I&I Editorial
We and many others were warning months ago that the Democrats were going to try to steal the 2020 election. When the counting, recounting, and lawsuits are done, they might well have succeeded. It’s simply in their nature to do whatever they believe is necessary to further their agenda.
The belief in one’s own moral superiority eventually erases the conscience. After all, if one is morally superior to others, then no conscience is needed. All actions and behaviors are acceptable because they’re done in an effort to make the world a better place. C.S. Lewis explained this in his 1948 book “God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics”:
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
Yet too many of us still don’t recognize what we can also call moral narcissism when it’s right in front of us. We hope that’s a correct assessment. If we’re wrong, then Heaven help us, because roughly half of the country, the portion that voted for and supported Joe Biden and down-ticket Democrats, is made up of moral narcissists, willing to force their policy preferences on the rest of the country.
Just a few of the many screeds, rants, and tweets that have been issued since Election Day are evidence that the Democrats and progressive left feed on their moral narcissism. They are convinced that their ideas are so righteous, their judgment so impeccable, their understanding so deep that anyone who disagrees with them must be cast aside, redeemed only after being re-educated. Their moral narcissism is to be imposed on the rest of us by a moral authoritarianism.
Even as votes were still being counted, the political left fired up efforts to enforce its brand of tyranny. It’s demanding Donald Trump supporters be held accountable for holding differing views. Some of our moral betters want to compile an enemies list to include names of those who must pay for the offense of backing Trump, or questioning the election.
For instance, Emily Abrams, at one time a Pete Buttigieg campaign staffer, has declared that “anyone who took a paycheck to help Trump undermine America is held responsible for what they did.” A Trump Accountability Project has been created to track and some assume prosecute Trump “Campaign Staff,” “Administration,” “Appointees,” “Donors,” “Law Firms,” “Endorsers,” and “Denouncers.”
Even before the election, Robert Reich, a Clinton labor secretary, was calling for a truth and reconciliation commission to “erase Trump’s lies, comfort those who have been harmed by his hatefulness.” MSNBC’s Chris Hayes also called for a tribunal “to deal with all these people.” Reich, so far gone he doesn’t even think he’s making a radical suggestion, said his inquisition should begin “when this nightmare is over,” but the real horrors would start the moment the left begins indicting those it considers heretics.
Columnist Jennnifer Rubin, at one time a supposed conservative who has become a de facto leftist due to her status as a Never Trumper, tweeted Friday that “any R now promoting rejection of an election or calling to not to follow the will of voters or making baseless allegations of fraud should never serve in office, join a corporate board, find a faculty position or be accepted into ‘polite’ society. We have a list.”
We assume the allegedly august Washington Post, which considers Rubin one of its opinion columnists, is OK with the sort of threat that a Third World dictator would issue.
When Not The Bee said “the left goes full Stalin,” it wasn’t exaggerating much. The Democrats are continually lusting for more raw political power to punish their enemies and establish a regime far removed from the republic the founders gave us. California Sen. Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate, made it clear what the left wants when she recently narrated a video that clearly stated the Biden-Harris team favors a form of government in which “we all end up at the same place.”
“That’s equality of *outcomes* enforced by the government,” Andrew Sullivan tweeted in response. “They used to call that communism.”
The moral authoritarians of the left are so hungry to rule over others, so convinced of their own virtue that they will do almost anything to muscle a path to unchallengeable authority. In their minds, stealing an election is a legitimate means to their ends.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
Extraordinarily well articulated and insightful. I’ve written professionally for nearly forty years, and like most writers I usually think I can improve on whatever I read. In this case you have written with similar insight, but far better clarity than I could have provided. I’ve been trying to write essentially the same thing. Now you’ve made it easy for me as I can simply refer your web address to those I want to consider your (our) perspective. Thank you.
More fool me for not realizing that Gilbert and Sullivan were being prescient, not mere tunesmiths, when they created Ko-Ko:
“As some day it may happen that a victim must be found
I’ve got a little list — I’ve got a little list
Of society offenders who might well be underground
And who never would be missed.”
Is there no end to the depravity of Republicans? It is YOU who are stealing the election – or trying to. Thank God we have Biden – we narrowly averted catastrophe and there is nothing you deranged immoral scoundrels can do about it. You truly are nuts.
I cannot understand how you interpret actions taken to ensure that all legal ballots are counted – and no illegal ballots are counted – as “trying to steal the election.” A quick thought experiment: if a Republican (other than Trump, let’s say, since he’s a trigger for so many) were significantly behind on Election Night in several key states, but overnight and without observers a boatload of ballots suddenly showed up that overwhelmingly gave that Republican the advantage, and over the next few days the incoming ballots showed glaring statistical anomalies that extended that Republican’s advantage further,and if Republican-run institutions threw up countless barriers to Democrats’ efforts to see what was happening, including forbidding them legally guaranteed access to watch the counts, wouldn’t you be at least curious?
