the thing that gets me is that it was all so f’ng obvious what the Dems were doing and it took 8 years (the intelligent critical thinking part of me wants to say 50 years) for the American people to finally rise up en mass and overthrow this Marxist ideology.
We were so easily brought down by our own greed, gluttony, cowardice and sense of guilt. It was/is scary to think about.
But think about it we must. Or it will happen again
I am Jewish but not particularly religious. What I fear most is not any external forces like countries or ideologies but rather our susceptibility to the 7 cardinal sins (I believe they are Christian faith origin:
Thank you Monica and Jeff for your thought provoking thesis. Yes, voters finally realized, we as a country were at the tipping point and enough was enough. Finally, in pain site for all to see was a Democratic Party which was so toxic, vile and divisive that the American public had no choice but to reject. Men playing women’s sports, gender ideology and sex reassignments affecting our children, crushing debt and out of control illegal immigration all made the choice for President and down ballot candidates a “no brainer.” The next battle will be right here in California. The smart money has Kamala running for governor and basically, picking up where she left off. Time will tell, but hopefully voters will not be tired of winning and want the same for our once golden state!
S2, Great to see that you’re pursuing Truths, but you’ve take on Trump and Operation Warp Speed is not there yet. OWP well go down in history as one of the greatest military lifts of all time, but more importantly, a great play by Team Trump in this silent world war.
Their plan was to keep us locked down for 6, 8, or 10 years, all the while slow rolling the CRT, DEI, 1619, queerification of the language, drag queens, transgenderism, etc., etc., while bankrupting the American populous.
Trump is playing the long game, with Peace as The Prize… here’s a different take and summary of some of the moves made over the near past by Team Trump (Q is, who is helping Trump)…
S.2 - I voted for Trump three times. I love Trump. And I did not get vaxxed. You did not have to get vaxxed. Trump had no choice at the beginning of Covid but to do OWS to get the vax created. But he did not make my life miserable or incarcerate me because I did not take the vax. You are confusing the making of the vax with the mandatory lockdowns, masking, shutting down of businesses, and other totalitarian abuses of Covid, none of which were done by Trump but were done by Democrat leaders like Governor Newsom.
God I have read some clap trap, this takes the biscuit, sorry cookie. Trump has no principals except one. How does he benefit from what ever activity he is involved in. This could be financial, or image, he does not care. The man is not fit to be a leader and never has been. To write a peice conflating Trump to an educated higher plane of thought is risable.
This is a man who breaks contracts with small contractors to reduce his costs. This is a man who could not sell vodka. His airline did not last long either. Trump's unsuccessful business ventures have included numerous casinos and hotel bankruptcies, the folding of his New Jersey Generals football team, and Trump University. He and his businesses have been involved in more than 4,000 legal actions, including six business bankruptcies.
This election was more about a protest vote against the governing bodies. In the UK the reverse happened. The right was thrown out and the left won with less votes than an extreme left Jeremy Corbyn candidate in 2019.
Stop papering over all the cracks in the win, because thewre are far too many. The very presence of two poor alternatives for President speaks volumes for me as to the real decline taking place in the western society.
I agree. Today I witnessed a parade of honking, American flag bearing, banner waving cars on their way somewhere in SB. The election is over. It occurred to me that if Democrats had won, you wouldn’t see such a spectacle. It felt like an assault and a very insensitive one. It felt like a big fat bully had announced inself in town. To what purpose? It only served to make me angry and dislike all those people who I don’t want to dislike just because I disagree with them. I feel like people have reduced themselves to a grammer school playground at one extreme and a Nazi like mob at the other extreme. Please stop. It’s unnecessary. You have the man you voted for in the White House. What are you trying to accomplish? Certainly not unity. It’s sad.
No. I’m worried about the anger and hatred that seems to have fueled this election. I’m worried about the destruction of our democratic institutions and balance of power (flawed as they are). I’m worried about the lack of civility and decency and respect that comes out of the mouths of elected people. I’m worried that the elites (trump, his minions, musk , corporate exes etc) will milk the middle class, amass wealth and power and leave them scratching their heads about why they voted for him. I’m worried about losing the right to free speech. I’m worried about the absolute disregard of facts and the indoctrination of lies. The list is long…..and I hope I’m wrong about all of it.
