I held back a bit on Glenn Logan’s Comment of the Day, because it depressed me, and also because I assume some will argue that it is less about ethics than politics. But the condition Glenn is diagnosing is the direct outgrowth of what Ethics Alarms tagged long ago as the 2016 Post Election Ethics Train Wreck, and it’s all about ethics, or rather the lack of them.
Here is Glenn Logan’s Comment of the Day on the post, “Ethics Quote Of The Day: Roger Kimball”:
Roger Simon said:
And just about now, a great chasm is opening up. The choice, they see, is not so much between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. It is between the America they love—that Donald Trump celebrates—and the out-of-control forces of anti-American hatred that, though he does not understand them, Joe Biden manages to blink and nod and gibber around.
I find this far too simplistic to be truly useful, even though it is powerfully argued. This piece reminds me of a quote by Hannibal Lechter in Silence Of The Lambs:
First principles, Clarice. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature?
So what is the nature of the “particular thing” the Left seeks? Donald Trump’s defeat is the simple answer, facile and, in some ways, honest. But that’s just a manifestation of what the Left wants, and the conclusion it hopes we’ll all reach.
The Left has always been of the opinion that every election that does not produce the result they demand is illegitimate. Even if Trump carries every state but the deepest blue, they will still have that opinion, which indicates that they really don’t care who the GOP puts forth in nomination — unless a Democrat wins, the election will be considered illegitimate and the president a fraud.
Fundamentally, the Left doesn’t even accept the liberals in the country, because most liberals are not calling for massive structural change. That’s why you see so many nominally “on the Left” get “canceled” on social media — because they aren’t “woke” enough. Biden himself would be a victim if he were still in a primary with Sanders or, especially, with Corey Booker or Camella Harris. As it is, he’s just a useful idiot whom the Left hopes to use to capture power, then remove and replace with a more useful idiot. Biden is going to be spending all his time proving he doesn’t deserve replacement.
The nature of this “particular thing” is not about Trump — Trump is its public face, its boogeyman. The “particular thing” into which Simon purports to inquire is far larger than one man. Instead, it is doubtless the entire U.S. system of government and elections. The Left would like to cancel large swaths of government, such is ICE, the FBI, the CIA, and even the military and replace it with organs of social change, indoctrination, and retribution against those who oppose it.
They want to remake the presidential election into a populist referendum. They want to “reform” the Supreme Court to ensure a consistent favorable ideological balance, and they no doubt intend to do the same for every other circuit court of appeals in the country. If they don’t like the partisan makeup of the electorate, they want to change it by redistricting to ensure they can make a “legitimate” claim to power, and even the most Rorschach-style Gerrymander will be upheld by their newly “reformed” court.
They will sacrifice the Senate filibuster for this purpose, because they believe that once they have the power to move legislation without roadblocks, they can change the laws to make competitive elections impossible — for instance, by rewriting congressional district population limits to gain more representation per capita from big cities in the name of “fairness,” admitting Washington DC and Puerto Rico as full states with two senators each, and granting immediate citizenship and voting rights to DACA aliens and making illegal immigration a thing of the past.
They will undo Citizens United and ban corporate contributions while allowing unions and other left-favoring groups to contribute unlimited sums. They will attempt to disarm Americans by passing stringent gun control, and if anyone thinks they won’t act to confiscate firearms, you are sadly mistaken. Ultimately, they will attempt to create a Constitutional Convention and adopt a new, radical constitution that will undo most of what our Founders did.
Make no mistake, this “particular thing” is no less than a Marxist revolution, and I suspect if Biden is elected he will be the last legitimately elected president. It’s time for us to take the rhetorical gloves off and call it what it is — an attempted Marxist takeover of America by using one of the two political parties as a vehicle.
These past few months have awakened me to reality. I hope those of you yet to find your enlightenment do so soon.
Ethics Alarms 
Well, that is a depressing future. I need a drink.
jvb
Glenn, as always, you’ve got your eye right on the ball. The Marxists are using the George Floyd kerfuffle as a pretext to make a power grab. Plain and simple. Useful idiots indeed. There’s noting depressing about your comment. It’s simply spot on and that’s refreshing. Thank you.
Thank you. My proofreading skills are depressing, but… thanks!
The Democrats should be smart enough to see that they are the ones beings used, not the other way around. When the Republican Party is a thing of the past, the neo-Marxists in power will go after the Democrats.
I think the Democrats, at least at the leadership level, are well aware they are riding the tiger, and that it may well eat them. They think they may be able to reign it in when in power, but your point that they are likely wrong is, I think, a good one.
