Wednesday, December 18, 2019

The end of the American Republic

The most worthless of mankind are not afraid to condemn in others the same disorders which they allow in themselves; and can readily discover some nice difference in age, character, or station, to justify the partial distinction.
- Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Future historians will mark this date as the day that the American Republic began its inexorable slide into Civil War and secession.  While this process has been under way for quite some time, this is a tidy date so loved by lazy historians.  Before this, the Republic; after this, whatever comes next.

This impeachment is so nakedly partisan and so devoid of anything but the lust for power that nobody can pretend that the Old Ways of Decorum can still be in effect.  In essence, Nancy Pelosi has done what they accuse Trump of doing: upending the traditions of democracy.  What's most striking about this is that they've done it all for nothing.

The Democrats don't look happy at all.  Indeed, many of them dressed in black for the occasion.  The spin was that they're somber for this solemn occasion, but you know that many have looked at the polls and heard from furious constituents and think that they're guests at their own political funerals.  It all looks like a huge miscalculation - rather than the impeachment process driving Trump's poll numbers down it's done the reverse.  Voters everywhere are annoyed at the whole charade and Trump's supporters are infuriated.  The Democrats didn't see that coming at all, because a biased media makes them stupid.

It's a bit like the run up to the First World War.  Nobody really wanted that Armageddon, but once the wheels were turning that way it was impossible for anyone to back out.  That's Nancy Pelosi's problem - her cunning plan was going to put the hammer to Donald Trump, but when she realized that it was probably going to cost her the House majority (and thus her Speakership) it was too late to put the brakes on things.  It would destroy her reputation and infuriate the Democratic base just as the primaries came around to vote on.

And so it will end not with a bang but with a whimper.  This will demoralize the Democratic base, but Donald Trump's base will still be infuriated.  They will want payback.  Not revenge, but a reckoning:



The Democrats have been shameless in their use of raw political power.  Well, two can play that game, and Republicans are finding that they don't have to curl up into the fetal position when talking to the media - indeed, you can gain voters by sneering at the clearly biased media.  The appetite for raw power grows with the tasting, and while this has pretty much been a Democrat game for a while there's no reason to think that both parties can't wet their beaks from that pond.
Power corrupts.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Almost all great men have been bad men.
- Lord Acton
And so the bonds that once knit this Republic will likely get unraveled a bit further, as the reckoning happens.  This will infuriate the Democratic base for the next election, and they will demand tit for tat.  And so on, and so on.  Each iteration will further whittle away at the sense of what is unthinkable in American politics.  Fast forward ten years and we're in uncharted territory.  It won't be the American Republic by then.  Or more specifically, it will be a new American Republic - number five by my count.

But as the bonds stretch and snap, people will rationally question whether the whole can be saved (it can't).  18 December 2019 will go down as the beginning of the end of the American Republic.  Sic transit Gloria Mundi.
Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive. 
- Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

7 comments:

Tacitus said...

In 1914 we had Lions led by Donkeys. 105 years later its Donkeys all the way down.

TW

Jester said...

To some extent those on the right are much the same but the biggest thing I'm seeing by those that support the impeachment are just unwilling to open their eyes to see the thing going on. Either blinded by hatred or unwilling to admit perhaps their view point could possibly be wrong they continue to double down, and double down again. The ultimate addiction the chase for victory much like in gambling is making them unable to stop throwing good money after bad. Their reality has been upended so they just think if they don't acknowledge it they will eventually win. They also don't think this will ever come back to them either because as mentioned the right or retardagains won't finally do it back (And deservedly so) to them is, I'll agree now false. The left is running around thinking they will not be next either from the right or the new right (Where those old centrist democrats were) They at the end assume it will never be them, but this is all permissable as it's only happening to their neighbors. This strikes me as the soviet secret police as they went on rampages eliminating millions. Even up to the top of the once favored they all ended up shot in some damn warehouse or worked to death in gulags. I think this impeachment is the final stand of thinly veiled civility. The few remaining smart members or open minded members of the left and the media KNOW THE MASK IS OFF. The years of telling us weapon confiscation, money confiscation, voting rights being confiscated were all tin foil hat conspiracy theories is now done. The powers that be in the media and political spectrum's have now told us those things are going to be done if they can help it or as soon as they get in office. (See Virginia) I think the dotards on the left that keep spouting the party line stuff or going on about the impeachment being a legit thing are not much more than cannon fodder but I think a lot of them realize somewhere in the back of their mind that the jig is up. What they would have been okay with has come to be said as commonplace speech. And so they know what they all wanted, the stripping down of the republic and the idea of individual rights (AT LEAST FOR THE OTHERS, NOT THEM OF COURSE! *WINK WINK*) is the end goal. They know that there is a sizeable amount of the population that has said no. So they choose to stand and die on this hill as they realize they've put themselves in a position they can't retreat from or sneak up on anyone from. This is not their final stand by any means but they know they will die on this hill as a diversion in the end to retrench and come back harder than ever. Make no mistake the current crop of Demonrats know that they are finished but they feel they are the noble sacrifice for the next wave to come.

