Author: Mark Noonan

Open Thread

Mark Noonan8 Comments

Usually after a jury trial we all tend to rest content with the verdict even if we think it might not have covered all issues involved – but in the Chauvin trial, I think everyone is pretty certain that the Jury felt massive pressure to convict. Did it play a role? It will be impossible to ever know. But we all suspect it, and that’s bad – because the ultimate foundation of our liberty is trial by jury. That if we’re ever accused of a crime that we can go in front of 12 of our fellow citizens and tell our side. Now, we’re all not so sure – if someone for political reasons wants us convicted, will political pressure be brought to bear? This is very much end of the Republic stuff and at the deepest level. If we can’t repair this damage, we will break up into our tribes and count on brute force for protection.

The hard core Marxists on the other side understand precisely what they’re doing – trying to overthrow the entire system so that a Marxist system can replace it. But I suspect that most on the Left don’t fully understand where they’re heading. That if they win, then shortly after we’re all destroyed, they’ll be destroyed. History, after all, is White Supremacist and so it isn’t taught.

Related: official Segregation at Michigan State.

A Norfolk, VA cop was doxxed and then fired after it was found that he had donated $25 to Kyle Rittenhouse’s defense fund. As I’ve been saying, this is the most crucial part of Leftist power: the power to control our jobs. That this cop actually got fired was just a bonus for the Left…what they really wanted everyone to know is that they can find out what you do in your private life and expose it. Every cop in America now will think twice before making any political donations. Some of them will start donating to the Left to take on protective coloring. We must cure this – long ago I said that a law must be passed prohibiting the firing of a person for actions taken outside the workplace but now I go even further: there must be severe penalties assessed to anyone who posts personal information on line without the subject’s permission.

Texas opened up and nothing bad happened. The more we see Texas and Florida in contrast to New York and California the more convinced I am that the masks and lockdowns made things worse. That there is something in this virus which makes it easy to catch when you’re inside most of the time. Furthermore, we know that the panic around the China flu was generated initially by Chinese bots on social media…I’m starting to suspect that this virus was never all that bad except in very narrow circumstances (such as we saw in Wuhan, itself, and in northern Italy) and that we were suckered into the lockdown by a Chinese op.

Trump is firing up the fundraising. Prepping for 2024? Or just building for 2022? Time will tell.

Only 12 States remain as “duty to retreat” States. The rest are “stand your ground“. This is very important because the Left has decreed that you must surrender your property to the robber. This is based on Marxist theory that the only reason there is crime is the unjust distribution of wealth caused by Capitalism – if you have more than someone else, it is stolen goods. So, Lenin’s dictate of “loot the looters”. The more “stand your ground” laws we get, the better.

Creating a Racist America

Mark Noonan11 Comments

Marjorie Taylor Greene has ruffled feathers again. She’s getting pretty good at it. This time, she’s forming an America First caucus (which is no real surprise) but she decided to twist the knife a bit by saying it would uphold “Ango-Saxon Values”. Not being Anglo (I’m a mix of Jewish, Irish, Scottish and Finnish), don’t mean much to me – but the usual suspects were up in arms over it.

Did I mention that “usual suspects” means House Minority Leader McCarthy? Yep – in fact, that’s how I heard about it: his Tweet calling it a nativist dog whistle. Which is absurd – it wasn’t a dog whistle: Greene used a bullhorn.

Anyways, this is the trend of things. I’d prefer we didn’t go this way, but in a nation increasingly atomized and with a host of non-white political pressure groups, this is inevitable. For instance, the other day the governor of Utah (you know, a Republican) said that the Utah Jazz’ exclusion of white kids from sports scholarships wasn’t racist…and that he was proud of the Jazz. I mean, my goodness: that Jazz program is the absolute definition of racist: it excludes kids based upon skin color. Naturally, old line GOPers will simply refuse to acknowledge this. They are so used to surrender that it is their default position. But Greene and the new generation of GOPers – inspired by Trump – are not going to surrender.

The bottom line is that if we’re going to start making race-based this, that and the other thing, white people will start to insist on race-based things, as well. They won’t allow their children to be excluded from opportunities based on skin color. If A is to be reserved for black people, then they will insist that B be reserved for white people – and so on and on like that with each ethnic group trying to rake off as much as it can for itself, to be divvied up by the leadership who rise to power promising to fight for the tribe.

