1968 was a turbulent year much like the past few years. Consider this. The year is 1968. Leftist President LBJ took office on a technicality after replacing an idealist JFK who inspired millions, but achieved nothing except a string of failures. LBJ has become deeply unpopular due to his stupid idea to expand welfare to the point of the Great Society. He is so unpopular that he decides not to run again. Meanwhile, the world is in chaos. The Hungarians and the Czechs have risen up against the Soviets and gotten crushed. The world remains in the middle of 20 years of living on the brink of nuclear annihilation from Soviet missiles. College campuses have become hotbeds of idiocy with national guardsmen being called out at times to maintain control as students riot and take over campus buildings. Society itself seems to be falling apart.
In the middle of all of this, the left rioted at the Democratic Convention. This was a group of hateful delicates who wanted a whole host of stupid things and saw the Democrats as the party they could co-opt to get it for them. The result of this was that the images of chaos beamed into American homes by the nightly news turned the public against the Democrats and they turned to Richard Nixon and the Republicans.
Now the year is 2016. Leftist President Obama won office despite losing nine million votes -- an unprecedented event. He replaces young Obama, an idealist like JFK who inspired millions, but who achieved nothing except a string of failures. He has become deeply unpopular because of his stupid idea to create Obamacare. Meanwhile, the world is in chaos. Arabs have risen up in the Arab Spring and yet nothing has changed. The world remains in the middle of 20 years of living on the brink of terrorism. College campuses, like Missouri, have become hotbeds of idiocy with police being called out at times to maintain control as students riot and take over campus buildings. Society itself seems to be falling apart.
This time, the delicates have chosen a new strategy, since they don't want to destroy the Democratic Party they now own. They believe that the lesson of 1968 is that by attacking a group, they can scare the public away from that group because the public will see the group as chaotic and "surrounded by violence" and will want to be rid of them. Basically, they make that group seem more trouble than they are worth. Hence, they are attacking Trump supporters in the belief that this will destroy Trump with the public.
They're wrong.
In fact, they've completely misread the lessons of 1968. The truth about 1968 is that the public turned against the Democrats because the Democrats not only responded weakly, they essentially pandered to the terrorists by embracing their causes. The result was that this saddled the Democrats with the image of being anti-American and being opposed to law and order. It made the generally apolitical public worry that the Democrats could not be trusted with the White House for fear of what kind of world they wanted. That lost the Democrats the South. It lost them blue collar workers. It lost them whites. It lost them males.
Attacking Trump will not project a similar image onto Trump and the GOP. To the contrary, all this does is revive the charge that the Democrats are opposed to law and order and are anti-American... something Bill Clinton and Obama have both struggled to overcome. Attacking people who are peaceful, wins you no friends and loses you all but your fellow travelers. What's more, with these riots being led by losers with pro-Mexico signs and flags, these idiots confirm the very fears the public has about them and makes them ever more willing to embrace Trump's anti-Illegal stance. In fact, they've thrown away the high ground that conservatives ceded them when they went racist in 2011/12.
I think the left will be shocked to discover that the more they try to disrupt Trump, the more points Hillary will lose in the polls and the more the public will back Trump and his harsher stances.
Thoughts?
BTW, The media is in a false-tizzy about Trump saying that an Hispanic and a Muslim judge might be unfair to him. This is apparently evil and racist and blah blah blah. So tell me... if what Trump says is racist nonsense, then why do blacks complain about a lack of black judges and jurors? Why do feminists complain about a lack of female judges? Isn't their complaint fundamentally that someone not like them will sympathize with people of another gender or race and, therefore, they cannot be trusted to be fair? So why isn't the same true for Hispanic and Muslim judges?
31 comments:
Generally speaking I agree that physically attacking a group doesn't damage its standing. Quite the opposite.
That being said, Trump supporters have physically attacked protestors in front of Trump with his encouragement so perhaps our belief that physical attacks by supporters damage the standings of candidates is outmoded. I still don't think it helps any.
As for Trump whining that the judge is Hispanic, that isn't someone one sees very often IIRC. My belief is that when a defendant whines about the race of the presiding judge is that they are guilty and want to shift the topic of conversation (outside the courtroom) or goad the judge into making an error (inside the courtroom).
It isn't a bad move by Trump from a political point of view. It thrills the Pat Buchanan wing of the party and its not like Trump's Hispanic support can get any lower.
