Editor’s Note: I was reading the various strings of information this morning with interest. We have moved on from “Insurrection” to something else. In defense of truth, the current President has been banned from Twitter. Others have been expelled, still others have “quit” a social media service on which I once had an account. Still do, I assume, though I might have been expelled in my absence. Google informed my son the other day that something I posted was “dangerous.” He, or any of my friends and foes, could testify that the days in which I could be considered as such are now far away. There is quite a discussion in progress on the matter, though it is much smaller than it used to be. I am still entertained, but it is possible that general entertainment will be constrained for a while. I am sure they will give us our freedom back, right?<\/p>\n
– Vic<\/p>\n
Der Reichstag Brennt Nicht<\/p>\n
\t![](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Arrias.jpg\")
It is time to prove your true patriotic credentials. Renounce a political movement, renounce those who refuse; don\u2019t be associated with that political leaning. Those who refuse should be forced out of work, they should be shunned. They should be unable to get jobs.<\/p>\n
\tThat was the story of the Hollywood Blacklisting, the House Un-American Affairs Committee, the McCarthy hearings. Or was it? Just yesterday a former First Lady condemned everyone who voted for Trump, calling on the Tech Giants of Silicon Valley to ban Trump and all who would echo him. Hmmm\u2026. <\/p>\n
\tThe events of the past week are disturbing. In particular, the deaths of 5 people as a direct or indirect result of these actions. That should make everything else pale in comparison. Buildings can be repaired. And in this case the building wasn\u2019t badly damaged. And frankly, I care little about the reputation of this or that organization – so much has happened in the last 50 years that casts a pall on virtually every government agency in this or any other government that whining about \u201cour reputation\u201d no longer has any meaning.<\/p>\n
Further, the amount of property damage was, as far as these things go, insignificant. After all, there was, at one point, more than 90 days straight of rioting and demonstrations in several major US cities this summer and it was difficult to even find commentary in the major newspapers or news feeds. Murders, rape and violent crimes spiked, buildings were burned, businesses closed, lives destroyed. But there was little enough reporting on that. Or reporting on the surge of murders in those cities that chose to defund police as part of the local governments pandering to violent radicals. As a result the main stream media had lost all claim to taking any moral or ethical position on virtually anything of note.<\/p>\n
\tAnd, while the President did say that people should protest the results of the election and continue to fight – he didn\u2019t call for an uprising, no matter what anyone says. The fact that several hundred thousand folks were on the Mall, and only a thousand or so headed to the Capital, and most of them were, to use the terminology of the Major News Media \u201cmostly peaceful\u201d speaks volumes to those willing to listen – which granted, isn\u2019t very many.<\/p>\n
\tShould they have broken into the Capital? No. Should they have been violent? No. I assume those involved will prosecuted. Should we still defund the police? (Probably not, I suppose. They will need someone to enforce new laws, won\u2019t they?)<\/p>\n
\tBut before we go any further, before the incoming \u201celites\u201d team with the media to work themselves into a frenzy, before they write the story of January 2021 and recount how the fascist far right (that\u2019s a contradiction in terms) burned the Capital to the ground, someone on the left needs to address a few issues. <\/p>\n
\tFirst, there are more than 70 million people (and perhaps many more than that) – fellow citizens – who believe that not only was the election stolen, but that in doing so the very foundation of the nation has been undermined. Those who wish to condemn every person who voted for Trump can sit and wail and rub their hands raw and shout, but that is not going to change that perception. And we are talking about perceptions, so it doesn\u2019t help to stand up and yell \u201cThe VOTE WAS CERTIFIED;\u201d you have to address it.<\/p>\n
There are two ways to address it: either you address it up front, and work to achieve some sort of compromise and understanding, you work to allay very real fears of what those 70+ million see as the destruction of America itself. Or, you suppress them.<\/p>\n
\tAnd it seems right now that the leadership of the Democratic Party is tending towards suppression. With a very vocal former First Lady calling for the public ostracizing and shaming of everyone who voted for, worked for, or in any way supported Mr. Trump, that hardly falls under the general heading of coming together or reaching across the aisle. Numerous articles have appeared in virtually every major left-of-center newspaper calling for anyone who ever endorsed Trump to recant, to in essence confess to this grave political sin, to do penance and beg forgiveness. This sounds more like China after the \u201cGang of Four\u201d were rounded up than a democratic republic.<\/p>\n
