| August 27, 2022
Special Edition
> Bill Schoettler – The New American Civil War
> M.B. Mathews – I Was Wrong About Trump
The New American
Civil War
By: Bill Schoettler
August 25, 2022
You’ve heard it predicted, you’ve heard warnings about it coming, and you may even have talked with friends about it happening. The New American Civil War.
Just what is it? When will it happen? The first question is easier to answer; The ‘RIGHT WING SUPPORTERS OF TRUMP” are the really bad guys. These are the people who voted for him twice and are convinced the election of Biden was a stolen election in which Democrat poll attendees excluded Trump supporters so they could count extra votes for Biden and discount Trump votes. These are the people who are regularly objecting to the higher cost of fossil fuels and deny that the climate is changing because of its burning. These are the people who are objecting to the influx of border crossers who are seeking asylum, a better place to live, and greater opportunities for a “good life”. These are the people who did not object to the placement of freeways through the “low-rent districts”, who sought to put their children in private schools and charter schools, and are protesting the teaching of Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project. These are the people who complained about the organized protests of BLM and ANTIFA who were objecting to white supremacy, racial discrimination, and underrepresentation. These are the people who consistently deny the history of racism in this country and the continuing need to protect and provide for “underrepresented” people in this country. These are the people who refuse to understand the concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Who, you may well ask, would be on the other side, the people who are reasonable, rational, and concerned about the stability of the country and those with legitimate concerns about global climate change (for the worst), food supplies, and clean water and the appropriate recognition of all minorities and the acceptance of all peoples without regard to handicaps of the color of skin or shape of eyes or family background. These are the people who want to see everyone have the same opportunities to learn and develop and grow into citizens of a country about which they can feel an honest measure of pride. These are the people who believe in the true brother/sisterhood of human beings and a world with open borders for all, equal education for all, and equal living conditions for all. These are the people who are against discrimination and only seek to level the world’s playing field so everyone, regardless of physical heritage, can enjoy true equality.
The above discussion seeks to identify the players in the forthcoming American Second Civil War, the one that people on the Left are discussing. People on the Right haven’t been talking about it much.
What are the issues that would be strong enough to divide the country into warring camps?
This is a good question. If we look at the rhetoric from the left we can find plenty of examples. There was a television personality who held up a model of the bloody head of Donald Trump, indicating approval of the concept of decapitation of the last President. There was the announcement by one woman that she fantasized about shooting all white people in the head. There is a current business that will downsize by laying off white people before other races. There is being taught in many schools around the country that the USA was founded by slave-owners, and that for the past 400 years blacks have been systematically suppressed, discriminated against, and denied opportunities to be educated or acquire property or participate in the so-called largess of the American economy.
The US Army has begun a program to root out racism, to investigate charges of white supremacy and gender discrimination. Schools at all levels are recognizing and differentiating groups of students according to their racial and genetic heritage and providing “safe spaces” for non-white groups to gather and discuss their particular issues. There are separate graduation exercises for students of each grouping of race and ethnicity and, perhaps someday soon, for differing genders (of which many are recognized).
Then there are emotional issues that deal with grammar, social interaction, gender identification, and, of course, racism. All these are issues that have been festering within the bosom of Americans for generations.
Why would anyone want to take up arms to either:
a) protect himself from having objectionable philosophies thrust upon him, or
b) to project and impose righteous philosophies upon another?
These are questions that are worth investigating and seriously considering.
We have had in this country for over 250 years a Constitution that might give us guidelines on the matter. We must recognize the thinking of the writers of the Constitution at the time they conceived of the various articles.
When our Constitution was written the authors had behind them over 1700 years of history. This history had been recorded in multiple languages and included references to religion, wars, human and national conduct, philosophies, and cultural norms, as well as examples from personal experience. These writers of our Constitution had just been involved in wrenching their country from the grips of a foreign nation that had sought to impose upon each of them rules and regulations, taxes, and duties that they found onerous.
They sat down and began examining what they knew of world history, politics and religion and philosophy and science, and, of course, politics. They realized that there were certain RIGHTS that each person was born with, rights that were not granted by or given by or in any way described by governors or kings or rulers of any sort. They described these rights with as much specificity as they could.
