VDH asks the silliest of silly questions.
Gee, I dunno, Victor, have they EVER been? Even just once? It’s why I’ve always found the empty threats from Our Guys warning shitlibs about how deeply, deeply unhappy they’re going to be when Repugnicants turn the tables and start flinging their own shit back in their faces so annoying—it just never, ever seems to happen, for some strange reason.
Have leftists ever read Thucydides on the stasis at Corcyra and his warning that zealots who destroy laws, customs, and traditions for short-term gain, soon rue the day they began making such changes when, in vain, they seek refuge in the very sanctuaries of behavior that they have destroyed?
Only one small problem with that proposition: they’ll never rue a friggin’ thing unless and until they’re given cause to rue something. Absent that, we’re all just having a wank here, nothing more.
How about the new protocols regarding the Supreme Court?
Should conservatives mass at the home of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, decrying her radical nihilist abortionist ideology? Is that an understandable cri de coeur? Would such intimidation in the future moderate her extremism? Is that now an acceptable strategy?
It damned well ought to be, yes.
Should Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) now lead a throng of screaming, right-wing protestors to the very doors of the Supreme Court? Should he egg them on by calling out by name Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sotomayor, warning that they have sown the “wind” and will soon reap the “whirlwind,” as they will have no idea what “hit” them?
Is that moral courage?
Who the hell cares? What it is, is effective. Or it has been for them, at any rate. In the end, that’s all that really matters. “Moral courage” doesn’t amount to a hill of beans when your foe is consistently kicking your ass up between your shoulder blades.
Will the next FBI director preposterously open an investigation during the 2024 election, on rumors that the activities of the Biden family, of General Mark Milley, of Anthony Fauci, of key senators with Chinese financial interests all constitute a sort-of-kind-of “collusion” conspiracy with China, aimed at advancing a self-enriching and mutual left-wing agenda in the presidential election?
Will the FBI director claim 245 times under oath before Congress he has no memory of what he has ordered? Will it be a slap-on-the-wrist, reduced-sentence tacit approval that an FBI lawyer altered a court document to ensure we get to the bottom of “Chinese collusion”? Is it alright if we learn that a Republican presidential candidate hired a foreign ex-spy, and hid his pay behind three walls, to find dirt on his opponents?
Will Congress bring in some old right-wing FBI retired bulldog to compile a “dream team” of Federalist Society legal zealots to hunt for “Chinese collusion” among Democratic grandees?
Wrong question. The RIGHT question: Is there any conceivable reason we shouldn’t do exactly that?
In sum, are today’s norms tomorrow’s norms?
Or were they simply transitory and necessary in the age of the dreaded Trump—as one-time leftist means to achieve noble ends, and thus should never be institutionalized much less boomeranged?
If so, will they reappear whenever the Left returns to power?
Or should they be applied equally to the Left right now to ensure that outrage and disgust with such immoral and illegal machinations prohibit their use in the future?
Depends, I suppose, on whether or not Team Liberty has lost so much they’ve gotten tired of all the losing, to turn a Trumpian phrase, and wishes to try winning for a refreshing change of pace. Myself, I heartily approve of and endorse commenter cxt’s suggestion:
We should be doing everything possible to force Democrats’ to live in the world they are working so hard to create.
Shipping illegals to Democrat strongholds for example–forcing them to live with the consequences of their policies is a good start.
We need to turn the vise everywhere we can.
That we most certainly do. Judging from the agonies of weeping and wailing emanating from NYC and Mordor On The Potomac over finding themselves on the receiving end for once, finally taking steps to see to it that what goes around does in fact come around appears to be a quite useful strategy.
“VDH asks the silliest of silly questions.”
Yes, he does. I like VDH, I admire his near instant recall of world history and the ability to apply it to current events.
OTOH, he’s way too nice and misses the point. The left will never give an inch or suffer humiliation.
Absolutely right on that Barry. I think the world of VDH myself, but he is, indeed, too damn nice. Makes me think of numerous conversations I had with IB over on DP in the past. For the minor stuff, give ’em a nice new rope and a tree limb. From there, the punishments go up FAST – and VERY violently – MUCH popcorn required – and happen very slowly!
Don’t need the niceties at all! Ah well, I’m not gonna hold my breath. OTOH, if it does come to pass, I’ll volunteer my services – hell, I’d even do it for free!
Y’all take care,
Mike.
I sure miss Iron Bear. He had a rare wit and sense. Not always 100% right, but didn’t usually miss by much.
As do I, Barry. Nope, he didn’t miss by much at all – if he missed. I’m very glad I listened to him regarding – of all things – kitchen knives, specifically Henckels double signature knives. Got a set this year – best dam knives I’ve ever had!
Iron Bear had a real penchant for fine blades, and knew what was what. Same with guns of all types.
‘Bear knew quite a lot about all sorts of things. He used to call me on the phone regularly, like two-three times a week, and we’d discuss all sorts of things, never for less than a good hour or so, often much more than that. I definitely miss those calls, I must say.
Early in our friendship, Sherman was lobbying hard for me to move out to his neighborhood in a remote area of Texas not terribly far from Dallas, if I remember right. There was a nice house for sale at a bargain price only two or three doors down from his place, which woulda been cool indeed. I wasn’t opposed to relocating per se, especially as I sit here and watch the Charlotte rot continue to metastasize, spread, and defile everything it touches, but I told him I’d definitely be staying put so as to be close to my daughter, which he totally understood.
The ‘Bear was a VERY smart, well-read, experienced man; a gifted and insightful writer; and a good, solid friend. I consider myself fortunate indeed to have known him as well as I did, and wish I could have known him better, and for much longer. I miss him a great deal, and am confident that everyone who knew him at all well feels the same. I have this thing I always say about some people after they’ve departed, and it definitely applies to Ironbear: He left a big hole.
“‘Bear knew quite a lot about all sorts of things.”
Absolutely. He was a remarkable person. We didn’t use the phone, rather we emailed back and forth. We discovered that at around 75-90 in the same chain would cause gmail to go all wonky 🙂
We phoned rarely. I think most of the phone calls were Sherman checking on me, usually when I went to the coast and didn’t check in for a couple days.
Sherman was coming to North Carolina this fall to visit our coast. It’s a visit that I’m going to always remember didn’t happen.
Well read and experienced almost sales him short 🙂
“He left a big hole”. Nothing else needs to be said. I only wish I’d had the good fortune to know him as well or as long as y’all did.
Yes, a good man! Everything that y’all have already mentioned is on the money!