Wednesday, November 25, 2020

U.S. Politics

"I appealed to Lincoln for his own sake to remove Grant at once, and in giving my reasons for it, I simply voiced the admittedly overwhelming protest from the loyal people of the land against Grant's continuance in command. I could form no judgment during the conversation as to what effect my arguments had upon him beyond the fact that he was greatly distressed at this new complication. When I said everything that could be said from my standpoint, we lapsed into silence. Lincoln remained silent for what seemed a very long time. He then gathered himself up in his chair and said in a tone of earnestness that I shall never forget, "I can't spare this man, he fights."

Posting has been light for a variety of reasons but mainly because I've been trying to keep abreast of the situation unfolding with regard to the current U.S. election. 
 

Firstly however, I would like to also give a shout out to Aaron Renn who, through his Masculinist podcast, was kind enough to link to some of the posts on this blog, and to commentator MK who bought this to my attention. I'm quite familiar with the "regulars" who comment here but its kind of nice to know that there are others who read the posts without leaving a presence. Sometimes I do wonder if the post are gaining any traction so it was both a pleasant and daunting surprise to know that Aaron had thought some of things I said were worthwhile.  I would also recommend my readers to subscribe to his podcast and newsletter.

Now to business at hand. As mentioned above, I've been closely following he U.S. election and am quite concerned with the developments. I'm old enough to remember the events preceding the war in Yugoslavia and there's an eerie similarity with what was going on then and what is happening now. The country is both deeply polarised and armed, and that does not make for a happy combination.

Contrary to  the opinion of some christian commentators it is my opinion that there is plausible statistical evidence that Trump was defrauded of an electoral victory. It's also my opinion that real Christian persecution is going to begin with a Biden ascendancy and I think that it's safe to say that I think that many Trump supporters are of the same mind. I'm also of the opinion that should the Democrats lose any Supreme Court contest they will not respect it's decision and will try to force their claim.  Should Trump try to preempt this by arresting those responsible, it will be perceived by his opponents and as an attempt at a coup. I really hope I'm wrong but I can't see a "peaceful" solution to this.  This does not mean that that the country will turn into a Yugoslavia or Syria but I can imagine a prolonged period of quite nasty civil unrest.

A lot of it will also depend on who the military supports in this struggle and from what I've seen I'm not convinced that they will all fall into line behind their Commander-in-Chief, especially if his legitimacy is contested. The other problem here is that the other side seems to have anticipated a fight and has laid the groundwork for it. Those Antifa riots which slipped out of the news prior to the election look to be both well organised and funded, and I can imagine a resurgence of activity as Inauguration Day approaches.  The actions of the U.S. Left over the preceding year have a remarkable similarity to the "colour" revolutions organised around the world. In other words, they're not spontaneous but planned.

The other dimension to this whole thing has been the Durham investigation which is very likely to lead to the prosecution of large numbers of individuals in the higher echelons of the U.S. Government. There are many people who will be in deep trouble with a Trump victory so they will do everything in their power to thwart it. On the other hand a Trump loss will likely result in reprisals and consequences to his supporters. There are major incentives not to settle this peacefully. The guy who runs Jim's blog is of the same opinion.

The pragmatic men of the Democratic party seem to be moderate but the ideological core has shifted radically to the left,  and a Biden victory will ensure a systematic and ever worsening Christian persecution. No one who has taken the slightest notice of messages telegraphed by the radical left can come to any other conclusion.  Given the existential threat to Christianity in the U.S., I cannot understand how men like Dreher can fail to fall behind Trump. These parlour-room Christians seem more concerned about social graces and etiquette which are accorded a greater weighting than any other quality a man can have. Combined with their Christian Buddhism, they would rather suffer under an urbane tyrant than fight with a righteous braggart. They seem to want some immaculate leader without spot and acceptable to polite company but they, for all their Christianity, forget the lessons of the Master:

When Christ at a symbolic moment was establishing His great society, He chose for its cornerstone neither the brilliant Paul nor the mystic John, but a shuffler, a snob, a coward – in a word, a man. And upon this rock He has built His Church, and the gates of Hell have not prevailed against it.

Chesterton.

Sometimes you've got to use what you've got.

