Saul Alinsky’s book, Rules For Radicals, has long been required reading for the crooked politicians in America who call themselves “Democrats.” You know, those people who constantly call Republicans fascists, authoritarians, and existential threats to democracy. The book is a primer for the carrying out of Democratic Party dirty tricks. One of its tenets is, “accuse your opponents of doing that which you yourself are doing.” Democrats have learned that lesson well.
They’re currently working themselves into a frenzy, complaining that the Trump Administration is “weaponizing the justice system for political purposes.” This, of course, is strange, coming as it does from the Party that used federal and State justice systems to punish Trump and any of his supporters for the egregious crime of winning elections they had expected to win.
If I have to say it again, the Democrats engineered four bogus indictments of Trump, a civil suit designed to bankrupt Trump and his businesses, indictments of Trump allies and employees, and State attempts to remove Trump’s name from presidential ballots. And, of course, they used the justice system to employ false and concocted information to engineer two phony impeachments and the appointment of a special counsel to investigate a Russian collusion scheme they knew to be phony. In so doing, they utilized Justice Department lawyers, the FBI, the CIA, and a number of foreign intelligence agencies to overthrow the Trump 45 Administration.
But if you thought this was as low as the Democrats possibly could stoop, think again. Previously hidden FBI records have exposed what is the most far reaching, outrageous, and clearly illegal breach of federal law and personal liberties in the history of our Republic. Like all good clandestine government incursions on the Constitution and laws of the United States, it had a catchy FBI code name – Arctic Frost.
It was revealed last month that the Biden Administration Justice Department (and that’s a contradiction in terms) used Special Counsel Jack “The Knife” Smith to conduct an extensive, and secret, investigation of practically the entire Republican Party hierarchy, including activists connected to the GOP, public officials, slates of presidential electors, and government workers allegedly tied to events around the 2020 election. Just one look at Smith should tell you he’s a vicious, sneaky prick –
What Smith did, with the blessings of FBI Director Wray, Attorney General Garland, Corrupt Demented Imbecile Joe Biden, and federal judge James Boasberg boggles the mind. Smith issues at least 400 subpoenas for the telephone records of, not only the personal telephone of President Trump, but at least 160 Republican elected officials, Administration officials, and others people who supported Trump. This permitted the Biden Administration to spy on members of Congress.
This list included Republican Senators Marsha Blackburn, Bill Hagerty, Rick Scott, Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, Tommy Tuberville, Ron Johnson, Dan Sullivan, Cynthia Lummis, all of whom used Verizon as their carrier. You’ll note fake Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski was not included. I guess they, based on her record, Smith didn’t recognize her as a Republican. Verizon complied with the subpoenas.
A number of other Congresspeople, who use AT&T also were the subjects of telephone records subpoenas. These subpoenas, like those issued to Verizon, lacked any criminal predicate. In other words, the evidence necessary for their issuance, and instead represented a fishing expedition into the records of the people who get to decide the level of funding that the Justice Department should get. This not only wasn’t smart, it was highly illegal.
How do I know this? It’s very simple. Jack Smith told us. When the subpoenas of Congressional targets reached AT&T, that company inquired into the legal basis for their issuance. Jack Smith backed off, and the subpoenas were never executed. And for several good reasons.
Smith took his subpoenas to friendly Judge James Boasberg, an Obama appointee. You may remember that he is the judge who continually does everything he can to defeat the Trump Administrations efforts to enforce immigration law by deporting criminal aliens, as U.S. law requires him to do. Boasberg kept issuing nationwide injunctions to stop deportations, until the Supreme Court finally told him he shouldn’t be doing that sort of thing.
Boasberg included in the subpoenas a provision which prevented the phone companies from disclosing to the Congresspeople that their records were being seized, citing “reasonable grounds to believe that such disclosure will result in destruction of or tampering with evidence, intimidation of potential witnesses and serious jeopardy to the investigation.” Translation – the Court told the companies that these elected officials could not be trusted to obey the very laws that they had enacted.