We can still stop this, but time is short – essentially, it requires the very swift and rather overwhelming victory of the Trumpist element in American politics. That done, we’ll actually be able to undo some of the most recent racial damage created by the Left and get back on the path to a color-blind society. If we can’t get that, then this is just going to get worse and in place of the non-racist America so long striven for, racism will be the order of the day in a dying nation where tribal leaders tear society apart.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan34 Comments

Democrats in the House and Senate are moving forward with legislation to add 4 Justices to the Supreme Court. I rate their chances pretty low at the moment – it is a huge step and it isn’t at all popular. But if they are going to do it, they have to do it by, say, September or not at all. Their margins are very narrow and by Fall the Red and Purple Democrats will be looking for political cover. But it shows what they want – to simply ram through whatever they desire. It is a plain fact that the Rule of Law is dead in the United States – all that matters is what you can do if you have the power to do it. It is past time for all non-Democrats to wake up to this fact and act accordingly – only the complete removal of Democrats from any position of power will keep liberty alive.

Now that they don’t need the issue any longer, Biden is ordering a withdrawal from Afghanistan. Way past time – but do keep in mind that the only reason Trump couldn’t get us out was because the Deep State threw up every roadblock they could.

Governor Ricketts (R-NE) declares Nebraska a “2nd Amendment Sanctuary State”. This is good stuff and excellent as a pushback – but it also shows that we really are becoming two entirely different nations only kept together, for the moment, because the Left doesn’t want to let us go (they need people to hate and oppress) and we don’t want to take the risk of secession. I still hope for a peaceful settlement or separation…but the future is very cloudy.

Cop accidentally shoots a man with a warrant: cop charged. Cop deliberately shoots a Trumpster who, at worst, was guilty of trespass: no charges. We are second class citizens.

CNN is an arm of the DNC. You already knew this, but Project Veritas confirmed it.

When Did America End?

Mark Noonan26 Comments

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that you’re allowed to have a private prayer service in your own home. Five to four. One vote goes the other way and your free exercise of religion is a dead letter. Roberts, naturally, joined the liberals: he’s proved to be an utter disaster.

Someone said yesterday that packing the Court would be the end of America. I corrected the statement: it was Roe which was the end of America. Whatever one thinks of the merits of abortion, the plain fact of the matter is that the issue is not at all mentioned in the Constitution and so is something outside the scope of Federal power – it is for the States or the people to decide. The Supreme Court simply had no business hearing the case – and when it ruled on that case, it dispensed with law in the United States. The laws on the books only remained in operation as long as doing so was convenient to whomever was in power.

In comments on news reports about the Court ruling on prayer at home, there is a distinct attitude among the Left that the Court got it wrong and that free exercise is fine except when it’s not. And that, in a nutshell, is how things work these days: whatever is happening is fine until someone on the Left decrees that something else should happen. At that moment, all laws and customs against the desired Leftist action are null and void. In the end, it doesn’t matter what justification is used as it all works out the same: law isn’t law. And without the Rule of Law, America isn’t America.

The end game here is unknown – only by the slenderest threads hangs our ability to peacefully influence the policy of the federal government. If the Democrats get their “voting rights” act passed and pack the courts, then we will simply not be able to participate in a meaningful sense. For the moment, there is a bit of pushback against the complete abandonment of the American system of governance…but we’re essentially dependent upon two Democrat Senators to hold the line. Democrats are not noted for the courage or honesty.

But even supposing they hold the line and then we win next year – we’re still not out of the woods. Not even if we then go on to win in 2024. Sure, the next GOP President can do all sorts of things. Completely reverse what was done the previous four years. But all that means is what is done can be undone…and when being undone by the unscrupulous (ie, Democrats), it can run a lot faster. Remember, the bureaucrats who hampered Trump at every turn are on Biden’s team…all he has to do is give the slightest hint and the bureaucrats will be off to the races implementing new policy. Supposing we keep the ability to win at the ballot box, simply going 180 every four to eight years on policy isn’t sustainable. For a Republic to work, all political factions must broadly have the same ends in mind. These days, the two sides want completely opposite outcomes. And each side is dependent upon convincing about 10-20 percent of the voters who are uncommitted to either side…these are fickle people and they are whipsawed between the two sides. This is a recipe for disaster.

And I think that disaster is what we’re going to get.

Enlightened Insanity

Mark Noonan16 Comments

Do you realize why there was an Inquisition? That is something I think most people don’t ponder much. Most just consider it to have been a uniformly horrible thing which we happily dispensed with as the Enlightenment instructed us in the value of tolerance. To a certain extent, there is some truth to such a view, but it doesn’t cover the entirety of it.

