Conservatives have always brought a squirt gun to a gun fight, which is why we always lose. Taking the high road may make us feel better about ourselves, but it doesn’t win wars. And in case you haven’t noticed - we’re in a war, probably the most serious this country has ever faced. Losing this war will lead to our complete demise.
I, for one, am ecstatic to see a very small group of conservatives starting to fight fire with fire. It’s about DAMN TIME!
Liberals see it the opposite way. We believe we take the high road and stand for principles while conservatives fight dirty.
Neither side is “the principled one.” We react to each other. A red state bans something, so a blue state mandates it. And vice versa. Both sides circumvent democracy when they have the opportunity.
It’s laughable to accuse the other side of “fighting dirty” when you literally have all the power. Those of us who watch actual news witness the corrupt way power is wielded by Dems who almost never pay consequences for their behavior. It is incredible the brainwashing job the mainstream media does. Just incredible. The propaganda is so masterful that it reminds me of the Third Reich.
I hadn't seen that and I was just on CNN's front page. I won't hold my breath that this court date won't be cancelled after a few weeks. Just like how school board's will delay a vote until the summer to avoid angry parents.
The police waited hours before testing Paul Pelosi, Nancy's husband, for DUI. Possibly this was in hopes that his blood alcohol level would drop below the legal limit of 0.08. It did not. It remains to be seen just how rough the prosecution will be on him.
It’s exactly the Third Reich it’s Nazi Germany we now have Nazi America the only thing different is the gender has changed it use to be men now it’s Nancy and her ilk and the propaganda is led not by Goebbels it’s led by MSM and these Giant corporations who have captured our America how we deal with this is what’s going to either make us or break us
Now this is spot on. Producing hardwired results such as a chartable uptick in homeschooling. Critical oversight in weighing out the performance deficits of all the institutions, Government on all three levels, education top-down, media in all its major formats, and increasingly, corporate "affairs" in love-locked boardroom sweet deals with what is so whimsically now called "Human" resources.
The love affair with Power is reaching a crescendo, the tipping point of which will become apparent this very late autumn when that national pastime of musical chairs in all our highest houses comes to rest just like a rigged roulette wheel. We can only hope someone figures out a way to kick that lead foot off the spin gear and let the thing play out honestly.
Former Dem. From McGovern in '72 thru Biden. Then I started looking outside my cubby hole.
You're right, Carina, in that both sides are a reaction to the other. To a point. But Liberals gave up the high moral ground a long time ago when they started canceling and banning. Do the Conservatives do it? Sure. But it's not proportional.
Amazon and Target do the banning. Who and what do the Conservatives ban? Serious question.
Seems to me that Lora B is right. Liberals hold the canons. Conservatives the squirt guns. ICBW.
Liberals aren't even the party of the working class anymore, and haven't been for some time. It's impossible to understand what happened to the left to a former lefty like myself.
This is true, but the problem is that the liberals have no way to combat the progressives given where they've positioned themselves on the issues that the progressives claim to represent. This effectively makes "liberals" progressives, even if in private they will acknowledge that progressives have gone too far and don't represent their values. They cave EVERY SINGLE TIME at every single institution.
Too true. A legal highjacking overlooked too long ago. Strange to think all this ramps up while the middle class shrinks, and the working class grows. And from where came the growth? It ain't all immigration, sweeties. A certain measure from a seriously growing number of really pissed off people. Who (if they're savvy enough) are figuring out that they don't really have much of anything in the way of actual representation anymore, and have not had such for quite some time.
The trouble with conservatives is they still think the other side appreciates and respects our system and its constitution. The other side meanwhile has redefined democracy to mean only their brand of totalitarianism.
They um, cannot respect a thing they wish to tear down. Having the hubris and the dysphoric dry heaves of stoned soul sloppy stupidity to actually think they can come up with something better.
Imagine a thing: someone who hates America far more from within, than any known enemy could ever possibly hate it from without.
A most peculiar form of familiarity that breeds a toxic kind of contempt, not ever known or visited before upon this land, since the inception of what we now commonly refer to as a national identity.
Our constitution, our bill of rights, and a whole table of Law give them the freedoms to do this. Imagine having been handed all that and still biting the hand that proffers it, like a rabid skunk.
They should be so lucky. There are places in this world where such enemies of the state would be 'disappeared' in the darkest hours of the night. Gone like a weird assorted collection of foul tooth fairies, Santa clauses, Easter bunnies, and assorted other fantasy actors we entertain our children with.
Sometimes I can really believe that our best weapon to fight back, is the fact that whoever tends to be opposed to this insanity, also tends to be in possession of enough clarity of vision to figure out how vapid, shallow, formless and weak are the foundations upon which this ideology has been erected. The only thing it has going for it really, is Power. And power is a fascinatingly fleeting thing. All by itself, it sticks to no-one - out of honor, respect, loyalty, belief, faith, morality, ethics, or much of anything else. It is as slippery as the mistake of placing human-friendly values on what we kindly refer to as Acts of God - those massive upheavals of nature so brutal and remorselessly exacting. Which is why abuse of power against the common good is never really a good idea.
“ Our constitution, our bill of rights, and a whole table of Law give them the freedoms to do this. Imagine having been handed all that and still biting the hand that proffers it, like a rabid skunk.”
I know!! You’d think they’d have some gratitude, eh?!
But the ironic thing is that conservatives are far more muscular and able to man the cannons. They just don't. Which speaks volumes. Until, of course, real hostilities break out.
I don’t know where/how conservatives “ban” abortion, or, for that matter, don’t know what conservatives “ban” period. But, on the abortion topic, I think it is a matter of belief in the sanctity of life and the belief that abortion is the killing of life, a violation of the Commandments those who are Biblically religious believe in. Science will tell you that a fertilized egg is indeed “life”, but understands that that life is not viable until a certain stage of development. Personally, it seems to me that to the degree we have not found a compromise on which each side of the argument can agree, neither side is really “right”. Based on that, and the reality that the former is based in “belief” and the latter in scientific knowledge, my position is that the decision whether or not to abort can only properly be between a woman and her doctor (with due influence from the bio father if he is made aware of the conception), each of whom must consult their own consciences and live with their decision.
Remember when liberals denied the outcomes of all three Republican presidential victories?
Remember how Republicans responded by making it illegal to question election outcomes, and then targeted any Democrat who did for shaming and punishment?
Wait, that didn't happen, because Republicans would never stoop to the depths of evil we're seeing from Democrats today. Republicans still actually believe in the foundational concepts of our country, which liberals abandoned long ago.
And that's just one examples, there are legions of others.
Yes you "stood on principle" when you spread lies about Kavanaugh's gang rape, then a year later you buried the investigation into Joe's sexual abuse. You stand on principle when you tweet "me too" and simultaneously ignore that your party leaders are trying to bribe off rape victims to protect their donors.
You "stand on principle" when you ignore Tony Timpa's death but build literal shrines to George Floyd.
You "stand on principle" when everybody in the country knows Bill Clinton abused women for his entire career, and Democrats continue to protect him.
What actually are your principles? Kindness? Only to your friends. Empathy? That's a joke. Liberalism? That died under Obama.
Liberals live in a world of delusional lies where Smollett's absurd hoax makes perfect sense. Of course you think you're the good guys, you are brainwashed by the leftist propaganda network.
False equivalence. You probably thought it was "cute" when crazy Maxine screeched to "get up in their faces." Or when conservatives were harassed at dinner and other events. Ask yourself how "protests" at public officials homes just "spontaneously" take place. Do you just off hand know the address of Supreme Court Justices? I don't. And do you wonder why these people aren't arrested for breach of the peace and, in the Justices case, violation of federal law? Conservatives do not act like this. Leftists own this garbage.
There is no democracy involved when gender ideologues bypass public debate and the legislative process by using the unelected and unaccountable bureaucracy to push through their changes. Look at the Title IX changes. No law changed, just the "interpretation" of the law changed. Instead of going through the legislative process, leftists/Democrats change the commonly held meaning by regulatory fiat. The same people who complain about the Supreme Court being undemocratic, which is the entire point of the Supreme Court, then use the unelected bureaucrats at the DOE to legislate.
Sticking to principles is hard. Yes, both sides fall short but the difference is so massively lop-sided, it's not even a comparison. Abigail makes a great point - when is the last time a left/progressive book was pulled? Which Democratic leaning newspaper covered the attempted assassination of Kavanaugh? Why did I get an email from my woke company about Trans Remembrance Day but nothing about the women killed by their husbands and boyfriends every single day? No day of visibility for women who survived domestic abuse, not to mention the children who witnessed it. Look a the NFL. A coach fined for stating the 2020 riots were worse than 1/6. You think a coach would be fined for stating that white supremacy isn't to blame for the black v. white educational achievement gap in this country? Fat chance.
I welcome the backlash. May it be swift ands strong.
I'm a former Democrat who voted D all the way down my entire life. The election of Trump changed things for me and it's hard to overstate the massive eye opening I experienced. I look forward to the backlash against crazy. May it come soon and be swift and crush the crazy.
Carina liberals abandoned the high road when not a one spoke against Ted Kennedy's egregious diatribe against Judge Bork. Nor did they speak up when Justice Thomas was subjected to (as he called it) a high-tech lynching during his confirmation hearing. Those are just two examples of the liberal "high road" you speak of
I would like to know what your principles are that you would defend these horrors happening to our country’s children. And how you can possibly defend the veritable book burning of which Abigail speaks. If you don’t defend these things then perhaps you have not been paying attention to your side’s extremely dirty tricks abusing all the power they have.
Yes, it is conservative nature to be reasonable, polite, and keep on working and to do the responsible thing and abide the constitution…. the left who are true “liberals” as in the original sense notwithstanding, today’s “leftists” have been a lawbreaking, constitution and democracy-hating mob and I DO NOT CARE that I’ll be hated for telling this truth. Today we’ve got key politicians sanctioning the illegal behavior of harassing Supreme Court justices and other dems literally calling for violence and nothing happens. Your other commenter says conservatives play dirty??!! She has not been paying attention. Apparently doesn’t know about the unbelievable dirty tricks by Hillary and her ilk against another prez candidate. I for one am getting old and I care a lot less now about remaining polite and nice and asking these people to have respect for the half the country that doesn’t want little kids’ puberty stopped and little girls’ breasts cut off.
And the ongoing political two-step rhumba, eternally tap-dancing over a cliff with boot bells and lambada skirts, while the band plays Dixie and Trixie go to Casino-rama, helps our nation's children exactly how and in which ways toward what ends?
We've been throwing this spaghetti on the wall for forty years. We're only now just noticing that small slight hint of desperation (in ourselves) that we keep pointing out with righteous fingers, at who it is we oppose? As if this were ever a thing by any means necessary.
A decade ago I jumped in with both feet and researched the crap out of CPS, its history, growth, mandates, functions, weaponization, impact upon the nation, and upon families, and upon kids, and so very much more. It is not a pretty story. It is a thing that shames the nation.
If we wind up fighting a war over our children, we would do well to consider the best ways of waging this in order that our children do not become collateral damage. They have been royally fucked over enough as it is, already.
Are you kidding? Conservatives have stolen children and murdered adults over ideology for centuries now. That's another reason I say this movement isn't leftist. It's just right-wingers who don't go to church, doing what right-wingers always do.