I don’t have one. You asked if I was worried about losing a government job. I responded with what I AM worried about. I’m not trying to convince you of anything. I am trying to understand the reaction. Much of it I think I do. Much I still can’t come to terms with. Perhaps you might try to understand as well. There doesn’t seem to be much interest in that.
As a questionably credible amateur guitarist my audience does not always clap. I have invented various devices of musical tricks which sound virtuosic but which are in fact gimmicks. I like to call them clap traps. Other musicians ridicule me for this but I just ignore all their claptrap.
JL, There are standards, principles and ethics. Dancing with a gal just because he won has no attraction for me.
I am happy to be repeating truths from the previous campaigns. These are facts not innuendo or conspiricy theories.
I do not care if I get traction or not. I want truth to be articulated. A protest vote is very dangerous when the protesters reralise the promises are not being fulfilled. Think of the Obamma "yes we can" matra. It ended badly when the coalition of voters realised they were not gong to get their issue addressed.
I would be very surprised if it is different with this "gal".
The cost to remove layers of government will be nigh on impossible. The workers will have to be fired and there fore become disgruntled future voters, or be re-hired elswewhere in government employement. The expenses are still on the tax player.
It is easy to rouse a rabble on the election stump, to actually implement the promises from the stump is a very different thing.
With the track record of the orange man I am deeply worried that true change will not happen.
Take closing any goverment department. It sounds good on th
Nasty. That is the only response. Might there be ANY opening now for a middle ground of understanding..of compassion…of curiosity…of good will? I think the far left went WAY too far in pushing their agenda. WAY too far. Is the antidote for the far right to do the same? Is there ANY room in the middle where we can understand each other and push together for sane policies and advocate for the common good we agree on?
Thank you, Jeff and Monica, for a terrific piece. I haven't read Witness, so I'm not qualified to add anything here about Chambers/Hiss. But I'm curious about your thoughts on McCarthyism. To me, it has seemed very unfortunate and destructive, even though there were Communists, the way in which they went after them was a witch hunt. I grew up around people who were smeared by accusations of Communism. The people I grew up around who my family respected fought McCarthy's hunt. For example, my family's friends, Hallock and Jean Hoffman fought the loyalty oath one had to take in Pasadena in order to buy property. I think McCarthyism damaged legitimate, non-witch-hunt attempts to fight what Communists were trying to do in our education system, which is take it over. But I also think the John Birch Society, did more damage to actual concerns about Communism, than it did good.
Chambers’ fascination with his baby’s ear really got to me. I’ve done dumb stuff like that and come to the same conclusion - it wasn’t science, it was “Design presupposes God.”
The recent election was the latest battle in the war started in the garden of Eden. Trump is no saint , but his Democrat opponents clearly promote a program from the Prince of Darkness.
The person to ultimately settle accounts is Jesus, not any politician.
In the meantime, we can use our vote to encourage anyone closer to the ideals found between the pages of Genesis and Revelation.
By that standard, imperfect Trump was the obvious choice.
Self described atheists chose Kamala overwhelmingly, which makes total sense.
Keep praying for our elected leaders to bring peace and prosperity to our land. And keep looking up.
Mr. and Mrs. Barton , Oh my God! I don’t even know where to start It sounds like you’re elevating trump to a pedestal higher than God Himself. It sounds like you’re saying God anointed trump by nicking his ear. You say trump has suffered. He has not suffered more than what he has brought upon himself, with actual evidence, with his lies and false morals. Everything that you accuse the Democrats of doing, has been previously done and done better by trump, especially the divisiveness.
As for the children being indoctrinated to switch gender or to become gay, how does that even work? What’s the purpose? Apparently the way trump describes it, is you send your little boy or girl to school in the morning and by the time they get home in the afternoon they’re a girl and boy. So now instead of having a little boy and girl, you now have a little girl and boy. Sounds idiotic to me.
Surgery recovery is pretty quick, amazing what you can do in a day. As usual trump likes to follow conspiracies. Where is the proof that this is actually being done? As for turning children gay, there’s no need to turn anyone gay is it is a natural process from birth. You can’t turn someone gay. It’s strange that this only seems to happen in Florida. But, it is the capital of burning and banning books. Drag queens are not the danger they’re made out to be. The enemy is the conspiracy filled minds of the maga swarm.