Federal law states that communications providers for Senate offices “shall not be barred, through operation of any court order or any statutory provision, from notifying the Senate office of any legal process seeking disclosure of Senate data.” The House has similar legal protection. The upshot is that, if records of elected officials are to be seized, the target of the subpoena must be informed. The Boasberg orders violated this law. In addition, even a United States District Judge should be aware that snooping into the private communications of members of Congress is an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers of the various branches of the government, the bedrock principle underlying our Republic. One might even call it, an existential threat to our democracy, brought to you by your slimy friends in the Democrat Party.
Needless to say, the affected Congresspeople are quite unhappy with this revelation. They don’t take kindly to people who tread on their grass, even when the intrusion is warranted. Remember the Democrat House member from Louisiana whose office was searched with a search warrant shortly after Hurricane Katrina, yielding a refrigerator stuffed with cash? Democrats loudly protested this serious breach of protocol.
And what are Democrats saying now about hundreds of unwarranted subpoenas? Not a thing. Funny how that works, isn’t it? But it’s not funny. Ted Cruz was one of the Senators whose records were subpoenaed, and he’s not happy. “Merrick Garland was a fundamentally corrupt attorney general. Jack Smith was a fundamentally corrupt prosecutor. This was a political enemies list from the beginning.” “Judge James E. Boasberg, that radical leftist judge who is out of control, who has been issuing nationwide injunctions one after the other trying to stop President Trump from carrying out his mandate for the voters.”
Article of impeachment for Boasberg have been filed in the House. I don’t know how that exercise will go, or even that it should go on, but this scandal will not simply go away. This was the worst abuse of political power in our history. Operation Arctic Frost was an egregious affront to our system of government. The Republicans are genuinely pissed, and heads should roll over this. Democrats can’t be permitted to escape Arctic Frost. Congress is investigating this outrage. Winter is coming.
Before we get to the subject at hand –
[ELECTION UPDATE – You may recently have received a mailing from an organization calling itself the Center For Voter Information, which is a hit piece attacking New Jersey Gubernatorial candidate Jack Cittarelli. It suggests that Cittarelli wants to make it easier for domestic abusers and the insane to get guns, that he seeks to reduce government assistance to the elderly and infirm, and that he believes the government should detain people for their political opinions. Please warn all your friends that this mailing is unmitigated bullshit. The organization is funded in large part by The Tides Foundation, which is funded in large part by one George Soros, who is the driving force behind the elections of Socialist prosecutors and mayors, including Zoran Mamdani. Spread the word.]
The media and other whining Democrats are bemoaning recent actions by the Trump Justice Department, which they claim show that the President is visiting retribution on his political foes. They’re even trying to equate this to Richard Nixon’s so-called Enemies List.
Nixon maintained what has been called his Enemies List. The list actually was denominated the Opponents List. Although the Nixon Administration encouraged the IRS to audit those listed, an investigation proved the IRS never undertook such audits.
Nixon’s list contained 823 entries, and was a veritable Who’s Who of prominent Americans, including most Democratic Congressmen and Senators, labor leaders, journalists like Jack Anderson, and for some reason even Paul Newman, Tony Randall and Barbra Streisand. (Okay, Streisand was an annoying bag even back then, so I’ll give Nixon that one).
The point is that Nixon was simply listing unfriendly persons and organizations which, apart from vocally opposing him politically, had done nothing to him which would warrant retribution. The legal actions undertaken on the foes of President Trump are a completely different case.
To date, James Comey has been indicted for lying to Congress, Letitia James for mortgage fraud, and former National Security Advisor John Bolton for mishandling classified documents. In addition, a mortgage fraud investigation is underway on Senator Adam Schiff (for brains), and former CIA Director John Brennan has been referred by Congress for prosecution for perjury.
These actions have the leftist media up in arms. A recent article in the ultra-Left New Republic is a good example. It claims, “The air is thick with talk of revenge.” Coming from Democrats this is rich. “In 2023, when Trump proclaimed to a conservative audience, ‘I am your retribution,’ he said that it would be ‘for those who have been wronged and betrayed,’ no small group in Trump’s mind.”