I am a traditional Liberal (I guess you could call me a "1990s and earlier Liberal") and yes, I greatly object to censorship, delisting, canceling, disinviting, removal from Amazon (and eBay and Target and Powells and Barnes and Noble etc.) of any book. I don't want to read a Pro-Life book, but I don't want it removed or censored. I'm still waiting for second hand copies of those "banned" Dr. Seuss books to come down low enough in price that I can afford a copy of McElligot's Pool, my favorite Seuss book of childhood. It's appalling that his works were removed from Amazon and libraries. It's also appalling that the American Library Association removed Laura Ingalls Wilder's name from the award created in her honor because a bunch of 2 dimensional thinkers screamed at them about her depictions of white settlers who were anti-Native American. Never mind that one of the women in question had seen her entire family massacred by Native Americans. Never mind that Wilder goes out of her way to show that the characters who are critical of Native Americans are less noble and tolerant than her own family, who actually hide a Native American man in their cabin when a gang of armed white men comes after him. It calls into question the integrity and legitimacy of every award they give out, including the Newberry Award.
I will always support Classical Liberal values like free speech, free thought, free expression, open debate, a free press, etc. I also don't think it is "liberal" to expose young children to drag queens. Or to free violent felons from prisons and defund the police. What on earth is Liberal about that? These are radical anarchic Leftists.
I don't know. I imagine there are many like me who are lurking and watching with appalled fascination at what has become of the Left. I think with the right candidate we would all reactivate.
That’s me, too. I was a staunch Democrat up through the last election. It was only after Biden was inaugurated that I realized what the administration’s was doing to make gender surpass sex. I was so blinded by my negative feelings towards Trump that I didn’t see what was happening. I wish I hadn’t been so ignorant.
I am truly concerned about the way gender ideology has captured so many institutions. Real ppl are suffering already bc of these ideas - women in prison being forced to share space with violent prisoners from men’s prisons. 86% of female inmates are survivors of sexual violence, and Democrats could care less about retraumatizing them by forcing them to live in total fear. They want to please progressive donors, & only care about sexual violence if the alleged perpetrator is a SCOTUS nominee they can use for fundraising campaigns.
I was appalled when Biden went to a town hall during his campaign and spoke in favor of "transitioning" little kids. There was an 8 year old girl being celebrated "as a boy" - trotted out and fussed over as he declared this was the next civil rights movement.
Depending on the numbers of you that see what’s going on, there may yet be hope of a return to the ideals of our democracy in which real debate and discourse are possible and cool heads prevail to do what is good for the country.
They have stolen your party it seems. Many talk about political homelessness and it’s really unfortunate. The phrase, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” comes to mind here. I believe we’re all going to have to join together against them.
Yes. The problem is that liberals who are upset and appalled by the way things are going simply don't vote rather than vote for a non-Democrat. (And the same applies to conservative voters who are upset and appalled by the Republicans.)
I see this same, self-reported behavior from voters in similar party breakdowns in the UK and elsewhere ... party-affiliated voters regularly express extreme unhappiness with their own side on Twitter and other sites, but write that they will sit the election out, since they can't vote for their party's candidate but also can't bring themselves to vote for the "other side."
The problem with this approach is that neither the Democrat nor the Republican parties interpret low turnout as an indication that their tribe is unhappy with them. Sure, they'd rather "their people" vote for them, but as long as they're not voting for their opponents, all is good.
So far Republican turnout seems to be incredibly high, just look at Georgia. The question is will elected Republicans actually do anything. It seems to me Republicans voters want a Desantis, but nationally the the GOP doesn't have an appetite for escalation.
I've always voted Dem, I didn't vote for either president in 2020 and voted for some right candidates locally for the first time in my life last election. I'm astonished what has happened to the left. I'm even more surprised how the left has no ability to push back against this. The left has painted itself into an ideological corner and are completely captive to a relatively small percentage of social revolutionaries within their ranks.
Escalation is a scary thing to consider but there do not appear to be any incentives in place to take the principled road at this point. Analogous to there now being no incentive to publicly apologize for doing something wrong anymore (the wolves will still devour you, just in a more weakened state). With all the other problems facing us I don't think you can understate just how dangerous of times we are living through right now. Add a (bad) recession to this situation, with high inflation, and it's very hard to predict in what kind of shape we will emerge from this decade.
You have to remember that #1 in the dems playbook is to all stick together no matter what, and their party has been taken over by the most unsavory among them.
I am a life long conservative who believes in all of those things. The problem with the "classical liberals" posting below is that they don't seem to know any conservatives.
I can only speak for myself as a former Democrat, but I’m embarrassed at how closed-minded I was in not listening to any conservative sources. I was in an echo chamber. Doing my part now to take in a variety of viewpoints, & make up my own mind instead of going along with the any party’s narrative.
I am a liberal at heart but I do not know what party I belong to. As a former refugee from the Soviet Union, as a young person I was for all sorts of freedoms and against censorship. During Obama years I became independent. Then I registered as a Republican to make a difference in the election. Then I returned to being independent. And then I had to register as a democrat to vote in the NYC mayoral election democratic primaries to make sure a crazy progressive did not win (there were a few of them on the ballot). I am politically homeless as I hear from many centrists, and there is no party affiliation that makes me comfortable. Everyone has moved to fringes. Let’s be honest, not many of us with common sense are left.
In NYC, in order to keep the Democrats from going totally woke, it helps to be an enrolled Democrat. That being the case, on a national level, there are plenty of so called Reagan Democrats who voted for Trump twice and would vote for DeSantis, and who supported both Moynihan and DeAmato as senators , who would vote for Schumer in a primary challenge from the left , vote against Gillibrand , who would vote for real Republican challengers to both and probably vote for a Republican gubernatorial candidate as well.
What the hell more can you do? Seriously; you looked in a mirror and decided to grow. That's laudable.
The fear I have is of having conservatives becoming smug. I don't need any 'I told ya so' shit; lord knows there's a L O T of shortcomings on that side of the aisle as well.
I really would appreciate seeing someone who's a conservative admit a view they used to hold that is now patently wrong. I'm not going to point any out; I'm hoping for some courage.
Instead of a 'See? Told ya so?', I'd appreciate much more a sort of 'Whoa, I hear ya. I used to think XXX and YYY was absolutely right' kind of attitude.
Hmmm. That’s a tough one. After being gaslighted for years and treated like absolute idiot scum because of my conservative views (I’m just too stupid to understand why I’m wrong…) by every liberal/leftist I’ve ever encountered, that’s a big ask. Not because I lack humility, but because I tried to have reasonable discussions a thousand times and was treated like I wasn’t worthy of even being heard. You tell me if you would then immediately jump to humility the minute they finally are shocked out of their mindset and see exactly what you were saying all along…
You posted this a few days ago and I sat on replying b/c I had to wrestle with being honest.
My first inclination was to virtue signal and say all sorts of bs about how it's better to be noble and generous and all sorts of crap like that.
But the truth is I wouldn't, and I didn't want to admit it.
Nahhh...
If someone (other than one of my kids) admitted to me that I was right and they were wrong over a socio/political topic we hammered each other over, one that I had been subjected to ridicule or worse about...
Nahhh...
I'd pound on 'em. I'd have a lot to get off my chest, and I'd let 'em have it.
Wow. Thanks Jim for your honest and thoughtful reply. I didn’t really expect that! ;)
I do wish human nature was more noble, and that we could automatically be kinder to those who finally see. But something about your comment sort of demanding generosity when little has been given got under my skin, lol.
But I hope that we all keep trying to reach higher, and lead by example no matter what side we’re on. I’ll keep trying, but can’t promise that a few “I told you so’s” won’t slip out now and then, haha!
I’m so happy to have so many former liberals (and others!) waking up to some of the things I’ve been shouting from the rooftops about for years. Happy to have you all, along with all the great contributions you will make!
Yes! I'm definitely a "classical liberal" who believes staunchly in freedom and open-mindedness and I am ALWAYS up for a discussion of any issue with good-will, logic, and humility by all parties. But my friends and acquaintances have simply not seen what I started to see happening to our country and our society in the past few decades and they have reacted with complete disgust and refusal to hear even the tiniest point that might go against their assumed narrative. I mean the TINIEST point. I told my oldest friend a year ago that I was getting very concerned about Paypal and credit cards denying people financial freedom based on their viewpoints and she hung up on me and didn't speak to me for a year. Then she called out of the blue and acted like nothing had happened!
And yes, there are definitely ways that my views have changed to become more to the Left side of things. For instance, even though I am a career prosecutor, I have seen too much to have the complete faith in policing I used to have, although I am still an overall strong supporter of law enforcement. I also was never in favor of heavy sentencing in some cases, and strict 3-strikes application no matter what the individual circumstances. I'm more than willing to admit that, and more.
But that river only runs one way and all of us who want peace and normalcy in our public lives again are drowning.
I was brought up in a fairly liberal house where the NYT and Walter Cronkite were viewed as infallible. As protests against Vietnam turned violent and the civil rights movement segued into demands for quotas and a not small dose of anti Semitism, radical feminists ( whose ideology was radical from the onset) and environmentalists and appeasement of Arab terror became fashionable , I found a new intellectual home at the monthly pages of Commentary Magazine and it became apparent that the left was aiming at all who lived by traditional moral codes-whether Orthodox Jews or evangelical Christians. I also support " free speech, free thought, free expression, open debate, a free press, etc" but exposing young children to drag queens , defunding the police, emptying jails and destroying our energy self sufficiency are radical ideas that have to be fought by all possible legal means
starving and abused and battered children, molested children as far as the eye can see but your plan is to throw all possible legal means at drag queens, who have molested zero. stupid, stupid, and more stupid.
I am also for "free speech, free thought, free expression, open debate, a free press, etc" as well as equal rights for gay and trans people. I do not wish for there to be any legal actions against drag queens. I just recognize drag for what it is, adult entertainment. It always was until around 5 minutes ago. There is nothing wrong with it, but I do not think small children understand it and I don't think that the people behind drag queens reading to five year olds in libraries are doing it for the children's sake. I do not think drag queens have molested anyone either. I don't know why you threw that in there. I agree with your other comment - there are many things children are exposed to now that are inappropriate - the Kardashians, porn, Only Fans, violent rap, etc. And no I don't think drag queen evenings for kids is remotely on the same level as molestation, starvation, and abuse. I just don't think they are age appropriate.
Um, get over your homophobia. Children are exposed to every single boogie woogie, goblin and ghoul, Santa's lap, Super Bowl striptease, and Kardashian ass in the world but a man in woman's clothing is FIGHT WITH ALL POSSIBLE LEGAL MEANS?
Oh ok, and when you throw the lawyers at the homos because every costume is acceptable in America except the drag queen -- what then? More bubbling Kardashian asses and Eminem rants about guns and driving women into the river, I'd presume... no fighting that with all (or any) possible legal means for you even though parents have their children practically rolling in it all -- and shooting guns as 6-yr-olds.
No child should be brainwashed or groomed into believing that they are not the gender that they were born as Gender fluidity is child abuse and medical malpractice masquerading as junk science
Amen! The wilder debacle is so indicative of how stupid this all is. As a parent I hope I’m doing a better job of giving my kids some historical perspective so they don’t fall into the same flat thinking.
