The Rampant Incivility of the Left

As the weeks march on in the Donald Trump presidency, the rhetoric of the Left, the Democratic Party, and the Hollywood elites has continued to plumb new depths in crassness and incivility, with far too many in a mad dash to outdo the other in being as outrageous as possible. Those vehemently opposed to Donald Trump are apparently incapable of voicing coherent and compelling criticism. Via the constant drumbeat of insinuation (or at times explicitly), far too many cannot seem to get beyond comparing Trump to the brutal despots of the past century, as well as indiscriminately tossing around Fascism in their disparagement of the conservative movement and all on the right side of the political spectrum. It has become increasingly a staple of left-wing political bombast to compare one’s adversaries to the primary villains of World War II. Today, about 5% of the U.S. population has any recollection of those years. It has, therefore, become far too easy to demean and diminish the genesis and consequences of that fateful period as the education establishment, dominated by the Left, deliberately avoids teaching the realities of that era. Thus, opening the door for the demagogues to miscast those years for their own ends.

The compulsion to compare, either directly or deviously, one’s political opponent to Fascists, Nazis, Hitler, or Mussolini is indicative of the so-called Progressives’ inability to present a coherent argument in support of their policies. The mindless references to the World War II period (including the 1930’s) are an affront to and a denigration of the memory of nearly 60 million people who died in the War and the countless millions who suffered and were displaced. Far too many on the left side of the political spectrum, who so glibly throw around these comparisons, apparently do not know, or do not care to acknowledge, the socialist underpinning of Nazism and its parent Fascism and do not have the slightest concept of the real-life experiences of those who were there. For many, their frame of reference for the War is perhaps a grainy, yet impersonal, black and white film of ashen faces staring into a camera; or a faded photograph of emaciated children begging for food; or a newsreel of lifeless bodies strewn across a field. To others, it is sitting in a movie theatre being entertained for two hours watching either a fictionalized Hollywood portrayal of the War or a cartoonish depiction of the villains of that era. These photographic images are quickly forgotten and the celluloid depictions are praised or panned for their entertainment value and box office. But to those of us who lived through those days and the aftermath do not have the luxury of forgetting or being entertained. Our experiences haunt us every hour, day and night. Therefore, as a displaced war orphan and a wounded survivor of World War II, I must speak out on behalf of those who cannot and say that those who traffic in these invidious comparisons are beneath contempt. This mindlessness is now totally out of control as I was recently accused of being a Fascist because I support a freeze in all immigration from those nations overtly sympathetic to Islamic radicalism. Conservatism and adherence to the Constitution is not, by any stretch of the imagination, akin to Fascism. Nor is Donald Trump remotely close to being the next Hitler or Stalin or Mao Tse-Tung. Further, the people of this nation will never willingly go down the disastrous path these despots of the Twentieth Century laid out for their countries. During the primary season, I was not a supporter of Donald Trump; in fact I was a vociferous opponent and openly endorsed and financially supported Ted Cruz. While I applaud much of what he has done to date, I still view Trump with some degree of skepticism and wish he would tone down some of his over the top rhetoric. I acknowledge that he does possess narcissistic and authoritarian tendencies; however, so do nearly all overly-ambitious men and women. As compared to the mindset of his predecessor, Barack Obama, Donald Trump has an affection for this nation and its people. He is not someone bent on domination, destruction or violent transformation of this nation. Those who are mindlessly opposed to Trump and the conservative movement only demean themselves by making odious comparisons, either directly or by insinuation, to those in the pantheon of the most vile and evil men to ever walk the face of the earth. The various factions of the Left that traffic in this demagoguery succeed only in being complete incoherent fools -- not in convincing others of their viewpoints. It is an admission that the Left knows it cannot compete in the larger arena of ideas. They know the only means they have to accumulate power and win elections is by: 1) Destroying the opposition through vile personal attacks, 2) Organizing and pre-planning demonstrations to appear spontaneous, 3) Orchestrating occasional violence at marches to ensure media coverage, 4) Utilizing their allies in the mainstream media to propagate false and misleading stories, and 5) Accelerating the spread of outright socialist anti-American propaganda through their fellow travelers in the education and entertainment establishment. These are, in fact, some of the same strategies utilized by the despots of recent history in their seizure of power. If there is any group in the United States today that could be truthfully compared to the Fascists, it is the current iteration of the American Left. Recently a friend of mine in Israel, who as a child survived Auschwitz, passed away. Last year we had a discussion about the worsening crisis in the Middle East and what it portends. Among the points of conversation was the fact that mankind never learns one very important lesson from the past: a significant portion of the human race has an insatiable appetite for power and control and will do literally anything to achieve it. The lessons of the 1930’s and 40’s will be lost in the mists of time if the people and events of those years continue to be diminished by exploiting them for meaningless political fodder and to vanquish one’s political foes as the contemptible Left, including Hollywood, is attempting to do today.