It’s actually no small group in anyone’s mind, as it included, off the top of my head, not only the President himself, and his children, but General Flynn, Steve Bannon, Peter Navarro, Paul Manafort, George Papadopulos, Rudy Giuliani, Linda McMahon, Roger Stone, and Alan Weisselberg, all of whom were subjected to Democrat witch hunts. And, oh yes, let’s not forget the 430 Republican Congressmen, Senators, Trump Administration officials, as well as 92 conservative organizations that Biden Prosecutor, Mad Dog Jack Smith, subpoenaed without any good faith reason.
Useless, fake Republican, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski has said,“retaliation is real.” The New Republic reminds us “it was Michelle Obama who said, ‘When they go low, we go high,’ she might as well have been speaking for her husband and other Democratic leaders, who have shied away from bare-knuckle politics.” Seriously? Her husband prosecuted journalists. And it was his Attorney General, Eric Holder, who said, “When they go low, we kick them.” It’s what they called “the Chicago way.”
According to The New Republic, Trump rebelled against the norms. Of course, one of the norms involved crooked bastards from both Parties lying to and ignoring the wishes of the voters. It’s what made a Trump candidacy possible, and if that was a rebellion, it was long overdue. The magazine drones on that, “We are dangerously near the precipice of an executive coup.” Just how a sitting President can orchestrate a coup is unexplained. On the other hand, Democrats staged a real coup attempt against Trump 45.
The New Republic then laughingly counsels that, “If political leaders refuse to accept the loss of elections, democracy is impossible.” Really? This will come as a shock to Hillary Clinton, Stacy Abrams, Nancy Pelosi, and all the other Democrats who have called, and are calling, Donald Trump an illegitimate President. Hillary said the 2016 election was rigged, and Democrats have challenged every election they’ve lost in recent times.
The New Republic piously warns, “If rule of law means anything, it’s that the power of the State not be used for vengeance.” Now with that, I agree. It’s just a shame that Democrats didn’t practice what they now preach. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “There can’t be retribution unless somebody has screwed you first.” Let’s explore that subject.
Comey says he’s a victim of retribution. This from the man who treated his new boss as a criminal target. He ambushed General Flynn in the first days of Trump 45, bragging that he never would had done it, but for the fact that Trump was new to Washington and didn’t know the rules. He had the FBI, remember Peter Strozk and Lisa Page, working against Trump’s campaign, compiling “insurance” information to be used in case he won in 2016. He used the Steele dossier, which he knew to be untrue, as well as falsified evidence, to obtain four wiretaps to spy on the Trump campaign and Administration. He orchestrated the call for a Special Counsel, who’s investigation crippled Trump’s first term. Against this backdrop, if Comey lied to Congress, why does he deserve a pass?
As an AG candidate, Letitia James pledged to “get” Trump before she had access to any evidence of supposed wrongdoing. She constantly reminded us that “no one is above the law.” She concocted a phony financial case to bankrupt Trump businesses. She tried to fine Trump $500 million for a case with no victims and no financial loss. The fine was thrown out by an appellate court. If she defrauded mortgage lenders, why should she be above the law?
Adam Schiff is under investigation for mortgage fraud. Schiff says, “Trump’s “long and growing” list is not a secret, while warning his Republican colleagues that even they will not be protected from the president’s “vengeance.” Schiff is a pathological liar who ran the phony Trump impeachments. He lied about having seen evidence of wrongdoing which never existed. As a member of the January 6th partisan witch hunt Committee, Schiff sensationalized what was largely trespassing, then destroyed all evidence exculpating the defendants. Simply put, Adam Schiff is scum. If he broke the law, he should face the music.
Apart from these examples, Democrats who are coming under scrutiny are the same people who sent the FBI to investigate parents at school board meetings, the same people who dared complain about boys in girls’ locker rooms, the same people who arrested and imprisoned grandmothers for praying outside abortion clinics, the same people who persecuted January 6th trespassers, and the same people who continually call Trump and his supporters Hitler and Fascist, conduct which led directly to two assassination attempts and the murder of Charlie Kirk.
