Some Conservative Thoughts on the Left of Today

"At the moment, the Left seems to pose an existential threat to the republic." As a European conservative, I would rephrase it to "the West".

From The Imaginative Conservative

From Bradley J. Birzer, PhD

At the moment, the Left seems to pose an existential threat to the republic. As a movement, it is composed of totalitarian ideologues who care only about power, not morality or love. They will implement the most inhumane policies imaginable. We must all be on highest alert.

During my sixteen years writing for The Imaginative Conservative, I have tried very hard to stay scholarly and academic in my argumentation, if (I hope) more lively in my tone and cadence.

One thing I’ve tried mightily not to do is simply condemn anyone who doesn’t think like we at TIC generally do. I dread conformity—whether on our side of things or their side of things. Yes, I’ve written very critically about democracy, progressivism, ideology, and modernity, but I’ve tried very hard not to make it personal. After all, as a practicing Roman Catholic, I believe in the inherent dignity of every single person throughout all of time and creation. Each person, John Paul II assured us, is an unrepeatable center of dignity and freedom. That means that even the person most unlike us, or even our greatest enemy, is still made in the image of God and, therefore, worthy of dignity. Further, I happen to know several incredibly brilliant and well-meaning people who are Democrats and very much on the Left. I respect them immensely, even when I fundamentally disagree with them and their world view.

Before I get to the crux of my argument, a second thing must be noted. Those of us not on the Left are in utter chaos at the moment, a state of flux, a whirligig of epic proportions. We really don’t know who we are, and we’ve allowed nationalism, populism, and even, astonishingly enough, anti-semitism to creep into our world and confuse us to the nth degree. At the moment, there is no leader of conservatism—at an intellectual or a political level—and the future is suspect, to put it lightly. Certainly, there’s no looking to the Republican party for any kind of leadership. If conservatism is in chaos, the tapioca conformity of the Republican party is enough to make one wretch. Remember Jesus’ warning—be either hot or cold, for the lukewarm I spit out. The Republicans, especially in the House and Senate (with a few important exceptions), are as lukewarm and frankly disgusting as can be.

But, here’s the interesting thing. The Left is in just as much confusion as conservatism. Consider for a moment, the prevailing idea that the 2028 ticket will consist of Kamala Harris and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Can you imagine two more braindead candidates? If that’s their leadership, we’re in a terrible world of hurt.

And, this takes me back to my worry above. I hate to categorize all of the Left or all of the Democratic party as one thing, as this or that, but events have forced me to. Let’s just look at a few examples.

First, let’s take the issue of race. For years and years—as far back as I can remember—the Democrats and the Left have chided everyone else for their supposed racism. On this, if nothing else, they seemed to hold the moral high ground. And, to be sure, racism is a great evil, a major sin, a slap in the face of the God who made us all. It’s a problem that all good women and men must wrestle with and fight. But, consider this.

Governor Newsom of California recently told a predominately black audience that he was dumb like they are dumb, incapable of attaining high scores on standardized testing. The Southern Poverty Law Center, founded to combat racism, has been caught funding and keeping alive white supremacy in America, even organizing the Charlottesville protest. Finally, consider that Maine Democrats have nominated an actual Nazi—at least as indicated by his tattoos—for elective office.

Frankly, if there’s any justice in the world, the Left can never again claim the moral high ground on issues of race. They’re the very racists they claim to oppose.

Second, let’s look at the levels of corruption. We all know about the billions and billions lost in Minnesota, California, and Ohio, but the GAO released a report very recently noting that public fraud accounts for nearly 500,000,000,000 a year. That’s half-a-trillion dollars. Almost all of this fraud is associated with the Democrats.

And, though I hesitate to be paranoid or conspiratorial, when we’re talking about a half-trillion dollars of fraud, one must ask if this is a feature of democratic politics or a failing and a bug? It’s too vast to be completely unintentional and without design.

Add to this that the California Democratic Party is doing everything it can to censor fraud investigations, and things look really, really bad.

Third, let’s consider the Left’s response to the Supreme Court. In every way, the Democratic party is currently trying to delegitimize the Court and brand it with the crime of being politicized. But the Supreme Court is the least politicized branch of the federal government, the one actually doing the job for which the Founders created it. Clearly, the Democrats are laying the groundwork for a court-packing scheme. And, even more frighteningly, they see one of the most political and least qualified justices in the history of the court—Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson—as the model justice. Frankly, this is simply terrifying.

Consider the very words of Democratic strategist, James Carville as reported by The Hill:

“I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen,” Carville said. “A Democrat is going to be elected in 2028. You know that. I know that. There’s going to be a Democratic House, there’s going to be a Democratic Senate. The Democratic president is going to announce a special transition advisory committee on the reform of the Supreme Court.”

Carville also forecast that Democrats, running the executive and legislative branches of government, will attempt to expand the Supreme Court from nine members to 13.

“They’re going to pass it, and a Democratic president is going to sign it,” Carville theorized. “Because they have to do an intervention so we can have a Supreme Court that the American people trust again. So just keep that in the back of your mind. I would bet a lot of many that that’s going to happen.”

If this happens, we Americans will truly have lost the republic and the Constitution. Of course, this is the logic of democracy, everywhere and always, arrogant, brutal, inhumane, totalitarian, and imperial. America, of course, was never founded as a democracy, but as a republic, but we have allowed our small democratic element to metastasize and corrupt our very American soul.

So, let me reiterate, 1) I know there are very well meaning Democrats and folks on the Left; and 2) I also know that much of the non-left is neither conservative, cohesive, or attractive.

Still, at the moment, the Left seems to pose an existential threat to the republic. As a movement, it is composed of totalitarian ideologues who care only about power, not morality or love. They will implement the most inhumane policies imaginable.

We must all be on highest alert.

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The featured image is “The Conspirators” (1914), by William Strang, and is in the public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.