, they can vote for another candidate.

But the reality is these are brazen attempts to keep Trump off these states’ ballots.  That is how totalitarians act.  Under totalitarians, you may be allowed to vote, but you better vote “correctly” and may not be allowed to vote “incorrectly” at all.  

I was going to use the old Soviet Union as an example.  But then I came across this tidbit: 

Voting was theoretically secret and direct with universal suffrage.^[1] However, in practice, until 1989 voters could vote against the Communist Party of the Soviet Union candidate, but could only do so by using polling booths, whereas votes for the party could be cast simply by submitting a blank ballot.

Now that’s clever! A “secret” ballot . . . in which you are free to let the authorities know you are voting incorrectly by walking into a special booth.  But in a way, New Jersey and Washington Democrats are even worse – they are attempting to take away the option of voting incorrectly altogether.

Totalitarianism is alive and well in Washington State and New Jersey.

If we want to keep constitutional democracy, we had better use it to defeat so-called Democrats and good.

March for Life Confrontation a Classic Leftist Tactic

Once full videos came out of the confrontation between Leftists and Catholic High School students at the March for Life, it became clear to me that what we have here is not nasty racism from a bunch of crackers (although there was really vile racism from the Leftists).  Instead, we have a textbook example of a classic totalitarian Leftist tactic – create a confrontation then play the victim for the cameras and for deceptively edited videos.

Oh, and the Native American who walked up to a student and banged his drum in his face has a history of playing the victim.

Even if the target does not respond or responds peacefully or even passively, the “victim” and Leftist backers carry on as if an outrage has occurred. I’ve seen this tactic first hand.  And here is a famous and enjoyable example [language warning with insane screaming].

Now the gentleman in the above example may not have acted perfectly; likewise for some of the Catholic high school students (They’re TEENAGERS for goodness sake!) And, of course, totalitarian Leftists exaggerate, distort and lie about any such imperfections for their political ends.

I will say the student who passively stood his ground and smiled while the drum was in his face is a hero in my book. 

I was going to write more on this when I found William Jacobson already has with videos and personal examples no less.  So read, watch, learn.  What happened at the March for Life is a frequent way totalitarians target their opponents.

Hillary at Oxford: “You cannot be civil” to Republicans

While studying church history and worshiping the Lord of history here in Oxford, I unexpectedly encountered a bit of modern history after Evensong at Magdalen College – Hillary Clinton. There was quite a commotion during and after said Evensong this past Sunday.  Afterward I found out why when I saw Hillary herself enjoying the adulation of students. She looked well and happy by the way.

 But look what she said while in Oxford.  Her response to the recent uncivil, abusive, threatening, and, yes, violent tactics of Leftists?

 First remember that Bill Clinton, for all his faults, had enough gumption to confront the violent extremists in his party.  His Sister Soulja Moment remains an example of political courage (and of political calculation, too, of course.  We are talking Bill Clinton.)  But instead, Hillary justified the uncivil and violent Left with…

 You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about…

 She thereby endorses the tactics of the Leftist mob.  She endorses the Brown Shirt tactics of totalitarians.  And face it, the way the Leftist base of the Democrat Party has been acting, with the blessing of Hillary, of Eric Holder among others – that is the way totalitarians act.

 It became clear during the Obama years and is becoming clearer now: the Democrat Party has a disturbing totalitarian streak.  Its tactics against Kavanaugh, trying to turn his confirmation into a show trial, its attacks against the free speech of opponents and even against the peace and persons of opponents, reveal it is becoming a totalitarian party if it is not there already.

 And that is further indicated by even the uber-establishment Hillary Clinton being okay with that.

 With the way the Democrats are going, I expect to revisit this subject.  We must revisit this subject.  The 20^thCentury is full of lives destroyed because of slowness to confront totalitarians.  But it suffices for now to say that if the Democrat Party is not politically punished for their totalitarian tactics and soon, namely November, it will be a disaster for the United States.  I know that saying so will seem overwrought to some, but the Democrat Party is already that far gone as Hillary’s statement here in Oxford indicates.

Reality Check: The FBI Spied on the Trump Campaign

For any who may think my concerns about the revival of totalitarianism may be overwrought or paranoid, I present a reality check: the FBI under Obama and Comey spied on the Trump campaign.  There’s really no denying that anymore.

Let me put it a different way.  The FBI under Obama and Comey spied on political opponents in the midst of a presidential election campaign.

I thought this was the U. S. A., not the U. S. S. R.

