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The impeachment vote: the only news was the numbers — 18 Comments

1. Does it feel as though we are living in Greece or Italy, or some other emotionally volatile and fundamentally corrupt culture? Not quite yet.

   But this kind of business is indicative of how degraded the average Democrat person has become as a moral being; how unfit it is to live in a constitutional polity, and to be counted by those who value the rule of law and expect moral reciprocity as the price of association, as one deserving of the status of a political fellow and peer.

   They have no interest in the original American project, nor in the well-being of middle America; and I for my part have no interest in or sympathy for them.

   And I intend to act more diligently on that understanding forward; though I know many here feel that letting chaos envelop and swallow them through the practice of exclusion, if it ever should come to that, and if I ever should be able to potentially do something to stop it, is somehow a violation of some magical umbilical principle which is supposed by sensitive conservative types to thread our so-called “common humanity” together. No. And no anger here. Just a shrug at the postmortem of an already dead moral community.

2. It seems is that whoever runs the numbers for the democrat party have determined that President Trump is very likely to win another term next November.

   They are, therefore, rolling the dice and hoping that impeachment will stain him. And then, perhaps, change the likelihood of that event.

   What I think has happened is that this whole fiasco has done the near impossible and turned the President into a sympathetic figure in the minds of the truly independent.

3. DNW:

   You are mischaracterizing what most people on the right who disagree with you on that score feel. It’s not some mystical “magical umbilical principle which is supposed by sensitive conservative types to thread our so-called ‘common humanity’ together.” I’ve not even heard that argument made, and so it’s interesting that you choose to emphasize it.

   My argument, and that of most people here who agree with me, is that Democrats and/or independents who buy this stuff are often very low information voters who are busy leading their lives and not paying a whole lot of attention. I know, because long ago (in a different atmosphere, however) I was pretty much like that. So I think I know a great deal about how such people tend to think. They also dismiss the idea that their sources of news – which they tend to not read in great depth, although they read some – are fundamentally biased. And you know what? If you don’t delve into it at all deeply, and you read only the MSM, you can remain quite convinced of what they say.

   I am not speaking of leftists. They are a different kettle of fish. Nor am I thinking of NeverTrumpers on the right, such as Bill Kristol or Max Boot. A very different type of thought process and emotional makeup has gone into the creation of their positions. I am talking about the basic Democrats I know. And I know plenty of them.

4. DNW:

   I will grant you that Greek politics are emotionally volatile and corrupt however I have never experienced anything coming remotely close to this level of hateful partisanship in Greece.

5. Jeff van Drew is counted as a Democratic but is supposedly becoming a Republican.

   -=-=-=-

   Entryism (also referred to as entrism or enterism, or as infiltration) is a political strategy in which an organisation or state encourages its members or supporters to join another, usually larger, organisation in an attempt to expand influence and expand their ideas and program. In situations where the organization being ‘entered’ is hostile to entrism, the entrists may engage in a degree of subterfuge and subversion to hide the fact that they are an organisation in their own right.

   -=-=-=-

   “French Turn” refers to the classic form of entrism advocated by Leon Trotsky in his essays on “the French Turn”. In June 1934, he proposed that the French Trotskyists dissolve their Communist League to join the French Section of the Workers’ International (SFIO) and that it also dissolve its youth section to join more easily with revolutionary elements. The tactic was adopted in August 1934, despite some opposition. The turn successfully raised the group’s membership to 300 activists.

   Proponents of the tactic advocated that the Trotskyists should enter the social democratic parties to connect with revolutionary socialist currents within them, and steer those currents toward Leninism.

   -=-=-=-=-

   The entrist tactic can work successfully, in its own terms, over a long period. For example, it was attempted by the Militant tendency in Britain whose members worked within the Labour Party from the 1950s on and managed to get a controlling influence in the Labour Party Young Socialists and Liverpool Council before being expelled in the 1980s.

   -=-=-=-=-

   In the interest of saving space: Rudi Dutschke

6. Artfldgr:

   I just realized, from that quote of mine you gave, that I had mistakenly written “Democratic” instead of “Democrat.” I just fixed it.