Very well said, ClemenceDane. I agree wholeheartedly. I, too, was heartbroken by the sudden and unexpected "disappearing" of "McElligot's Pool" (and "On Beyond Zebra," for that matter). The sad situation was made worse by Amazon and eBay both deciding that sellers and buyers could not transact for the books on their sites, as if loving or reading these inspirational books was the worst kind of "hate" behavior.
I can already hear the Whataboutery from my friends on the Left...but but what about that school in Alabama that banned "To Kill A Mockingbird"? Wasn't there a librarian in Tennessee that banned Toni Morrison? And isn't this all just made up by Fox News? etc etc ad infinitum...
Liberals will remain locked in a state of severe cognitive dissonance because it cuts so deeply against their self-conception to even entertain the notion that they have become censorious zealots (not to mention child mutilators) and just might not be "on the Right Side of History."
The idea of maximum personal autonomy has become so sacrosanct to liberals that they will even suggest sex changes to children because "Hey, it's their choice" or "Whatever they need to be happy" aka no one should be denied anything on the road to Finding their Authentic Self (TM). This is deeply irresponsible nihilism disguised as liberation. (And as with things like Defund the Police etc, whatever terrible effects come later from their policies, they likely won't be personally affected anyway.)
Those aren't liberals. They are left-wing ideologues and authoritarians. I am liberal and do not believe in censoring works or views I disagree with. I also believe it is irresponsible to the point of being a crime that anyone would perform sex change surgery on minors or potentially sterilizing sex hormone treatment. For this I have been labeled a 'TERF.'
In a sane world, I would also argue against sending CPS to investigate these parents. We don’t live in such a world anymore. It seems like governors fighting back is the only plausible solution although, one that should be taken with caution. It’s a slippery slope and a classic case of “dammed if I do, dammed if I don’t”.
Please add Lisa Selin Davis to your list of the few brave lefties speaking out on this issue. Lisa has risked so much to try to bring nuance to reporting on this issue. And thanks Abigail for continuing to write about this, as well.
I appreciate this perspective, but my North Star is and always has been civil liberties. When you encroach on civil liberties to gain a victory for "your side," you inevitably reap what you sow. We know that bureaucracies have been corrupted by the parasitic ideas of the woke left. If you accept the legitimacy of the principle that CPS may intervene in parenting on ideological grounds - be it failure to provide "gender affirming care" or taking one's child to a drag show - that will only further empower these ideologically-corrupt institutions. These institutions will then inevitably use their expanded powers - the underlying principles of which have been endorsed by both parties - to further monitor and punish non-woke "wrong-thinkers."
This is what keeps me, as a disaffected liberal, from supporting Republicans. They use the language of civil liberties when it supports their agenda, but it remains quite clear that this is opportunistic and that civil liberties are not a sincerely held value. You can't defeat left-authoritarianism with right-authoritarianism. You can only defeat it with sincere embrace of freedom, which remains a deeply held value among (I hope and pray) a majority of ordinary Americans, as much as the ideological corruption of the professional managerial class obscures this reality. A principled civil libertarian agenda is the long game here, but it is the only one that has a chance of winning out, however long that may take.
"This is what keeps me, as a disaffected liberal, from supporting Republicans. They use the language of civil liberties when it supports their agenda, but it remains quite clear that this is opportunistic and that civil liberties are not a sincerely held value."
Nonsense. We deeply distrust government - as did our Founders - and would not ever think of giving government greater power. For any reason. That's why conservatives cautioned against stupidity such as the hilariously named "Patriot Act." We knew it would be misused against the liberties of Americans.
Umm... The Patriot Act was signed into law by GWB. And every Republican senator voted for it. The House vote among Republicans was 211 - 3. Among Democrats it was a slightly better 145-62. And the Republicans only got worse about civil liberties as the "war on terror" progressed.
There are a few principled civil libertarians in the Republican party, like Rand Paul, but they are few and far between. The Republicans led the charge in eviscerating civil liberties following 9/11, and Democrats are only now catching up in their utter contempt for basic rights due to Trump derangement syndrome and Covid hysteria. So, no, I don't buy the argument that the Republicans are the civil libertarian party. Both parties are absolutely wretched in terms of protecting the basic rights and upholding the vision of the Founders.
You are not wrong. Republicans are not conservatives. And the old liberals who used to care about civil rights are almost completely vanished from the Democrat party.
I don't trust Republicans either. Look at Utah. The governor vetoed the bill protecting girls' sports. Unbelievable. They will sell us down the river like the Democrats did. They are, however, the only option at this point.
David, this is wishful thinking, like unilateral disarmament always is. You’re patting yourself on the back for your virtue.
Why on earth should the woke change their behavior, if it works for them and has no downside? What is their incentive to behave differently?
Remember, the independent council statute stayed on the books as long as it was used only against Republican Presidents. Only when it was used against a Democrat, it was allowed to lapse.
I'm definitely not advocating unilateral disarmament. I definitely do not want society to capitulate to the woke left. It is a question of tactics. Do we try to redirect the artillery of bureaucracy and tech censorship back towards the left, or do we try to dismantle that artillery? Ms. Shrier (who is, BTW, a hero) is flirting with the former, while I advocate the latter.
An example can be found in tech censorship. My position is essentially that First Amendment speech protections should apply to Big Tech to the same extent it applies to government. Appropriate legislation should be pursued to accomplish this goal. The more aggressive approach would be to push Big Tech to become equal opportunity censors, censoring leftist views to at least the same extent they censor right-leaning views. This approach of redirecting artillery at the left I believe would be a big mistake. We should oppose censorship in all its forms, rather than advocate for censorship of the woke.
Another good example of what this difference looks like in practice can be found in the CRT realm. The Chris Rufo approach is to aim the artillery at woke teachers and administrators by enacting new laws that, often very crudely, restrict speech in the classroom. The attorney general of Montana, on the other hand, wrote a memo detailing the aspects of CRT in the classroom are already illegal under well-established law. https://dojmt.gov/attorney-general-knudsen-issues-binding-opinion-on-critical-race-theory/. The Rufo approach seeks to expand bureaucratic artillery and aim it squarely at the left, whereas the Montana attorney general seeks only to promote and protect existing rights. The latter approach, in my view, is the wiser one.
TY for Your views, David. This is a sure winner, IMO. Montana's AG statement is great! I only took time to skim it. But he takes on KenDiAngelo and all-a that. A brief quote on the ludicrous views, which most-a You probably already heard of:
"On the Smithsonian NMAAHC’s page dealing with 'Whiteness,' it asserted at one point that traits such as 'individualism,' 'hard work,' 'objectivity,' 'progress,' 'politeness,' 'decision-making,' and 'delayed gratification' as hallmarks of 'white culture.'46 Training materials from Argonne National Laboratories, a Federal entity, stated that racism ‘‘is interwoven into every fabric of America’’ and described statements like ‘‘color blindness’’ and the ‘‘meritocracy’’ as ‘‘actions of bias.’’
"I would like to note that all of these traits identified above, far from being hallmarks of merely 'white culture,' are in fact important hallmarks of a virtuous and productive colorblind society. None of them, however, have any connection to 'whiteness' or 'white identity.' They are self-evident virtues—universally applicable to and shared by people of all races, colors, creeds, and national origins. Because men and women are created equal, they can all equally appreciate and adopt those values."
I hope you are right, but the tide never seems to turn. While the principled folks want to do it the right way our university system, especially on the elite side, has seen the full embrace of radical left ideas, in almost all disciplines. Corporations have gone the same way. Big tech too (and of course we could all go on).
I've resolved that mutually assured destruction is probably the only push back capable of actually winning. While Rufo has been a bit crude in his approach at times I can't think of a single right activist that has been as effective as him. Look at what is happening at school boards across the nation. It strikes me that Rufo was a former lefty and I can't help but think that has something to do with his success. Read about labor unions in the past that found that when Marxists gained leadership positions they would quickly change all the rules to ensure they could no longer be challenged anymore. I don't know if this movement is Marxist, that's not my point, I just know they will do whatever it takes to gain and maintain power. Whether Rufo gets these laws in place, or the AG wins his case, these teachers will continue to teach this stuff because they don't care about laws. The solutions here probably has to be far more radical (like full school choice where all money follows the child, giving parents the ability to carefully screen schools. Also making university loans private, which would force the universities hand on many of these costly far left programs that offer little return to their students job prospects).
Rufo understands the issues very well, as do Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin. "American Marxism" is must reading on CRT, gender fluidity and climate change as all different variations of Marxism rooted in Marcuse
David, you suggest that “First Amendment speech protections should apply to Big Tech to the same extent it applies to government. Appropriate legislation should be pursued to accomplish this goal.”
Sounds good; but if it involves a Constitutional amendment, the Democrats will block it. Or, if it can be done as legislation, sans amendment, then a Democratic filibuster in the Senate will block it. Because the current system works for them. Whatever the solution is, in other words, it will have to be something else.
On the other hand, speech in the classroom is already restricted. Teachers are not invited speakers, brought in to give their personal views. They are agents of the public education authority, which tells them what they can say. And in Democrat-controlled jurisdictions, they are already ordered to engage in woke propaganda.
Where Democrats control the state government, probably nothing can be done. On the other hand, Democratic jurisdictions within Republican states can have their ability to indoctrinate children at least hindered by legislation.
If this becomes extensive enough, Democrats might eventually see it as in their interest to compromise on the indoctrination of children.
Civil liberties are definitely a a sincerely held value for real conservatives. Washington DC conservatives, I suspect, are nothing like those in my Midwest conservative county. I don’t like lumping all republican voters in with the politicians and far right who do not make up the majority of us. Other than that difference of opinion, David, I fully with you! Thanks.
"Si vis pacem, para bellum." (If you want peace, prepare for war.) Vegetius, 4th century AD
It may sound contradictory. Even crazy. But it is both rational and proven effective, to desire one thing while holding its opposite in hand.
I want to prosper. But I'm not greedy. I want to be left alone. I want to live in peace. Game theory says the best way for me to get those things is to make certain that everyone knows that I'm willing to retaliate if anyone tries to take those from me. I am not abandoning my goal, and I will return to it just as soon as my opponent lets me.
Thank you for this comment. I wrote an essay about DQSH on my Substack a few days ago where I suggested that parents have the responsibility on deciding if they should take their kids to it or not. I had conservatives disagree with me. But removing parental autonomy is much worse, as once you accept that, you accept that the state can have the power to actually do the opposite of what you want. Imagine if kids were forced to go to DQSH or learn CRT? Dangerous precedent.
When will people see the light? The lunatic mob of the left cannot, does not, will not work by the same rules we hold ourselves to. To complain that this tech platform won't allow my views, or that publisher won't publish isn't going to stop, if we keep trying to play by their rules, on their field, with their ball. There are always alternatives to the easiest way. I have not purchased from any of the book resellers for over five years now. Buy from the publisher, or the small shop, or the author directly. Will the title make the author the same money, will it make the NYT bestseller list? Probably not, but who cares. If the message is worth printing, print it, sell it, promote it, don't complain because the bully won't do you a favor.
As to the open of the article about Desantis and CPS, I say YES please do! There are limits to parental authority, we should all know that. The LGBTQwhatever crowd are grooming our kids, they are warping their minds, they are endangering their health and safety. Any parent that takes their CHILD to a drag queen show, a pride parade, or any of the other show/demonstration/parade where the front and center focus is sexuality, is sexualizing the child, their CHILD!!! It is abuse. Any parent that allows or worse yet pushes, gender transition on a child is not worthy of raising their child and should be investigated by CPS.
