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The hounds are baying for blood. Beware. The leashes that hold them back are frayed, and, once loosed they will rend and tear any caught in their path.
*
The framers of the Constitution were not idealists and utopians; quite the opposite — they were skeptics of the perfectibility of man. Knowing that a lust for domination is built into the makeup of mankind, they constructed institutional constraints around the free exercise of power and erected roadblocks to the advance of the tyranny of the majority.
We seek to dismantle these constraints at our peril.
The let-no-crisis-go-to-waste activists are quick to seize the opportunity afforded by the events of January 6, not simply to hold bad actors accountable for bad acts, but to crush their political opponents and establish ideological dominance. The formula is simple:
Associate any form of dissent from the desired orthodoxy with an abhorrent ideology and deploy the weapons of shame and censure to drive your enemies before you.
Smith College professor Loretta J. Ross laid it out in an essay at CounterPunch.org:
“Anyone identified as sympathetic, supportive, or financing these seditious acts that attempted to deny the peaceful transfer of power in our country should be treated with the same public condemnation that the Nazis received after World War II. This includes Nazified people in Congress, in the media, in universities, in regular jobs, and throughout society because fascism is not the fevered dream of one delusional man. Trump is a white supremacist; that he is also a deranged narcissist is really incidental.”
This is rhetorically potent stuff. Who, after all, can argue with suppressing Nazis? Any who would argue is probably a Nazi himself, right?
I shall be amply clear, in the (perhaps vain) attempt to head off charges of soft-pedaling the events of January 6 — and perhaps being “sympathetic” to “Nazis”:
The riot at the Capitol was an insurrectionary act. It was shameful, ugly, unjustifiable — and profoundly stupid and pointless. The political theater that precipitated it — the specious challenging of electors — was deeply irresponsible, serving naught but a shabby and dishonorable personality cult built up around an unworthy man. Those who committed crimes, which include the murder of a police officer and assault with bodily injury on numerous others, must be (and, it appears, will be) prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Those who can justly be found to have incited and abetted the mob must be held accountable for their actions, either legally or through censure as the law and justice allow.
The rule of law provides for robust measures to hold wrongdoers to account. But justice demands that action be confined to wrongful acts, and not extended to guilt by association and collective punishment — which are anathema to principles of liberty and justice for all.
But those who seek to loose the hounds wish to brook no such constraint.
*
I seem to recall in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that we were exhorted to the effect that we must not tar all Muslims with the dark stain of radical Islam. Apparently we’re not supposed to think that way anymore. We are bade to not only condemn and prosecute those who committed reprehensible acts, but to condemn any and all who can be associated with them.
For those of us who know history, this is a slope that is slicked with gore.
Purges are a hell of a lot easier to start than to stop. What tribunal shall define who and what is “Nazified” — or “sympathetic”? Who conducts this purge? What shall constrain the Jacobins as they define and redefine who is now “the enemy of the people”? What houndsman can call off the hounds?
Shall we rely on the likes of Michael Beller, who worked in PBS’ general counsel office and was caught bloviating on tape to some woman in a bar?:
“Even if Biden wins, we go for all the Republican voters and Homeland Security will take their children away…What do you think about that?…and we’ll put them in re-education camps.”
Beller’s Bolshevik barroom blather is extreme and idiotic and it got him fired. But there’s plenty of rhetoric of this flavor to go around. We’ve seen it in my own small town. On January 20, I published an editorial column I’ve excerpted here:
Last week, a pair of local social justice activists submitted a letter to the Sisters City Council seeking “a formal condemnation” of Sisters-area resident Richard Esterman’s actions in attending Donald Trump’s “Save America” rally in Washington, D.C. on January 6. Esterman, who served on the Sisters City Council, appeared on Z21 TV portraying rally-goers as “friendly” and saying that he had gone to his hotel after the rally and did not personally witness any violence.
There are serious problems with seeking such condemnation. Esterman did not stand for re-election in November and his last meeting as a Sisters City Councilor was in December. There is no indication that he represented himself as a public official in any capacity during the rally or his depiction of it. While his term did not officially end until a new council was sworn in on January 13, he’s no longer a councilor, so any condemnation would be aimed at him as a private citizen.