That which we call the Inquisition started in response to the Albigensian heresy in the 12th century. If you read secular history about it, you’ll find that the poor Albigensians were horribly persecuted by the Church because they simply wanted to practice their simple faith. Ok, fine. But they also believe that sexual reproduction was inherently wrong – that the physical world was something created by an evil god and it had to be renounced so that the human spirit could unite with the good god. In other words, if the heresy had been allowed to continue, it would have ended civilization. The Church, of course, was also concerned with what happened to human souls – being rather interested in their winding up in heaven rather than hell and so looked in horror upon a sect which pretty much ensured via its beliefs a one-way trip to hell. So, there were two reasons to go after these guys: they’d imperil your soul and end civilization. That is why there was an Inquisition – to root out people preaching insane, destructive ideas.

To be sure, any institution run by human beings is going to mess up. It is in the nature of things because we’re human. Whether or not the attempt should have been made or whether or not the right methods were used in the attempt is a matter for debate. But the fact that lunatic ideas which bring death should be stopped is not something I will debate about. Lunatic ideas bringing death are bad. And bad things are to be held at arms length to the best of our ability.

But, in the event, those who argued against the Inquisition and in favor of tolerance won the debate. The Enlightenment – so called – happened. And people were free to express themselves in any way they chose. This did have the benefit of giving us the Declaration of Independence…but it also gave us the Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf. Bit of an up and downside on that – and the Declaration of Independence could easily have been written by St Thomas Aquinas…the Manifesto and the Kampf, not so much…because both of those were heresies and St Thomas would have seen right through them.

Now, why do I bring this up? Because earlier today I saw a Twitter thread by a Muslim which expressed the view that Islam needs an Enlightenment. There is much merit to such an argument on the face of it. But I also immediately had my doubts.

First off, of course, is my belief that Islam is itself a heresy – Mohammed taking various aspects of Christianity (and a little Judaism) that he liked and dispensing with the bits he didn’t like. The classic heresy model – leaving something or things out. Be that as it may, if it started as a heresy, it developed rather rapidly into its own thing. And as a Christian I can and do take various issues with it. But whatever one wishes to say about it, for quite a long time it was just another part of the world tapestry. Violent as all things can be, but also beautiful, as all things can be. Yes, I can list for you a large number of Muslim sons-of-bitches but any Muslim out there can come up with a list of Christian SOBs to match – but in neither case were the SOBs the thing about the religions or the civilizations they created. I’ve read quite a bit of history of Islam and I do have to say that something changed over the ages – and the change was rather recent.

Some time in the 19th century or maybe a little earlier, the historical records start to document people of the Muslim faith acting in ways which they simply had to know were wrong. Not just in Christian ideals, but in Muslim ideals. There is a difference between fighting for your side – however brutally you may do it – and committing acts of cruelty. One early example of this is the massacre of about 50 British captives in Delhi during the Mutiny of 1857. But it got worse as time went on – acts of supreme cruelty which had no justification and which the perpetrators knew were wrong when they did them (on the simple fact that they would never want such things done to them). It wasn’t, after all, backwoods Muslim peasants who set the bombs which started the Battle of Algiers in 1956 – it wasn’t, that is, regular, old fashioned Muslims who came up with the idea of setting a bomb off specifically where children gathered so as to cause the most horrific death and injuries to people who could have in no way caused offense.

That takes a modern, Enlightened mind to come up with.

You could say that the things like the bombing in Algiers was provoked – and, to a certain extent, that is correct. The French, far more than the British, could be very brutal overlords when challenged. There were plenty of reasons for the Algerians to be displeased with the French. But it should be noted that the first serious effort of the Algerian rebels wasn’t so much to go after the French, but to kill those Algerians who were friendly to France. And kill them quite brutally, without sparing women and children. That sort of thing isn’t done in response to provocation – that is a cold blooded act of murder. So were the bombings. So, later, were acts like the Munich attack and the Avivim school bus bombing (seriously: what sort of a sick person even thinks up a target like that?). Muslims were involved in these things, but to deliberately seek to murder – usually very cruelly – people who specifically can’t fight back…no, sorry, I’m not going to say that is a Muslim thing. That is an Enlightened thing – that is what happens when people are allowed to pursue insane ideas to their logical conclusion.