This insanity will not end by appeasing the lunatic fringe. Show some courage. Show some respect to the children. Show some integrity to reality.
Yes. Because the lunatic fringe will never be appeased. Nothing you can do will ever be enough. They will destroy every institution and everything good about democracy if we keep trying to appease them. We have to draw a line in the sand.
Ah yes, the casual homophobia reveals itself. Calling gay people "groomers" is so 1950s ... equating homosexuality with child abuse is such an old boring bigotry.
Colin Wright’s banning from Etsy is not a new development. 5 or so years ago a few Gender Critical women had items on Etsy taken down at the behest of TRAs and when lots of women complained about TRA accounts selling items threatening to harm & kill TERFS they (Etsy) but they ignored us completely. Radio silence. This is why a number of us started boycotting Etsy many years ago.
I take a very hardline approach against the "transgender" activists because this mealey mouthed, pussyfooting around just isn't working. Every year, heck every week, the activists raise their demands.
On Sunday, the NYT published an article about a writer, Sandra Newman, who wrote a moderately woke book, The Men, and was then attacked for being "transphobic."
This is the comment I wrote and submitted. Of course, it was never posted.
"Everyone who's fed up with the stranglehold the woke left has on our society needs to head on over to amazon and buy this book. Let's launch it to first place on the best seller list. Send the message that the nonsense filled propaganda and censorship we've been subjected to just won't cut it any more."
"Then while you're at it, amble on over to Jennifer Bilek's excellent 11th Hour Blog which explains why all this counterfactual insanity suddenly exploded a few years ago like a carbuncle, spraying rancid pus within every institution in our society. Hint: follow the money, the big money, the big fill-in-the-blanks money.
"NYT, I challenge you to prove your institution hasn't been completely captured by the censorship of the activist left. I challenge you to print this comment. And print it in a timely manner. Thank you."
Submitted to the NYT on 6/12/22 at 5:21pm, Eastern Time.
"And last week, I was outraged to learn that my favorite, new skincare company, Biossance was contributing 5% of their sales on a particular product to some "trans" education group in Texas. So this is what I wrote:
"I've been using almost the full line of Biossance products for the past two months and love the way it's improved the look and feel of my skin. But I'm not writing to you today about your wonderful, squalane based skincare line. I'm writing about your political messaging.
"I was all set to purchase $100 worth of products on your website this morning. But then I read your company plans to donate 5% of sales for one particular product to a group called the Transgender Education Network of Texas, and I never completed the order. I believe you're making an egregious error in assuming your women customers support the controversial indoctrination of minor children in Texas or anywhere else in this country. We don't.
"When your company ventures into fraught issues like "transgenderism," you send a message that you do not respect the sex based rights of women or the reality of human sexual dimorphism. You also send the message that women only safe spaces in prisons, domestic shelters, locker rooms, spas, and bathrooms should be abolished. And you send the message that it's perfectly acceptable to sacrifice the concept of fairness in women's sport to satisfy the demands of a tiny minority of men.
"I know one young woman who "transitioned" two years ago when she started taking testosterone in college. In November, she had a double mastectomy and was extremely positive about turning herself into a man. Last month, she finally came to her senses and detransitioned in her early twenties. Now, all the skincare products in the world will not restore her feminine appearance or her long term health prospects. And as time goes on, there will be an ever increasing number, tens of thousands of these women, their friends, and families who will see every attempt to change one's sex as a dangerous and colossal mistake.
"I urge Biossance to remove that controversial offer from your website and to limit any future activism to noncontroversial movements that everyone supports such as saving the sharks and the oceans."
This is the woke boilerplate response I received. By the way, I never did place that order:
"Hi Nancy,
"Thank you for taking the time to write in.
"We are sorry to hear that this cause is not in line with your values, though we are proud to offer this promotion during Pride Month as it aligns with our values, and the values of Jonathan Van Ness, our beloved brand ambassador.
"If this means you no longer want to support our brand, that is entirely your choice though of course we hope you'll reconsider.
"Respectfully,
"With love and squalane,
"Ginger
Biossance Customer Care"
And by the way, the detransitioner whom I mentioned in my email to Biossance. Yes, she's the same young woman I wrote about on Abigail's substack before, the daughter of a deceased old friend. Destroys her appearance, her voice and, most likely, her health with male hormones. Then gets a double mastectomy last fall. And now she suddenly decides she's really a woman after all.
Don't waste your time ,money and energy with the NYT which is an expensive Twitter page run by the Twitter mob and which has a very sorry historical record of supporting woke causes for decades
You can find books by conservatives on the NYT best seller list and the WSJ best seller list as well. Mark Levin's "American Marxism" sold millions of copies and all of Ben Shapiro's books also have appeared there as well. Any book that has been subjected to cancel culture probably has led many conservatives to buy it even at Amazon which then knows what kind of a reader you are and are not.
What terrifies me about all this, as a married gay man living a quiet, rather conventional life, is the inevitable backlash against the lesbian and gay community who aren’t supportive of early medicalization—who see it for what it is—a medicalized form of conversion therapy. We will be lumped in with these trans activists and made to take the blame too. Our tenuous wins on the marriage front and more generally our level of acceptance by society at large could be erased by this terrible issue, which I firmly believe the trans activists will lose once enough families realize the harm it’s causing their children.
It seems there was such a large activist apparatus built up around gay rights, which was incredibly lucrative, that there was simply no stopping the gravy train. They needed the next cause and they needed to push harder and harder. Meanwhile the gay people I personally know are no different than you, and in some cases horrified at the movement that purports to represent them. What a mess.
The radicals have taken over and everyone will suffer for it. Think of the children who have been mutilated, amputated and sterilized over the past decade. They are collateral damage too.
I feel for Ya. But I wish more with Your views would step out and be heard. The "T" added on to the "LGB" was a create tactic. And it'll keep working as long as nobody objects. IMO.
actually there is a lesbian/gay organization dedicated to fighting radical trans ideology. We’re out here and we are speaking up. Even this article featured a gay teacher that did not want to teach trans ideology.
Those things are good to "hear" about. Problem is that the pushback is small relative to the push of the Ts. I don't think I posted on these comments that it sure seems to me that "gender-affirming" care is medicalized conversion therapy against gays and lesbians. If I did, sorry for redundancy. I say that because, according to some, if left to their own devices the majority of so-called trans people would revert to being LGB.
I can't understand why the whole *community* isn't up in arms against this. Dunno.
For the most a the time before LGB marriage, they were marginalized. But they overcame that. I hope they do that again, against the Ts this time. Your hope is mine.
The “Truce” we need (and I want) requires us to do to them *exactly* what they do to us. Unilateral disarmament is for chumps. DeSantis is lightyears ahead of politicians and pundits on this, but he’s exactly where the normals are. He takes the oath 1/20/25, not a moment too soon.
We absolutely should not “escalate” this issue, for all the reasons well stated. We are gaining ground, and there are enough affected parents and families that as more join and when they seek out answers (as I did) they should take comfort in the position you started this journey (as a leftish person who followed the story where it led and interviewed the scientists). There are enough of us I feel like we can work on state wide policies and have a voice in the next election. Unnecessarily escalating the culture wars doesn’t help us. Amplifying the voices and sharing concerns of destroyed families, and global scientific reservations and the lack of data does.
Specifically to the question of drag queens, Andrew Sullivan once wrote a long time ago/pre Covid, and I don’t remember the context, that children are drawn to drag queens because of the theatricality. I think it might have been regarding drag queens reading children’s books. I can see why they would be good at it. I once happened to be gay pride event with my then toddler and he loved it. I definitely believe in parental rights on this one, even ignoring the many, many LGB allies we have in supporting this issue and the underlying science that there are two sexes.
DeSantis is completely wrong here. The fight should be for parents rights - that is the fight that won Virginia for the Republicans, and it is a morally unassailable platform for the vast majority of the electorate.
What DeSantis is proposing is a complete reversal of that principle, and will be used as precedent for leftist institutions to take gender decisions out of the hands of parents. It would also cede the moral high ground. It would be massive mistake.
A vigorous and principled defense of the moral and legal justification for parents rights is the best strategy for conservatives on this issue, as well as curriculum related issues.
"will be used as precedent for leftist institutions to take gender decisions out of the hands of parents"
That ship has sailed. I live in CA, allow me to assure you that when Democrats control everything, they view your children as belonging to the state, not to you.
And until then what, stand by and watch as our boys are castrated and made eunuchs and our daughters made sterile with their breasts chopped off. No way.
It's a big jump from parents attending a drag show with kids to castration. Furthermore it's not clear how an apparently liberal-captured CPS is going to help.
Conservatives have always brought a squirt gun to a gun fight, which is why we always lose. Taking the high road may make us feel better about ourselves, but it doesn’t win wars. And in case you haven’t noticed - we’re in a war, probably the most serious this country has ever faced. Losing this war will lead to our complete demise.
I, for one, am ecstatic to see a very small group of conservatives starting to fight fire with fire. It’s about DAMN TIME!
Liberals see it the opposite way. We believe we take the high road and stand for principles while conservatives fight dirty.
Neither side is “the principled one.” We react to each other. A red state bans something, so a blue state mandates it. And vice versa. Both sides circumvent democracy when they have the opportunity.
It’s laughable to accuse the other side of “fighting dirty” when you literally have all the power. Those of us who watch actual news witness the corrupt way power is wielded by Dems who almost never pay consequences for their behavior. It is incredible the brainwashing job the mainstream media does. Just incredible. The propaganda is so masterful that it reminds me of the Third Reich.
Pelosi's husband just got out of a DUI charge without even a court date and Fox News was the only channel that even put it on their news ticker.
the outrage that has ensued has resulted in a court date of August 3rd, but they wont release his mug shot or any other information about the incident
I hadn't seen that and I was just on CNN's front page. I won't hold my breath that this court date won't be cancelled after a few weeks. Just like how school board's will delay a vote until the summer to avoid angry parents.
was reported, not by CNN, back on June 9
https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/mr-pelosi-faces-court-date-for-dui/
The police waited hours before testing Paul Pelosi, Nancy's husband, for DUI. Possibly this was in hopes that his blood alcohol level would drop below the legal limit of 0.08. It did not. It remains to be seen just how rough the prosecution will be on him.
It’s exactly the Third Reich it’s Nazi Germany we now have Nazi America the only thing different is the gender has changed it use to be men now it’s Nancy and her ilk and the propaganda is led not by Goebbels it’s led by MSM and these Giant corporations who have captured our America how we deal with this is what’s going to either make us or break us
Abigail, you see the nuttery you are encouraging here, right?
Using one unhinged commenter to tar the author and her entire newsletter. That's some solid argumentation there Dana.
I know. It must be scary to think that conservatives might use some of your own tactics for once.
Child protective services encouraged to actually protect children?? What nuttery, lol.
Now this is spot on. Producing hardwired results such as a chartable uptick in homeschooling. Critical oversight in weighing out the performance deficits of all the institutions, Government on all three levels, education top-down, media in all its major formats, and increasingly, corporate "affairs" in love-locked boardroom sweet deals with what is so whimsically now called "Human" resources.