The foes of Trump who now face the justice they denied to so many others are screaming bloody murder. But what’s at the heart of their complaint? Retribution? Selective prosecution? Vindictive prosecution? These terms may play in the media, but they’re legally useless. Selective prosecution? Next time you get a speeding ticket, go to court and tell the judge he should let you go because many others were also speeding. Good luck with that.
Vindictive prosecution? James Comey’s actually planning a motion to dismiss on this basis. Here’s the problem. Comey and Letitia James aren’t in court because Donald Trump signed a Complaint against them. They’re there because grand juries indicted them. 23 people went into a room and heard evidence, and at least 12 of them decided that probable cause exists to believe they broke the law. So long as a court finds that enough evidence was presented to permit reasonable grand jurors to return an indictment, the case will go on, regardless of the Government’s motivation.
It’s often said that pay back is a bitch, and these prosecutions may well be pay back for the 4 indictments, the civil fraud case, the 2 impeachments, and the disruption of the lives, not to mention the bankrupting of so many people who were hauled into court simply because they supported Donald Trump. If it is retribution, I say it’s long overdue.
Last Saturday we were treated to yet another No Kings protest day. All over the country, worn out senior citizen malcontents marched, chanted, danced, and otherwise beclowned themselves in a sorry attempt to resist Donald Trump, which is to say, to resist the enforcement of the law in accordance with the Constitution.
This is not a difficult concept. President Trump was elected to enforce the laws that Congress, in most cases, Democrat-controlled Congresses, enacted. The Constitution provides that the President has a duty to “take care that the laws are faithfully executed.” But Democrats say that, because President Trump is faithfully executing laws they don’t like, he is a threat to democracy, who is trying to transform the United States into a monarchy In short, say the protestors, Trump is acting like a King.
The antics of the protestors gave the impression that the circus was in town everywhere the protests were staged. This is what it looked like.
If you’re wondering how appearing in public wearing a chicken or unicorn costume will convince American voters to support Democrats, join the club. I guess it’s close enough to Halloween. The stated purpose of this farce was to inspire “mass defiance” of the Trump Administration’s actions. The supposed message was that President Trump is acting like a King, and they want us to understand that there are no Kings in America.
Of course, the fact that we have no Kings was never in doubt. Indeed, the protestors themselves already comprehended this fact. Here’s one of their signs.
So, could what went on last weekend have been an early attempt to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our separation from King George III. Not likely. Not only have most of these idiots never heard of King George III, this nonsense really had nothing to do with celebrating America. It instead had everything to do with mental illness.
Sane people, those who are in touch with reality, understand that we have no Kings, and haven’t had since 1783. Trump is a King? Let’s consider that. If Trump was a King, he wouldn’t be troubled by meddlesome judges who constantly usurp his authority. If Trump was a King, the government wouldn’t be shut down simply because six Democrat Senators refuse to permit it. Most importantly, if Trump really was a King, there would have been no protests on Saturday, and anyone who did speak out of turn would have found his or her severed head on a pike atop the newly constructed East Wing Ballroom.
None if this should come as a surprise. One of the very first Democrats, Thomas Jefferson, wrote all about it in 1776. The Declaration of Independence is a laundry list of complaints against a King. The trouble is that, the things that the Founders were complaining about King George doing to them are the very things today’s Democrats are doing to us.
He is “obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners.” What do you call the violent resistance to ICE enforcement operations? “He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.” Democrats are delaying Trump judicial nominations. “He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone.” Democrat appointed judges are usurping Executive authority, by impeding the President’s every action. “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.” Democrats favor crippling administrative regulations that hamper commerce and steal individual freedoms.