   As for whether Jeff van Drew is an entrist, it’s certainly possible. But he’s been pretty consistent as a fairly conservative Democrat (by today’s standards, anyway) during his entire political life. Of course, that has served him politically, since he’s in a district that often goes Republican:

   In his run for state senate in 2007, Van Drew remarked, “I’m proud to be a Democrat because to me it always represented working people, middle class people and issues of compassion.” Van Drew represented Republican-leaning Cape May County in the assembly, and accordingly took politically moderate positions. He was one of the most conservative Democrats in the New Jersey state senate.

   During his congressional primary campaign, Van Drew had a 100% rating from the National Rifle Association (NRA). In 2007 and 2008, Van Drew received $2,700 from the National Shooting Sports Foundation Inc., and in 2008, Van Drew received $1,000 from the NRA. In 2010, Van Drew sponsored legislation that would allow residents to carry a handgun after going through a background check, taking a firearms training course, passing a test, and paying a $500 fee.[48] In 2013, Van Drew voted as the only Democrat against a series of 10 gun control bills following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Van Drew also voiced support for expanded background checks and the regulation for silencers. Despite his pro-gun stance, the gun-control group Moms Demand Action designated Van Drew a “Gun Sense Candidate”.

   In 2012 as state senator, Van Drew voted against a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in New Jersey, one of two Democrats in opposition. In 2013 during his reelection campaign, the non-profit New Jersey Family First sent out flyers stating that Van Drew “supports traditional marriage and letting the people vote on the definition of marriage,” while his Republican opponent Susan Adelizzi Schmidt was in favor of same-sex marriage.

   Also in 2012, Van Drew voted against raising the state minimum wage above the federal minimum wage of $7.25, the lone Democrat to dissent. On his campaign website, Van Drew highlighted his support for fully funding the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and protecting net neutrality. Van Drew also supported a state constitutional amendment requiring parental approval for abortions, which he later withdrew. As state senator, he also withdrew sponsorship of a bill to reinstate the death penalty in the state, which he previously favored.

7. A Democrat meme: “No one in the U.S. is above the law!” It makes me smile – laugh even. They have, by establishing sanctuary cities and states, put illegal aliens above our law. They have, by attacking ICE and trying to thwart ICE, put illegal aliens above our law. They have, by covering for the corrupt practices of the Biden family, put them above the law. They have, by charging the President with obstruction of Congress, themselves abused the law by not seeking court rulings on their subpoenas.

   Another meme: “This President has asked foreign powers to interfere in our elections” All the while ignoring that the DNC and Clinton Campaign hired a foreign agent to dig up dirt in foreign countries on candidate Trump. And used that dirt to try to frame candidate Trump as a Russian asset. Also while ignoring that the DNC (Alexandra Chalupa was their agent) went to Ukraine to dig up dirt on Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and on Trump, if possible. That dirt forced Manafort to resign. All of this led to the Mueller investigation which wasted two years and $35 million of taxpayer money.

   Another Democrat meme: “The Constitution is a sacred document that must be protected from President Trump.” All while ignoring their attempts to water down the First Amendment, and get rid of the Second Amendment and the Electoral College.

   Still another Democrat meme: “This gives me no pleasure to have to impeach this President.” I can hear the champagne corks popping clear up here in the Pacific Northwest, as they raise their glasses of bubbly and gleefully proclaim, “We impeached the motherf***er!” Pernicious prevaricators all.

   There are many more, but I’m old and tired, and disheartened by what I saw today. Mendacity has become the major tool of the Democrats. It is to weep.

8. J.J. on December 18, 2019 at 11:42 pm said:
   A Democrat meme: “No one in the U.S. is above the law!” It makes me smile – laugh even.
   * * *
   I was reading a post at Claremont Review of Books today, and Mark Helperin makes the point that Harvard graduates quite literally believe they ARE above the law, and have done since the university was founded.
   Final paragraphs:

   https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/pride-and-prejudice-at-harvard/

   When I arrived 54 years ago, the outward signs of aristocracy were unconcealable—in speech, dress, lineage, demeanor, and, most of all, presumption. Some characteristics were laudable and worthy of adoption, others hardly so. Now that undergraduates—who, granted, as a pathology of adolescence, have always garishly encostumed themselves—dress like anarchists, villagers straight out of Bruegel, or 19th-century lumberjacks, the superficialities have changed radically, but not the presumptions. Harvard has always believed itself superior to, and separate from, the rest of America. Over almost four centuries, Puritan self-righteousness and aristocracy’s self-justifications have managed in one form or another to carry on within it.