I fully understand that Trump is a man of many faults, many of them quite objectionable, but he seems to have the quality that is most needed in this hour: Courage.  I've got to admit I find his style brash and objectionable, but I've grown to admire the his grit and determination in spite of the most vicious media pile-on I've ever seen, despite traitors in his own ranks and despite that machinations of a state apparatus that have sought to frustrate his every move. Other Republicans would have thrown in the towel a long while ago and, faced with the fait accompli of the election, would have simply rolled over. Men like Dreher, too holy to fight would have surrendered to the Left--and all that means--assured that in their abandonment of their country's defence and partrimony they were gaining points in heaven for their principled holiness. The attitude, given the circumstances, is contemptible and is an example of why modern Christianity is unable to fight evil.

Trump--flawed as he is--fights on.

I don't in any way want to suggest that Trump is some kind of divine figure, there's plenty of evidence that his Christianity is very superficial, but any man seeing what danger is looming can in no way approve of Dreher's approach given the situation.  A Christianity that walks away from the fight, given the circumstances, is not a Christianity at all.

The Daily Show, a while ago, mocked Trump giving a talk on Ulysses S. Grant, another man who was objectionable at the time. Despite his inarticulation, Trump seems to have grasped the lessons of Grant both intuitively and deeply, and like Grant, may end up being the saviour of the Republic. 

I hope I'm wrong but I think that there are going to be some trying times for the U.S. I want to wish my readers there all the best. If I were there I'd be putting myself behind Trump.

God Bless.

BTW

 For some strange reason this seems appropriate.



18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dreher is really impossible to take. "Handle" did a very good review of his latest book. Handle pointed out that, unlike in communist Russia, the liberals have no intention of suppressing Christianity per se but only the isolated "bigoted" beliefs. This was foreshadowed in the Dem primaries with Pete Buttegieg (gay Episcopalian) and Beto O'Rouke's pledge to tax churches "that violate civil rights" (but not, presumably, liberal protestant churches). I also think the "Russian communist" theme of that book is part of a larger push by right-wing donor groups to gaslight social conservatives into supporting libertarian economics (same thing with with a recent book by Paul Kengor about Marx that has been pushed heavily by the trad media sphere).

Dreher's anti-Catholic writing is very confusing as well. He often seems to point to the hierarchical nature of the church as the source of both moral corruption and the push towards liberalism. Coming from a Baptist this would be a consistent (if wrong) position. But he's Orthodox, and his church has the same hierarchical structure as the Catholic Church (minus the Pope).

I know this is a tangent from the main themes of your post.



Anonymous said...

As for the election stuff, what does the right-wing of the Deep State want that they can't get from the left (majority) wing of the Deep State? I can think of only four things (1) support for Israel (as the left and even diaspora Jews move towards anti-Zionism), (2) support for fossil fuels (oil and gas industry is very closely tied to GOP and have a lot to lose under the Dems), (3) some industries are better of with the slight move towards protectionism under Trump, (4) some parts of the mil-ind complex view Cold War with China as the new money-maker (I think the deep-left sees the US as the new British Empire and China as the new US, we'll hand off control of the world and our standard of living to them without a fight).

Is this worth going to bat for Trump in a crisis? Maybe, maybe not. I think its a game of chicken and Trump wins if the state legislatures in MI, WI, and PA send GOP electors in December.

MK said...

Several comments:

1. You shouldn't be surprised at this blog's popularity among a certain masculine set. I'm a broken record here but posts like "Heart of Darkness" are unique. You know better than the rest of us how few men become therapists. Examine the popularity of Jordan Peterson as an example of the thirst for this information that may seem "obvious" to a therapist but leaves the typical man dazed and confused, out of his element.

2. I think you misread the American situation. Like Ireland, it's really got nothing to do with religion even though everyone likes to claim so. It's really about demographics, race, economics, and culture. Religion is merely used as an easy proxy. And we are cowards nowadays. Our violence won't even match the '60s, I'm sorry to say. A good civil war would do us good but it won't happen.

3. Regarding the election: the Democrats stole the election, fair and square, like Catholics did in 1960. I don't know why anyone even cares. The real interesting thing in American politics is Trump and the realignment of religious minorities to conservative politics, and whites becoming terrified for their safety and banding together along with Asians. Did you see the Cali referendum on race preference? This will be the last election whites don't start to vote en-mass for Republicans. Did you see the white married woman vote vs white spinster vote? America is over. It's indeed a war, just not a violent one.