More importantly, no matter what one thinks of the Save America rally, there is no indication that Esterman committed any wrongdoing by attending it. As far as can be determined, he did not participate in the unlawful storming of the Capitol Building, or incite anyone to do so.
The activists are asking the City Council to formally condemn a citizen for attending a lawful, permitted rally, which is clearly a protected First Amendment right. They say that “in doing so, this will send a message that the City does not condone insurrection or assault on democracy by either its elected officials or its citizens.”
It would be well to pause for a moment and consider the implications of invoking the authority of the government of the City of Sisters to condemn the actions of a citizen who has not been accused of any kind of wrongdoing. Do we want to live in a community where it is the business of the City Council to shame and condemn its citizens? Power that can be turned on one citizen can be turned on any citizen.
There is a bitter irony to be found in those of a purportedly “liberal” bent deploying the exact same rhetoric slung about by the Capitol-storming, zip-tie wielding “Hang Mike Pence!” mob:
I see ample reasons for accountability and consequences. In times long before my birth I would totally understand and accept the final solution to treason and sedition. Tar and feather them and lead them to the gallows!!! Those were once “norms” of political behavior as well!
Yep. That’s real.
*
I don’t care what fanatical faith du jour the hounds are running for, when they start baying for blood, they are dangerous to everything around them — including to the institutions they purport to be defending. I trust NOBODY who bandies about “the gallows,” and “tar and feathers” and a “final solution.”
This is the kind of tense, unstable, and dangerous time William Butler Yeats described in his famous poem, The Second Coming:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold…
If our best effort is to counter extremism with extremism, it is certain that the center will not hold.
The Running Iron Report has acknowledged the increasing velocity of the widening gyre for years now. The trend of events is far from unexpected, and we’ve long been skeptical that the center can hold. We must prepare as “mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” I intend to remain unfazed. I will not be pulled into the vortex by any peddler of righteous wrath, nor will their wares find welcome if they knock upon my door.
*
Matthew says
It’s the people who say they are fighting Nazis that act like Nazis. There is a total lack of self-awareness there. I think there is an inability of these people to separate their actions from their beliefs and their beliefs from their feelings. There is a lot of narcissism and immaturity there.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t bad actors on the Right; there are, but the extremism of the Left is incredible.
lane batot says
I agree wholeheartedly with all the sensible discussions here, carefully not picking “sides”, but the “Nazi” commentary DOES have some actual backing to it, since Neo-Nazis ARE supportive of Trump’s regime. Hopefully there are Repubs that condemn them, but their voices must be drowned in the insane cacophony, because I haven’t heard any do so, and I have tried very hard to be “fair” with open ears to both sides. Although I am quite aware there are imperfections on both sides, my philosophy has always been to try and choose whom I think will do the least damage! NO ONE tolerating frikkin’ Nazis as supporters should be tolerated in this country, in my opinion. Just sayin’.….
Yes and Neo-Marxists are in the Biden camp. And all of that extremism rolls wildly down the road, like a runaway wheel and tire—bouncing, skipping, and dangerous to people merely trying to get to work.
