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« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2018, 05:59:19 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 5-17-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
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The real divide in America? The Right believes the Left is wrong. The Left believes the Right is evil.
Thus, leftists believe it is their sacred duty to impose their beliefs on the nation whether it wants them or not. And because of that sacredness, executive orders, court decisions, bureaucratic fiats and everything else that can be used to thwart the constitutional order is perfectly acceptable — when leftists do it.
Thus, a Supreme Court that usurps states’ rights and changes40 the 5,000-year-old definition of marriage is to be applauded. The same Court upholding41 an individual’s right to keep and bear arms? A travesty of justice. Barack Obama implementing42 DACA by executive order? Enlightened. Donald Trump demanding43 Congress decide the issue? Anti-immigrant bigotry.
Nor is the divide simply about differing worldviews. Many progressives themselves once had traditional beliefs regarding subjects like marriage and gender. But since they’ve “evolved,” every American must follow suit — within a progressive-defined timeline. Those who don’t? As contemptible as those who resist completely.
“When civil rights shifted from punishing mandatory segregation to punishing the lack of integration, it ceased to be a movement pursuing freedom and instead became a totalitarian movement,” asserts44 columnist Daniel Greenfield.
That totalitarian movement has pushed millions of well-meaning Americans into tribalist enclaves, where safety becomes more important than freedom of expression. And that retreat is often justified by what many Americans perceive is a double-standard with regard to accountability. Did the Trump campaign collude with the Russians, or is a Ruling Class long used to getting its way seeking to nullify the 2016 election? Are we an exceptional nation built on an unprecedented understanding of human rights and the limits of government power, or one built on the “genocide of native people and slavery,” where the “cradle of democracy is "bulls—t,” as filmmaker Spike Lee asserts45? In America today, one’s answers to such questions are more often than not determined by one’s tribal allegiance.
As Sullivan reminds us, tribalism is not necessarily a bad thing. There is nothing wrong with “unconditional pride, in our neighborhood and community; in our ethnic and social identities and their rituals; among our fellow enthusiasts,” he writes. By contrast, he warns, when it calcifies and “rivals our attachment to the nation as a whole” and “turns rival tribes into enemies” it ultimately destabilizes the nation.
Of course, Sullivan blames both sides for the divisiveness but holds the Right more accountable — or so he thinks. “One of the great attractions of tribalism is that you don’t actually have to think very much,” he asserts.
The American Right can be blamed for a great many things with regard to tribalism. But dumbing-down public schools46 and colleges47 that routinely turn out legions of weak-thinking but well-indoctrinated social justice warriors isn’t one of them.
Is there a truce to be had? Oddly enough, the most recent Supreme Court decision striking down48 a federal law prohibiting sports betting epitomizes the “live and let live” federalism the Founding Fathers were prescient enough to make an integral part of governing documents. Yet federalism is only part of the equation. “Nurturing your difference or dissent from your own group is difficult; appreciating the individuality of those in other tribes is even harder,” Sullivan explains.
Individual thinking would undoubtedly be fatal for tribalism. But if the Left’s reaction to Kanye West49 is any indication, tribalism in America will last as long as leftists view a heckler’s veto as a reasonable substitute for debate.
It’s not. Not by a long shot.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56024-my-country-or-my-tribe
MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST
Gillibrand’s Mythical Version of the 2008 Financial Crisis54 — It was bad Democrat policies, not sexism, that was to blame for 2008 financial crisis.
Free Markets, Free People55 — Our culture increasingly and falsely characterizes capitalism as a form of oppression and exploitation.
Video: Seattle’s ‘Amazon Tax’56 — John Stossel breaks down the “head tax” and explains how politicians created the mess in the first place.
BEST OF RIGHT OPINION
Jeff Jacoby: The World Needs a Policeman, and There Is No Alternative to America57
Veronique de Rugy: The Seattle Head Tax Is Idiotic58
Ed Feulner: The Preferred Form of Populism59
Hans von Spakovsky: It’s Now 1984 at the University of Michigan60
Joe Bastardi: Why Another Big Wildfire Season May Be on the Way61
For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion62.
OPINION IN BRIEF
Jeff Jacoby: “Since the election of Donald Trump on an explicit ‘America First’ platform, the number of Democrats saying the United States is doing too little to better the world has more than doubled, from 22 percent to 48 percent. Of course it is risky to read too much into public-opinion soundings. Still, Americans … do seem once again to be rediscovering the hard truth that, in world affairs, the United States is irreplaceable. As long as the United States remains the world’s most powerful democracy, it cannot safely shirk the job of global policeman — deterring aggression, upholding the rule of law, defending human rights. When it tries to do so, the planet’s worst actors are emboldened. Americans have changed their mind about Bush. Ten years after he left the White House, a majority now approve of the job he did as president, and his favorability rating has climbed above 60 percent. But Bush’s views haven’t changed. In a speech last week, he reiterated the case for U.S. leadership. ‘America is indispensable for the world,’ said the former president. ‘The dangers of isolation loom.’ He quoted Churchill’s admonition that, as the foremost nation on earth, America could not avoid being ‘convulsed’ by the world’s problems: ‘The price of greatness is responsibility.’ Americans cannot right every wrong, and we have not always acted with prudence. Nevertheless, the world needs a policeman, and there is no realistic candidate for that job except the United States. Retreating into isolation may sound appealing; the results are invariably awful. Americans sometimes forget that lesson, until reality re-teaches it the hard way.”
SHORT CUTS
Upright: “Is [Robert] Mueller investigating a crime or going in search of a crime? One is police work; the other is characteristic of a police state.” —Dinesh D'Souza
For the record: “[Seattle’s] head tax32 won’t be paid by Amazon. Companies don’t pay taxes. People ultimately pay taxes. That means that this tax will come out of the wages of future employees, the bonuses and wage growth of current employees, the dividends of shareholders, and the pockets of customers, who will face higher prices. It could also lead to the longer-term decision by Amazon to shrink its Seattle operation for the benefit of its second headquarters, the location of which is still being decided. Other cities should take note. Don’t repeat Seattle’s mistake.” —Veronique de Rugy
Race bait: “It’s like pulling teeth to get America to acknowledge and to get any sitting U.S. president, Democrat or Republican, to acknowledge that America is a colonial state built on the theft of indigenous people’s land. That white supremacy is America’s original sin. We have to be able to have that honest conversation. We have to say that America is built on unpaid black labor.” —Marc Lamont Hill
Demo-gogues: “What was the point of the Revolution if subjects of the British Crown get single payer health care and university education at a fraction of what it costs us and we are stuck with a President guilty of treason, bribery and other crimes, and a Congress unwilling to get rid of him?” —Democrat Senate candidate Richard Painter
From the Socialist Democrat Files: “I think [government regulation of executive pay] is a very good idea, and I think we should start talking about it.” —Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), deputy chair of the DNC
And last… “We’re at the point where Hamas are freedom fighters and the NRA is a terrorist organization8.” —Twitter satirist @hale_razor
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56028-thursday-short-cuts
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Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Nate Jackson, Managing Editor
Mark Alexander, Publisher |