The love affair with Power is reaching a crescendo, the tipping point of which will become apparent this very late autumn when that national pastime of musical chairs in all our highest houses comes to rest just like a rigged roulette wheel. We can only hope someone figures out a way to kick that lead foot off the spin gear and let the thing play out honestly.
Former Dem. From McGovern in '72 thru Biden. Then I started looking outside my cubby hole.
You're right, Carina, in that both sides are a reaction to the other. To a point. But Liberals gave up the high moral ground a long time ago when they started canceling and banning. Do the Conservatives do it? Sure. But it's not proportional.
Amazon and Target do the banning. Who and what do the Conservatives ban? Serious question.
Seems to me that Lora B is right. Liberals hold the canons. Conservatives the squirt guns. ICBW.
Liberals aren't even the party of the working class anymore, and haven't been for some time. It's impossible to understand what happened to the left to a former lefty like myself.
They're not "liberals", they're Progressives. Or Prognaz, if you prefer. They consider old-school liberals to be "right-wingers".
This is true, but the problem is that the liberals have no way to combat the progressives given where they've positioned themselves on the issues that the progressives claim to represent. This effectively makes "liberals" progressives, even if in private they will acknowledge that progressives have gone too far and don't represent their values. They cave EVERY SINGLE TIME at every single institution.
Yeah. Isn't that wild? Anything center is now right-wing to them. It's all "white supremacy" according to their lights. Or darkness, if You prefer.
Too true. A legal highjacking overlooked too long ago. Strange to think all this ramps up while the middle class shrinks, and the working class grows. And from where came the growth? It ain't all immigration, sweeties. A certain measure from a seriously growing number of really pissed off people. Who (if they're savvy enough) are figuring out that they don't really have much of anything in the way of actual representation anymore, and have not had such for quite some time.
They became the party of the elites who live in their bubbles. Those that look down on "the deplorables."
The trouble with conservatives is they still think the other side appreciates and respects our system and its constitution. The other side meanwhile has redefined democracy to mean only their brand of totalitarianism.
What was our first (2nd, 3rd, 4th...etc.) clue?
They um, cannot respect a thing they wish to tear down. Having the hubris and the dysphoric dry heaves of stoned soul sloppy stupidity to actually think they can come up with something better.
Imagine a thing: someone who hates America far more from within, than any known enemy could ever possibly hate it from without.
A most peculiar form of familiarity that breeds a toxic kind of contempt, not ever known or visited before upon this land, since the inception of what we now commonly refer to as a national identity.
Our constitution, our bill of rights, and a whole table of Law give them the freedoms to do this. Imagine having been handed all that and still biting the hand that proffers it, like a rabid skunk.
They should be so lucky. There are places in this world where such enemies of the state would be 'disappeared' in the darkest hours of the night. Gone like a weird assorted collection of foul tooth fairies, Santa clauses, Easter bunnies, and assorted other fantasy actors we entertain our children with.
Sometimes I can really believe that our best weapon to fight back, is the fact that whoever tends to be opposed to this insanity, also tends to be in possession of enough clarity of vision to figure out how vapid, shallow, formless and weak are the foundations upon which this ideology has been erected. The only thing it has going for it really, is Power. And power is a fascinatingly fleeting thing. All by itself, it sticks to no-one - out of honor, respect, loyalty, belief, faith, morality, ethics, or much of anything else. It is as slippery as the mistake of placing human-friendly values on what we kindly refer to as Acts of God - those massive upheavals of nature so brutal and remorselessly exacting. Which is why abuse of power against the common good is never really a good idea.
“ Our constitution, our bill of rights, and a whole table of Law give them the freedoms to do this. Imagine having been handed all that and still biting the hand that proffers it, like a rabid skunk.”
I know!! You’d think they’d have some gratitude, eh?!
Nice. TY M. Merzetti.
But the ironic thing is that conservatives are far more muscular and able to man the cannons. They just don't. Which speaks volumes. Until, of course, real hostilities break out.
You may be right; see my response3 to jt above.
Who and what do the conservatives ban?
We can start with abortion.
I don’t know where/how conservatives “ban” abortion, or, for that matter, don’t know what conservatives “ban” period. But, on the abortion topic, I think it is a matter of belief in the sanctity of life and the belief that abortion is the killing of life, a violation of the Commandments those who are Biblically religious believe in. Science will tell you that a fertilized egg is indeed “life”, but understands that that life is not viable until a certain stage of development. Personally, it seems to me that to the degree we have not found a compromise on which each side of the argument can agree, neither side is really “right”. Based on that, and the reality that the former is based in “belief” and the latter in scientific knowledge, my position is that the decision whether or not to abort can only properly be between a woman and her doctor (with due influence from the bio father if he is made aware of the conception), each of whom must consult their own consciences and live with their decision.
I was thinking more along the lines of people, books, and that sort. You have a point. *Some* do.
Remember when liberals denied the outcomes of all three Republican presidential victories?
Remember how Republicans responded by making it illegal to question election outcomes, and then targeted any Democrat who did for shaming and punishment?
Wait, that didn't happen, because Republicans would never stoop to the depths of evil we're seeing from Democrats today. Republicans still actually believe in the foundational concepts of our country, which liberals abandoned long ago.
And that's just one examples, there are legions of others.
Yes you "stood on principle" when you spread lies about Kavanaugh's gang rape, then a year later you buried the investigation into Joe's sexual abuse. You stand on principle when you tweet "me too" and simultaneously ignore that your party leaders are trying to bribe off rape victims to protect their donors.
You "stand on principle" when you ignore Tony Timpa's death but build literal shrines to George Floyd.
You "stand on principle" when everybody in the country knows Bill Clinton abused women for his entire career, and Democrats continue to protect him.
What actually are your principles? Kindness? Only to your friends. Empathy? That's a joke. Liberalism? That died under Obama.
Liberals live in a world of delusional lies where Smollett's absurd hoax makes perfect sense. Of course you think you're the good guys, you are brainwashed by the leftist propaganda network.
Very well stated.
False equivalence. You probably thought it was "cute" when crazy Maxine screeched to "get up in their faces." Or when conservatives were harassed at dinner and other events. Ask yourself how "protests" at public officials homes just "spontaneously" take place. Do you just off hand know the address of Supreme Court Justices? I don't. And do you wonder why these people aren't arrested for breach of the peace and, in the Justices case, violation of federal law? Conservatives do not act like this. Leftists own this garbage.
There is no democracy involved when gender ideologues bypass public debate and the legislative process by using the unelected and unaccountable bureaucracy to push through their changes. Look at the Title IX changes. No law changed, just the "interpretation" of the law changed. Instead of going through the legislative process, leftists/Democrats change the commonly held meaning by regulatory fiat. The same people who complain about the Supreme Court being undemocratic, which is the entire point of the Supreme Court, then use the unelected bureaucrats at the DOE to legislate.
Sticking to principles is hard. Yes, both sides fall short but the difference is so massively lop-sided, it's not even a comparison. Abigail makes a great point - when is the last time a left/progressive book was pulled? Which Democratic leaning newspaper covered the attempted assassination of Kavanaugh? Why did I get an email from my woke company about Trans Remembrance Day but nothing about the women killed by their husbands and boyfriends every single day? No day of visibility for women who survived domestic abuse, not to mention the children who witnessed it. Look a the NFL. A coach fined for stating the 2020 riots were worse than 1/6. You think a coach would be fined for stating that white supremacy isn't to blame for the black v. white educational achievement gap in this country? Fat chance.
I welcome the backlash. May it be swift ands strong.
I'm a former Democrat who voted D all the way down my entire life. The election of Trump changed things for me and it's hard to overstate the massive eye opening I experienced. I look forward to the backlash against crazy. May it come soon and be swift and crush the crazy.
You give me hope that the tide may be turning. Thank you
Amen
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Carina liberals abandoned the high road when not a one spoke against Ted Kennedy's egregious diatribe against Judge Bork. Nor did they speak up when Justice Thomas was subjected to (as he called it) a high-tech lynching during his confirmation hearing. Those are just two examples of the liberal "high road" you speak of
I would like to know what your principles are that you would defend these horrors happening to our country’s children. And how you can possibly defend the veritable book burning of which Abigail speaks. If you don’t defend these things then perhaps you have not been paying attention to your side’s extremely dirty tricks abusing all the power they have.
Yes, it is conservative nature to be reasonable, polite, and keep on working and to do the responsible thing and abide the constitution…. the left who are true “liberals” as in the original sense notwithstanding, today’s “leftists” have been a lawbreaking, constitution and democracy-hating mob and I DO NOT CARE that I’ll be hated for telling this truth. Today we’ve got key politicians sanctioning the illegal behavior of harassing Supreme Court justices and other dems literally calling for violence and nothing happens. Your other commenter says conservatives play dirty??!! She has not been paying attention. Apparently doesn’t know about the unbelievable dirty tricks by Hillary and her ilk against another prez candidate. I for one am getting old and I care a lot less now about remaining polite and nice and asking these people to have respect for the half the country that doesn’t want little kids’ puberty stopped and little girls’ breasts cut off.
Totally agree. I’m angry, disillusioned, aghast at these parents harming their children—it’s abuse not entertainment. Time to fight and time to pray.
And the ongoing political two-step rhumba, eternally tap-dancing over a cliff with boot bells and lambada skirts, while the band plays Dixie and Trixie go to Casino-rama, helps our nation's children exactly how and in which ways toward what ends?
We've been throwing this spaghetti on the wall for forty years. We're only now just noticing that small slight hint of desperation (in ourselves) that we keep pointing out with righteous fingers, at who it is we oppose? As if this were ever a thing by any means necessary.
A decade ago I jumped in with both feet and researched the crap out of CPS, its history, growth, mandates, functions, weaponization, impact upon the nation, and upon families, and upon kids, and so very much more. It is not a pretty story. It is a thing that shames the nation.
If we wind up fighting a war over our children, we would do well to consider the best ways of waging this in order that our children do not become collateral damage. They have been royally fucked over enough as it is, already.
So well said.
Are you kidding? Conservatives have stolen children and murdered adults over ideology for centuries now. That's another reason I say this movement isn't leftist. It's just right-wingers who don't go to church, doing what right-wingers always do.
Cite some examples to support that bullshit. Whenever someone says “always” it calls their credibility into question.
I’m speaking as a right winger who doesn’t go to church and hasn’t murdered anyone or stolen any children.
Interesting world-view. Mebbe, just *mebbe* a bit of hyperbole, but what do I know?
I'm not sure how that enhances the discussion of the issues the article brought up.
I am a traditional Liberal (I guess you could call me a "1990s and earlier Liberal") and yes, I greatly object to censorship, delisting, canceling, disinviting, removal from Amazon (and eBay and Target and Powells and Barnes and Noble etc.) of any book. I don't want to read a Pro-Life book, but I don't want it removed or censored. I'm still waiting for second hand copies of those "banned" Dr. Seuss books to come down low enough in price that I can afford a copy of McElligot's Pool, my favorite Seuss book of childhood. It's appalling that his works were removed from Amazon and libraries. It's also appalling that the American Library Association removed Laura Ingalls Wilder's name from the award created in her honor because a bunch of 2 dimensional thinkers screamed at them about her depictions of white settlers who were anti-Native American. Never mind that one of the women in question had seen her entire family massacred by Native Americans. Never mind that Wilder goes out of her way to show that the characters who are critical of Native Americans are less noble and tolerant than her own family, who actually hide a Native American man in their cabin when a gang of armed white men comes after him. It calls into question the integrity and legitimacy of every award they give out, including the Newberry Award.
