At the moment, the Left seems to pose an existential threat to the republic. As a movement, it is composed of totalitarian ideologues who care only about power, not morality or love. They will implement the most inhumane policies imaginable. We must all be on highest alert.
During my sixteen years writing for The Imaginative Conservative, I have tried very hard to stay scholarly and academic in my argumentation, if (I hope) more lively in my tone and cadence.
One thing I’ve tried mightily not to do is simply condemn anyone who doesn’t think like we at TIC generally do. I dread conformity—whether on our side of things or their side of things. Yes, I’ve written very critically about democracy, progressivism, ideology, and modernity, but I’ve tried very hard not to make it personal. After all, as a practicing Roman Catholic, I believe in the inherent dignity of every single person throughout all of time and creation. Each person, John Paul II assured us, is an unrepeatable center of dignity and freedom. That means that even the person most unlike us, or even our greatest enemy, is still made in the image of God and, therefore, worthy of dignity. Further, I happen to know several incredibly brilliant and well-meaning people who are Democrats and very much on the Left. I respect them immensely, even when I fundamentally disagree with them and their world view.
Before I get to the crux of my argument, a second thing must be noted. Those of us not on the Left are in utter chaos at the moment, a state of flux, a whirligig of epic proportions. We really don’t know who we are, and we’ve allowed nationalism, populism, and even, astonishingly enough, anti-semitism to creep into our world and confuse us to the nth degree. At the moment, there is no leader of conservatism—at an intellectual or a political level—and the future is suspect, to put it lightly. Certainly, there’s no looking to the Republican party for any kind of leadership. If conservatism is in chaos, the tapioca conformity of the Republican party is enough to make one wretch. Remember Jesus’ warning—be either hot or cold, for the lukewarm I spit out. The Republicans, especially in the House and Senate (with a few important exceptions), are as lukewarm and frankly disgusting as can be.
But, here’s the interesting thing. The Left is in just as much confusion as conservatism. Consider for a moment, the prevailing idea that the 2028 ticket will consist of Kamala Harris and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Can you imagine two more braindead candidates? If that’s their leadership, we’re in a terrible world of hurt.
And, this takes me back to my worry above. I hate to categorize all of the Left or all of the Democratic party as one thing, as this or that, but events have forced me to. Let’s just look at a few examples.
First, let’s take the issue of race. For years and years—as far back as I can remember—the Democrats and the Left have chided everyone else for their supposed racism. On this, if nothing else, they seemed to hold the moral high ground. And, to be sure, racism is a great evil, a major sin, a slap in the face of the God who made us all. It’s a problem that all good women and men must wrestle with and fight. But, consider this.
Governor Newsom of California recently told a predominately black audience that he was dumb like they are dumb, incapable of attaining high scores on standardized testing. The Southern Poverty Law Center, founded to combat racism, has been caught funding and keeping alive white supremacy in America, even organizing the Charlottesville protest. Finally, consider that Maine Democrats have nominated an actual Nazi—at least as indicated by his tattoos—for elective office.
Frankly, if there’s any justice in the world, the Left can never again claim the moral high ground on issues of race. They’re the very racists they claim to oppose.
Second, let’s look at the levels of corruption. We all know about the billions and billions lost in Minnesota, California, and Ohio, but the GAO released a report very recently noting that public fraud accounts for nearly 500,000,000,000 a year. That’s half-a-trillion dollars. Almost all of this fraud is associated with the Democrats.
And, though I hesitate to be paranoid or conspiratorial, when we’re talking about a half-trillion dollars of fraud, one must ask if this is a feature of democratic politics or a failing and a bug? It’s too vast to be completely unintentional and without design.
Add to this that the California Democratic Party is doing everything it can to censor fraud investigations, and things look really, really bad.
Third, let’s consider the Left’s response to the Supreme Court. In every way, the Democratic party is currently trying to delegitimize the Court and brand it with the crime of being politicized. But the Supreme Court is the least politicized branch of the federal government, the one actually doing the job for which the Founders created it. Clearly, the Democrats are laying the groundwork for a court-packing scheme. And, even more frighteningly, they see one of the most political and least qualified justices in the history of the court—Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson—as the model justice. Frankly, this is simply terrifying.
Consider the very words of Democratic strategist, James Carville as reported by The Hill:
“I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen,” Carville said. “A Democrat is going to be elected in 2028. You know that. I know that. There’s going to be a Democratic House, there’s going to be a Democratic Senate. The Democratic president is going to announce a special transition advisory committee on the reform of the Supreme Court.”