\tThese actions are not going to get anyone to switch sides or even look more favorably on those soon to be in power. Rather, it will get folks to pretend to be nice, particularly folks with jobs in the big cities who can\u2019t afford to get fired, and who can\u2019t really move. They will nod sagely, say something about \u201cdistressing actions of the far right,\u201d opine that many of Trump\u2019s very successful economic and foreign policy endeavors were really the work of someone else, that Trump has no claim to it, that he was a (fill in your favorite pejorative), etc. <\/p>\n
\tBut inside they will resent every single time they have to lie to their neighbors or themselves, they will cringe each time they say it, knowing that they are being beaten down by the \u201cIn Mob,\u201d and they will grow to truly hate the left for it.<\/p>\n
\tSo, before that happens, those who are now salivating about the opportunity before them should consider that that 70+ million Trump voters represents at least half the nation and probably more, and that there\u2019s a fair chunk of folks who voted for Mr. Biden who will recoil if they think that the federal government is suppressing people who are trying to simply protect what they see as the fundamental elements of this nation.<\/p>\n
\tMeanwhile, there is the further truth: most of the people that the left are leading , the people who voted for Mr. Biden, are people it doesn\u2019t like. Tucker Carlson made an excellent point the other day: the bulk of Americans – to include most of the people who voted for Mr. Biden, are people the folks in Washington – the Deep State – don\u2019t like. Mr. Carlson points out that it\u2019s not just the folks who run the Republican Party, it\u2019s everyone in charge. Very simply, they don\u2019t like the working class. A large percentage of this country – certainly well in excess of 50% – are people who would not only not fit in well at cocktail hour in Georgetown or Nob Hill, Beacon Hill, or Bel Air, they would be looked down upon as lesser beings by the regular attendees at those happy hours. <\/p>\n
\tThat was the attraction of Donald Trump; he actually liked the folks who worked. Is he an egotist? Does he have a severe case of narcissism? Does he love to hear himself talk? That\u2019s all pretty rare in politics, isn\u2019t it? The distinction of Donald Trump was that he wasn\u2019t as polished, he didn\u2019t couch his terms of praise for himself in enough platitudes for or pandering to this or that voting block.<\/p>\n
\tMeanwhile, the left and academia have done a wonderful job of \u201cBalkanizing\u201d the US, cutting up America into a host of supposedly competing castes, and in effect instigating war between them: Blacks, Hispanics, Whites, Women, LGBTQ, Asians, etc. And, on top of them, in the elites\u2019 world view, are the \u201cexperts,\u201d the people who populate hundreds of thousands of offices in federal and state governments, who \u201cshould\u201d have the complete authority to tell us what we MUST do, to very much rule our every-day lives with their never-ending regulations; they are the people without real jobs. And these government experts have been joined by two other groups: the academics and the media. They are the new elites: the bureaucrats, the academics and the media. They are, in the words of the Marxists – who are the folks who wrote the book on all this – the bourgeoisie.<\/p>\n
\tAnd the thing is, bourgeoisie look down on the people who really work for a living. What is remarkable (and this has been so through much of history) is that the folks who work for a living let the bourgeoisie be the snobs they are\u2026<\/p>\n
\tBecause at the root of it all, the people who do the real work out there, in the real world, in the flyover states, in the drive-by neighborhoods, the folks who mine ore and turn it into something you can use, the folks who actually make cars, and cell phones, computers, airplanes and apartment buildings, grow crops, milk cows and butcher steers, and all the rest – they can survive without the bourgeoisie. But not the other way around. So, before the elites begin to revel in the further demonizing and subjugation of the proles, they should remember that everyone has their limits and no one really wants to find out what those limits are\u2026<\/p>\n
Copyright 2021 Arrias
\nwww.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Editor’s Note: I was reading the various strings of information this morning with interest. We have moved on from “Insurrection” to something else. In defense of truth, the current President has been banned from Twitter. Others have been expelled, still others have “quit” a social media service on which I once had an account. Still […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arrian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20673"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20674,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20673\/revisions\/20674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}