Hillary's Hope.
Through all this anti-Trump movement, it appears to me that Trump is doing exactly what you state Andrew.....he's using the left's tactics against them. Alinsky's Rules for Radicals sayings... “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules” and “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. (Pretty crude, rude and mean, huh? They want to create anger and fear.)
I think Trump has the Left figured out and knows how to beat them at their own game (to use even more cliche's).
Now it's coming from the "Right" and they can't stand it.
So if history is repeating itself, then we have nothing to worry about. Trump will win and end up resigning after a scandal! (Yeah, like he'd ever admit to being wrong.)
But in the end, I'm forced to agree: I just want to scream at the protestors, "Not helping, you idiots!!"
Two groups of Bernie supporters got into a fight the other day, they were , to say the least, embarrassed when they found out that they were on the same side.
Anthony, I don't think the pro-Trump violence matters because there's no video of it that will resonate with the public and it all got clouded with false claims. At this point, it's easy to dismiss as (1) lone leftists infiltrating his rallies to cause problems and (2) nothing the public considers true violence as it's only shoving. The reporter chick ran into that. She got shoved at best and she tried to turn it into a beat down, and the only people who cared were people who already hated Trump.
This is different. This is a riot and there are "scary" images of them tussling with cops and throwing things at unarmed women.
The judge thing doesn't really matter either way, in my opinion, because the majority of the public doesn't believe that judges are biased based on race and gender. I think the more interesting point is again the hypocrisy of the left here and if the right could use their brains, they would see this ans slaughter this sacred cow.
Critch, LOL! That wouldn't surprise me.
Patriot, I've long seen that the only thing that stops the left is to use their tactics against them. Then they suddenly see how wrong that is and they want it banned. Trump is using decades of leftist tactics against them and they are stumped as to how to respond.
Even worse for them, Hillary will be their candidate and she's always been slow on the uptake. She is nowhere near mentally-nibble enough to handle leftist tactics thrown at her.
Scott, I know that you fear the fringe right, but I think you tend to overlook the left. This is the left. This has always been the left. This is why the left ALWAYS ends in death camps. These are the people who will represent the left once it takes power, and your more relaxed leftist friends will condone them as they get increasingly nasty.
Andrew -
Perhaps you're right, and I haven't had an "awakening" yet (or something). As I've said before, the fringe right scares me while the fringe left just annoys me. This doesn't scare me, it just annoys me. But I realize it's a slippery slope and why I don't have a political home, so to speak.
Scott, I like to think of myself as my own home. :)
BTW, let me point this out in terms of right and left: the center right (and actual conservatives) oppose and denounce the fringe right... the center left never denounces the fringe left.
For your consideration, I give you Pastor Martin Niemöller:
"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."
The dangers of just "sitting this one out."
The problem with the left -- and I'm not picking on you Scott, your indifference to them is just a good basis for talking about them -- is that their entire ideology is fundamentally about greed and spite. Leftism paints itself as being about fairness and equality and unicorns and love, but all of its ideas and all of its actions take the form of "take from those who have and oppress those who stand in our way so we can rebuild the world the way I want it built."
And while that can be presented in very pleasant sounding ways when you speak the words of idealism, the reality is that it makes it acceptable to hate, to demonize, to dehumanize, and to oppress. And that means that the left will always turn to violence against target groups because it's in the nature of their beliefs. And history has borne this out time and again.
Patriot, He is very insightful, thought I would argue that his statement misses one thing. To me, we should not act because "it could happen to me," we should act because we realize it's just not right. When humanity gets that, then I think a lot of the danger of totalitarianism will fade away.
When humanity gets that, then I think a lot of the danger of totalitarianism will fade away.
Except that "humanity" has "gotten that" over and over and over, but it gets watered down from one generation to the next. What one generation does that may be good is re-evaluated by another to be bad. And it's cyclical. Heroes become tyrants and tyrants become heroes (rinse and repeat). And it's just speeding up since now we can have hero-to-villian or villian-to-hero in one or two news cycles!
I think the recent events also illustrates just how weak a person Hillary is. When she came out to denounce the riot she couldn't help herself but to also blame Trump. This makes her look awful in middle American eyes. She should have came out and only stated that it was wrong. Period. She is acting just like the Democrats of '68.
I agree Bev. Hillary should be able to destroy the elderly socialist by showing food lines in Venezuala with the statement that this is what his programs lead to. Vote Hillary.