Anonymous said...

The whole thing could - could - go in a couple different ways. The most likely is a short and abrupt end in the Senate; this would, in theory, end the Inquisition and grant the President a renewed authority to proceed.

While it will accomplish that, in reality it would mean the Democrats begin pursuit of other means of removing Trump and placing his voters in what the left considers their rightful place: subservient to whatever the Left, aided by the so-caled Adminstrative State, want.

So, whatever happens in the Senate will merely initiate Round 2 because the Dems cannot stop.

I'm afraid there's no way this ends without gunfire, and lots of it; no idea if The Festivities are 2 months, 2 years or 2 decades away, but their arrival is ordained. The Dems won't stop, and there are too many of us deeply committed to not tolerating their actions; the threshold will be crossed at some point and it becomes Game On.

Glen Filthie said...

C’mon BP. And the rest of you as well. You’re half way there. I know it’s scary - but finish it. Don’t chicken out now!

1. The vast majority of this hysteria and lunacy is driven by women. Women are fascists and socialists by nature, which is why the founding fathers refused to give them a vote. Look at their antics - if it’s not purple faced raging cat ladies in pussy hats... it’s the cool girls dressing up in matching colours to protest social justice. The people expressed their wishes in the last election, fair and square, and liberal women have been trying to undo that ever since. Yes, Not All Women Are Like That, and there’s any number of spaghetti armed males and perverts that will go along...but it is women leading the charge. What you are seeing in impeachment is basically a hysterical hissy fit.

2. America isn’t America anymore. Race is a thing, and race matters. America and Europe invited in the world and now their countries are starting to die. Haiti is not a shithole because of its political structure or the wording of its constitution; it’s a shithole because it’s full of Haitians. Ditto for Africa. AOC isn’t an idiot amongst her peers, nor is Maxine Waters. They are simply doing what those people do, and they’re doing what women do. California stopped looking like a state of America, and started resembling one of Mexico for a reason.

We have so much invested in these social experiments that we can’t back out of those either. Until we write off these pozzed notions of equality and social justice, we’re hooped.

Murphy(AZ) said...

December 18, 2019; a line has been crossed.

The farce of politics, that well mannered, educated, deep thinking men and women, assembled in solemn conference, explaining and considering items and actions that will effect and improve our singular nation, has been proven false and a lie. Anyone who wasted precious breath watching the recent proceedings in the House of Representatives knows the reality of it.

A line has been crossed, the chains of civil discourse have fallen away, and the monster of retribution has been released.

Every person from now on who considers the possibility of running for any political office had best keep this thought foremost in their considerations: any of you, ALL of you, are now subject to recall, removal, and impeachment, for any reason, but scarier still, for no reason at all. If you are not a member of the majority, you have a target on your back, and the higher the office you hold, the larger the target.

We've all watched as this process evolved from non-event to non-event, from scurrilous charge to scurrilous charge, until the vote last night in Washington. What will come of it?

When the sun rises November 4th, 2020, who will be re-elected as President, in spite of the efforts of Pelosi, Schiff and Nadler?

President Trump last night in Michigan, commented that it didn't feel like he was impeached. The Trump 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, announced that they have raised over $5,000,000 in donations in one day.

When the sun rises November 4th, 2020, and the Republicans are tallying their victories across the nation at all levels, how long will it be before the lists of impeachable target Democrats is made public. Trust me, those lists have already been started, and they will grow with each passing day.

It will not end with the next elections, either. Each party will seek retribution and they will find victims for their anger. Time will pass, the pendulum will swing, minorities will take the majority, and the political slaughter will feed on itself.

Make no mistake, that anger will grow, and it won't be long before it finds its way out of the "hallowed halls" and into the streets, and blood will flow.

God help us all!

Richard said...

It is a powder keg waiting for its spark. There are a variety of spark sources out there that have the potential. One of them will eventually cause the detonation. When it comes, millions die, the country is wrecked and what is left of the Republic is over, no matter who prevails in the end.

I continue to advocate for the National Divorce to avoid this fate. We have irreconcilable differences and continuing to pretend that we are one country leads everybody to try to rule the whole thing and suppress the other side. I am not doing moral equivalence here as the Left's motives are base while ours are essentially self-defense but suppress them we must or they will do it to us. Going our separate ways allows this to be avoided and we can preserve the Republic within our new borders.

LSP said...

Whaat? Trump's still President, even though he's been IMPEACHED?!?

We've reached new levels of idiocracy.

The risible kabuki black was especially risible.