Top o' the Stack.
Category: Political Language
What do Democrats Mean by ‘Democracy’?
The Dems are always going on about 'our democracy,' their noble defense of it, and the Republicans' nefarious assault upon it. But they never tell us what they mean by 'democracy.' One is left to speculate. Here is David Brooks commenting on the recent gerrymandering/redistricting contretemps:
I understand the argument. But let's do a little ethical experiment here. You're in World War I. The Germans use mustard gas on civilians, and it helps them. Do you then decide, 'Okay, we're going to use mustard gas on civilians?' What Trump ordered Abbott to do in Texas is mustard gas on our democracy. (emphasis added)
One gets the distinct impression that for Democrats, 'democracy' means our party, the Democrat party. Accordingly, to defend and preserve democracy is to defend, preserve, and enhance the power of the Democrat party by any and all means necessary including gerrymandering. After all, they are (in their own eyes) wonderful people; so whatever they do must be wonderful too. But when we do unto them what they have long done unto us, we are despicable 'fascists' out to destroy 'democracy.'
'Fascist' is the pejorative counterpart of the Dem's honorific 'democracy.' 'Fascist' is the Left's favorite F-word, although, thanks to Hunter Biden and others, the F-word itself may be coming to occupy the top slot in the depredatory Left's deprecatory lingo. Hunter and the benighted Beto O'Rourke seem incapable these days of uttering a sentence free of F-bomb ornamentation.
I should think that both the pejorative and the honorific, as used by the Dems, ought to enter retirement. For they know too little history to know what 'fascist' means, and their actions show that there is little that is democratic about them. Or do you think the coup against Joe Biden and his replacement on the 2024 Dem ticket by Kamala Harris was a democratic action? Quite the contrary!
The subversion of language is the mother of all subversion. The contemporary Dems are a pack of subversives out to destroy our republic. And yes, it is a republic, not a democracy , even when the word is used responsibly. It is a constitutionally-based republic and is democratic only to the extent that the people have a say in who shall represent them.
‘Asylum Seekers’
Is a home invader an asylum seeker? Only in very rare cases. So why are people who immigrate illegally called asylum seekers? A few are but most are not. What we have here, once again, is the characteristic 'progressive' abuse of language. You should have learned by now that no word or phrase is safe around a leftist. Conservatives are not against asylum; they are against the abuse of asylum.
At the same time that so-called progressives abuse 'asylum,' they also abuse 'xenophobic' when they apply this term to those of us who stand for the rule of law. You are one dumb conservative if you acquiesce in the Left's abuse of language.
If you are a conservative, don't talk like a 'liberal.'
He who controls the terms of the debate controls the debate.
Retribution and Psycho-Political Projection
'Retribution' has two main senses in English, and they are importantly different. The word can refer to revenge or to a form of justice, retributive justice. Do I have to explain that justice is not revenge? Conflating the two, journalistic shills for deep-state malefactors try to dismiss as revenge what is a quest for justice to right the wrongs perpetrated against Donald Trump by said malefactors.
Tulsi Gabbard's exposure of the Russia Collusion Hoax has leftists in our government sweating. Jonathan Turley names names: John Brennan, James Clapper, James Comey, and Andrew McCabe.
But of course one cannot expect our political enemies to play fair in what they take to be a war. So this comes as no surprise:
Former Attorney General Eric Holder told MSNBC on Sunday morning that the Justice Department is being politicized to attack enemies of the Trump administration and "put at risk the lives and well-being" of people who oppose the president.
Talk about projection! What Holder & Co. are accusing our side of doing is precisely what they have been doing all along.
There is also the underhanded ploy of accusing us of putting lives at risk when our side rightly responds to their illegal actions. We are supposed to accept the injury meekly, lest our legitimate objections to their outrages inspire some lunatic to go on a rampage. Yet another application of the Left's double-standard 'principle.'
We should never forget what sort of sorry specimen this Holder was and is. See Photo ID: Eric Holder's Assault on Common Sense.
On Lame Appeals for Civility
Trey Gowdy issued one on his show last night. The man needs to stiffen his spine and realize that our political opponents are enemies with whom we share insufficient common ground for productive debate. They don't need debating but defeating. He did guest a Dem pol who talked some sense and seemed decent, but the guy was an outlier who apparently hasn't yet grasped that his party is and has been for some time a hard-Left outfit.