Given things like bombed school buses and, well, Treblinka, I’m going to have to come down a bit against the Enlightenment – the idea, that is, that everyone should be able to proceed unchecked wherever their thoughts take them. I’m going to assert that there needs to be a corrective, here and there, which will tell the insane to sit down and shut up – before they get gas chambers or bombed buses into their heads. I think that I’d rather have to deal with the most deeply orthodox Muslims around as they deal with me, a deeply orthodox Christian. I think we’d probably get along better than modern, Enlightened folks. Even if we ended up fighting each other, it wouldn’t be a contest to see who could be the most merciless.

Anyways, this is where my thoughts are leading me these days. A sort of Endarkenment…where being a lunatic gets you a padded room rather than a tenured position or a promotion to Dear Leader.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan68 Comments

I’ve noticed over the past week that a bunch of Never Trump Republicans have started to write things along the line of, “I was hoping Biden would prove a moderate”. This is utter bull. Joe Biden has been in public life for half a century – everyone familiar with politics knows that Biden is both a liar and a bully. Everything that Biden is doing was predicted before the election and no one is stupid enough to have actually fallen for the Op which put Biden in office. And we know the real reason the Never Trump wanted Trump out – because he was wrecking the Tru-Con game of talking a big fight and then rolling over for the Left. This new Never Trump effort is an attempt to get back into the con – getting back, that is, into getting respect and money from us. Nothing doing. Never Trump made it’s choice and it is irrevocable – they no longer get a say in what we’re going to do.

Joe Biden is firing just about everyone Trump hired. Noted. When we next take the White House, the first Executive Order is to fire every single Democrat appointee effective immediately. This is pre-civil war stuff, to be sure: a complete overturn of personnel and policy as different parties win. So be it. It is what the Democrats want. They can end this any time they choose – all they have to do is start to treat us decently.

Glen Reynolds notes that the FBI isn’t very good at catching actual bad guys. Time and again a crime is committed by a “known wolf” and we’ve also seen how whom the FBI goes after is based on just about anything except what is right. I’ve called for abolishing the FBI for years – and it seems pretty clear to me that the FBI’s reputation is mostly based on good PR.

Here’s something you’ve never heard of because it doesn’t fit the Narrative: white guys falsely convicted of murdering a black man….and the conviction was done because it was felt necessary to punish some white person, any white person.

As I’ve said, BLM does have a point. Just how many people are sitting in jail right now because politics required it? We’ll never know, will we? But we’ve seen this sort of thing time and time again…people being railroaded by police and prosecutors for political reasons. The police and prosecutors are supposed to be the impartial tribunes of the law…but, clearly they are not, at least in areas where Democrats have a Narrative to support. I’m not quite sure how we reform our way out of this – in the Constitution, we’re supposed to have a speedy trial, and maybe that is the fix? You arrest someone – well, you’ve got a week to put him on trial and if you can’t, he walks. For good. If you do, after all, have real proof of guilt, you should be good to go, right? And if you don’t – if you’re trying to apply pressure for a guilty plea or working on someone to provide false testimony – then having only a week to get that done means you probably can’t do it.

Segregation is being pushed by the Left on college campus because they believe – probably correctly – that this is the way to build hardened cadres of foot soldiers…people who will become entirely infused with the Critical Race Narrative who will then go out, degree in hand, to rise into positions of authority in corporate and government bureaucracies. We must make Critical Race Theory illegal in the United States.

Biden’s You Tube videos are getting so many downvotes that You Tube is going to remove that function. Must protect The Precious!

Open Thread

Mark Noonan55 Comments

China Joe barely managed to stumble through his “press conference”…where the questions and answers were all rehearsed. Not sure how long they keep him at it – to be sure, his own people want to keep him in as long as possible and Harrris’ people want to wait until 1/21/23 to preserve two-term viability for her…but the man is clearly on borrowed time.

The fact that they are letting BLM and Antifa skate while holding Proud Boys without bail lets you know that the two-tiered justice system is for real. We are second class citizens in our own country. We will have to fix that – but until we do, always have a care what you say and who you say it to. The authorities will railroad people and there are people out there – maybe even among your family and friends – who will report you to the authorities. Don’t get paranoid, but do be careful.

Mayor Pete wants to impose a mileage tax on our cars. There are two reasons for this:

  1. As cars go electric, less gas tax revenue.
  2. The Left hates the fact that we can go wherever we want.

The preferred future for the Left is that we all live in tiny apartments built in high rise buildings in densely packed cities and that we use bicycles or public transport to get around. If this sounds familiar, it is: it is how most Chinese live these days. That is their ideal – though they also want us to stop eating food and switch over to bug paste (I’m not kidding). Remember, they hate the entire idea of owning property or having a private life.

