Greetings, Dear Reader,
Welcome back. It’s been a rough series of days, eh?
But we fight on. We fight the good fight. It’s one worth winning.
REPUBLICANS DON’T DO THIS
The most iconic and distinctly human moment of Trump in his era surprisingly had no pomp or circumstance. No gold. No prep. Trump even looked a bit disheveled.
He had just finished a rally in Minnesota Sept. 18, 2020, where he’d spoken for approximately 90 minutes. He was on the tarmac, and you could still hear the exit music playing. It was Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer.”
He approached the press scrum looking a bit tired. Reporters who already knew what happened shouted at him for his reaction. Ruth Bader Ginsburg had just died.
“She just died?”
“Yes.”
And I’ll never forget this: Trump hears the word and literally reels back in shock.
Then he said:
“Wow. I didn’t know that. I just — you’re telling me now for the first time. She led an amazing life. What else can you say? She was an amazing woman, whether you agreed or not. She was an amazing woman who led an amazing life. I’m actually saddened to hear that. I am saddened to hear that.”
In response to Ginsburg’s death, The Federalist Society — a conservative organization entirely dedicated to countering liberal jurisprudence — held an event at Wake Forest in her honor. “The Respectful Dissent,” it was titled, “A Tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Career of Exemplary Leadership and Character.”
Senate Republicans like Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham praised her as a trailblazer and worthy opponent, even as they rapidly pivoted to the matter at hand, which was no small feat.
Her sudden vacancy would provide Republicans with an ironclad majority in the Supreme Court. No small matter indeed. One might even find cause to instantly celebrate her death if only for that reason.
Still, they didn’t.
And they could have cited moral reasons even. If any one person had become a legal avatar for abortion, it was Ginsburg. She once joined a majority ruling in 2000 against the ban of literal partial-birth abortion, easily the most barbaric and unthinkable method of ending a pre-born baby’s life.
The best I could find as far as celebrations go was an unhinged rant from Alex Jones and GOP Rep. Doug Collins getting absolutely raked for tweeting “RIP to the more than 30 million innocent babies that have been murdered during the decades that Ruth Bader Ginsburg defended pro-abortion laws.”
Otherwise, from the GOP there was what the kids call “respect for the game.” And Ginsburg had game, that much they could acknowledge.
The anecdote in its entirety illuminates the differences between the modern left and right in some revealing ways, especially in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death.
First, Republicans can at least acknowledge and respect a worthy opponent. Dissent, debate, legal acumen, and enthusiastic defense of deeply held values. These are distinctly, in fact codified, elements of the American spirit, going all the way back to John Adams defending the redcoats at the center of the Boston Massacre.
For Americans, the opportunity and ability to argue one’s point of view supersede in some ways, or are at least on par with even divine edicts, like thou shalt not murder (babies).
Second is a respect for life. All life, even those of your ideological antagonists. That respect is why conservatives pray even for those condemned to death for heinous acts. Especially for those condemned, and especially if they agree with the sentence.
It might seem like a contradiction, but crime, punishment, prayer and forgiveness are in the DNA of principled conservatism. It used to be in the DNA of the American spirit, regardless of politics.
The modern left has decided to differ not even in directly reciprocal ways, but in their complete absence.
It’s perhaps the most grotesque evolution in modern politics. Liberals of all stripes and of every station, from multimillionaire talk show hosts to elected party members to tollbooth workers in New Jersey, seem to have a gaping absence where some semblance of those values — respect for life, for professional achievement, for open debate, for basic human dignity — used to exist.
What has filled that hole in their spirit can only be described as animalistic impulses derived from the basest instincts of the flesh. Chimpanzees have more humanity.
Among liberals, Kirk’s death triggered an all-encompassing orgy of celebration. A blood orgy. They celebrated that he was gone. They publicly masturbated over their own sense of moral superiority. They justified his death. They took to the streets and danced. In multiple instances they actually danced in public to rejoice the summary execution of a complete stranger.
They even printed T-shirts depicting his death and laughed about it. Not even the death of Osama Bin Laden or the fall of Communism triggered spasms that enthusiastic.
Words like soulless, ghoulish, vile, evil, are too simple to describe the spiritual cancer that begot the moral preening and prancing and dancing that occurred as Kirk’s family and loved ones tried to process their new reality. They’re too awkward to firmly grip or diagnose the problem.
Absence can’t be held, after all. It simply isn’t where there should be an is.
The bright side is that absence isn’t compelling. Nobody votes for absence. It cannot lead or build. Absence never inspires.
The further that absence spreads on the left, the more alone they’ll find themselves. Most alcoholics know reflexively that celebrating alone is bad. It means something’s wrong.
And we’ll pray for them. The least we can say is that. As we come for the places where that absence of morality and decency and respect for Americanism has spread. As we line-edit academic staffs at major universities and government agencies from federal to state to local. As we righteously render their worldview to ash in an attempt to cure the ailment at the center of this absence, we’ll pray for them.
There is no growth without suffering, after all.
The folks doing the celebrating better get ready. We’re coming for it all.
WHAT I’M READING
When you stop believing in thought and speech as fundamental rights, that’s when the violence becomes acceptable.
You May Have Missed It, But Left-Wing Violence Is Only Getting Worse Since Charlie Kirk’s Killing
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Speaking of unhinged …
CNN Anchor Confronts Jasmine Crockett On Rhetoric
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Will Kimmel take the advice?
‘A No-Brainer’: Clay Travis Tells Jimmy Kimmel What To Tell America When He Returns Tuesday Night
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