MK said...

Quick unrelated question: the 1978 book "The Road Less Traveled" by Scott Peck is the a book about psychology that impressed me...the parts on discipline & love, not the rest of the crap (btw so did the 1989 book "The 7 Habits" by Covey). A. Have you read this book and do you agree with me? B. Can you recommend any other books about psychology for the right tail of the bell curve (I'm not expecting 100% goodness here, I can ignore the crap parts without offense, just looking to further educated myself in Peck's vein...and why isn't there more works like that for the layman?)

The Social Pathologist said...

@Anon

Yes. I saw Handle's review of the book and broadly agree with it. As for Dreher's anti-Catholic writing, his critique misses the mark. Hierarchy is necessary, the problem in the Catholic Church's case is the institutional culture.

I don't think Trump is part of the Deep State. Trump is a civic nationalist who has become an accidental warrior against it. I don't think he grasped the nature of the beast he was dealing with till the last year. As I've said before, Trump is a man of many faults, but from the Christian perspective he's the best man out there at the moment.

@Mk

Thanks.

I think that Dems, through their deliberate anti-White policy have caused a reactionary consciousness among whites. They're the ones pushing the race consciousness and I think their insane behaviour, especially in power, does more for "white power" than any supremacist tract. As for demography, the problem is that national identity is usually alloyed with a religion. Bring people from the Middle East into your country, and you get an Islamic presence. Still, religion does matter since it's a vital part of the "software" that governs human behaviour.

As for the book, I've not read it. As for recommendations, I really don't have any. I'm not trying to be difficult here, it's just that nearly all the psychological books I've read have been really crap.

Anonymous said...

@SP: Trump isn't really part of the Deep State but I don't think you can get anywhere in politics without partial elite patronage, so it matters. Steve Bannon, for instance, was in Naval Intelligence and worked for Goldman Sachs. He's not a dentist who got elected to the state legislature or a local union organizer or whatever. Clearly much of the populist right is backed by a faction "on the inside". Its obvious with the mainstream conservative movement but it still holds with the "populist" alternative. Its like the BDH v. OV spilt Moldbug talked about but the "Optimates" are Israelis and oil men, not old money WASPS.

I think back on 2016 Trump was more of a real outsider. In the years since there has been an attempt to create an institutional structure around the "movement" in the form of media, think tanks (the "National Conservative" conference Yoram Hazony put on last year, the Claremont Institute's pro-Trump position) and the like. Tucker Carlson's shift from Cato Institute libertarian to Trumpist is probably 50% conviction and 50% part of an orchestrated and well-funded campaign from donors who see something to gain (Tucker is from a billionaire family with deep state ties).

The Rod Dreher/David French types aren't connected to these interest groups so they see nothing wrong with doing the "honorable thing" and conceding defeat. Even if it is spiritual problem for these pundits, it is probably more of a financial issue for whoever pays them. Not to sound Marxist but the "spiritual" superstructure has a more practical "base".

I'm sure if there was an Australian Trump I would see it more as a spiritual thing, when a true expert in the Australian deep state would know that the "populists" are merely the pawns of the vegamite lobby, or whatever.

Anonymous said...

Dreher is disingenuous in the extreme. He recently said that his idealised form of Christian resistance is seen in the recent film about Franz Jagerstatter, A Hidden Life. What he didn't say was that the Nazis guillotined Jagerstatter. If Dreher thinks that Christian resistance means passively accepting physical elimination, THEN HE SHOULD SAY SO. I pointed this out to him on his blog; he made no answer.

His posturing is symptomatic of the contemptibly bourgeois nature of Western Christianity at the moment, bourgeois in the sense that it is chiefly concerned with social respectability. Etiquette is not a bad thing, but it is no substitute for truth and reality, and it certainly does not legitimate a suicide pact. Dreher has just written a book about the horrors visited on Christians by Communism; never does he acknowledge that none of this would have happened if the White Russian Army had smashed the Reds. He has the wit to see what is coming, but he doesn't have the stomach to fight it; that would be to dirty his hands and would probably lose him his place on Andrew Sullivan's Christmas card list.