There is starting to be State-level push back against Critical Race Theory. This is good, but also way too late. I first came across the species of thought in the late 1980s and I initially dismissed it as absurd. That was a mistake: these people are serious. The primary component about CRT is that anything opposed to it is by definition racist. It is the perfect vehicle for imposing Marxism – you can’t actually argue against it. So, it must be merely opposed. The best thing we can do is via budgetary control over State colleges. We can’t stop Harvard with its billions from imposing it on students dumb enough to attend…but we can stop the State colleges from imposing it. But even that is just a first step – it must be banned.

Yes, I know: Constitutional issues there. But by hook or by crook, the teaching of Critical Race Theory must be made a crime in the United States. It is that pernicious. We have learned that it was a mistake to allow Marxism access to the American body politic. It must be exiled to the fringes as much as Nazism and Fascism have been. Ultimately, we cannot be secure in our lives, liberties and property as long as Critical Race Theory is considered morally licit.

A bronze statue of Greta Thunberg is to be erected at a UK university, and it is causing all sorts of outrage. But do understand what this is for: they are tearing down the old statues (it happens in the UK, too – pretty much every hero of Britain’s past is on the path to being cancelled) and erecting statues to the new heroes. This is common after the Revolution – and though it took decades, the entire West fell to the Revolution. This is something that everyone has to get into their minds: you are no longer defending. You lost. You are now counter-attacking. This is counter-revolution. We are trying to undo what’s been done and restore (at least in part) what was before.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan28 Comments

Sorry I’ve been out! Been sick the past week. Much better now.

So, Stumbles McGramps can’t climb stairs. What’s the over/under before the Democrats push him out?

We were utterly humiliated by the Chinese in the Alaska meeting – this was the CCP telling Taiwan, India and Japan that, at least for the next four years, America is of no account in the world. We’ll see how the nations of Asia react to this – I suspect we’ll see even more arms buildup amongst them.

In the long term, I don’t mind that. As it turns out, it was a mistake for the United States to attempt to be the security guarantor for east Asia. It is the Pacific which is our concern as it is the moat for us – our concentration should always be on keeping the sea lanes open. Actually pushing back against China is the responsibility, primarily, of India and Japan. I do believe we should maintain our alliances, but we should make it clear to our allies that it is their responsibility to build sufficient military force to defend themselves. I actually urge Japan and Taiwan to build nuclear weapons.

As for us: I’ve become a peacenik quite a bit over the past few years – I’m tired of the American Empire. We gain no benefit from it and the cost in blood and treasure is high. But the worst long-term aspect of it is that the necessity of a National Security State has been turned against us – our police and intel agencies are now being used against domestic dissent. Abandon the Empire. Return the Army to its proper number and functions (and revive the State militia) and abolish the FBI, NSA and CIA.

Ron DeSantis continues to ride high – mostly because he was the first big State governor to buck the lockdowns. The Democrats are, of course, hitting him hard but the bottom line, no matter how you want to slice the data, is that Florida is no worse off (at least) than any other State as far as infections and deaths while their economy is booming. DeSantis has also learned how to push back against MSM lies nearly as much as Trump did. So, he’s got a leg up right now for 2024 (presuming he wins next year – which looks pretty certain).

Democrats in the House are working on annulling the results of the IA04 House race. I’m really a bit perplexed on this one. Sure, Democrats always grab whatever they can get away with – but it is just one seat. And the blowback they’ll get in Iowa and around the country if they seat the Democrat who lost could be horrific for them. I’m not sure if it is mere bloody mindedness, or they’ve got some internal polling showing that they could lose the House majority in special elections between now and 2022.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan36 Comments

Tucker Carlson pointed out that, for instance, a pregnant soldier is not combat-ready and the entire military Establishment dropped on him like a ton of bricks – demonstrating that the senior officers and enlisted of the United States Armed Forces are heavily politicized and they are on the side of the Left. This is just terrible – but not surprising.

There was no chance the Left was going to leave the military alone – and we’ve seen over the years as the military has lowered standards and spent time on woke training rather than combat readiness that the Left has deeply infected the military. As far as it goes, it is lost to us. I’m confident that most of the lower ranks are with us, but they are largely commanded by people who have made the conscious choice that pleasing the Establishment is the way to go for promotions. Over the years, this has merely meant that we’ve had a gigantic negative-feedback loop where those officers who are the worst – ie, most willing to bow to whatever is fashionable on the Left – have risen the highest.

