By Jeffrey A. Rendall
The American left defies and disregards federal law; is a civil war on the horizon?
Question: If today’s leftists are so enamored with democracy – and the system is foolproof with voter rolls as-is and additional voter-integrity measures not needed — why won’t they leave the important stuff up to elections to decide?
The recent hubbub in Minneapolis over ICE, President Donald J. Trump’s principled and relatively silent, pro-law enforcement orientation and the stalemate that’s ensued between the noisy insurgent, law defying factions mounting the alleged “protests” has drawn comparisons to other crisis points in American history.
Such links are inescapable, and the motivations behind the annoyed gripers in the Gopher State and their terminally unhappy nationwide brethren aren’t conclusively defined, even if the squawkers tend to use the “f-word” a lot and demand the federal forces leave without their core mission – to rid the state of criminal illegal aliens – having been sufficiently fulfilled.
Will the disgruntled lot rework the words of “Dixie” to match the present circumstances? It could sound a little like this:
“Oh, I wish I was in the land of corn and soybeans,
New times there too easily forgotten,
Look away, look away, get away — Donald Trump!”
Okay, enough parody-writing for now. But the threat to the American union seems very real. In a typically well-reasoned opinion piece titled “Slouching towards Fort Sumter?”, the irreplaceable Victor Davis Hanson wrote at American Greatness last week:
“To sum up public opinion, the proverbial people want all criminal illegal aliens deported as soon as possible, and they may even support the deportations of all 10-12 million illegal aliens who came en masse, unaudited, and with the de facto blessing of the Biden administration.
“But that said, they want the act of deportation of the non-criminal to be out of sight, out of mind—as if magically they can simply disappear and thus either self-deport or assemble at ICE stations eager to be sent at no cost home.
“For now, Walz, Frey, and Ellison are upping the rhetoric, fanning the violence, and talking openly about how best to nullify federal law and impede federal enforcement. They are convinced that they have galvanized national opposition to the hated Trump, smothered the Somali fraud scandal, and stopped ICE deportations of their constituents. In all of those assumptions, they have little idea they are following the Confederate script to the letter.”
Yes, they are indeed. The aforementioned leftist pols wouldn’t dare make an impassioned plea for states’ rights, however, since the concept is most definitely linked to the hated slave-holding class they desperately work to expunge from relevancy and history books. Instead, they’d prefer to latch onto the federal nullification part of the argument, perhaps finding it more noble to merely defy federal authority as contemporaneously embodied by the fiend Donald J. Trump.
In his piece, Hanson compared Trump to Abraham Lincoln. It worked for me.
But unlike in 1861 (and before), these aren’t regional differences as much as ideological ones, or, as my liberal Facebook friends have been more than happy to remind everyone lately, that this isn’t merely a question of enforcing the law or protesting perceived governmental overreach – it’s a “moral issue”. Basically, the judgmental set reminds anyone who disagrees with their anti-ICE, anti-law enforcement or anti-Trump position, that we’re immoral or… not moral.
Is this fair? I heard someone on the news last week suggest that Barack Obama did just as much deporting as Trump and there are a multitude of quotes out there from “The One” on the necessity of ICE and the need to rid the nation of criminal aliens. Were leftists less “moral” back then? Was a vote for Barack Obama not moral to them either?
Why do they fall silent when the topic is raised?
Why is it that leftists become agitated when ICE is shown resisting aggressive protesters yet look the other way when J6ers (from January 6, 2021) showed their own kind of “resistance” against the Capitol Police during the now-infamous tourism riot? Further, why are the Capitol Police now regarded as heroes and deified by Democrats and the left but border enforcement officers in the heartland are depicted as the anti-Christ?
How about Ashli Babbitt, the Trump supporter who was shot by a Capitol Policeman for jumping through a window? Babbitt made zero contact with the officers, and wasn’t armed, yet nevertheless received an unprovoked fatal wound. Why the double standard, Facebook liberals?