   Years after I had left, I found myself in conversation with an undergraduate. The subject was zoning and how to accommodate the rights of both the owners of property and the community as a whole. I said to this young person, “The difficulty of the question is determining who will decide.” The response—immediate, impassioned, and emphatic—was, “We will decide!” What could better show Harvard’s pride and its prejudices?

9. Another must-read from the “Claremont Review”, penned by Michael Anton:
   https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/the-empire-strikes-back/
   (H/T Instapundit)

10. I hope the fat corpuscle John Tester votes for it in the senate, I’m getting tired of that corn pone huckster, and if he votes for it, he’ll get voted out, regardless if a “surprise” libertarian candidate runs.

11. The surprise to me are the votes by Gabbard. She occasionally shows signs of sanity. I wonder if a Neo type change is in the wind?

12. “…signs of sanity…”

    Oh, please. EVERYONE knows that Gabbard is a Russian agent. Hillary told us so herself….

    On the other hand, it is well known (as Mma Ramotswe might say) that hope springs eternal in the human breast. While one was fretting, tearing one’s hair out, refusing to eat or even stabbing oneself in various places, one of the web’s more fascinating “not-quite-but-then-who-really-knows-for-sure-conspiracy-sites” tells us that:
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/horowitz-vows-deep-dive-potential-fbi-surveillance-abuse

    …along with some good news from NYC:
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/ny-state-drops-manafort-case-paving-way-pardon

    …and also (for those (of us) who lap up this sort of thing):
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/former-nsa-tech-chief-says-mueller-report-was-based-cia-fabricated-evidence

    Never give up. Trust—but verify?—the Donald on this(!)…and look on in awe and pride as the Republicans finally seem to be growing—in what looks like a surprisingly positive outcome after decades of medical research—some spine:
    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/analysis-in-impeachment-vote-how-republicans-got-to-zero
    H/T Powerline blog

    Never ever give up.

13. But if you’re wavering, here’s something to—perhaps—provide some cheer (well, perhaps):
    https://spectator.us/nancy-pelosi-dull-impeachment-spectacle/

    (That Roger Kimball fella is SUCH a card….)

14. “DNW:

    I will grant you that Greek politics are emotionally volatile and corrupt however I have never experienced anything coming remotely close to this level of hateful partisanship in Greece.”

    Point taken. At least, I suppose, since ’46.

15. ” I’ve not even heard that argument made, and so it’s interesting that you choose to emphasize it.”

    I was thinking of Bill and one of the other, possibly the first, Macs; who seemed to specialize in forlorn hopes of restored community and that will-o-the-wisp, “we”.

    Among others, one confronts almost daily in the media.

16. “Never ever give up.”

    That is right. And the reason is that it does no good to do so when you are dealing with people who are in-principle totalitarians; worshipers of a directed-evolution justice and progress fantasy they imagine they are born to be in charge of.

    Those who will stop at nothing, will stop at …. nothing

17. Democrats and/or independents who buy this stuff are often very low information voters

    In my experience here in the People’s Republic of Seattle, the progressives around me all follow events closely but go no further than the daily Received Opinion and Official Talking Points as disseminated by the usual suspects in the press and the meme factories (Occupy Democrats et al.)

    They predictably screech in outrage about whatever they’re supposed to screech about that day, and there’s definitely a we have always been at war with Eastasia feel about it if you watch over time.

    I wouldn’t call them “low information”. Maybe “low independence” instead.

18. Xylourgos on December 18, 2019 at 11:23 pm said:

    DNW:

    I will grant you that Greek politics are emotionally volatile and corrupt however I have never experienced anything coming remotely close to this level of hateful partisanship in Greece.”

    And, you will always have Aristotle to your credit, come what may..

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