If everything turns out to be on the up-and-up and Biden has won fairly, then there’s no harm in recounts and audits, is there? There’s plenty of time, and I would think you’d want your candidate to take office without a hint of doubt as to his proper election.
But this essay itself draws that last supposition of mine into question: if you’re among the many (though I hope not the majority) on the Democrat side who believe the “by any means necessary” mantra of how important it is to get rid of Trump, then maybe you don’t care whether your candidate is fairly elected, as long as Trump is gone.
Sorry, Paul. Your attempt at satire landed flat. Don’t give up your day job, eh?
Democrats coping hard. Most of them know in the back of their minds that the result can’t be fair so they have to invent all sorts of methods of coping with the fact that it’s them, not Republicans who are destroying democracy.
Great assessment, Paul. Let’s meet for a beer. Where do you live? I travel all over the country, so just say when and where.
Here’s a quick translator for your use.
We need to run on nothing but ‘renewables’.
Translation: Your traveling and movement will be controlled, you will pay outrageous prices for heat and A/C, when it is available, making you grovel to us and be beholden to us for any semblance of relief.
We need to get rid of offensive religious symbols where anyone can see them.
Translation: The Lord is the State. We don’t want people getting strength from their belief in God and Christ. Heck, that might enable them.
We need abortion on demand everywhere, to protect women’s health!
Translation: Sex and promiscuity are fun and should be without any messy responsibility; it keeps the masses more relaxed and distracted. The last thing we need are these “families” with strength and commitment to righteousness that can see through what we are selling.
We need open borders to help the poor and scared in other countries and to do the jobs Americans won’t do.
Translation: We want cheap labor in here so that us overlords make more money, and we need to pare down the the middle class. These people think they are empowered, and they can be dangerous if they wake up. The right way is for us smart elites who know what to do with money retain that, and the rest of the country serves us. We are smarter and know how to lead.
We need to make sure we teach social justice, the white people are inherently bad, and that this country was built by evil men.
Translation: We Progressives know that is not true, but we have to condition people to believe that. We really need to beat the smart white people down before they figure out a way to circumvent us if we cannot convert them. By making children feel bad about themselves, we can off ways to make them feel better by doing things our way…especially if the other kids are picking on them.
We need to normalize all type of sexuality, endorse promiscuity, reduce or remove any drug laws, and lower the age of consent. We need to teach these values and if parents refuse such instruction, throw them in jail and take their kids away. How dare they ruin their kids’ lives!
Translation: If you erase morality, you can do just about anything.
Well done.
The ‘how’ of fraud in the vote counting is fairly obvious if one considers the lowest common denominator in Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Pittsburgh…if you are willing to speak truth to cancel culture; the article ‘Black Women have been bailing out the Dems for Years’ by Leonard Greene for the NYDN is no a coincidence but rather a warning to silence.
I am not only unafraid but have every intention of mounting massive retaliation knowing full well the 2020 election has but one analog; 1932 Germany. Go to commonsensecesssion.org and you will find answers and solutions detailed…along with a logical foundation for organizing.
Secession may be comforting emotionally but all you’l be doing is producing two weakened rump states that would be at the mercy of a now dominant China. The best you could hope for is that Beijing would leave the two new nations alone under the correct assumption that neither one would pose any threat to Chinese ambitions.
Does the end justify the means, an unethical position when rigging an election? Well, sir, it does when Democrats define the end as defeat of the man they could not defeat by hair-on-fire Russian collusion, FBI skullduggery and impeachment fantasy. Not to mention the inviolable component of the Democratic catechism that claims only collectivist views are acceptable because, well, we are smarter than you and we define acceptability. And we do so autocratically because, once again (Jeez, you are slow), we are smarter than you. Now, wash-rinse-repeat until you get with the program.
I recall a history class in which the professor noted that Robespierre, a key instigator of the French Revolution, rashly drew up a very inclusive “list of enemies of the state” in front of the Assembly. Delegates were so spooked that they would be on “The List” that they immediately had Robespierre arrested and guillotined. Beware, Dems. Sometimes history repeats itself.
“Moral Authoratarianism” is better known as “Totalitarianism.”
An authoritarian requires compliance.
A totalitarian requires compliance and conversion.
The left will keep cheating until the Republicans start fighting back. The dems know that cowards like Sessions and Barr will just hide under their desk and cry a lot but not do anything. Make it painful to cheat and they will stop ! Until then they will just keep cheating !
as the saying has it: there is no there there. Evidence? Proof? nada. Simple assertions, unsubstantiated
Theres evidence. Its just going where it needs to, the Courts hopefully SC in the end. Why show it to you? or me? We are nothing in this fight.
No. The party that depends on the votes of millions of convicted felons for its existence would never cheat in an election!