Mr. Livingston, thank you for the bit of sympathy, and I’m sorry that you think I have a sour attitude, but if so, it started in 2016. Be thankful it didn’t turn into a hateful attitude like half the country, that’s when people that previously hid their hatefulness were allowed to express it openly. Hmm, I’m not sure how to take that one sentence about a safe space. Is there something going to happen in the next four years that you know about, that I would need a safe space? Unfortunately, some people will not find safe spaces as evil invades them, like a Chinese community near Seattle experiencing random stabbing attacks on their citizens. Then today it was reported a group of men, dressed in black, marching up and down a city street in Ohio, masked and carrying Nazi flags. The maga leader won, why are these cowards still committing crimes against American citizens?
When speaking or writing about humanity, why not use the word 'people' rather than 'man'? I'm suggesting the word people eliminates possible (and unnecessary) divisiveness.
Thank you for this excellent essay on the parallelism of these two significant periods of our country. It brought back decades ago memories of my mother reading Witness and as a younger person I just saw a very thick book (I think there might have been photos I looked at in it). I am sure it must still be on the shelves in our family home. I shall ask my brother if it is.
I enjoyed learning a little more about history that I wasn’t aware of. Funny how people don’t speak like that anymore. I think some people called that progress.
S.2 Why not just find another place to spew this... not sure what to call it, but there is no conversation to be had on this site.
the thing that gets me is that it was all so f’ng obvious what the Dems were doing and it took 8 years (the intelligent critical thinking part of me wants to say 50 years) for the American people to finally rise up en mass and overthrow this Marxist ideology.
We were so easily brought down by our own greed, gluttony, cowardice and sense of guilt. It was/is scary to think about.
But think about it we must. Or it will happen again
I am Jewish but not particularly religious. What I fear most is not any external forces like countries or ideologies but rather our susceptibility to the 7 cardinal sins (I believe they are Christian faith origin:
Pride,
Greed,
Wrath,
Lust,
Envy,
Gluttony, and
Sloth
Oh oh, I'm lazy and sometimes eat like a pig - does that make me a sinner?
Thank you Monica and Jeff for your thought provoking thesis. Yes, voters finally realized, we as a country were at the tipping point and enough was enough. Finally, in pain site for all to see was a Democratic Party which was so toxic, vile and divisive that the American public had no choice but to reject. Men playing women’s sports, gender ideology and sex reassignments affecting our children, crushing debt and out of control illegal immigration all made the choice for President and down ballot candidates a “no brainer.” The next battle will be right here in California. The smart money has Kamala running for governor and basically, picking up where she left off. Time will tell, but hopefully voters will not be tired of winning and want the same for our once golden state!
This was our 1776 moment. Trump is our new George Washington.
S2, Great to see that you’re pursuing Truths, but you’ve take on Trump and Operation Warp Speed is not there yet. OWP well go down in history as one of the greatest military lifts of all time, but more importantly, a great play by Team Trump in this silent world war.
Their plan was to keep us locked down for 6, 8, or 10 years, all the while slow rolling the CRT, DEI, 1619, queerification of the language, drag queens, transgenderism, etc., etc., while bankrupting the American populous.
Trump is playing the long game, with Peace as The Prize… here’s a different take and summary of some of the moves made over the near past by Team Trump (Q is, who is helping Trump)…
https://x.com/kagdrogo/status/1856831192097853839?s=61
PS… Our leaders aren't stupid. They're not incompetent either. They're ……..
Cheers to all the people who can change their minds when presented with information that contradicts their beliefs!!!
S.2 - I voted for Trump three times. I love Trump. And I did not get vaxxed. You did not have to get vaxxed. Trump had no choice at the beginning of Covid but to do OWS to get the vax created. But he did not make my life miserable or incarcerate me because I did not take the vax. You are confusing the making of the vax with the mandatory lockdowns, masking, shutting down of businesses, and other totalitarian abuses of Covid, none of which were done by Trump but were done by Democrat leaders like Governor Newsom.
Can you explain how Gates and Fauci where involved? From my understanding this is just wacky stuff that tints your normally accurate fiscal comments.
FYI…Trump saved 100s of millions of lives with OWS…
https://stopworldcontrol.com/fema/
God I have read some clap trap, this takes the biscuit, sorry cookie. Trump has no principals except one. How does he benefit from what ever activity he is involved in. This could be financial, or image, he does not care. The man is not fit to be a leader and never has been. To write a peice conflating Trump to an educated higher plane of thought is risable.