First off, it means we can’t win a war. Anyone who wants to fight us now can do so with certainty that our military leadership lacks any ability to fight for victory. They don’t know how – they don’t even know what it is. They didn’t rise because of their expertise in military affairs but because they knew how to say the right things. Secondly, it means that if we get power back, we have to purge the military brass. A lot. They can’t be trusted. Also, and this is something I’ve said before: we should reduce the size of the Army. Make it 100,000 troops and then revive the State militias. No more large bodies of troops for forever wars and, also, no body of troops large enough to control the United States.

Related: they’re gonna dump gender neutral fitness tests. Because the only way to have women in combat units is to lower physical standards.

Meanwhile, Democrats continue to push HR1, which would totally destroy the American political system. We’ll see if the GOP has the guts to really fight it.

Cuomo continues to be hammered – not on his killing of people, but on his sexual harassment. Make no mistake about it: he won’t be forced out and he’ll likely be re-elected next year. All of this is just keeping him out of the 2024 contest which is being gift wrapped for Kamala.

Be the Opposition

Mark Noonan38 Comments

It still astonishes me the number of people I come across in the pundit class who simply refuse to see what is in front of them. Today I saw yet another – it was a bit of a rant blaming Trump for the fact that Xavier Becerra will be confirmed as HHS Secretary. Now, to be sure, there might have been things Trump could have done or not done to secure a better electoral result both on November 3rd and January 5th, but Becerra doesn’t matter. These pundits are all hair on fire over the sort of person Becerra is and how he’ll do all sorts of horrible things at HHS. Yeah. No kidding. But so would any other person selected by Biden’s handlers. Liberals are liberals are liberals – there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between any of them. They are all egregious liars and hopelessly corrupt. And every last one of them will enact the same policies as any others because policy isn’t decided by the guys we see on TV, but by the people behind the scenes who are juiced into the activist groups which control the funding for campaigns.

The only thing about the implementation of the latest, most insane proposals on the left is whether they’ll be imposed now, or a little later. There is no one on the left who will stand against the left. Maybe Becerra will actively push the most lunatic things imaginable, maybe he’ll back burner the most crazy stuff. But it is all coming, if the left remains in power. If you want to see what will be dogma for the Democrats in a couple years, just check out whatever lunacy is most current on college campuses today. The only way to prevent it from happening is to ensure no one on the left has any say in policy, at all.

And that brings me to the other thing which I’m still finding irritating. Seventy Senators voted to confirm Garland as AG. Why? Why in heck would you do that? The Democrats will not return the favor. Not ever. I mean, it’s one thing if you’re a Susan Collins and you have to some times register that vote in favor of the Democrats to keep electoral viability. Totally cool with that. But for most of ours, there’s no reason. It won’t help them politically and the Democrats will never reciprocate. Absolute opposition is the only way to go here.

But, they still haven’t learned; though I do believe that there is a learning curve and it is far better than it used to be. Meanwhile, Trump is setting up a 2022 where he’s going to try to get rid of as many RINOs as he can. Part of this would be payback (which is a necessity in politics), part of it is testing his own popularity which will go a long way towards deciding Trump on 2024, but the biggest part of it is Trump’s understanding that if there isn’t a GOP as committed to itself as the Democrats are to themselves, then it is all for nothing. America is at the point of choosing: are we going to be a Social Democracy, or a Republic? For the moment, the GOP is still not offering a choice save a slower path to Social Democracy. Trump wants the people to have a real choice – likely because he believes they’ll choose a Republic (I do, too).

It has to be hit home that there is no longer – if there ever really was – a shared vision of America between us and our political opponents. This situation may well devolve into secession and/or civil war. It isn’t that the Democrats and Republicans want different means to the same ends: they want different ends. What the Democrats consider good is considered vile by us and vice versa. And one side or the other will triumph. We hope by peaceful means. If the American people decide to become Social Democrats, then that is what they shall be. But for those of us who don’t want this – and Trump is one of them – the thing to do now is to starkly contrast the visions and offer no cooperation to the Democrats in any way, shape or form. Absolute opposition to whatever they want and then ruthlessly doing whatever we can if we are restored to power. There are no rules or norms – there is only power and the will to exercise it. They will exercise power to destroy us…and so we’d better exercise it to destroy them. It is a bit better for us – because if we do win and exercise the power, we won’t disturb the Democrats in their personal lives…they will, on the other hand, hound us all endlessly to force us to lie in their favor. But it is in the winning where it will be decided, not in the compromising and “working across the aisle”. All of that is over – and it won’t return until “working across the aisle” means that everyone agrees on the basics.