I will always support Classical Liberal values like free speech, free thought, free expression, open debate, a free press, etc. I also don't think it is "liberal" to expose young children to drag queens. Or to free violent felons from prisons and defund the police. What on earth is Liberal about that? These are radical anarchic Leftists.
Where have all the classical liberals gone? Have most become radicalized?
I don't know. I imagine there are many like me who are lurking and watching with appalled fascination at what has become of the Left. I think with the right candidate we would all reactivate.
That’s me, too. I was a staunch Democrat up through the last election. It was only after Biden was inaugurated that I realized what the administration’s was doing to make gender surpass sex. I was so blinded by my negative feelings towards Trump that I didn’t see what was happening. I wish I hadn’t been so ignorant.
I am truly concerned about the way gender ideology has captured so many institutions. Real ppl are suffering already bc of these ideas - women in prison being forced to share space with violent prisoners from men’s prisons. 86% of female inmates are survivors of sexual violence, and Democrats could care less about retraumatizing them by forcing them to live in total fear. They want to please progressive donors, & only care about sexual violence if the alleged perpetrator is a SCOTUS nominee they can use for fundraising campaigns.
I was appalled when Biden went to a town hall during his campaign and spoke in favor of "transitioning" little kids. There was an 8 year old girl being celebrated "as a boy" - trotted out and fussed over as he declared this was the next civil rights movement.
Thank you so much for your honesty!
Depending on the numbers of you that see what’s going on, there may yet be hope of a return to the ideals of our democracy in which real debate and discourse are possible and cool heads prevail to do what is good for the country.
"Cool heads." Who would-a *thunk* it! (half-kidding ;-)
There are lots of us. And it’s an awful place to be.
They have stolen your party it seems. Many talk about political homelessness and it’s really unfortunate. The phrase, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” comes to mind here. I believe we’re all going to have to join together against them.
Yes. The problem is that liberals who are upset and appalled by the way things are going simply don't vote rather than vote for a non-Democrat. (And the same applies to conservative voters who are upset and appalled by the Republicans.)
I see this same, self-reported behavior from voters in similar party breakdowns in the UK and elsewhere ... party-affiliated voters regularly express extreme unhappiness with their own side on Twitter and other sites, but write that they will sit the election out, since they can't vote for their party's candidate but also can't bring themselves to vote for the "other side."
The problem with this approach is that neither the Democrat nor the Republican parties interpret low turnout as an indication that their tribe is unhappy with them. Sure, they'd rather "their people" vote for them, but as long as they're not voting for their opponents, all is good.
So far Republican turnout seems to be incredibly high, just look at Georgia. The question is will elected Republicans actually do anything. It seems to me Republicans voters want a Desantis, but nationally the the GOP doesn't have an appetite for escalation.
Yeah, we're *all.*
But you are the backbone of the Democrats. If you withheld your support they would need to change.
Yep, that pretty much describes me.
A classical liberal, with Jeffersonian ideals, is more likely to be an uncomfortable Republican these days. Or a right leaning libertarian.
I've always voted Dem, I didn't vote for either president in 2020 and voted for some right candidates locally for the first time in my life last election. I'm astonished what has happened to the left. I'm even more surprised how the left has no ability to push back against this. The left has painted itself into an ideological corner and are completely captive to a relatively small percentage of social revolutionaries within their ranks.
Escalation is a scary thing to consider but there do not appear to be any incentives in place to take the principled road at this point. Analogous to there now being no incentive to publicly apologize for doing something wrong anymore (the wolves will still devour you, just in a more weakened state). With all the other problems facing us I don't think you can understate just how dangerous of times we are living through right now. Add a (bad) recession to this situation, with high inflation, and it's very hard to predict in what kind of shape we will emerge from this decade.
They’re considered conservative by todays “progressive” standards.
You have to remember that #1 in the dems playbook is to all stick together no matter what, and their party has been taken over by the most unsavory among them.
I am a life long conservative who believes in all of those things. The problem with the "classical liberals" posting below is that they don't seem to know any conservatives.
I can only speak for myself as a former Democrat, but I’m embarrassed at how closed-minded I was in not listening to any conservative sources. I was in an echo chamber. Doing my part now to take in a variety of viewpoints, & make up my own mind instead of going along with the any party’s narrative.
I am a liberal at heart but I do not know what party I belong to. As a former refugee from the Soviet Union, as a young person I was for all sorts of freedoms and against censorship. During Obama years I became independent. Then I registered as a Republican to make a difference in the election. Then I returned to being independent. And then I had to register as a democrat to vote in the NYC mayoral election democratic primaries to make sure a crazy progressive did not win (there were a few of them on the ballot). I am politically homeless as I hear from many centrists, and there is no party affiliation that makes me comfortable. Everyone has moved to fringes. Let’s be honest, not many of us with common sense are left.
In NYC, in order to keep the Democrats from going totally woke, it helps to be an enrolled Democrat. That being the case, on a national level, there are plenty of so called Reagan Democrats who voted for Trump twice and would vote for DeSantis, and who supported both Moynihan and DeAmato as senators , who would vote for Schumer in a primary challenge from the left , vote against Gillibrand , who would vote for real Republican challengers to both and probably vote for a Republican gubernatorial candidate as well.
What the hell more can you do? Seriously; you looked in a mirror and decided to grow. That's laudable.
The fear I have is of having conservatives becoming smug. I don't need any 'I told ya so' shit; lord knows there's a L O T of shortcomings on that side of the aisle as well.
I really would appreciate seeing someone who's a conservative admit a view they used to hold that is now patently wrong. I'm not going to point any out; I'm hoping for some courage.
Instead of a 'See? Told ya so?', I'd appreciate much more a sort of 'Whoa, I hear ya. I used to think XXX and YYY was absolutely right' kind of attitude.
Hmmm. That’s a tough one. After being gaslighted for years and treated like absolute idiot scum because of my conservative views (I’m just too stupid to understand why I’m wrong…) by every liberal/leftist I’ve ever encountered, that’s a big ask. Not because I lack humility, but because I tried to have reasonable discussions a thousand times and was treated like I wasn’t worthy of even being heard. You tell me if you would then immediately jump to humility the minute they finally are shocked out of their mindset and see exactly what you were saying all along…
You posted this a few days ago and I sat on replying b/c I had to wrestle with being honest.
My first inclination was to virtue signal and say all sorts of bs about how it's better to be noble and generous and all sorts of crap like that.
But the truth is I wouldn't, and I didn't want to admit it.
Nahhh...
If someone (other than one of my kids) admitted to me that I was right and they were wrong over a socio/political topic we hammered each other over, one that I had been subjected to ridicule or worse about...
Nahhh...
I'd pound on 'em. I'd have a lot to get off my chest, and I'd let 'em have it.
I'm not proud to admit this, but it's the truth.
Wow. Thanks Jim for your honest and thoughtful reply. I didn’t really expect that! ;)
I do wish human nature was more noble, and that we could automatically be kinder to those who finally see. But something about your comment sort of demanding generosity when little has been given got under my skin, lol.
But I hope that we all keep trying to reach higher, and lead by example no matter what side we’re on. I’ll keep trying, but can’t promise that a few “I told you so’s” won’t slip out now and then, haha!
I’m so happy to have so many former liberals (and others!) waking up to some of the things I’ve been shouting from the rooftops about for years. Happy to have you all, along with all the great contributions you will make!
Yes! I'm definitely a "classical liberal" who believes staunchly in freedom and open-mindedness and I am ALWAYS up for a discussion of any issue with good-will, logic, and humility by all parties. But my friends and acquaintances have simply not seen what I started to see happening to our country and our society in the past few decades and they have reacted with complete disgust and refusal to hear even the tiniest point that might go against their assumed narrative. I mean the TINIEST point. I told my oldest friend a year ago that I was getting very concerned about Paypal and credit cards denying people financial freedom based on their viewpoints and she hung up on me and didn't speak to me for a year. Then she called out of the blue and acted like nothing had happened!
And yes, there are definitely ways that my views have changed to become more to the Left side of things. For instance, even though I am a career prosecutor, I have seen too much to have the complete faith in policing I used to have, although I am still an overall strong supporter of law enforcement. I also was never in favor of heavy sentencing in some cases, and strict 3-strikes application no matter what the individual circumstances. I'm more than willing to admit that, and more.
But that river only runs one way and all of us who want peace and normalcy in our public lives again are drowning.
Frankly, I don't see humility as a valued concept in our society any more. I remember when it used-ta.
Even GW had humility in his flub the other week, saying Iraq when he meant Ukraine.
Yeah, I saw that. I said I was Dem, but I did vote for him. Despite what they all say, I wouldn't change it.
But man oh man does it go along way, huh?
Yup.
That would be out of character for real conservatives who are actually interested in getting back to work.
I know some and we have quite a few points of agreement
I was brought up in a fairly liberal house where the NYT and Walter Cronkite were viewed as infallible. As protests against Vietnam turned violent and the civil rights movement segued into demands for quotas and a not small dose of anti Semitism, radical feminists ( whose ideology was radical from the onset) and environmentalists and appeasement of Arab terror became fashionable , I found a new intellectual home at the monthly pages of Commentary Magazine and it became apparent that the left was aiming at all who lived by traditional moral codes-whether Orthodox Jews or evangelical Christians. I also support " free speech, free thought, free expression, open debate, a free press, etc" but exposing young children to drag queens , defunding the police, emptying jails and destroying our energy self sufficiency are radical ideas that have to be fought by all possible legal means
I agree - I am against the same things.
Maybe try being for something...
seriously...
starving and abused and battered children, molested children as far as the eye can see but your plan is to throw all possible legal means at drag queens, who have molested zero. stupid, stupid, and more stupid.
I am also for "free speech, free thought, free expression, open debate, a free press, etc" as well as equal rights for gay and trans people. I do not wish for there to be any legal actions against drag queens. I just recognize drag for what it is, adult entertainment. It always was until around 5 minutes ago. There is nothing wrong with it, but I do not think small children understand it and I don't think that the people behind drag queens reading to five year olds in libraries are doing it for the children's sake. I do not think drag queens have molested anyone either. I don't know why you threw that in there. I agree with your other comment - there are many things children are exposed to now that are inappropriate - the Kardashians, porn, Only Fans, violent rap, etc. And no I don't think drag queen evenings for kids is remotely on the same level as molestation, starvation, and abuse. I just don't think they are age appropriate.
Um, get over your homophobia. Children are exposed to every single boogie woogie, goblin and ghoul, Santa's lap, Super Bowl striptease, and Kardashian ass in the world but a man in woman's clothing is FIGHT WITH ALL POSSIBLE LEGAL MEANS?
Oh ok, and when you throw the lawyers at the homos because every costume is acceptable in America except the drag queen -- what then? More bubbling Kardashian asses and Eminem rants about guns and driving women into the river, I'd presume... no fighting that with all (or any) possible legal means for you even though parents have their children practically rolling in it all -- and shooting guns as 6-yr-olds.
