Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

Years ago when I was young, innocent and green as the greenest species of leek, I formally joined the Libertarian party and solemnly signed the compact never to initiate violence.

I have since shed a lot of the ideas that made me a member of the Libertarian party—including the idea that the individualists can organize anything the statists won’t high jack (and remember that, because it’s important to my conclusions)—but I still hold by and believe in that.

Look, it’s not that I don’t see that a soft coup has been in progress in this country for many, many years, honestly since before most of us on this blog were born. And it’s not like I don’t realize it went into high gear… well… around the time of Clinton’s presidency. Or that I don’t get it’s now in your face and obvious, and has been since 2016.

I beg any of you who think I’m “soft” or kind, or an optimist, to consider I’m seeing this movie for the second time. Having grown up in a country where the left felt absolutely no need to hide its intentions and behaviors, having passed as one of them (successfully enough to have a graduate degree in the liberal arts and to be professionally published. And if you think that doesn’t require passing at the times and places I did it, you’re an optimist) I heard them planing and talking, and I know their idea of the world and of the opposition.

Mostly what I know is that, yes, they hate us and often wish us all dead. But the Haidt studies were no surprise to me, either. I also know they know nothing about us. Not just “they don’t fully understand us.” but they know nothing. What they think they know about the right is the “comedy right winger” their fellow leftists injected in various TV productions for years.

Those of you who have been on this blog a long time probably remember our instances of having idiots come onto this blog and accuse us of being all from the deep South, not having finished high school and never having traveled abroad.

This is important, so hold on to that scrap of info.

At the same time, please be aware—I’ve run into them—there are a number (not as large) on our side who suffer from similar issues in target identification. Weirdly these people are usually very young and have decided that if everything the left taught them is wrong, then the opposite must be true. The fact that they’re young also matters here, so keep it in mind.

Next, yes, I believe there will be violence. I wouldn’t advise anyone to be near a marginal neighborhood at or the week after the next elections. And between now and then keep your eyes open and watch your back. From all sides. Desperate people do weird things, and the left is acting like a wounded bear. And people are getting pissed at it (you can judge this from the fact that I am, and I’m not even close to the biggest hothead on our side.)

At some point one of my colleagues was keeping track of incidents of left-wing political violence since 2016, and was up to 20. Unfortunately I don’t remember where the list was.

However, after what happened to Rand Paul and to the GOP softball team, it would be a fairytale to say there will be no violence.

There has already been violence. There will be more violence. Some of it will be horrific. All of it will be downplayed in the media, or miss-ascribed. Keep that in mind, it’s another piece of the puzzle.

What I’m saying is that the violence will have bloody nothing to do with anyone’s concept of a civil war. Because of how emulsified the population is, how long we’ve been infiltrated, and the growing but far from complete catastrophic technological innovation effect… well, we’re in terra incognita here. The ship has hit what should be the edge of the flat Earth, it’s not sailing out into space, and we’re all still trying to make it fit into our mental disk-like map of the world. Us and the left, too.

On their side too, you see clamoring for the progroms of the 20th century, adult happy fun camps, free health care for everyone including illegals, etc. seemingly unaware that we can actually hear them and see them. That these conversations are no longer in their very own smoke-filled rooms, and properly cleaned and primped up by the press for general public consumption.

On our side, you see people saying we should have a jolly civil war, or some kind of uprising. It reminds me of Mercutio ranting at Romeo in Romeo and Juliet: MERCUTIO: O calm dishonourable, vile submission!

Keep that in mind, too, because of course the reason Romeo is not answering Tibald’s insults is that they’re family—no, hear me out. I’m not going to make a soft-headed appeal for letting the left get away with sh*t, truly—and in the time and place the play is set (and written) that meant that his entire life was now enmeshed with his wife’s family, even if they didn’t know it. Mercutio just, tragically, doesn’t know that.

In our time and place it’s because people view civil wars, or putting people in camps, or even revolutions in cinematic terms: And then everyone had had enough, and they rose and deposed the dictator.

Take it from someone who lived through revolution and counter revolution, to the point Green Acres (you had to be there) theme song triggers PTSD: it’s never like that. It’s never, ever, ever like that.

Then go and find books about the American revolution, real ones, and find out how much they endured and put up with before they pledged their life, their fortune and their sacred honor. And even then be aware that there atrocities and bad targeting (as there would be) and that it took not just genius but an uncommon amount of amazing good luck for things to turn out as they did. It wasn’t the most likely outcome. It wasn’t even in the top ten.

And we’re not at that point yet, no. Though we’re closer than I’d like it to be.

Look, I don’t think it’s going to flare into a full scale war. I could, however, be wrong. And I’ve been waking up screaming for some time now over the possibility I might be wrong.

I think we’re going to see brief, unimaginably violent outbreaks. Most of them will be—have been, and not that violent—in leftist dominated cities, which means it’s mostly theater, with few exceptions. But as the crazy bullshit impeachment has shown, they’re getting more than a little crazy. And that’s on top the Thunberg thing, which is even more insane (since when do we take 16 year olds seriously, when they demand we kill most of the population of the world?) In fact, this chick right here is the current poster child for the left. The scary part being that other than saying it in public, she’s not that unusual, even. Even though she is quite obviously mentally ill.

When ghosts dance fail, cultures do bizarre things. Yes, there is the possibility of the left trying something stupid somewhere they think they’re safe and unleashing a wave of violence the likes of which they have never seen. On them. Well… them adjacent. Mostly-them. Almost-certainly-them. Kind-of-them.

Because my question is: how do you target?