Were Democrats in touch with reality, they would have long ago realized that they had met the enemies of democracy, and it is them. When they denounce Trump as an “authoritarian,” they’re denouncing the republican form of government given to us by the Founders. When asked at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, “What type of government have you given us?, Benjamin Franklin responded, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
The loony Leftists have served notice that they think our Republic has lasted long enough. They don’t object because what Trump is doing is “authoritarian.” Their objection is that Trump is in a position to exercise any kind of authority at all. Simply put, they’re deniers. They deny our form of government. They deny the will of the voters. They deny the Constitution. They deny the laws they themselves enacted. And most troubling of all, they deny reality.
If these bastards weren’t crazy, what they’re doing would be tantamount to treason, but the insane can’t be held criminally responsible. Decide for yourselves. While these morons march, chant, and dance, the government is closed. Our military, law enforcement and air traffic controllers aren’t being paid. Democrats don’t care. A high ranking Dem House member said this week that, while the shutdown will cause families pain, a shutdown was the only leverage Democrats had. That’s right. All you people who voted for Democrats thinking you were American citizens and constituents, forget it. All you are is leverage.
Meanwhile, elected imbeciles like Fat Ass Pritzker and Gavin Newsome are fomenting open rebellion. Fire-ravaged California remains in ruins. The State has approved only a handful of reconstruction permits, and people are fleeing the State in droves. Between 2022 and 2023, 700,000 Californians fled high taxes and oppressive regulation. It’s estimated 4 million have left since 2020. California could lose 5 House seats in 2030. Against this backdrop, Newsome wants to fight Trump.
Illinois is experiencing a similar exodus. Gun violence in Chicago remains unchecked. Yet, Pritzker and Chicago’s Mayor oppose the federal efforts to enforce the law in that city. Pritzker has challenged Trump to arrest him, and is promising to prosecute the federal officers for doing their jobs.
In Portland, Antifa A-holes are rioting and attacking federal law enforcement, while gangs of criminal aliens still remain at large. Portland had a big No Kings event on Saturday. Here’s how Oregon Public Broadcasting reported the day. “Tens of thousands of people participated in peaceful No Kings events across the state on Saturday. A smaller group of protesters at Portland’s ICE facility were met with heavy force from federal agents in the evening.”
Here’s what really happened. During daylight hours, ex-hippie senior citizens marched, and/or limped, in protest. Of course it was “peaceful,” most of them could barely move.
Then, after the old farts left for their Early Bird dinners at Appleby’s, Antifa attacked the ICE headquarters.
This may have been “mostly peaceful” too. After all, it was dark, and with all that tear gas …
You get the point. While our troops struggle to support their families without paychecks, the Chinese, the Russians, and the rest of our enemies are still plotting against us. Yet Democrats, people who worship government, are determined to keep it closed. If they can’t run it, then they won’t let you have it. Instead, they’re spending their time opposing a nonexistent King. These people are truly sick.
The title of this week’s piece comes from that inimitable paragon of morality and propriety, the Reverend Al Sharpton. Return with me back to 2014. Sharpton, who even then had a show on MSNBC, was exhorting his tens of viewers to do what the Left does best – Resist. But in rallying his troops, the Right (or is it Left?) Reverend spoiled his sentiment by tripping over his teleprompter. Who could forget the depth of his wisdom? “But resist we much. We must and we will much about that be committed.” Amen Brother.
And for that, MSNBC pays the Rev $1.5 million. And that’s on top of the more than $1 million a year the Rev skims from from his own charity. You know what they say, charity begins at home. And $500,000 of the total in the coffers of his charity came from the Kamala Harris campaign, so consider it payment for services rendered. But Al is still on the air, stirring the pot, and fomenting “resistance.”
The Rev’s ratings may not be very high, but there’s no doubt that segments of the insane asylum commonly known as the Democrat Party have taken the Rev’s wisdom to heart, and have dedicated themselves to the “resist, we much” proposition.
Most of the resistance is aimed at the Trump Administration’s efforts to enforce our immigration laws, and to Trump’s use of federal law enforcement and National Guard troops in so-called Blue cities.