Here at MavPhil my tone is 'edgier' than on Substack and on Facebook it is edgier still. A good writer can write in different tones and voices depending on his audience.
See my Leftists and Civility over at the Stack for a measured partial statement of my views on this topic.
Is ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ a Concentration Camp?
It is according to the author of a TNR article. I don't disagree. After all, the bad hombres are being held against their will in one place prior to their deportation. The conclusion to draw, of course, is that some concentration camps are morally justified. This one is also legally justified. President Trump is merely upholding the rule of law, unlike the Dems who love to mouth that phrase, but don't mean what they say. "No one is above the law," Nancy Pelosi and her followers intoned again and again. Did she and they mean that? No. They meant: no one is above the law except our guys and gals.
POTUS is legally justified in building a concentration camp in the middle of the Everglades for the housing of illegal aliens prior to their lawful deportation. What was legally unjustified was the Biden-Mayorkas invitation of an invasion of illegal aliens into our country. Those 'gentlemen' were in dereliction of duty and should both have been impeached and removed from office, at the very least.
Some say, quite reasonably, that they should both now be in prison.
If you think my use of 'invasion' two paragraphs supra is an exaggeration, consider that in December 2024, during the Biden-Harris (mal)administration, there were 301, 981 Southwest Land Border Encounters according to official U. S. statistics. For the same year there were over two million total such encounters. Under Trump, border encounters have dropped dramatically. In June of this year there were zero. Again, these are official stats.
If you are against detention centers, then you must also be against prisons. Is your name Zohran Mamdani?
Slop Talk
'Due process' is a term of legal shop talk. Those of us who know something about the law — I know a little — know how to use it correctly. And those of us who think that words ought to be used responsibly in serious discussions should take offense at the 'slop talk' use of 'due process.' Trey Gowdy knows a lot more about the law than I do. But a couple of Sundays ago he asked how much 'due process' Laken Riley's assailant showed her. Sean Hannity is another who has asked this question.
That got me thinking about what sort of 'due process' Ibarra should have shown Riley. "You have the right to plead, to pray, and to protest your upcoming rape and murder; you have in addition the right to avail yourself of the services of any well-armed Good Samaritan who might come along."
What were Gowdy and Hannity driving at? That wide-open borders are a recipe for disaster? That the very notion of legal due process needs to be re-thought? Unclear. Commentators who want to be taken seriously should say what they mean and mean what they say.
Democrats are slop heads in the main; we expect incoherence, inanity, and slop talk from them. Conservatives ought not ape them. Does my use of 'ape' make me a racist? What if I were to use such words as 'niggardly' and 'denigrate'?
The WAPO fentanyl 'mystery' is another good illustration of how contemptibly stupid our political enemies can be. Karoline Leavitt has fun with it. In other news, her intersectional and highly 'wokified' predecessor has quit the Dems, and like 'Fake Jake' Tapper and others will endeavor to tap into the money to be made from telling tales of dementia and dysfunction in high places.
Further examples are easily multiplied beyond all necessity. "Tampon Tim" Walz is a bloody good source of them.
Political Nominalism
One form political nominalism takes is loyalty to a political label.
In late November I heard a self-described "life-long Democrat" on Fox cogently explain why Kamala Harris lost the election and why her political career ought to be over. Despite the accuracy of his analysis, the fool remains a Dem! That makes no sense. When the thing labeled no longer exists, why cling to the label?
It is not as if the old Democratic Party can be brought back. The transmogrification unto wokery has proceeded too far. The young Turks have taken it over, the 'woke' squadristi mainly, AOC et al., and the members of the old guard (Pelosi, Schumer, et al.) are on their last legs. But there is no fool like an old fool, and a huge, but dwindling, number of useful idiots still vote Democrat out of misplaced loyalty to an empty label or else because of their delusional opposition to Trump. But they, like Pelosi & Co., will soon pass into the night, and the sooner the better, not that I wish them physically dead; I wish them politically dead. The physically dead can't make political mischief.
But wait a minute! Don't the dead vote in Dementocratic precincts?