She doesn't have to be as quick witted on her feet but since she has no guiding principles she is like a floating dingy in a sea of noise. But she is trying hard every day to be honest with the people.
Since Tom Morello, aka the artist enjoying the benefits of capitalism, recently bragged about taking his new band Prophets of Rage to Cleveland to cause trouble at the GOP convention, made sure to Tweet this column his direction, little somethin'-somethin' for him and his band leader Chuck D to ponder in their limos or on any private jet flights between here and there, between now and then.
Hope you don't mind.
All you can ask is that she try, lol...
Bev, It does seem to be cyclical. Although, the human race does seem to be headed in a definite direction... in fits and spurts, but we do seem to be headed somewhere.
Koshcat, It does. Hillary really is an amazingly weak candidate and I think her inability to seize control of her race with all the support she has shows us just how weak she is. In fact, she's utterly pathetic as a candidate.
As an aside, her latest effort is a slogan that reads: "Love Trumps Hate." Aside from being nonsense, some people who analyze words have pointed out that humans put the most emphasis on the first two words in a three word phrase, so what people will initially understand this as "Love Trumps."
But she is trying hard every day to be honest with the people.
LOL! Well, that is a talent that doesn't come naturally to the Clintons.
EP, No problem. Sounds typical for Hollywood and the record industry. Do as I say, not as I do.
Ken, Right! I wouldn't want her to strain herself. LOL!
You know, if all of us right wing gun owners were a problem, the country would know it...and so would the whackos on the Left.
Speaking of how stupid Hillary is...
She's afraid she's going to lose California and thereby inspire Bernie to keep on Berning through November. In the last couple days, she seems to have come up with a plan to stop that. They started a couple days ago by saying that if you count the rigged delegate, then Hillary might just have enough to win. The AP has now dutifully announced that it is true. They counted and Hillary has enough delegates to win, so there's no need for California... nothing to see here.
Here's the problem.
This is going to turn off Hillary's supporters who no longer have a need to turn out. Bernie's nuts, on the other hand, will turn out in droves come rain, flood or nuclear war. The end result is that Bernie is likely to beat Hillary by a surprisingly large margin in California. That is going to inspire him to continue much more than a close lose or even a tiny win would have done.
Seriously, if Hillary was a supervillain, her name would be Backfire... or The Hag.
Critch, That's the most obvious problem with everything the left claims. If cops were hunting blacks, the death toll would be in the thousands. If gun owners were crazy, half the population would be dead. If Christians were oppressing atheists, there would be reduction camps. If men were holding women down, no women would be employed. If rape culture were real, then there would be, you know... rapes.
Etc.
Good summary of what happened and its effects. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what it came down to, especially considering how fanatical the Bern Feelers in particular seem to be. This whole election has just been a sorry clown show from start to finish, hasn't it?
Also, Critch and Andrew, you two spelled out something that dawned on me about the left in the past few weeks. It looks like their usual method to push their agenda seems to be to take a number of the same kind of incidents, whether they be actual crimes or simply assholes being assholes, and make it some kind of cultural phenomenon that we need to Do Something About, regardless of what the actual statistics say (and when they're brought in they're quickly dismissed in conspiratorial terms, of course). Dealing with this mess is such a headache especially when, as we've often discussed Andrew, it looks like far too many rational people fall for at least one bit of fringe BS a day.
- Daniel
Daniel, That's true. That is the latest leftist tactic. The reason is that they have nothing else. The few thinkers on the left (most are just drones) realize that there are no statistics to back them up and there is no logic to support them. So they have started manufacturing issues by trying to find a handful of whiners and then claiming that this handful represents the reality and HOW DARE YOU QUESTION IT OR EVEN LOOK INTO MY CLAIM!!! HATE CRIME HATE CRIME!!
That's pretty much all they have left at this point.
In terms of there being too many falling for it, that feels true, but I see no statistical evidence to back that up. America seems to run along at the same percentages as always.
Excellent article on why they had to shoot the gorilla.
LINK
That sounds about right, and good article on the gorilla. I remember reading the original Facebook post and thinking it was a good display of common sense and reason. A shame they're seemingly so rare these days.
- Daniel
Andrew, you really called it on the Democrat violence. When Trump protesters got violent in San Bernardo, the mayor put the blame on Trump for showing up!
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