Sunday, December 18, 2016

Remember, False Patriotism is the Last Refuge of a Scoundrel

I truly believe that the increasingly frantic left is building up their panic and dread to a point where someone from their ranks will believe they have almost literally been given a chance akin to going back in time and killing Hitler before he seized power.

Since the election, Democrats have basically refused to accept the result of the election.

During the election they already worked themselves up into a lather on the belief that Trump is Hitler.

Liberals marched in protests after Trump defied the polls and defeated Hillary Clinton.

There were riots by anarchists and communists.

The left has been celebrating their mental health breakdown.

The electoral college was damned as illegitimate when Clinton won the popular vote count.

The FBI was blamed.

Racists were blamed (oddly, since Clinton is inconveniently white and her twice-elected predecessor is African American).

Sexism was blamed--although that seemed to rely on a complaint that women did not uniformly vote for Clinton rather than men not uniformly voting for Trump.

The Russians were accused of hacking the actual election results.

The Russians have been accused of leaking information to hurt Hillary Clinton. Okay, that one is likely correct given past Russian practices. But there is no evidence that the effort had any effect. And the leap to saying the Russians were trying to get Trump elected is not based on any evidence. I think it is more likely that Russia wanted to damage our election process (to harm America and reduce the appeal of democracy in Russia and their "near abroad") and to damage Clinton who the Russians--like everyone else who read the polls--expected to win. (And by all means, treat Russia like the proto-enemy it clearly wants to be and fight back--I'm no friend or fan of Putin's Russia.)

Trump electors have been threatened if they go ahead and vote for Trump.

Democrats have urged our intelligence agencies to brief the electoral college voters to give them reason to switch their votes and prevent Trump from formally winning.

And now, Democrats with the help of some B-list (I'm being generous) celebrities have been strenuously trying to reverse the election results by persuading electoral college voters to switch their votes.

Ah yes (tip to Instapundit):

As a journalist of my acquaintance joked on Twitter this week, I’m so old that I remember when it was dangerous and unpatriotic to question the validity of election results. Ah, yes. Those halcyon days, back when Hillary Clinton said that to not accept the results of an election was “a direct threat to our democracy.” In the modern political era, that’s a lifetime ago. Six weeks ago.

On top of Democrat's previous efforts that basically involve denying the legitimacy of the vote (which helps with Russia's big picture objective), I'm seriously worried about what somebody from their ranks might do when the effort to change the Monday electoral college vote fails to derail the election.

The Secret Service detail around Trump better be on their toes, because you can be sure that there are some in these anti-Trump ranks who are absolutely convinced that we have elected Hitler and that the only way to stop him at this point is to take direct action.

I do believe there is some number of people crazy enough to believe they'd be saving the nation and world. And not all will be crazy in that pathetic curl-up-in-a-fetal-position-and-bawl-their-eyes-out way.

Look, I don't like Trump. I never have. He was a New York City Democrat until he ran for the presidency. But he's no dictator-in-waiting--notwithstanding the powers being passed on to Trump that President ("pen and phone") Obama expanded as the Left cheered him on.

Trump is better than Hillary Clinton. Her corruption would have been far more dangerous to our future than Trump's antics could cause. And his appointments are basically fine. Although I'm withholding judgment on his Secretary of State appointment until I hear more about the man.

And Trump won the election despite my worries about his ideology and competence. I accept his legitimacy as much as I accepted President Obama as our president despite my worries about his ideology and competence. In all my posts you will find that I called President Obama "President Obama," "the president," and even "our president" rather than use any insulting term. Indeed, I purposefully avoided saying just "Obama" as I did for other presidents to avoid the appearance of implying illegitimacy. I mocked actions and decision, I freely admit, but that was well within the parameters of dissent and never reached the outer borders established by the Left during any Republican administration.

I remain hopeful that the Trump administration will be fine--if gaffe-prone (and tell me we wouldn't have gotten the latter if Biden had run and won).

Maybe Trump will fail. But I'm still in the phase when I'm giddy from relief that Clinton lost, contrary to my expectation. I have no doubt that I will have disagreements with a Trump administration on many issues both foreign and domestic.

I'm not explaining this to distance myself from Trump's win. I'm just trying to establish that I'm not a Trump extremist worried about nothing.

So the Secret Service better be on their toes. A presidential assassination would--as it would have during the Obama administration--threaten to tear our country apart given the harsh partisan divide apparent right now, which the Democrats are busy ripping wider and deeper with their post-election antics.

And our president-elect should listen to his protection detail when they warn him of risks when he wants to travel to locations. Vice President-elect Pence is lucky he went to see the play Hamilton at a theater early in the left's campaign of election nullification.

President-elect Trump and all of us are in a dangerous time right now.

UPDATE: Establishment liberals losing their minds in conspiracy theories. Tip to Instapundit.

Although I find it funny that a writer in Slate would describe these people as the Alt-Center!  How far to the left do you have to be to consider "establishment liberals" as the center?

I do keep in mind that the Internet amplifies the significance of the fetal-position losers and mind-losing folks. Most liberals, no doubt disappointed that Hillary lost amplified by the totally unexpected loss (and while some say they "knew" Trump would win, it was a hunch not based on any data to back them, so I don't count that, really), still manage to go to work and function. I live in Ann Arbor. Nobody could get artisan coffee or free-range, gluten-free kale sandwiches if that wasn't the case.

So while I do worry that some nutcase is floating around out there, it is only because this is a big country so somebody is going to react to the victory of Trump and the amplified grief and paranoia in a dangerous fashion.

Although I might just fit into the conspiracy theories some way, I suppose. The fact that I took the Russian language in college (really, I've forgotten 98% of it!) is something I probably shouldn't admit.

UPDATE: Mind you, the fragile snowflakes deserve to be mocked, no doubt (tip to Legal Insurrection):



UPDATE: This is just bizarre. A man says that he firmly believes he killed Trump. He did not, of course. He murdered someone else (allegedly, I guess I should say at this point).

Is this just a legal ploy to get an insanity defense? Or is he just one of some number of nutballs willing to act on their impulses?

NOTE: Wow. It took me five days to notice the error in the title...