When his enemies finally come for him, my guess is he'll turn out like Tom Tuttle from Tacoma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ6UuF85ENA

The great achievement of Trump is that he pulled off the mask of the ruling class and exposed their true nature. They are insane, bloodthirsty, spiritually calloused and inveterate enemies of Christ. It is no joy to face this, but it is vastly better than living in a make-believe world of 'Morning in America'.

Lancelot Andrewes

MK said...

that would be to dirty his hands and would probably lose him his place on Andrew Sullivan's Christmas card list.

Heh. You summarize RD pretty well. But relax, loyalty to logic (or anything that is hard) is just not DR's style in real life, he just writes about it. Read his post why he abandoned RC; you can't find a bit of logic in it, it's all emotive crying. Whenever I hear this, it's always the same thing, it's some other motive (usually wanting to use BC) that's driving the illogic.

Anonymous said...

MK - fully agreed.

Did you know that Dreher's eldest son voted for Biden? I know because Dreher insisted on telling the world about it. Apparently Dreher Jr. earnestly warned him about the dangers of supporting orangeboi. So in effect, the child of the Benedict Option voted to put Dad in a reeducation camp run by trannies. Thanks son.

Lancelot Andrewes

The Social Pathologist said...

@Lancelot Andrews

never does he acknowledge that none of this would have happened if the White Russian Army had smashed the Reds

That's a hugely important point.

The Buddha said that all life is suffering and I think that there are Christians out there who embrace this dictum so thoroughly that any attempts to alleiviate it are viewed as heretical. Holy Victimhood is the ideal of these people and pile of martyred saints is to be preferred to a community of happy people.

So in effect, the child of the Benedict Option voted to put Dad in a reeducation camp run by trannies.

Maybe it's God speaking through his son.

MK said...

SP: Holy Victimhood is the ideal of these people

You know, when reading Peck's The Road Less Traveled I came to the realization I am fairly neurotic (especially for a man) and unconsciously lean to this "holy victimhood" even when I know better. Peck calls it "social sadomasochism", getting off on being the righteous victim.

I think you are right and that RC has a big problem here; I can even see it in myself. Peck was the first guy who helped me really grok how a neurotic like myself is just as sick as a character disordered gent, just the other side of the coin. In hindsight, I suspect growing up in feminized 1970s RC is a big part of my problem. But I'm still soaking it in and am none too sure of things.

John Rockwell said...

Do you believe Coronavirus is God's warning shot?

John Rockwell said...

@MK, Anonymous

Rod Dreher is very effeminate.

I doubt his salvation is even real. Otherwise God will make him better than he is now.

The Social Pathologist said...

@John

Do you believe Coronavirus is God's warning shot?

I believe that God has agency and interferes in human events but I'm not really privy to His thoughts and don't know where Coronavirus fits into His scheme of things.

Rod Dreher is very effeminate.

I actually think he's a professional victim.


John Rockwell said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
John Rockwell said...

@The Social Pathologist

Indeed those are screenshots of his tweets:
https://twitter.com/TheIllegit/status/1337822672483352577

https://twitter.com/TheIllegit/status/1337965309395836928

Hitpiece on Trump:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/trump-political-pessimism/


Its like Trump is the school bully who shoved nerdy Rod Dreher in a locker. Trump seems to represent that Masculine Jock that he so despises. I think he would betray his group at the first opportunity.


Hitpiece on Pat Buchanan accusing him of white supremacy:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/buchanan-shameful-defense-of-white-supremacy/

Hitpiece on those who who disagree with him on Corona smearing them as a magazine in decline:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/first-things-the-future-of-religious-conservatism/

He seems to fit this kind of archetype:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhTFkUpB8zc

And this is how Male dynamics work in general:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ua2XnYlm-o

Until I see the Lord's Discipline to correct his current behavior. No way he is saved.

The Social Pathologist said...

Its like Trump is the school bully who shoved nerdy Rod Dreher in a locker. Trump seems to represent that Masculine Jock that he so despises. I think he would betray his group at the first opportunity.

Yep, that's it in a nutshell.


He's gone off the rails completely.

John Rockwell said...

@The Social Pathologist

Some people never left High School unfortunately no matter how many years pass.