Judicial Terminology: Lustration
Here:
Lustration is the removal of public officials and judges who are associated with a tainted political regime. It has been used as a tool of transitional justice in newly independent and postconflict countries. Lustrating begins with vetting—a review of conduct and competency. Individuals associated with the discredited government, and credibly accused of corruption or human rights violations, are dismissed. Officials appointed on the basis of political connections may be removed or reassigned to lower-level positions. Lustration also can be implemented indirectly, as with lowering the mandatory retirement age for judges.
The federal bureaucracy is clearly an obstacle to the president’s agenda. But Trump has a plan this time around. Already, the administration has fired prosecutors involved in former President Joe Biden’s Jan. 6 witch hunt. It has also fired eight high-level FBI officials and is reportedly considering firing many thousands more. Additionally, Elon Musk has claimed that Trump agreed to “shut down” the U.S. Agency for International Development, which would put 10,000 civil servants out of job. And then we have the 30,000 or so federal employees who accepted Trump’s brilliant buyout offer.
But given that the federal government employs more than 2 million people, much work remains to be done. Thankfully, Trump signed an executive order on day one that not only reinstated his Schedule F executive order from 2020 but also expanded its scope. According to the National Treasury Employee Union, Trump’s executive order would affect far more federal employees than the 100,000 previously anticipated. It turns out he wasn’t kidding about draining the swamp.
No More Lip Service
Dealing with the bureaucracy isn’t the only policy field in which the second Trump term is superior to the first. Across the board — DEI, immigration, trans nonsense, foreign policy, you name it — this administration has proven its commitment to implementing a holistic platform that addresses the existential issues of our time. Long gone are the days of elected Republicans paying mere lip service to conservative ideals. Thanks to Trump, the new GOP knows the score — and it’s playing to win.
Dumb Dems and the Hitler Card
Having been dealt a stinging rebuke on 5 November 2024, you might think the Democrats would learn something, for example, that playing the 'Hitler card,' like playing the 'race card,' will henceforth give them a losing hand. But no! The knuckleheads double down!
Elon Musk is an exuberant fellow at the top of his game. And he is, like all sane people, very happy with the outcome of the November election. His heart goes out to all who brought the Orange Man to a second term. And so he jumps around and cuts loose with idiosyncratic arm-hand gestures. He puts his hand on his heart and then extends his arm. A neutral observer might call it a 'heart-felt thank-you' salute. See here for a video of his antics.
But of course the Musk gesture is a Nazi salute to our political enemies. Out comes the 'Hitler card'! Typical.
And then they amalgamate this piece of scurrilous stupidity with a display of their penchant for double standards. (An old saying has it that if you strip a leftist of his double standards he will be left with no standards at all.) After all, "Tampon Tim" (Tim Walz) and "Fauxcahontas" (Elizabeth Warren) have been known to engage in similar arm extensions. Are they too Nazis?
What these fools don't understand is that they will continue to lose as long as they continue to slander we us the people.
Should people this stupid be let anywhere near the levers of power?
That is a rhetorical question, as is the one that preceded it.
Addendum (1/26)
A commenter points out that Elon's gesture was the Bellamy salute.
Enforcement of Borders is neither ‘Draconian’ nor ‘Xenophobic’
I just heard a Democrat politician refer to the The Trump-Homan border crackdown as 'draconian' and 'xenophobic.' It is neither.
It is not cruel or severe. Although you may think that 'severe' is etymologically related to 'sever,' it is not. To witness a penology that includes beheading and limb amputation you will have to take a trip to the Middle East. Iran and Saudi Arabia are go-to locales for draconian punishments. If there are any draconian punishments in the USA at the present time, they are inflicted by leftists. J-6 trespassers and abortion protesters are good examples of inflictees.
As for 'xenophobic,' it it is the adjectival form of 'xenophobia.' Now a phobia is an irrational fear. But we who stand for the rule of law, have no irrational fear of foreigners or of things foreign. If we did, why would we freely travel abroad and indeed freely live for extended periods in foreign lands? ('Freely' as opposed to 'by military order.') I myself have lived two and a half years abroad: six months in Salzburg, Austria, a year in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, and a year in Ankara, Turkey, and I have intensively studied the native languages, cultures, religions, and histories of these countries.
What's more, I entered legally, did not overstay my visa, obeyed the local laws, ate their food, observed their customs, and dressed appropriately. I did not, for example, walk around Turkey Arizona-style in short pants. I showed respect for Muslim ways. I entered legally in the way my ancestors entered the USA, legally. And like them, I studied the native languages and did my best to assimilate.