It’s easy to misread a situation when the same technique has worked so many times before. They have spent well-nigh a century promising black people things that they have never once come within a light-year of delivering and hating on the Jews while still getting most of their votes, yet it has cost them nothing. I think they believe they can do the same thing here, to the extent they actually want to, and the new Left has enabled them to consider doing things beyond their previous reach, like increasing their senate majority by four with the simple admission of DC and Puerto Rico. Increasing the number of congressmen will be much more challenging, but if even one of the two come true, they can afford to wait for other opportunities later on, having insured a lock on one chamber of Congress.
It’s always creeping incrementalism with the left. Even now, when they seem to want the most radical things, there is not enough popular support to get all, or even most of them done in one bite. So they’ll take the bite they can, just like they did with Obamacare.
Others have made the point that it is a tiger pumped up with stimulants, with its tail on fire.
Their only hope is that it mauls the other guy first.
Unfortunately, this is exactly what’s going on, and we ordinary people are pretty much powerless to do anything about it. That’s why the bloodhounds are out for the person who dumped red paint on the Black Lives Matter street art in front of Trump Tower and the two who defaced a similar display in CA are now charged with hate crimes, but the mayor of Baltimore is basically shrugging about the destruction of the Columbus statue there and saying that the priority has to be protecting lives, not property. That’s why the mayor of Seattle was all in favor of CHOP and accused the president of being afraid of democracy for opposing it – until it came to her doorstep. I don’t believe for a minute that the president pushed her into taking action as he says. He saw how negatively the use of the National Guard and the military was received and how his own commanders were getting uneasy. I think if he HAD issued the order he would have had a mutiny on his hands.
That’s also why the mayor of Atlanta didn’t do anything about a similar “autonomous zone” that came to be near the burnt-out Wendy’s where a man resisting arrest and using an officer’s own weapon against him was shot until someone killed an 8-year-old. Even then, she insisted that everything was fine and she didn’t need the National Guard to restore order, although it was clear the Atlanta PD was badly in need of help. That’s why the Minneapolis municipal council voted UNANIMOUSLY to defund and disband the MPD. That’s why the NYPD was told by the mayor to “use a light touch” against rioters who were trying to murder them. That’s why the Portland Federal Courthouse is still under siege every night and has been for six weeks. DOJ and DOHS have had to pull officers from six agencies to break the siege. Meanwhile the Portland Police Bureau stand back with their hands in their pockets while Mayor Ted Wheeler (D-Antifa) accuses the Feds of inflaming the situation and gets all solicitous about a thug who got his in the face with a less-than-lethal round, and the Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front make posts like “The Feds and Portland Police are very quickly finding out that if they build a fortress and use literal siege tactics, the People will put their fucking fortress under siege.”
That’s why when arrests DO get made at the state or local level, the charges evaporate. Only the Federal charges are going anywhere, and most likely they will all evaporate if Trump loses the election. These mobs are a very handy militia for the Democratic Party, as well as a way for the Democratic Party to deflect blame for the riots and destruction. That’s why in Virginia and other states plans are in place to change zoning laws so they can stuff every small town with low-income housing and change the partisan makeup overnight.
The thing is, this is starting to look inevitable. The mainstream media is starting to say that the Democratic Party believes that the Senate and the White House are as good as in the bag, and that now they are looking a lot farther, to redistricting and solidifying a permanent grip on power. If this is true and not just puffery, well, then I’m glad there are fewer days ahead for me than there are behind. An America like that is not a place I want to spend a lifetime in.
You just keep whining without proposing any solutions.
How is this productive?
If you have a proposal, I’m all ears.
Pizza and alcoholic beverages?
Or brown coats and blasters. Unfortunately I probably can’t get as hot a shipmate as River.
Dude! Summer Glau was only 20 and looked younger when she did Firefly.
Which is why I couldn’t land someone similar as a shipmate. 😀
Legal but mega-ick factor on the age difference.
I vote for this. Maybe we could all, as a country, have a “beer and pizza” summit. Bet we could find some agreement in there somewhere…
I’ll bring the Spotted Cow. You East Coasters will have to bring the pizza. Wisconsin pizza sucks.
I don’t think I qualify as an “East Coaster” being from Kentucky, but I suppose I could bring the burgoo. 🙂
The adage that we have a republic if we can keep it works against the left as much as it does anyone else.
When the troops are sent to reinforce the garrisons established by the left to disarm Americans are met with violence things could change dramatically.
I agree that whining solves nothing. Perhaps we will begin to see all those “patriots” who wave the flag and pound their chests actually be willing to incur a cost to protect our republic. We can no longer say that we cannot show up in mass because we have jobs. We need to give back as much as we have heaped upon us.