On Millennial Ignorance of Totalitarianism

I will not go over the details of a recent poll revealing ignorance about the Holocaust among Millennials.  By now most of my above average readers are well aware of the poll, and it is readily available.

I will point out that this ignorance is surely one reason for the revival of totalitarianism amongst Millennials.  That those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it is a partial truth and something of a cliché, but there is truth to it.  Knowledge of past evil can make current evil less likely. When we are tempted to do evil, it helps to have a learned reminder not to be like past evildoers.

To be more specific, when a young man is tempted to put on an arm band and raise his arm against Constitutional rights and to viciously attack and slander opponents and attempt to disarm and silence them, it helps for his education to whisper in his ear, “Hey bud, that would be acting a bit too much like a Nazi, don’tcha think?”  When youth are instead ignorant of the basics of historic totalitarianism, we are more likely to get . . .  well, to get David Hogg.

And given the bias towards the Left in public and secondary education, ignorance of Communism and its atrocities must surely be even greater, likely much greater.  So the little Communists running amuck are blissfully unaware that they are acting a bit too much like the 20^th Century Communists who murdered tens upon tens of millions.  I see how some of the youth act and am reminded of the Cultural Revolution.  Meanwhile most of them have no idea what the Cultural Revolution was, thanks to their failed education. . . .  Or maybe their education was intended to create Leftists with little memory of Leftist atrocities and little respect for democratic values.

So, yes, I have little doubt that ignorance of 20^th Century totalitarianism is assisting a revival of totalitarianism in the 21^st. Poor education and ignorance has consequences.

“Never Again” or Here We Go Again?

First, my apologies that this post will be somewhat stream of consciousness.  But something has been on my mind, and it’s certainly important enough that I should not be silent about it.  Holocaust Remembrance Day yesterday has goaded me to say something even if my thoughts are not that well organized yet.

Yesterday is a reminder of how deadly totalitarianism is.  The totalitarian mindset cares not a wit for the freedom and lives of political opponents and of others who are hated for other reasons, such as class, religion, and ethnicity.  Totalitarianism is why the 20^th Century was such a deadly one.  And do not forgot that the Communist brand of totalitarianism killed tens of millions more than Hitler’s did.  Of course, thankfully, Hitler’s time was shorter.

Another lesson of the 20^th Century is that often it is hard to see just how dangerous times are when you are in the middle of them.  As a child, I wondered why all the Jews did not flee what was to come.  Well, although they knew times were not good, most did not know the horrors to come although there was much warning.  Us humans are prone to denial of coming horrors until it is too late.

I understand that denial more now.  I see the totalitarian mindset on the march today in the conduct of the Left and of the Deep State, of their contempt for freedom of speech, for freedom of religion, and of democracy in general. I also see it in the vilification of others under the guise of “White Privilege” and now and soon “Christian Privilege.” I do not know what scares me more, the little totalitarians taking over college campuses or the conduct of Mueller and Company in attempting to overturn a presidential election.  Their method of practically inventing the crimes of political opponents reminds me of the old Soviet Union and of today’s Russian under Putin.  Instead of investigating a crime and finding the man behind it, they investigate the man and search for or invent a supposed crime to bring him down.  The raid of Trump’s lawyer’s offices has made that modus operandi that much more clear.

And yet part of me thinks this too will pass.  But I don’t know whether that part is realistic or in denial.

Under totalitarianism, the people are not allowed to choose their leaders (except for the correct “The People,” of course).  And it seems electing Trump was not permissible and must be overturned.  I’ve said it before and will say it again, the Left and others with a totalitarian mindset only respect democracy when they win.  And very early on, my alter ego smelled an attempted coup against Trump, and that attempted coup continues.

I know I may seem overwrought.  I know that totalitarianism in the U. S. may seem a conspiratorial fever dream.  But how many saw the coming ravages of Nazism and Communism before it was too late?  For that matter, how many ten or twenty years ago foresaw how mad the college campuses have become?  And with the attacks on free speech and on Constitutional and democratic values in general, I see warning signs too similar to warning signs of totalitarianism in the past.  More and more, I feel like I am living in a pre-totalitarian time and place.  I certainly understand more what so many Europeans experienced in the 20^th Century.

Yes, I told you this would be somewhat stream of consciousness.  But because it is so important that “Never again” triumphs over “Here we go again,” I may try to do my part and address the revival of totalitarian and of the totalitarian mindset from time to time as unpleasant as the subject may be.  For once, let us keep history from repeating itself.