You can always count on a leftist to misuse language. Language abuse is as it were inscribed into their DNA. Show me a leftist and I'll show you a linguistic hijacker. The scumbaggery of our subversive political enemies has many sources, but the mother of them all, and the mother of all subversion, straight from the pit of hell and the Father of Lies, is the subversion of language.
Bergoglio on Borders
What a hypocrite this guy is! You can 'migrate' anywhere, just not into the Vatican.
Don't you love that word 'migrate'? Its use manages to elide two important distinctions in one fell swoop: the distinction between legal and illegal immigration, and that between immigration and emigration. A worthy addition to the lexicon of the Left.
Leftists as Political Retromingents
A retromingent is an animal that urinates backwards.
Posturing as 'progressive,' the leftist pisses on the past, seeking to erase its memory by destroying monuments and redacting the historical record. There is no piety in the leftist, no reverence. Try using those words at a Manhattan or Georgetown cocktail party and see what happens.
This political retromingency helps explain the leftists' lack of respect for language.
If you erase history, however, not only will you not be able to learn from it, but you won't have anything left to piss on, either. Your retromingency will cut counter to your benighted and backwards modus vivendi et micturendi.
Instructive story here.
MAGA, Majority Rule, and Consent of the Governed
Here:
In short, the political battle between the Left and Right is best understood as an existential fight over what America will be. The Left pushes for a metanoic transformation, while the Right tries to catalyze an epistrophic one.
Metanoia is a forward-looking change — a recognition that one’s past way of life was flawed in some fundamental way. Regret precipitates a self-rejection that drives the transformation, which is a deliberate turning away from one’s previous identity. In contrast, epistrophe is a backward-looking change — a realization that at some point one betrayed the true self and embraced a false mode of being. Epistrophic transformation, then, is a return to one’s essential identity — a return to a previous (and more authentic) way of life.
Under the second Trump administration, America will be transformed — and it will be an epistrophic transformation. The citizens of the country have unmistakably rejected the Left’s claim that our traditional identity was morally untenable.
Very good over all, but is the last quoted sentence true?
The concept democracy includes at least four sub-concepts: majority rule, universal franchise, equality before the law, and consent of the governed. Consider the first and the fourth. They are in tension with each other. Trump won both the Electoral College and the popular vote, but he won the latter only by about 2%. So almost half of the voters did not give their consent to be governed by Trump and his entourage and to be subjected to his and their agenda.
As a citizen and a patriot, I am very happy with the outcome: I want to see our political enemies soundly defeated and demoralized. As a philosopher, however, one who values truth above all else, and along with it, the ancillary virtues of precision in thought and speech, I must point out that that it is false that the citizens have unmistakably rejected the depredatory Left's signature allegation.
The false claim is being thoughtlessly repeated by too many media pundits on our side. Widely bruited as it is, it may have the negative effect of causing complacency. We are in a war with the Left and it won't be over soon, if ever. The National Sanitation Project, as I have been calling it, may take a generation or more. All of our institutions need the political equivalent of fumigation. That includes, of course, the RCC which, though not part of the state apparatus, is an institution that affects the course of the ship of state.
The Coalition of the Sane and the Reasonable
I have been using the title phrase for some time now to refer to Trump-supporting conservatives. But what makes us sane and reasonable? Victor Davis Hanson compiles a list in The Trump Counterrevolution is a Return to Sanity.
In an earlier post I referred to the take-back of our country as a National Sanitation Project, opining that it might take a generation or two. But what does sanity have to do with sanitation? The words are in fact connected etymologically, sharing as they do a common root in the Latin sanus, meaning healthy or sane or sound, as in the Latin saying mens sana in corpore sano, "a sound mind in a sound body." We Trumpians are of sound mind, and some of us inhabit sound bodies.
We need to return the nation to health by draining swamps, enforcing laws, erecting barriers both territorial and moral, and by fumigating institutions. Leftists want to tear down our institutions; we of sound mind want to fumigate them, removing therefrom the termites who presently infest them.
You need to get with the program and do your bit. Don't be slacker, a defeatist, an ingrate. But if you are on the wrong side of this struggle, understand that we consider you enemies.
A threat? No, a warning. Are you wise enough to heed a warning? I can't resist yet another reference to 'Biblical Bob':
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin’
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’