First it was Washington, D.C. Trump sent in the National Guard and surged federal law enforcement to drastically reduce crime that was out of control. As with all things liberal, the Leftists running the Capitol District denied that there was a problem, and reflexively opposed Trump’s action because they oppose all things Trump.
As usual, it was the Leftists who created the problem. Over about ten years, the murder rate in D.C. doubled, to 27.4 per 100,000, even higher than the rate in that other Hellhole, Chicago. More about that city later. D.C. also permitted juvenile offenders to run amok by failing to prosecute violent offenders as adults. Trump came in, kicked ass, took names, and crime in D.C. is under control.
Chicago was next. ICE conducted operations to remove violent illegal aliens. The City and State resisted. The Trump surge of federal agents and National Guard to combat crime came next, because crime in Chicago was rampant.
Every weekend, scores of residents are shot by the violent gangsters who the City permits to prey upon Chicagoans. Shootings Are so frequent they have become routine, like sports scores. “This weekend, 22 were shot and 4 were killed.” Holiday weekends are double-headers. Over Labor Day weekend, “58 shot and 8 killed.”
President Trump surveyed the carnage, and decided that something had to be done. Trump announced, “We’re going in.” “Chicago is the worst most dangerous city in the World, by far. Pritzker needs help badly, he just doesn’t know it yet. I will solve the crime problem fast, just like I did in DC. Chicago will be safe again, and soon.”
The elected officials in the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois resisted. Much. Governor Pritzker called Trump’s remarks “unhinged.” Pritzker said the president’s plan was “unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal, it is unconstitutional, it is un-American.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, he who sports a 7% approval rating, said he had “grave concerns about the impact of any unlawful deployment of National Guard troops to the city of Chicago.” He called Trump’s approach “uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound.” Johnson also said that deploying the National Guard in Chicago could “inflame tensions between residents and law enforcement.” Bullshit. The residents can’t have tensions with a group they rarely see.
Mayor Johnson called the federal actions unconstitutional and politically motivated. This was stupid in the extreme. Trump didn’t go into Chicago to win votes there. It’s just the opposite. Trump is using his political capital to protect the helpless citizens that State and local officials have abandoned. He didn’t have to do it, but he places more value on innocent lives than the people elected to protect them.
Then Pritzker doubled down. He has threatened to prosecute federal law enforcement agents for the crime of doing their jobs. “Unlike Donald Trump, we keep our promises.” “We will not stand idly by if he decides to send the National Guard to intimidate Chicagoans.” “Action will be met with a response.” Unless that response is to get his fat ass out of the way, the Gov’s going to have a problem.
Pritzker wasn’t kidding. He sued Trump, and got a leftist federal judge to halt the National Guard deployment. Temporarily. Then an appeals court affirmed the injunction – for a short time. Then the same court reversed itself and removed the injunction. Perhaps somebody called the court and said, “Hey, remember that Constitution you swore to uphold? It’s the one that authorizes the Commander in Chief to federalize the National Guard. Right, that Constitution.”
But “resist they much.” The real question is, exactly what is it that they’re resisting? Mayor Johnson says the federal action is un-American. Is it? No. The idea that the highest duty of government is to protect its citizens in their homes and on the streets is the essence of the American ideal.
And let’s put Americanism aside. How about common decency and common sense. More than 4,000 Chicagoans have been murdered under Governor Pritzker’s reign. He doesn’t care. He has neither common decency nor common sense.
Okay, if he has no sense, how about self-interest? The Democrats who run these resistant cities rely on the votes of People of Color. And it is those people who bear the brunt of Blue City officials’ failure to protect them. They are the murder, robbery, and rape victims. Morons like Pritzker and Johnson are destroying part of their base.
Unfortunately for the helpless victims, they’re not the part of the Democrat base that the leftist elected officials pay attention to. They only listen to leftist billionaires, crazed Socialists, college educated grievance mongers, labor union thugs, and childless cat ladies. They just don’t have the time to worry about thousands of poor black victims.