Carville also forecast that Democrats, running the executive and legislative branches of government, will attempt to expand the Supreme Court from nine members to 13.
“They’re going to pass it, and a Democratic president is going to sign it,” Carville theorized. “Because they have to do an intervention so we can have a Supreme Court that the American people trust again. So just keep that in the back of your mind. I would bet a lot of many that that’s going to happen.”
If this happens, we Americans will truly have lost the republic and the Constitution. Of course, this is the logic of democracy, everywhere and always, arrogant, brutal, inhumane, totalitarian, and imperial. America, of course, was never founded as a democracy, but as a republic, but we have allowed our small democratic element to metastasize and corrupt our very American soul.
So, let me reiterate, 1) I know there are very well meaning Democrats and folks on the Left; and 2) I also know that much of the non-left is neither conservative, cohesive, or attractive.
Still, at the moment, the Left seems to pose an existential threat to the republic. As a movement, it is composed of totalitarian ideologues who care only about power, not morality or love. They will implement the most inhumane policies imaginable.
We must all be on highest alert.
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The featured image is “The Conspirators” (1914), by William Strang, and is in the public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Alas Mr. Birzer, my thoughts agree with your own. And yes, the Democrats are largely to blame; for when one of their own, Biden, stands before the American people in his last State of the Union Address and states, “Transsexuals of America, I have your back,” one can fully realize the extent of the radicalization of that party, which takes government into spheres those that wrote the Constitution could not even fathom.
But the Republicans have no sane rebuttal at hand, not when the likes of a Senator Graham beat the drums of war. Certainly, this one would not participate in such wars, but only put others in harm’s way and appear to relish in it.
Conservatives have no outstanding statesmen soberly and effectually contradicting the positions of the radicals on their side. But it is the Democrats, in unison, that continually push the envelope until I fear this country will come to its breaking point.
Well stated, Brad! On one key point, it’s as Thomas Sowell has written: “Racism is not dead, but it is on life support — kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as ‘racists.’ “
Though, I agree with your sentiments when it comes to the Democrats Dr. Birzer, most of the anti-semitism on the right is largely nonsense or non-existent. Yes, you have your Nick Fuentes’s. However, most people who are labeled anti-semitic these days are really Robert A. Taft isolationists who just want to take care of the problems on the homefront, and criticize Israel when it is warranted. At least that is how I see it. I truly feel that our current arrangement with the state of Israel goes against President Washingtons farewell address and in many ways ties our hands from actually making long term peace in the Middle East.
As for the political right not being conservative, I do and don’t like the current situation of the Republican party. In many ways, I feel they should be more like Russell Kirk and other paleocon thinkers. However, I am very happy with the reactionary and Post Liberal elements of the right. I mainly get this view from M. E. Bradfords The Reactionary Imperative where he states:
“Reaction” is a necessary term in the intellectual context we inhabit late in the twentieth century because merely to conserve is sometimes to perpetuate what is outrageous.”
Left, right, existential threat, racism, lack of trust, Democratic Party, Republican Party, socialism, conservatism, lack of leadership, ideologues, antisemitism, the “long march through the institutions,” etc., etc. Please, America and the Western world are lost, the dying political, social, liberal-democratic system that is corrupt to the core and has not worked for many decades, is simply imploding all across the board—be it business & finance, industry, education, culture, or anything else. The more desperate the struggle, the further this moribund world sinks. Fix it with “human rights”? How about any workable alternatives?
Mr. Brad Birzer is completely accurate pertaining to his analysis of the far-left Marxists Democrats and lazy weak Republicans.
As harshly adamant as President Donald L Trump remains; he must be considered a great American with courage, a great plan, Christian beliefs and a desire for World unity and cooperation. I believe the President’s plan will work. We must maintain the American dream implemented by Donald and those that courageously support his worthy moral objectives for the Country.
Why is it that in advancing objections to the destructive forces of Democrats, we must first inject caveats like: racism is terrible, Republicans are uncommitted, & just as bad, etc etc. The rot in the American character comes from the left. Alger & Donald Hiss served their puppet masters, The nuclear secrets of the Alamo project were in the hands of Moscow in breakneck speed, thanks to traitors there. Eastern Europe became one big prison camp. The nazis were National Socialists who carved up Poland with Communist Russia. As Cicero wrote long ago, ” A nation can survive it’s fools, & even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. ….. The traitor is the plague.” Republicans may be fools, or ambitious. But it is the democrat party which creates traitors..The Left is the House of Lies & Liars. We need not apologize for our fools, but prepare for battle against the plague of traitors who burrow beneath the ramparts of self-government