This is a man who breaks contracts with small contractors to reduce his costs. This is a man who could not sell vodka. His airline did not last long either. Trump's unsuccessful business ventures have included numerous casinos and hotel bankruptcies, the folding of his New Jersey Generals football team, and Trump University. He and his businesses have been involved in more than 4,000 legal actions, including six business bankruptcies.
This election was more about a protest vote against the governing bodies. In the UK the reverse happened. The right was thrown out and the left won with less votes than an extreme left Jeremy Corbyn candidate in 2019.
Stop papering over all the cracks in the win, because thewre are far too many. The very presence of two poor alternatives for President speaks volumes for me as to the real decline taking place in the western society.
I agree. Today I witnessed a parade of honking, American flag bearing, banner waving cars on their way somewhere in SB. The election is over. It occurred to me that if Democrats had won, you wouldn’t see such a spectacle. It felt like an assault and a very insensitive one. It felt like a big fat bully had announced inself in town. To what purpose? It only served to make me angry and dislike all those people who I don’t want to dislike just because I disagree with them. I feel like people have reduced themselves to a grammer school playground at one extreme and a Nazi like mob at the other extreme. Please stop. It’s unnecessary. You have the man you voted for in the White House. What are you trying to accomplish? Certainly not unity. It’s sad.
No. I’m worried about the anger and hatred that seems to have fueled this election. I’m worried about the destruction of our democratic institutions and balance of power (flawed as they are). I’m worried about the lack of civility and decency and respect that comes out of the mouths of elected people. I’m worried that the elites (trump, his minions, musk , corporate exes etc) will milk the middle class, amass wealth and power and leave them scratching their heads about why they voted for him. I’m worried about losing the right to free speech. I’m worried about the absolute disregard of facts and the indoctrination of lies. The list is long…..and I hope I’m wrong about all of it.
I don’t have one. You asked if I was worried about losing a government job. I responded with what I AM worried about. I’m not trying to convince you of anything. I am trying to understand the reaction. Much of it I think I do. Much I still can’t come to terms with. Perhaps you might try to understand as well. There doesn’t seem to be much interest in that.
As a questionably credible amateur guitarist my audience does not always clap. I have invented various devices of musical tricks which sound virtuosic but which are in fact gimmicks. I like to call them clap traps. Other musicians ridicule me for this but I just ignore all their claptrap.
Interesting. I went down the string of one of the one of the other meanings of clap. But thats a dated noun.
JL, There are standards, principles and ethics. Dancing with a gal just because he won has no attraction for me.
I am happy to be repeating truths from the previous campaigns. These are facts not innuendo or conspiricy theories.
I do not care if I get traction or not. I want truth to be articulated. A protest vote is very dangerous when the protesters reralise the promises are not being fulfilled. Think of the Obamma "yes we can" matra. It ended badly when the coalition of voters realised they were not gong to get their issue addressed.
I would be very surprised if it is different with this "gal".
The cost to remove layers of government will be nigh on impossible. The workers will have to be fired and there fore become disgruntled future voters, or be re-hired elswewhere in government employement. The expenses are still on the tax player.
It is easy to rouse a rabble on the election stump, to actually implement the promises from the stump is a very different thing.
With the track record of the orange man I am deeply worried that true change will not happen.
Take closing any goverment department. It sounds good on th
Nasty. That is the only response. Might there be ANY opening now for a middle ground of understanding..of compassion…of curiosity…of good will? I think the far left went WAY too far in pushing their agenda. WAY too far. Is the antidote for the far right to do the same? Is there ANY room in the middle where we can understand each other and push together for sane policies and advocate for the common good we agree on?
Nice piece. Your characterization of the two different and conflicting visions is great!
Thank you, Jeff and Monica, for a terrific piece. I haven't read Witness, so I'm not qualified to add anything here about Chambers/Hiss. But I'm curious about your thoughts on McCarthyism. To me, it has seemed very unfortunate and destructive, even though there were Communists, the way in which they went after them was a witch hunt. I grew up around people who were smeared by accusations of Communism. The people I grew up around who my family respected fought McCarthy's hunt. For example, my family's friends, Hallock and Jean Hoffman fought the loyalty oath one had to take in Pasadena in order to buy property. I think McCarthyism damaged legitimate, non-witch-hunt attempts to fight what Communists were trying to do in our education system, which is take it over. But I also think the John Birch Society, did more damage to actual concerns about Communism, than it did good.