No child should be brainwashed or groomed into believing that they are not the gender that they were born as Gender fluidity is child abuse and medical malpractice masquerading as junk science
Amen! The wilder debacle is so indicative of how stupid this all is. As a parent I hope I’m doing a better job of giving my kids some historical perspective so they don’t fall into the same flat thinking.
Very well said, ClemenceDane. I agree wholeheartedly. I, too, was heartbroken by the sudden and unexpected "disappearing" of "McElligot's Pool" (and "On Beyond Zebra," for that matter). The sad situation was made worse by Amazon and eBay both deciding that sellers and buyers could not transact for the books on their sites, as if loving or reading these inspirational books was the worst kind of "hate" behavior.
That was the most chilling part. Suddenly every possible reseller banned the books.
(BTW, there are copies of On Beyond Zebra on Mercari.)
I can already hear the Whataboutery from my friends on the Left...but but what about that school in Alabama that banned "To Kill A Mockingbird"? Wasn't there a librarian in Tennessee that banned Toni Morrison? And isn't this all just made up by Fox News? etc etc ad infinitum...
Liberals will remain locked in a state of severe cognitive dissonance because it cuts so deeply against their self-conception to even entertain the notion that they have become censorious zealots (not to mention child mutilators) and just might not be "on the Right Side of History."
The idea of maximum personal autonomy has become so sacrosanct to liberals that they will even suggest sex changes to children because "Hey, it's their choice" or "Whatever they need to be happy" aka no one should be denied anything on the road to Finding their Authentic Self (TM). This is deeply irresponsible nihilism disguised as liberation. (And as with things like Defund the Police etc, whatever terrible effects come later from their policies, they likely won't be personally affected anyway.)
Those aren't liberals. They are left-wing ideologues and authoritarians. I am liberal and do not believe in censoring works or views I disagree with. I also believe it is irresponsible to the point of being a crime that anyone would perform sex change surgery on minors or potentially sterilizing sex hormone treatment. For this I have been labeled a 'TERF.'
It’s become a cult. You fall in line or you’re out.
Zealots don’t see their views as cutting against the grain
In a sane world, I would also argue against sending CPS to investigate these parents. We don’t live in such a world anymore. It seems like governors fighting back is the only plausible solution although, one that should be taken with caution. It’s a slippery slope and a classic case of “dammed if I do, dammed if I don’t”.
Please add Lisa Selin Davis to your list of the few brave lefties speaking out on this issue. Lisa has risked so much to try to bring nuance to reporting on this issue. And thanks Abigail for continuing to write about this, as well.
I appreciate this perspective, but my North Star is and always has been civil liberties. When you encroach on civil liberties to gain a victory for "your side," you inevitably reap what you sow. We know that bureaucracies have been corrupted by the parasitic ideas of the woke left. If you accept the legitimacy of the principle that CPS may intervene in parenting on ideological grounds - be it failure to provide "gender affirming care" or taking one's child to a drag show - that will only further empower these ideologically-corrupt institutions. These institutions will then inevitably use their expanded powers - the underlying principles of which have been endorsed by both parties - to further monitor and punish non-woke "wrong-thinkers."
This is what keeps me, as a disaffected liberal, from supporting Republicans. They use the language of civil liberties when it supports their agenda, but it remains quite clear that this is opportunistic and that civil liberties are not a sincerely held value. You can't defeat left-authoritarianism with right-authoritarianism. You can only defeat it with sincere embrace of freedom, which remains a deeply held value among (I hope and pray) a majority of ordinary Americans, as much as the ideological corruption of the professional managerial class obscures this reality. A principled civil libertarian agenda is the long game here, but it is the only one that has a chance of winning out, however long that may take.
"This is what keeps me, as a disaffected liberal, from supporting Republicans. They use the language of civil liberties when it supports their agenda, but it remains quite clear that this is opportunistic and that civil liberties are not a sincerely held value."
Nonsense. We deeply distrust government - as did our Founders - and would not ever think of giving government greater power. For any reason. That's why conservatives cautioned against stupidity such as the hilariously named "Patriot Act." We knew it would be misused against the liberties of Americans.
Umm... The Patriot Act was signed into law by GWB. And every Republican senator voted for it. The House vote among Republicans was 211 - 3. Among Democrats it was a slightly better 145-62. And the Republicans only got worse about civil liberties as the "war on terror" progressed.
There are a few principled civil libertarians in the Republican party, like Rand Paul, but they are few and far between. The Republicans led the charge in eviscerating civil liberties following 9/11, and Democrats are only now catching up in their utter contempt for basic rights due to Trump derangement syndrome and Covid hysteria. So, no, I don't buy the argument that the Republicans are the civil libertarian party. Both parties are absolutely wretched in terms of protecting the basic rights and upholding the vision of the Founders.
You are not wrong. Republicans are not conservatives. And the old liberals who used to care about civil rights are almost completely vanished from the Democrat party.
I don't trust Republicans either. Look at Utah. The governor vetoed the bill protecting girls' sports. Unbelievable. They will sell us down the river like the Democrats did. They are, however, the only option at this point.
David, this is wishful thinking, like unilateral disarmament always is. You’re patting yourself on the back for your virtue.
Why on earth should the woke change their behavior, if it works for them and has no downside? What is their incentive to behave differently?
Remember, the independent council statute stayed on the books as long as it was used only against Republican Presidents. Only when it was used against a Democrat, it was allowed to lapse.
I'm definitely not advocating unilateral disarmament. I definitely do not want society to capitulate to the woke left. It is a question of tactics. Do we try to redirect the artillery of bureaucracy and tech censorship back towards the left, or do we try to dismantle that artillery? Ms. Shrier (who is, BTW, a hero) is flirting with the former, while I advocate the latter.
An example can be found in tech censorship. My position is essentially that First Amendment speech protections should apply to Big Tech to the same extent it applies to government. Appropriate legislation should be pursued to accomplish this goal. The more aggressive approach would be to push Big Tech to become equal opportunity censors, censoring leftist views to at least the same extent they censor right-leaning views. This approach of redirecting artillery at the left I believe would be a big mistake. We should oppose censorship in all its forms, rather than advocate for censorship of the woke.
Another good example of what this difference looks like in practice can be found in the CRT realm. The Chris Rufo approach is to aim the artillery at woke teachers and administrators by enacting new laws that, often very crudely, restrict speech in the classroom. The attorney general of Montana, on the other hand, wrote a memo detailing the aspects of CRT in the classroom are already illegal under well-established law. https://dojmt.gov/attorney-general-knudsen-issues-binding-opinion-on-critical-race-theory/. The Rufo approach seeks to expand bureaucratic artillery and aim it squarely at the left, whereas the Montana attorney general seeks only to promote and protect existing rights. The latter approach, in my view, is the wiser one.
TY for Your views, David. This is a sure winner, IMO. Montana's AG statement is great! I only took time to skim it. But he takes on KenDiAngelo and all-a that. A brief quote on the ludicrous views, which most-a You probably already heard of:
"On the Smithsonian NMAAHC’s page dealing with 'Whiteness,' it asserted at one point that traits such as 'individualism,' 'hard work,' 'objectivity,' 'progress,' 'politeness,' 'decision-making,' and 'delayed gratification' as hallmarks of 'white culture.'46 Training materials from Argonne National Laboratories, a Federal entity, stated that racism ‘‘is interwoven into every fabric of America’’ and described statements like ‘‘color blindness’’ and the ‘‘meritocracy’’ as ‘‘actions of bias.’’
"I would like to note that all of these traits identified above, far from being hallmarks of merely 'white culture,' are in fact important hallmarks of a virtuous and productive colorblind society. None of them, however, have any connection to 'whiteness' or 'white identity.' They are self-evident virtues—universally applicable to and shared by people of all races, colors, creeds, and national origins. Because men and women are created equal, they can all equally appreciate and adopt those values."
TY again, Sir.
Spot on jt. But you might want to remind the good folks at U of Penn, who tried to burn Amy Wax as a witch for saying just that.
TY Bruce. I agree with all the views of the Montana Attorney General. I knew Amy Wax was in trouble, but didn't know why. TY again.
I hope you are right, but the tide never seems to turn. While the principled folks want to do it the right way our university system, especially on the elite side, has seen the full embrace of radical left ideas, in almost all disciplines. Corporations have gone the same way. Big tech too (and of course we could all go on).
I've resolved that mutually assured destruction is probably the only push back capable of actually winning. While Rufo has been a bit crude in his approach at times I can't think of a single right activist that has been as effective as him. Look at what is happening at school boards across the nation. It strikes me that Rufo was a former lefty and I can't help but think that has something to do with his success. Read about labor unions in the past that found that when Marxists gained leadership positions they would quickly change all the rules to ensure they could no longer be challenged anymore. I don't know if this movement is Marxist, that's not my point, I just know they will do whatever it takes to gain and maintain power. Whether Rufo gets these laws in place, or the AG wins his case, these teachers will continue to teach this stuff because they don't care about laws. The solutions here probably has to be far more radical (like full school choice where all money follows the child, giving parents the ability to carefully screen schools. Also making university loans private, which would force the universities hand on many of these costly far left programs that offer little return to their students job prospects).
That said, I still hope you are right..
David Horowitz is an effective partisan who also walked away from the left.
Rufo understands the issues very well, as do Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin. "American Marxism" is must reading on CRT, gender fluidity and climate change as all different variations of Marxism rooted in Marcuse
I don't get the Chris Rufo hate. He is transparent about his aims and is operating as an activist. He is fighting the current war, not the last war.
I actually like Rufo. I think a lot of his commentary is great. But the anti-CRT laws are a disaster.
A lotta them are pretty vague. Montana did a good job. Did You see that post?
David, you suggest that “First Amendment speech protections should apply to Big Tech to the same extent it applies to government. Appropriate legislation should be pursued to accomplish this goal.”
Sounds good; but if it involves a Constitutional amendment, the Democrats will block it. Or, if it can be done as legislation, sans amendment, then a Democratic filibuster in the Senate will block it. Because the current system works for them. Whatever the solution is, in other words, it will have to be something else.
On the other hand, speech in the classroom is already restricted. Teachers are not invited speakers, brought in to give their personal views. They are agents of the public education authority, which tells them what they can say. And in Democrat-controlled jurisdictions, they are already ordered to engage in woke propaganda.
Where Democrats control the state government, probably nothing can be done. On the other hand, Democratic jurisdictions within Republican states can have their ability to indoctrinate children at least hindered by legislation.
If this becomes extensive enough, Democrats might eventually see it as in their interest to compromise on the indoctrination of children.
You're right, Taras. The State government is the place to be. What they got done in Montana is marvelous.
And You're right about the Fed politics. But I keep in mind '24.
You will lose the country, politely, irrevocably. Your grandchildren will thank you, for sure.
Civil liberties are definitely a a sincerely held value for real conservatives. Washington DC conservatives, I suspect, are nothing like those in my Midwest conservative county. I don’t like lumping all republican voters in with the politicians and far right who do not make up the majority of us. Other than that difference of opinion, David, I fully with you! Thanks.
"Si vis pacem, para bellum." (If you want peace, prepare for war.) Vegetius, 4th century AD
It may sound contradictory. Even crazy. But it is both rational and proven effective, to desire one thing while holding its opposite in hand.