The first RIGHT they described was the right we refer to as “FREE SPEECH”. The 1st Amendment says: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Note that these rights fall under their recognition of such rights being inalienable. Such rights can’t be restrained or repealed by human laws. They are God-given rights we possess along with our very souls. This was the analysis of our founding fathers and we found it faultless.
Let me pause here a moment to consider how this Amendment applies to the notion of having another American Civil War. If either, or any of the various philosophical camps of adherents objects to what the other side says or believes in…this 1st Amendment allows all individuals and groups of individuals (i.e., those who like Trump and those who dislike Trump) to have the RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH. That is, anybody can stand on a soap box and decry attacks on Trump and even proclaim attacks on Trump. And, of course, any other politician.
This doesn’t seriously suggest taking up arms to fight someone who disagrees with you. After all, if they are allowed to speak their mind just as you are allowed to speak your mind, the idea of physically attacking anyone who disagrees with you is not the wisest course of action. Allowing anyone to speak their mind doesn’t hurt anyone.
Let’s move on to the 2nd Amendment. Wow! What controversy we have here. A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
The obvious question is WHY, why was this “keep and bear arms” listed number two in the Bill of Rights? Because, my friends, it was the guarantee that free men could remain free. If this had been written 500 years earlier, before the invention of gunpowder it would have guaranteed the right of the people to keep and bear swords and knives.
If the people have the means to defend themselves they can feel safe and secure in their homes, while traveling, shopping, and vacationing. Secure from violence, unreasonable government conduct, and from illegal transgressions by others.
Today in this country there is a rising crime rate everywhere. Criminals are becoming more and more willing to steal from others, take cars, take purses, to break into homes and businesses. If you and I are carrying weapons we can protect ourselves and our families from predation. This right to self-defense is another of the inalienable rights we acquired along with our souls.
Now the idea of a Civil War with American citizens fighting each other would absolutely be a bad idea. For one thing, the statistical analysis on the subject is that there are more guns in the hands of American citizens than there are citizens. This suggests each citizen may have more than one gun, and any fighting between citizens would be very costly…in terms of medical expenses, funeral and burial expenses…not to mention property damage, and bullet-ridden automobiles (including electric cars). There would also be a significant reduction in the population which would negatively affect manufacturing and farming and the GDP.
So it’s really not a good idea to have another Civil War.
I Was Wrong About Trump
By: M.B. Mathews
July 27, 2022
I recently wrote a column about why I believed Trump should not run in 2024. I was wrong. I allowed my distaste for Trump’s personality to override his virtues, which are considerable. Some people want Trump without his vices. I was among them, until yesterday, when I watched and listened to Tom Klingenstein’s speech titled “Trump’s virtues.” It was masterful and shamed me that I did not make the distinction between Trump’s character and his virtues, the former being deeply flawed, the latter being almost perfect. I need to man up in my defense of the former President’s virtues. The speech was among the most pointed I have heard and deserves some exposure. Klingenstein says:
Other Republicans say some version of “I like Trump policies but I don’t like the rest of him.” This gets it almost backwards. Although Trump advanced many important policies, it is the ‘rest of him’ that contains the virtue that inspires the movement… Trump was born for the current crisis, a life and death struggle against a totalitarian enemy I call woke communism… that controls all the cultural and economic powers in America…
[Trump] revealed, not caused, the divide in this country. In war, you must make a stand… Trump is a manly man… traditional manhood, even when flawed, is absolutely essential… Trump plays to win… There are no clean hands in a fistfight…Trump is unreservedly, unquestionably pro-America… Trump is a refreshing break from the guilt and self-loathing that marks our age…
It is anti-Americanism that makes so many of us very angry: The Left have trashed America’s Founding and her history to the point where some believe it virtuous to hate America. Rather than advocating forgiveness for sins, the Left is advocating hair shirts, self-flagellation, and perpetual guilt. It is un-American and certainly un-Christian.
Trump thinks we can vanquish all comers if we just put our minds to it, and he’s right… Courage never demands perfection… Trump over and over said exactly what political correctness prohibits one from saying… Trump said Haiti is a shithole and that representative Maxine Waters has a low IQ. These were not racist lies. They were uncouth, politically incorrect observations with which most of us would agree but would not dare say.