lane batot says
Most of what I’ve read of “marxism” is NOT particularly dangerous to people merely trying to get to work–quite the opposite, in fact!(and normally, I AM all about “tending one’s garden”, and letting the madness of human politics just drift by. But things are far from “normal” just now.…). But the Nazis? They thrived and grew to power BECAUSE of human apathy before, and they could again, and THEY will NOT leave you, or any of us, alone did they come to power and influence once more! I thought perhaps I missed something in my observations of politics regarding your comment on Neo-Marxists in Biden’s camp, so I sought to rectify this, but instead, in my broad searches, came up with a majority of TRUE Marxists NOT being supportive of Biden, actually. I found a really good article on the subject that everyone should read, dispelling a lot of misconceptions created by virulent propaganda–it is on the “Public Square” website, and the article is– quite specifically!–“What Do Marxists Think Of Joe Biden And America Right Now?” EXCELLENT article! I am NOT saying there aren’t radicals of the “left”, but they HAVE NOT been empowered as the radicals on the right have been with the past administration, whereas the Neo Nazis and White Supremist groups and other racists HAVE gained and openly flaunted power, unlike anything for decades. All free citizens(ESPECIALLY those of “color”) ignore this phenomenon at their, and the entire country’s, peril. I do not see the Marxists anywhere near a runaway wheel at this point(and if they DO become, we should all be appropriately aware of THAT!), but the recent attack on the Capitol SHOULD raise alarm on ANY U. S. citizen NOT supportive of such extremism–which most definitely involve Pro-Nazis! Burying one’s head in the sand(which, by the way, Ostriches DON’T do; only humans do this…) just thinking such extremism will go away, was the mistake that allowed a tyrant like Hitler to destroy Europe, and disrupt the entire world…
Sorry, but your opening comment disqualifies any opinion or comment that follows it:
“Most of what I’ve read of ‘marxism’ is NOT particularly dangerous to people merely trying to get to work–quite the opposite, in fact!”
That’s simply impossible to square with reality. It’s delusional, in fact. Up to 20 million people were killed by Marxist policies under Stalin. Up to 2.8 million people were killed under Pol Pot. An estimated 45 million people were killed under Mao’s “Great Leap Forward”. Estimates of Castro’s favors to people trying to go to work — which you might stipulate is the vast majority of human beings who couldn’t give a rats ass about high-minded political theory — range from 100k-200k dead or imprisoned, and is likely much higher. Hear this: there is no prosecutable fact, beyond a reasonable doubt, suggesting that “Nazis” and “White Supremacists” are poised to take over the United States. None whatsoever. That evidence simply doesn’t exist — and no, the violence at the capitol doesn’t rise to the standard to make that claim.
I do note that anyone who may feel legitimately disenfranchised, based on your own clearly expressed point of view, is derided here as an “ostrich”, a reference which is subsequently dissembled in the narrative but remains fascinating for its employment as a rhetorical device. That’s because it is entirely in keeping with the effort to ban books from school libraries, deplatform, reprogram, and even intern those who disagree with a “final solution” mentality, all of which are now bandied about — without irony — by the leftists you apparently appreciate. It’s a polished turd, no matter what fancy paper you wrap it in. One final thought: “such extremism” will only grow worse with the relentless pursuit of the political theories that now rule the day. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, and always has been.
Anyone who uses, peddles, or perpetuates the “tar and feather” and “gallows” talk is at best intellectually reckless, and at worst incredibly dangerous. Regardless of what cloak they may wear to disguise their homicidal tendencies in polite company, they are unreasonable by definition. And much like other murderers — which I have hunted, captured, and jailed — they are filled with extremes of hubris. This is actually a good thing for those of us who despise them and will fight them to the bloody end because, just like murderers, these closet fanatics — on a long enough timeline — can’t keep quiet about their true intentions. Ultimately, they want to be known, and even admired, for their work. That’s a tactical advantage for those of us who read the signs they leave along the trail. Still, the middle will hold. It is far more flexible, dynamic, capable, and resilient than the extremes — blinded by their various rages and manipulated by career bureaucrats and ghoulish politicians on either end — seem to understand. It may be driven underground to live like a badger, but it will hold.
Bill Daley says
Well put with a ray of optimism for those of us not yet unhinged.
Thanks. Not long ago I was moving cows with some friends through the burn scar of the Brattain Fire. It was a big fire that nearly consumed the town of Paisley, Oregon, if not for the unpaid and largely ignored heroics of the deplorables who live there. At any rate, we were some 20 miles from town, trailing cows through the blackened timber and ash when I saw a badger trundling back to his den. It struck me then — I am a lifelong fan of badgers — that the fires may rage across the land consuming everything in their passion, but when they are gone the badgers still come up out of the ash. I’ll take my lesson right there, and with a fine bourbon. Neat.
