As I told my friend, this is perhaps one of the best articles I have read in awhile. I was contemplating some of the same ideas espoused in the article and was working on a very rough draft over the last few weeks when time permitted, but Mr. Greenfield did such a masterful job of articulating the issues at hand, that it seemed pointless for me to reinvent the wheel. With that said, I strongly encourage everyone to click on the link and read the entire article at Front Page Mag.
Below are a few excerpts that particularly caught my attention from Mr. Greenfield's article:
"The left is an authoritarian movement that wants total compliance with its dictates with severe punishments for those who disobey...
...We can have a system of government based around the Constitution with democratically elected representatives. Or we can have one based on the ideological principles of the left in which all laws and processes, including elections and the Constitution, are fig leaves for enforcing social justice.
But we cannot have both.
Some civil wars happen when a political conflict can’t be resolved at the political level. The really bad ones happen when an irresolvable political conflict combines with an irresolvable cultural conflict.
That is what we have now.
The left has made it clear that it will not accept the lawful authority of our system of government. It will not accept the outcome of elections. It will not accept these things because they are at odds with its ideology and because they represent the will of large portions of the country whom they despise...
...The left doesn’t believe in secession. It’s an authoritarian political movement that has lost democratic authority. There is now a political power struggle underway between the democratically elected officials and the undemocratic machinery of government aided by a handful of judges and local elected officials...
...Civil wars end when one side is forced to accept the authority of the other. The left expects everyone to accept its ideological authority. Conservatives expect the left to accept Constitutional authority. The conflict is still political and cultural. It’s being fought in the media and within the government. But if neither side backs down, then it will go beyond words as both sides give contradictory orders..."
It is ironic that many otherwise well-meaning people on the Left accuse the Right of being authoritarian and insisting that "love trumps hate". It is even more ironic that they do so by means of violent protests and judicial coercion from activist judges. I never expected "love" to require rocks, Molotov cocktails, and literal beat downs of dissenting opinion speakers. It is scary to contemplate, but a civil war could very well be the exact direction in which we are heading.
H/T: Majormajor
17 comments:
Mr. Paine,
Further thoughts about this article. How many times have liberals held Sweden up as an example of how socialism would work here if only we were as smart as the Swedes and raised taxes?
I doubt this will show up on a liberal blog...
Sweden Warned Not to Return to High-Tax 70s as Incomes Squeezed
www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-28/sweden-warned-not-to-return-to-high-tax-70s-as-incomes-squeezed
Mr. Greenfields essay teaches us how liberalism reacts to failure of their policy's, Sweden shows us socialism is great until you run out of other people's money.
Indeed! Well said, Majormajor. I fully concur with you.
Chuck, you have a big hill to climb if you think the Socialistic political systems of Scandinavia are inferior to the Capitalistic US system. The taxes are as high as 60 percent but the money is spent on cradle to grave health care, free collage and a massive social program. They keep their environment pristine, no Super Fund sites to clean up.
They have mandatory 8 weeks vacation, one year maternity leave and even 3 months for the father. Burger flippers make more than $ 20.00 an hour! They are a lot smarter than us also, they do not eat GMO food or oil based food colorings.
Norway was just rated the best country to live in on the planet with one of the highest standards of living in the world. Their per capita income is 20 to 25 thousand dollars higher than the US.
Speaking of spending other peoples money, Norway has large surpluses while we go into debt at a rate of almost one trillion dollars a year, thanks to the Republican policies from the year 2000 on. I think we are paying about 300 billion a year in interest on that debt also
James,
I am just quoting the news from Sweden. Sweden is running out of money per their own figures. I guess there's a move to Norway in your future?
Maybe our debt would stop growing if we stopped with the liberal spending programs.
Is Bernie Sanders right? Are people living under socialism better off? Brazil is a good case study. Felipe Moura Brasil, a journalist and Veja magazine columnist, explains how his country has fared under socialism.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKhR9i5CGkA
It's just 5 minutes long, wonder if any liberals will take the time and watch and learn?