Chambers’ fascination with his baby’s ear really got to me. I’ve done dumb stuff like that and come to the same conclusion - it wasn’t science, it was “Design presupposes God.”
It’s not the ‘Democrat Party,’ as tho the unwashed masses are organized and interested,
it’s the fact that _most_ people are so damn stupid they buy the new pablum and promises
their ‘leaders’ convince them is the right way to think.
You can imagine how exciting the ‘revelation’ of realizing how hip it is to adopt the new
ideals that gender change, woke, DEI etc. are the future, and if you don’t embrace
these ridiculous notions you’re yesterday’s news.
Design does presuppose God.
The recent election was the latest battle in the war started in the garden of Eden. Trump is no saint , but his Democrat opponents clearly promote a program from the Prince of Darkness.
The person to ultimately settle accounts is Jesus, not any politician.
In the meantime, we can use our vote to encourage anyone closer to the ideals found between the pages of Genesis and Revelation.
By that standard, imperfect Trump was the obvious choice.
Self described atheists chose Kamala overwhelmingly, which makes total sense.
Keep praying for our elected leaders to bring peace and prosperity to our land. And keep looking up.
Mr. and Mrs. Barton , Oh my God! I don’t even know where to start It sounds like you’re elevating trump to a pedestal higher than God Himself. It sounds like you’re saying God anointed trump by nicking his ear. You say trump has suffered. He has not suffered more than what he has brought upon himself, with actual evidence, with his lies and false morals. Everything that you accuse the Democrats of doing, has been previously done and done better by trump, especially the divisiveness.
As for the children being indoctrinated to switch gender or to become gay, how does that even work? What’s the purpose? Apparently the way trump describes it, is you send your little boy or girl to school in the morning and by the time they get home in the afternoon they’re a girl and boy. So now instead of having a little boy and girl, you now have a little girl and boy. Sounds idiotic to me.
Surgery recovery is pretty quick, amazing what you can do in a day. As usual trump likes to follow conspiracies. Where is the proof that this is actually being done? As for turning children gay, there’s no need to turn anyone gay is it is a natural process from birth. You can’t turn someone gay. It’s strange that this only seems to happen in Florida. But, it is the capital of burning and banning books. Drag queens are not the danger they’re made out to be. The enemy is the conspiracy filled minds of the maga swarm.
Mr. Livingston, thank you for the bit of sympathy, and I’m sorry that you think I have a sour attitude, but if so, it started in 2016. Be thankful it didn’t turn into a hateful attitude like half the country, that’s when people that previously hid their hatefulness were allowed to express it openly. Hmm, I’m not sure how to take that one sentence about a safe space. Is there something going to happen in the next four years that you know about, that I would need a safe space? Unfortunately, some people will not find safe spaces as evil invades them, like a Chinese community near Seattle experiencing random stabbing attacks on their citizens. Then today it was reported a group of men, dressed in black, marching up and down a city street in Ohio, masked and carrying Nazi flags. The maga leader won, why are these cowards still committing crimes against American citizens?
Fascinating story. Somethings just don't need to be comment upon and the story presented is one of them.
When speaking or writing about humanity, why not use the word 'people' rather than 'man'? I'm suggesting the word people eliminates possible (and unnecessary) divisiveness.
The word "man" comes from the old English which included both sexes including children, It is
really sad that people are so offended so darn easily anymore. There are a lot more important things to worry about than the word "man" I think.
Thank you for this excellent essay on the parallelism of these two significant periods of our country. It brought back decades ago memories of my mother reading Witness and as a younger person I just saw a very thick book (I think there might have been photos I looked at in it). I am sure it must still be on the shelves in our family home. I shall ask my brother if it is.
I enjoyed learning a little more about history that I wasn’t aware of. Funny how people don’t speak like that anymore. I think some people called that progress.
Excellent JL. re:
“We tried it "their way" for the past few years. While there may have been isolated successes, . . ."
I’d sure be interested in knowing of one. Including ‘Biden’ and ‘successes’ in the same rap is just plain blasphemy! :)