I’m not even saying—though if you have a minimal amount of self-awareness you know damn well it’s true—that most of us on this blog would probably be mistakenly acquired as targets. Have you forgotten how many of you post under assumed names, because you’re successfully passing in professions controlled by the left? because I haven’t. Or that to the casual observer (and trust me, there are a lot more people than those who follow sf/f fights, or read blogs) I am one “on that side” being a foreign born, has an accent, uses big words, makes classical references, lives from writing, dabbles in art… hell, has a degree in languages and literature? I’d target me.

2004, because honestly Jean Francois Kerry scared the snot out of me (my imagination was obviously limited. Nothing like this year’s lineup) I volunteered for GOP get out the vote efforts. This was near insane, considering I was still in the political closet, but bear with me.

Myself, and a group of two other women and two men were sent out to the suburban neighborhoods of Colorado Springs, on foot, to remind people to get the heck out and vote. People being, in that case, registered GOP voters.

One of the women who was with me kept saying things like “They’re not even real republicans. Half of those are going to go out and vote for the Dems.”

She was wrong. At least those I actually found at home and spoke too, she was very wrong. But I also understood her impressions. Sure, there were mom-and-dad evangelical families. There was also the gay couple where one of the guys, after talking to me about the odds that GWB might lose said, “honey, damn it, we’re voting” and took off his apron, and walked off to grab his partner and drag him to the polls. Moments later, they drove off to vote. The one I talked to read the same blogs I did at the time. Trust me. We exchanged references. There was also the family with the immigrant (Portuguese! No seriously. I told his wife where to buy Portuguese foods online, while he was getting coats, so they could go out and vote) dad with the thick accent. Etc.

Target acquisition? Pah. Most of those people would have fooled me, if we hadn’t talked for more than a few minutes.

Then there are the soft-left. I was going to call them the soft-headed left. But hell, most of them aren’t. Not really. It’s hard for us who live and breathe politics to get that it’s possible for people to vote for someone because “they sound nice on TV”. But I’d guess that’s a majority of people.

Most of the “left” aren’t left because they want to destroy our way of life. Most aren’t even aware of the crazy idiocy their candidates are spouting. They’re busy people, who have jobs and families, and imbibe their daily dose of MSM’s or entertainment “Orange man bad” without thinking. Involving them in a war WOULD be an atrocity even if they are casually supporting genocide and tyranny. They have no clue they are.

Killing vast numbers of innocent—not just a few, as the revolution admittedly did—is not a way to anyone’s heart. Even the American revolutionaries grew disgusted at the French revolution when it waded through lakes of blood.

It is PARTICULARLY foolish when the media still holds a giant megaphone, for those people who are too busy and don’t care about politics and also—I hasten to point out, since I know most of you don’t know this—the only voice about events in the US that is heard around the world. Look, I spend about 1 hour of the weekly phone call with mom explaining that no, Trump isn’t rounding up dissidents, etc. And mom is SKEPTICAL as a consumer of news.

Whatever emerges, if we wade through blood, will need trading partners; will need some good will and cooperation abroad. The world is too interconnected to tell them all to f*ck off. And more importantly, it will need the world not to think it’s weak.

But let’s talk about what will emerge: if we start this, if we jump into the dance with both feet before the tune even plays, if we give the YOUNG—who do you think fights? and who do you think is most enthusiastic in mob action—their head in this, the people who will jump in and control it are those who have access to the means of propaganda. Oh, if the uprising against the current “elites” is strong enough, they might just—probably—change their tune, and become the most nationalistic of all nationalists, screaming from the roof tops that they always hated leftists. But they’ll be the same people. And they’ll be directing the violence and the reconstruction. I don’t think you’ll keep your republic.

So, what is our option other than vile submission?

Well, IF the election is stolen and they start rounding up people by the numbers, yeah, you’ll get to see as close to a civil war as your heart (not mine) desires. This will be a very, very bad thing.

Those of you who read Ringo know what he’s said about when the engine of world economy seizes and stops. People will starve to death, while we resolve our differences. Some of them even in the US. Unimaginable wealth and progress will be destroyed. And I doubt any of you will like what emerges. Sure. We have more force than they do. But they’re better at manipulation.

A renewal of the Republic?

It would take a miracle.

I’m not saying it can’t happen, but if we’re going to pray for miracles, can we pray for something else?

Trump, a brash man, a blunt one, a man I thought we couldn’t abide or trust in the presidency, is engaged in doing to the American left what Ronald Reagan—imperfectly—did to the Russian empire that called itself the USSR.

He might fail. There was always that chance with Reagan too, and in a way he did, because while he defeated the Soviet Empire, he didn’t expose it for what it was, and left the infiltration at home untouched.

Trump is causing them to expose themselves, and to expose themselves in ways even the media can’t cover up. He’s putting pressure on them in ways that even I don’t understand/anticipate until I see them play out.

He’s not the president I wanted, but he might have been the president we needed. And perhaps G-d still protects fools, drunkards and the United States of America.

Perhaps if we don’t joggle his elbow by doing what the left is clearly trying to provoke us into doing—to have an excuse to retaliate—he can bring us safely through this very narrow and perilous strait.

And if—note IF—he does it will be because there was a divine thumb on the scales, because all the deck is stacked against us.

But so far? So far he’s done far better than I expected. And he’s winning. If he can expose the corruptocrats and kleptocrats of the left for what they are, he might steal their thunder, and steal that mushy middle. Or at least keep them from being idiots for long enough that the danger passes.

Hold your breath. Watch your back. Fight the war of words. Pray the war of fire and blood doesn’t come. Pray the republic survives.

And be not afraid.

 

Reprinted from According to Hoyt for October 4, 2019