The “resist we much” crowd is nothing less than insane. Their mania to oppose anything and everything that President Trump does has even caused them to abandon the first principle of State and local governing. That principle is this – If the federal government is willing to do an expensive and dangerous job for you, and is willing to pay for it, you let them do it. Never mind let them do it. You get your Senators and Representatives to make sure the Feds do it and pay for it.
In this case they’re willing to give all that up simply to resist Trump. In so doing they’re resisting lower crime, public protection, lower taxes, a more satisfied electorate, and humanity itself. In their zeal to resist Trump their helpless constituents are simply collateral damage. They’re nuts, and the public has noticed. Republicans have gained 3 million more registered voters, while Democrats have lost 2 million. If Democrats don’t snap out of it and begin to do their jobs they’re liable to disappear as a political Party. Anyone remember the Whigs? The “resist everything” psychosis is sowing the seeds of their own destruction. Me thinks they resist too much, and all of them ought to be committed.
FRANK ON FRIDAY – Flipping Whigs
When it comes to our government, we truly live in strange and interesting times. We’re approaching the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence. Such an anniversary should be proof of the strength and durability of our Republic, but it’s not. Instead, we find ourselves at a delicate and precarious time in our politics.
Our Constitution says nothing at all about political Parties. In fact, George Washington warned of the danger of political “factions.” That said, for more than 200 years, with rare exception, our elections have been dominated by two Parties, but not the same two Parties we know today. Stick with me on this, there is a point.
For the first two presidential elections there were no Parties. Washington was the obvious choice. The Federalist Party grew from Washington’s Administration, and in 1796 John Adams won under that banner, against the Democratic-Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson. When the Democratic -Republicans won 6 elections in a row, the Federalist Party just faded away. The second Party became the Independent Republicans, and then the National Republicans.
Think the Trump MAGA takeover of the Republican Party in 2016 was novel? It wasn’t. In 1828, Andrew Jackson turned the Democratic-Republicans into the Jacksonian Democrats. A splinter Democrat Party sprung up 4 years later.
1836 saw the birth of 2 new Parties. The Democrats, who were more populist, and the Whigs, who favored wealthier interests. The Democrat Party has endured. Not so the Whigs. The Whig Party was torn apart, largely over the issue of slavery. Northern Whigs split from Southern Whigs, and by 1848 the Whigs ceased to exist.
They were replaced by various factions. The Free Soil Party sought to contain slavery in the South. The American Party, or the Know Nothings, were fervently against immigration. Yes, immigration was an issue even back then. The Republican Party appeared for the 1856 presidential election. In 1860, 4 Parties vied, leading of course to the Civil War.
Why the history lesson? The point is that people change, interests change, and political Parties, torn by competing interests, don’t last forever. They come and go, and as this is written the Democrat Party is approaching one of those watershed moments in its history. Indeed, both Parties have been changing of late.
For most of my life, the accepted wisdom was that the Democrats supported the working man, while Republicans favored the moneyed interests. The influence of Donald Trump has changed that landscape, and Republicans have become the populists. Maybe that’s not all due to Trump. The landscape was changing for many years, and Trump profited by the changes.
About 25 years ago, we saw the advent of the Dotcom billionaires, who took in vast sums of money. Vast sums of money are very valuable for political Parties. As the newly minted billionaires were largely from the liberal Left, they began financing the Democrats. They became so important to the Democrat cause that they exerted more and more influence over our elections.
In 2016, Donald Trump became the skunk at the garden party for Democrats, who, in 2020, used their alliance with the Leftist billionaires to smear Trump, and block his usage of their social media platforms, ushering in the reign of Corrupt Demented Imbecile Joe Biden. Throughout this period, the Democrat Party progressively (how’s that for a turn of phrase) moved itself further and further to the Left.
This leftward movement of Democrats begat the so called Democratic Socialists, whose so called “Squad,” AOC and company, only accelerated the leftist shift, and correspondingly accelerated the polarization of politics in America.