Then there is the Hollywood's favorite socialist country, Venezuela, on its way to a socialist dictatorship.
www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/world/americas/venezuelas-supreme-court-takes-power-from-legislature.html?_r=0
www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-30/venezuela-s-supreme-court-takes-over-national-assembly-duties
But but but Norway has a surplus.....
What Liberal programs should be cut to lower our debt? Do you know we spend 2 3/4 billion dollars a day to fund the military and all the surveillance agencies?
All of Europe, Scandinavia, England, Canada and Japan have Socialistic governments and they have had them for a long time. Picking out a few poorly run South American countries to make the case that Socialism does not work does not make sense.
What is so great about being 20 trillion in debt or millions of people going bankrupt because of unpaid medical bills or student loans?
Start by defunding a private company, Planned Parenthood.
Planed Parenthood gets about 525 million dollars from the federal government, that is worth a few hours of operating the MIC. Do you see where I am going with this?
Getting rid of PP will cause hardship and even death for women which seems a goal of Republican policies toward women in general.
I guess Conservatives think women are evil and should be punished. Liberals do not think like that.
Guess you are right James, after 8 years of Obama making the world love us again, who needs the military. We have no enemies to protect our selves from.
Speaking of women, how many aborted humans are females? PP is a private for profit corporation, aren't liberals against corporate welfare? If PP's product was needed and so great, why would they need govt money? Maybe they should charge less for their services instead of being to greedy, and then cut their CEO's wages? So greedy.
I'd cut the EPA budget in half, as I would the Dept of Education. I'd stop sending Federal money to all sanctuary cities, counties or states. I'd stop sending any Federal money to any state that does not obey Federal illegal drug laws. I'd stop Federal funding of green/alternative energy corporations.
I'd return Medicare, Medicare and SS spending to the same legibility requirements as when the programs were first created.
I am heading out for a couple of days, we will continue this then Chuck. By the way you were going to tell me your real name because you know who I am.
I was? You have signed using your real name.
Mr. Paine,
Remember when in her campaign’s closing day HRC claiming the election was absolutely legitimate and Trump was a traitor trying to destroy our democracy for saying the election was being by a foreign country?
James, whether one would characterize these as liberal or conservative is irrelevant, my friend. Anything that is not explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution should be reserved as rights and duties of the states and/or We The People. National defense if one of those specific duties mentioned in the Constitution that the federal government must administer. Many of the other departments such as Education, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Labor, Energy and Homeland Security are all executive branch departments that are extra-constitutional or unconstitutional and should be eliminated as such, in my opinion. I realize this will never happen, but if we were true to the law of the land, these functions would be run by the states when required.
I wrote on this topic years, ago, and I have become even more conservative since then; http://savingcommonsense.blogspot.com/search?q=federal+departments
When President Obama took office, we were around $10 trillion in debt. We did not rise to $20 trillion on his watch by funding the military. We must cut back on federal spending. When the federal government is the largest employer in the nation, and that excludes the military, then we are far too bloated, sir.
"Start by defunding a private company, Planned Parenthood." ~Majormajor
Absolutely correct! There is no constitutional basis for funding them. Indeed our founding document as a nation speaks of the inalienable rights to "LIFE, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Planned Parenthood is an anathema to those very principles.
"Getting rid of PP will cause hardship and even death for women which seems a goal of Republican policies toward women in general." ~ James
Bovine excrement, sir! Planned Parenthood's primary function is abortions. There are plenty of health clinics that actually provide medical services to women and men that are far more effective and efficient that could be funded otherwise. Oh, ...and half of those babies aborted are women.
"PP is a private for profit corporation, aren't liberals against corporate welfare?" ~ Majormajor
Excellent point sir!
T, I have been reading about politics for 19 years and in that time the Republicans have passed, tried to pass or wanted to pass countless bills to defund or destroy programs such as pre and post natal care, school lunches, food stamps, Head start, equal pay for women, WIC, various health care and day care programs,and so on.
There is a reason the for the saying that Republicans love the fetus and hate the child. If there was a powerful well financed lobbying group for women and children it would be a whole different story.
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