Quixotic Mainer says
Rise up, rise up! The hounds of doom are free. The slayers come to take your head, to hang on the JuJu Tree. ‑Robert E. Howard
I think Sir Richard Grenville would recognize the same drums and yells today, though much less impressively thrown about in the guise of tweets and cable news panels.
Ultimately though, I have to agree with Mr. Rullman. The center will hold, battered and perhaps besieged, but it will be there, colors flying, in the end. Vicious nincompoops of various political shades have always existed on the wings. It falls to the inhabitants of that small sane middle to sharpen swords, circle the wagons, and let them exhaust themselves in their self centered fury.
Camilo Cienfuegos says
That gulag image? From a Muppet film.
lane batot says
Apparently you did not understand the context of my comment on Marxism–I was referring to Marxist ideals in THIS country(U. S. A), and their thoughts on Biden(and their philosophy on the American worker), which IS what was being discussed, and not about Marxism throughout history. I obviously was not clear enough on that, so let me be so now. Of course there would be no guarantee that IF Marxism took over America, there would not be every bit as bad a result as with Stalin., etc., but I was simply pointing out that Marxism in the U. S. A. AT THE PRESENT TIME, is NOT terribly influential, and certainly not creating things like attacks on the Capitol and division among races, as the increasingly influential Nazi/White Supremists presently ARE. American Marxists did not recently attack the Capitol and cause people to be killed. Neo Nazis and other White Supremists DID. If some Marxists in this country at the present time(who are not particularly supportive of the Biden administration) did start rioting and causing people to be killed, then yes, I’d agree they were equally a threat. But at the moment? That simply ain’t so.…
It is fair bet that the rational people of Portland and Seattle would take a far different view of Marxist influence after enduring over 100 consecutive days of rioting, violence, vandalism, and open murder by — you guessed it, Marxists. How do we know they are Marxists? Because they say so, repeatedly, often, and quite proudly. But there’s more: Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of BLM, has openly declared that she is a “trained Marxist”, and you may recall that over the summer BLM sponsored protests caused over 2 billion dollars in destruction — mostly to small businesses innocent of any crime whatsoever — and furthermore resulted in some two-dozen deaths. No influence, you say? They have enough influence in both Portland and Seattle to avoid virtually any prosecution whatsoever for felonies committed live on television. It is one thing to assert without evidence that Neo Nazi’s and White Supremacists are “increasingly influential,” but it also begs the question as to where? Where is that actually happening anywhere? It certainly isn’t apparent in the White House or in Congress. It’s not apparent in my local or state government. It certainly isn’t apparent in public schools or universities. On the contrary, it appears that wherever actual Neo-Nazi’s and actual White Supremacists appear, they are quickly shouted down and often jailed. The trope here seems to be that anyone on the political right is either a Nazi or a White Supremacist, which is patently absurd, but useful for pushing certain political agendas. Extremism begets only extremism, and that generally leads to war. Far better it seems, to condemn extremism on both ends than to pretend it only exists on one half of the modern political spectrum.
lane batot says
Crow can be quite palatable, if you have the right recipe, and finish it with some Humble Pie for dessert.….I obviously(not to myself, of course) knew next to nothing regarding the Seattle takeover/protest/riots, but I proceeded(although it took me awhile to get around to it) to try and eddicate myself and.…damn! WHAT a Rabbit Hole that turned out to be! Alice would have felt completely familiar with all those goings-on! I had heard a bit about it, but of the details–I had no idea! Seems like everyone AND the kitchen sink was present at that affair, including yes, plenty of Marxist types. Sigh. I reckon a few Nazis and White Supremacist types probably also attended, if only to get pointers on how they might stage a riot of their own, down the road. Just goes to show, you cain’t choose yer blood relatives, and you never know who might show up at any riots you might plan.….We do tend to have more Nazi/White Supremacist types waving flags and rallying here in the South, that get in the news(and DON’T get arrested so long as they aren’t damaging anything), and perhaps their presence keeps the Marxist types at bay–Iand that is where my erroneous opinions came from. I don’t know. I don’t know much of ANYTHING regarding these crazies on BOTH sides, it seems. Best to just tend my own garden–goodness knows, I have plenty of chores to keep me busy.……