Not so very long ago, the Democrats and Republicans were not so far apart. Democrats always leaned closer to expanding social welfare programs, going back to LBJ’s War on Poverty. The abiding difference between the Parties was largely one of perspective. While both understood the need for a governmental social safety net, Republicans viewed the net as a trampoline, from which recipients would be propelled into the workforce once put on their feet by government assistance. Democrats, however, fancy the safety net a hammock, into which generation after generation of recipients could be settled, thereupon being forever reminded who was supplying the butter they were spreading on their EBT acquired bread.
The Democratic Socialists, emboldened by the election of Biden, and confident that they had slain the evil Orange Dragon, Trump, began to drop the pretense that they were merely the good old Democrats of yore, and openly exhibited their true colors – a bright shade of Red. Simply put, they’re Marxists, bent on “fundamentally transforming” the U.S. into the latest Socialist paradise. Think Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea, writ large. The election of Mamdani in New York, an avowed Socialist who boasts plans for free buses, rent freezes, defunded police, and government controlled grocery stores, was just the red icing on the cake.
Donald Trump has profited by the leftward shift of the Democrats. More conservative Democrats found themselves unwelcome in the Democrat Party. The so called Reagan Democrats in Congress are long gone, replaced by doctrinaire leftists. JFK, RFK, Jr., and even Bill Clinton could never be nominated by today’s Democrat Party.
More importantly, essential elements of the Democrat Party base, long looked upon as sure Democrat voters, are being torn away by the populist message of Trump and the new Republicans. The 2024 election proved that point, as a disturbing number of black and Hispanic voters moved away, sensing that the Republicans are better attuned to their needs than are the Dems. It seems that these groups, including many union members, aren’t comfortable with the prospect of a government that will dictate their compensation and benefits, so as to better the lives of American and illegal alien hammock dwellers.
Finally, even the left wing billionaires got the message (I don’t know what took them so long) that a Socialist/Marxist government would put their business interests, and as a result their fortunes, in the hands of profligate spenders who have never run anything other than their own mouths, much less a business.
Yet, after last November, the Democrat Party still hasn’t gotten the message, or maybe has gone past the point where it can turn itself away from the precipice it’s approaching. The Party is increasingly in the hands of the Socialists like Bernie Sanders and AOC, and it continues to steadily march to the Left.
Witness the recent government shut down. The Republicans passed a clean continuing resolution, which maintained spending at its current obscene level. Democrats resisted, shutting down the government for 7 weeks, denying pay to the military and to air traffic controllers, but not to members of Congress. It became known as the Schumer Shutdown, as the Detestable Chuck Schumer prevented the Senate from voting to open the government.
Schumer, no moderate he, knew better than to do such a thing, but he was powerless to do otherwise, lest the crazy Left wing base of his Party stage a revolt – against him. He learned this the hard way when he signed off on an identical continuing resolution last March, and got his head handed to him by the Socialists.
Schumer’s 7 week resistance this time profited him nothing. Eight Democrat Senators finally voted to open the government, getting nothing more than the promise of a vote on health care subsidies, a promise they were offered weeks ago and refused.
The loony leftist Democrats are now incensed, and want Schumer out as Leader. The 8 Democrats who voted to open the government are being denounced as traitors. Add to this the unfortunate Democrat prediliction to inciting violence to get whatever they want, as Antifa thugs attack police officers in the streets, and conservative voices, such as those from Turning Point USA, on college campuses, and the Democrat Party is facing the same sort of schism that did in the Whigs so very long ago.
The end of the Democrat Party as we know it is not inevitable, but it remains a distinct possibility. A continued exodus of Hispanic voters, many of whom came here to escape Socialism, and of sensible union members who are not ready for a Communist revolution, would render the electoral success of the Democrat Party, as currently constituted, impossible. Any further losses to the evil Orange Man and his followers would inspire only more violence, further hastening its demise.
It’s possible that cooler heads will prevail, but I wouldn’t care to bet on it, at least not now. Yes, the times truly are strange and interesting. We can only hope to avoid the warfare that ensued when the Whigs went away.