I’ll give you part of the solution, if it helps:
1. Decertify all public unions, and make them illegal;
2. Mandate school vouchers throughout the United States;
3. Require all K-12 and publicly funded colleges to:
– Institute compliance programs for free speech and debate, with quarterly reports and management buy-in like required for export control and HR compliance violators;
– Require schools to demonstrate via compliance programs their commitment to ideological indifference, and a willingness to hire only on merit and not ideological conformity;
– Report on any teachers reported by students to have used political leanings as an incentive or required subject matter for partisan purposes and the discipline instituted;
– All the above must be satisfactorily met for public schools and colleges to receive even one federal dollar. All administrative costs must be borne by the schools themselves, if they have an endowment. If not, they may fund them through normal appropriations. If this becomes considered an “unfunded mandate,” then pass a federal tax on the endowment of colleges, universities, and private schools having endowments of 10%.
4. Affirm that it is the position of the United States that the Second Amendment is an inalienable right of the individual, and refuse any gun-related enforcement funds or personnel to any states judged to be infringing on that right.
5. Eliminate Affirmative Action in education, and tie any federal funds to that elimination;
6. Cease all legal immigration for three years. Return all illegal immigrants to their country of origin. Provide a green card for DACA individuals, but require them to apply for formal immigration into the United States on a presumption of acceptance, but — their applications go right to the back of the line.
That’s a start.
I’m sharing this out, sort of based on Alan Jackson’s “It’s All Right to be a Redneck.”
it’s all right to be conservative. 🔴
It’s all right to believe government’s job is to protect people, not run their lives. 🛡
It’s all right to believe less taxation is better. 💲
It’s all right to believe in a strong defense. ✈️🚁
It’s all right to fight for your country. 👨✈️💂🏻♂️
It’s all right to believe that if someone wants to enter a country, he needs to do it legally. 🚧
It’s all right to own a gun. 🔫
It’s all right to defend your life, your family, and your property.💪🏻
It’s all right to support good cops.👮🏻♂️
It’s all right to BE a cop. 👮🏻♀️🚓
It’s all right to celebrate Columbus Day. ⛵
It’s all right to say “Merry Christmas.” 🎄
It’s all right to salute the flag. 🦅
It’s all right to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” 🎆
It’s all right to kneel only to God. ✝
It’s all right to believe every life matters, no exceptions.🖐🏻🖐🏼🖐🏽🖐🏾🖐🏿
It’s all right to be proud of who and what you are. 👏🏻
It’s all right to believe that some crimes are so bad they merit death. ☠
It’s all right to acknowledge that men and women are in fact different. 👨🏻👩🏻
It’s all right to read the Bible and try to live by it. 📖
It’s all right to read the Constitution and try to live by it. 📜
It’s all right to believe the Founding Fathers’ achievements outweigh their shortcomings. ✒
It’s all right to wear whatever hat you want. 🧢
It’s all right to support whatever candidate you choose, and not hide it. 🗳
It’s all right to speak your mind. 😮
Oh, and remember, those who did not do anything wrong don’t owe those who they did not do anything wrong to anything. 🤷🏻♂️
What are the ethics of SURVIVAL? I do not mean personal survival, and I am not suggesting the ends-justify-the-means advancement for some fringe philosophical or political agenda, but, rather, the very survival of a concept that had demonstrably risen more people out of poverty and despotism than any other perception in human history. What lengths can we use to justify our opposition to that destruction?
We know going into any discussion or confrontation our opponent and their allies (formally known as the press) possess no ethical constructs whatsoever, to what extent is it ethical to ignore that forearmed information, to the determent of our possible success, in order to fight the good fight?
As Roger Kimball so eloquently points out, November 3rd is not so much an election to decide whether the country wants Donald Trump or Joe Biden as president as it is whether we want America, as we have known it for 244 years, or something more akin to the old Soviet Union. If a significant number of voters frame the election simply as Trump v Biden, and their respective ethical standards, the larger, more lasting outcome, could prove devastating.
Does it justify getting down in the mud with the AUC (ethics be damned) and slugging it out for the future of our country? Do Republicans/conservatives even have the resources to go head-to-head with them, or is taking the high road the only option and trust the voters to see the Democratic Party for what it truly is?
If we wait for voters to see what the Democratic party has become we will find ourselved unable to do much about it.
We have to show the voters that the real power comes from liberty not the barrel of a gun. However, having liberty means being able to protect it.
Thank you, Jack, for the honor you do me by posting this screed. If only I could spell Kamala Harris’ name correctly, I might be a little more proud of it. In better days, I would check name spelling first thing in the proofread. Grr.
As it is, it’s too shrill, perhaps, and on-the-nose dystopian — probably your initial instinct to leave it in the comments was more right than wrong, but please don’t take that as a lack of appreciation for the honor you do me by putting it here.
It’s merely a regret that my declining faculties make producing better work more and more difficult, and worse, the nexus to ethics is missing on an ethics blog, alas.
Glenn, typos are irrelevant given the quality and volume of really valuable discourse that Jack throws out like a Gatling gun and the commentariat elaborates and expands upon. Typos, shmypos.
Thanks.