In 2016, we loved Trump for his outspokenness. But many seem to have changed their minds without cause; Trump is the same today as he was before he was elected. The very things we disdain today are the things that made him the man for our time.
From morning to night, we were told that Trump is a racist. But endless repetition does not make it true. It isn’t. Trump’s contempt for political correctness showed patriotic Americans that its ever-tightening grip could be loosened… It is difficult to overestimate the significance of Trump’s fight against political correctness, a fight in which most Republicans are reluctant to engage… Trump treated the woke media with the same contempt he treated political correctness, provoking their outrage and revealing their utter corruption… it must be defeated.
I take back my unwillingness to engage Trump on his own terms. It is the Left, not we, who are politically correct. They are the ones restricting speech, canceling and censoring, not we on the Right.
Unlike most politicians, when Trump sees a problem, he goes out and fixes it. He fixed our porous borders. He moved our Israeli embassy to Jerusalem after decades of inaction. He eliminated hate-America critical race theory in his administrative agency. He developed a vaccine in record time. He achieved energy independence and much, much more.
His accomplishments far outweigh his personality quirks. No other president did so much in so little time.
Trump smoked rats out of hiding places. Because of Trump, we know our intelligence agencies are corrupt. We know also that the mainstream media is not just biased, it is the propaganda arm of the Democratic party.
Had it not been for the vehement and irrational hatred of Trump, we never would have discovered that our own security and intelligence structures are compromised. I blame #NeverTrumpers for corrupting these Agencies. This unprecedented breach of the very security of this nation is unprecedented and deeply dangerous, leaving us open to the espionage of courtesans who prey on politicians who think with their private parts.
A large part of Trump’s appeal was that he was a bona fide outsider. He distrusted the experts who believe they knew better than the average American how to run the country. This distrust was appealing to Trump’s base who believed, and with good reason, that is the experts who created the despotic mess in which we find ourselves.
We always knew but never had anyone champion that we, not the Swamp, knew better how to manage our money, our time, our personal lives, our resources, and our families. In their authoritarian mindsets, the Left wanted to take over all these very personal, uniquely American functions and replace them with governmental overreach. They nearly got their wish, had it not been for COVID’s home zoom classes where we found out that very young children are being sexualized, perverted, deliberately alienated from their parents, and taught to hate America and white people.
…They know that Republicans will lose all further elections until they get to the bottom of the last one.
This most sensitive area of politics is a disaster. I believe the election was stolen as do millions of others. We now have evidence from many quarters that this is so. It cannot be permitted a repeat or there will be severe repercussions that will dwarf the current ones.
Some will say that Trump is a bad man and that disqualifies him. I do not think Trump is a bad man, but for those who do, I remind them that a bad man in some circumstances can be a good president. If you’re dying of thirst and there is only one person offering you water, you accept the water gratefully without much concern for the character of your rescuer.
We wanted Trump not only to fix things; we wanted him to be perfect while doing it. That is unrealistic in the average family, the average relationship, the average business, and the average political or cultural milieu. Yet some of us wanted Trump to be perfect enough to invite to tea. He is not that man. But he is the man for our tumultuous times.
This enumeration of Trump’s virtues does not fully capture his uncommon courage and firmness of purpose. Trump is the most towering political figure in living memory. Trump inspired a movement. If properly deployed this movement might challenge the woke-comms, and God willing, save the country.
These very things are what the Left hate, yet it is not their favor we need to care about. They will not embrace anyone on the Republican ticket and certainly not one they cannot bully. We need to stop worrying about acceptance of our candidates by the Left or they will have won.
Republicans, however, should not forget that it is his support and the spirit they embrace that have become the life force of the Republican party. Among the talked-about alternatives to Trump I have not yet seen anyone who possesses or even understands Trump’s virtues. Nor have I seen anyone with his backbone and fortitude. One does not appreciate the strength of relentless gale-force winds until one is in the eye of the storm.
Which is exactly where Trump and we are at this moment. We have to prepare for the gale-force winds we will encounter. To not do this is to ignore the lessons of the recent past and it will be forever to our sorrow to ignore them.
His virtue must be the standard by which we judge other candidates.
Amen and amen. We don’t have to like his personality but his virtues far outweigh it. I humbly stand corrected and offer my mea culpa.
If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.Plato |