You can chock it up to simple differences in perception, but perhaps this is a “moral” issue and conservatives have different moral standards than those who admittedly agree with open defiance of immigration law – or the law in general – by being okay with ignoring acts passed by Congress that they don’t agree with.
These arrogant snobs think they’re more “moral” by following their leanings, their interpretation of Bible passages and their own sense of humanity… and humility.
How is this reconcilable?
It’s not. But leftists don’t give a squat about the glaring inconsistencies in their logic. Facts don’t matter a lick to them, their emotions and feelings substituting for the types of cold hard actualities that common sense folks tend to rely on. Leftists figure they can out-screech any naysayers and the force of their twisted sensibilities alone will propel them forward.
January 6 defendants wound up in the DC Gulag by the hundreds prior to Trump’s second election. Their stories are still being exposed, as they should be. Right-thinking folks won’t forget Ashli Babbitt and what she stood for, and they won’t forget her government assassin’s crime, either.
You’re forgiven if you’re among the many having difficulty squaring the day’s events with what supposedly was solved in 1865, with the completion of armed hostilities between the United and former Confederate States. Legendary historian Shelby Foote once taught the cause of the Civil War could be narrowed to the definition of “is” – whether the United States “is” (as in one singular nation) –vs. “are” as in, whether the United States “are”, meaning every individual state is a separate political entity.
And while few theorize that the United States could be divided according to blue and red states, the ICE episode has folks talking about what should be done to jurisdictions such as the state and localities that say “No, you can’t come in and enforce federal law,” like Minnesota and Minneapolis have done.
Democrats feel one way. Republicans think another. The mushy-middle “independent” voters hold the deciding opinions, as they always tend to do.
If the rebel side of the American Revolution only commanded about a third of the population back then, the percentages probably aren’t all that different in our present controversies. In the 1760’s and 1770’s, roughly one third of the people were regarded as loyalists (sometimes labeled Tories) and the final third of American continent dwellers found themselves in neither camp.
Today, the kook fringe leftist Democrats probably count about a third as well, them concentrated in cities and blue states. Common sense, liberty-loving conservatives and MAGA populists also number about a third, and the balance is made up of John Fetterman-type Democrats, wishy-washy “independents” and the apathetic “I don’t care, I’d rather play games on my phone” adherents.
President Trump is trying to persuade the middle group to get involved and weigh heavier on backing law enforcement. Leftist kooks say “it’s a moral issue” and think that ignoring immoral laws is sanctioned by their religion and Americans will ultimately side with them because they’re convinced that they’re right. The law isn’t on their side, and they know it, but don’t care because they’re know-it-alls and simultaneously they swear all Trump supporters are backwards country bumpkins who love guns and will end up in you-know-where because they are spawned by the devil and readily brainwashed by earthly dictators.
By appearances, there is no reconciling the left and right halves of the spectrum, just as there was nothing short of a disastrous war that could’ve kept the union together in the 1850’s and 60’s. The true believers on both sides won’t budge. The right half shouldn’t budge.
Again, it begs the question: If today’s leftists are so enamored with democracy – and the system is foolproof with voter rolls as-is and additional voter-integrity measures not needed — why won’t they leave the important stuff up to elections to decide?
America’s middle group can be convinced to lean our way, but the only acceptable victory is to win at the ballot box. Voter integrity measures, get out the vote efforts and pure persuasion is the best way to guarantee that the right half prevails. As I’ve said a lot recently, the public relations battle must take precedence over pride and rhetoric.
The purists may not like it, but we’re all populists now. It’s the best way to keep the common sense folks in a good place. And they’re the only ones who count anymore.
Jeff Rendall is editor and publisher of GolfintheUSA.com and has written about golf and politics for over a quarter of a century. A non-practicing attorney from California, he moved to the east coast three decades ago to pursue and combine his interests in all things American history and culture. Jeff has worked as an intern on Capitol Hill and in various capacities in grassroots organizing and conservative organizations and publications, including a nearly two-decade stint at ConservativeHQ.com. Column republishing or other inquiries: Rendall@msn.com .