I want to prosper. But I'm not greedy. I want to be left alone. I want to live in peace. Game theory says the best way for me to get those things is to make certain that everyone knows that I'm willing to retaliate if anyone tries to take those from me. I am not abandoning my goal, and I will return to it just as soon as my opponent lets me.
Not a paradox, just how reality works.
Thank you for this comment. I wrote an essay about DQSH on my Substack a few days ago where I suggested that parents have the responsibility on deciding if they should take their kids to it or not. I had conservatives disagree with me. But removing parental autonomy is much worse, as once you accept that, you accept that the state can have the power to actually do the opposite of what you want. Imagine if kids were forced to go to DQSH or learn CRT? Dangerous precedent.
I think the problem is what you define as "civil liberties".
When will people see the light? The lunatic mob of the left cannot, does not, will not work by the same rules we hold ourselves to. To complain that this tech platform won't allow my views, or that publisher won't publish isn't going to stop, if we keep trying to play by their rules, on their field, with their ball. There are always alternatives to the easiest way. I have not purchased from any of the book resellers for over five years now. Buy from the publisher, or the small shop, or the author directly. Will the title make the author the same money, will it make the NYT bestseller list? Probably not, but who cares. If the message is worth printing, print it, sell it, promote it, don't complain because the bully won't do you a favor.
As to the open of the article about Desantis and CPS, I say YES please do! There are limits to parental authority, we should all know that. The LGBTQwhatever crowd are grooming our kids, they are warping their minds, they are endangering their health and safety. Any parent that takes their CHILD to a drag queen show, a pride parade, or any of the other show/demonstration/parade where the front and center focus is sexuality, is sexualizing the child, their CHILD!!! It is abuse. Any parent that allows or worse yet pushes, gender transition on a child is not worthy of raising their child and should be investigated by CPS.
This insanity will not end by appeasing the lunatic fringe. Show some courage. Show some respect to the children. Show some integrity to reality.
Yes. Because the lunatic fringe will never be appeased. Nothing you can do will ever be enough. They will destroy every institution and everything good about democracy if we keep trying to appease them. We have to draw a line in the sand.
Ah yes, the casual homophobia reveals itself. Calling gay people "groomers" is so 1950s ... equating homosexuality with child abuse is such an old boring bigotry.
Colin Wright’s banning from Etsy is not a new development. 5 or so years ago a few Gender Critical women had items on Etsy taken down at the behest of TRAs and when lots of women complained about TRA accounts selling items threatening to harm & kill TERFS they (Etsy) but they ignored us completely. Radio silence. This is why a number of us started boycotting Etsy many years ago.
I take a very hardline approach against the "transgender" activists because this mealey mouthed, pussyfooting around just isn't working. Every year, heck every week, the activists raise their demands.
On Sunday, the NYT published an article about a writer, Sandra Newman, who wrote a moderately woke book, The Men, and was then attacked for being "transphobic."
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/12/opinion/sandra-newman-men.html
This is the comment I wrote and submitted. Of course, it was never posted.
"Everyone who's fed up with the stranglehold the woke left has on our society needs to head on over to amazon and buy this book. Let's launch it to first place on the best seller list. Send the message that the nonsense filled propaganda and censorship we've been subjected to just won't cut it any more."
https://smile.amazon.com/Men-Sandra-Newman-ebook/dp/B09JTS2RTL/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1655074280&sr=1-1
"Then while you're at it, amble on over to Jennifer Bilek's excellent 11th Hour Blog which explains why all this counterfactual insanity suddenly exploded a few years ago like a carbuncle, spraying rancid pus within every institution in our society. Hint: follow the money, the big money, the big fill-in-the-blanks money.
https://www.the11thhourblog.com/home
"NYT, I challenge you to prove your institution hasn't been completely captured by the censorship of the activist left. I challenge you to print this comment. And print it in a timely manner. Thank you."
Submitted to the NYT on 6/12/22 at 5:21pm, Eastern Time.
"And last week, I was outraged to learn that my favorite, new skincare company, Biossance was contributing 5% of their sales on a particular product to some "trans" education group in Texas. So this is what I wrote:
"I've been using almost the full line of Biossance products for the past two months and love the way it's improved the look and feel of my skin. But I'm not writing to you today about your wonderful, squalane based skincare line. I'm writing about your political messaging.
"I was all set to purchase $100 worth of products on your website this morning. But then I read your company plans to donate 5% of sales for one particular product to a group called the Transgender Education Network of Texas, and I never completed the order. I believe you're making an egregious error in assuming your women customers support the controversial indoctrination of minor children in Texas or anywhere else in this country. We don't.
"When your company ventures into fraught issues like "transgenderism," you send a message that you do not respect the sex based rights of women or the reality of human sexual dimorphism. You also send the message that women only safe spaces in prisons, domestic shelters, locker rooms, spas, and bathrooms should be abolished. And you send the message that it's perfectly acceptable to sacrifice the concept of fairness in women's sport to satisfy the demands of a tiny minority of men.
"I know one young woman who "transitioned" two years ago when she started taking testosterone in college. In November, she had a double mastectomy and was extremely positive about turning herself into a man. Last month, she finally came to her senses and detransitioned in her early twenties. Now, all the skincare products in the world will not restore her feminine appearance or her long term health prospects. And as time goes on, there will be an ever increasing number, tens of thousands of these women, their friends, and families who will see every attempt to change one's sex as a dangerous and colossal mistake.
"I urge Biossance to remove that controversial offer from your website and to limit any future activism to noncontroversial movements that everyone supports such as saving the sharks and the oceans."
This is the woke boilerplate response I received. By the way, I never did place that order:
"Hi Nancy,
"Thank you for taking the time to write in.
"We are sorry to hear that this cause is not in line with your values, though we are proud to offer this promotion during Pride Month as it aligns with our values, and the values of Jonathan Van Ness, our beloved brand ambassador.
"If this means you no longer want to support our brand, that is entirely your choice though of course we hope you'll reconsider.
"Respectfully,
"With love and squalane,
"Ginger
Biossance Customer Care"
And by the way, the detransitioner whom I mentioned in my email to Biossance. Yes, she's the same young woman I wrote about on Abigail's substack before, the daughter of a deceased old friend. Destroys her appearance, her voice and, most likely, her health with male hormones. Then gets a double mastectomy last fall. And now she suddenly decides she's really a woman after all.
Don't waste your time ,money and energy with the NYT which is an expensive Twitter page run by the Twitter mob and which has a very sorry historical record of supporting woke causes for decades
Perhaps, your message in the future should be if it goes woke let it go broke. Where you spend your money and don't speaks volumes
You can find books by conservatives on the NYT best seller list and the WSJ best seller list as well. Mark Levin's "American Marxism" sold millions of copies and all of Ben Shapiro's books also have appeared there as well. Any book that has been subjected to cancel culture probably has led many conservatives to buy it even at Amazon which then knows what kind of a reader you are and are not.
We must fight to win. All hands on deck. No strategy deemed too mean. If not, we lose.
What terrifies me about all this, as a married gay man living a quiet, rather conventional life, is the inevitable backlash against the lesbian and gay community who aren’t supportive of early medicalization—who see it for what it is—a medicalized form of conversion therapy. We will be lumped in with these trans activists and made to take the blame too. Our tenuous wins on the marriage front and more generally our level of acceptance by society at large could be erased by this terrible issue, which I firmly believe the trans activists will lose once enough families realize the harm it’s causing their children.
It seems there was such a large activist apparatus built up around gay rights, which was incredibly lucrative, that there was simply no stopping the gravy train. They needed the next cause and they needed to push harder and harder. Meanwhile the gay people I personally know are no different than you, and in some cases horrified at the movement that purports to represent them. What a mess.
The radicals have taken over and everyone will suffer for it. Think of the children who have been mutilated, amputated and sterilized over the past decade. They are collateral damage too.
I feel for Ya. But I wish more with Your views would step out and be heard. The "T" added on to the "LGB" was a create tactic. And it'll keep working as long as nobody objects. IMO.
actually there is a lesbian/gay organization dedicated to fighting radical trans ideology. We’re out here and we are speaking up. Even this article featured a gay teacher that did not want to teach trans ideology.
Yes, I agree completely. I particularly like this person. Very coherent and authoritative. https://shadowbox.substack.com/p/a-small-cancellation?s=r
Those things are good to "hear" about. Problem is that the pushback is small relative to the push of the Ts. I don't think I posted on these comments that it sure seems to me that "gender-affirming" care is medicalized conversion therapy against gays and lesbians. If I did, sorry for redundancy. I say that because, according to some, if left to their own devices the majority of so-called trans people would revert to being LGB.
I can't understand why the whole *community* isn't up in arms against this. Dunno.
I agree, and many are up in arms, but are being marginalized and ignored. But I hope the tide is turning.
For the most a the time before LGB marriage, they were marginalized. But they overcame that. I hope they do that again, against the Ts this time. Your hope is mine.
It's really strange to see progressives convince themselves a drag show is the equivalent of watching Macbeth.
The “Truce” we need (and I want) requires us to do to them *exactly* what they do to us. Unilateral disarmament is for chumps. DeSantis is lightyears ahead of politicians and pundits on this, but he’s exactly where the normals are. He takes the oath 1/20/25, not a moment too soon.
We absolutely should not “escalate” this issue, for all the reasons well stated. We are gaining ground, and there are enough affected parents and families that as more join and when they seek out answers (as I did) they should take comfort in the position you started this journey (as a leftish person who followed the story where it led and interviewed the scientists). There are enough of us I feel like we can work on state wide policies and have a voice in the next election. Unnecessarily escalating the culture wars doesn’t help us. Amplifying the voices and sharing concerns of destroyed families, and global scientific reservations and the lack of data does.
Specifically to the question of drag queens, Andrew Sullivan once wrote a long time ago/pre Covid, and I don’t remember the context, that children are drawn to drag queens because of the theatricality. I think it might have been regarding drag queens reading children’s books. I can see why they would be good at it. I once happened to be gay pride event with my then toddler and he loved it. I definitely believe in parental rights on this one, even ignoring the many, many LGB allies we have in supporting this issue and the underlying science that there are two sexes.
Then take your kid to a local theater production. Drag queen story time is misogynistic and sexual and is no place for kids. Blackface for women.
A simple solution would be to require young people to be 18 years old to attend these shows.
Winner winner chicken dinner.
DeSantis is completely wrong here. The fight should be for parents rights - that is the fight that won Virginia for the Republicans, and it is a morally unassailable platform for the vast majority of the electorate.
What DeSantis is proposing is a complete reversal of that principle, and will be used as precedent for leftist institutions to take gender decisions out of the hands of parents. It would also cede the moral high ground. It would be massive mistake.
A vigorous and principled defense of the moral and legal justification for parents rights is the best strategy for conservatives on this issue, as well as curriculum related issues.
"will be used as precedent for leftist institutions to take gender decisions out of the hands of parents"
That ship has sailed. I live in CA, allow me to assure you that when Democrats control everything, they view your children as belonging to the state, not to you.
And until then what, stand by and watch as our boys are castrated and made eunuchs and our daughters made sterile with their breasts chopped off. No way.
It's a big jump from parents attending a drag show with kids to castration. Furthermore it's not clear how an apparently liberal-captured CPS is going to help.
Isn't not a big jump with the normalization of abnormal behavior. Well we got there in what - 5 years? That was quick and easy.