America's Unhappy Lot Are Wedded To Spending. Iran's Protesters. Blame Bibi. Term Limits.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

I have always said progressives, liberals. Democrats generally wake up unhappy and need to change everything. They are not happy unless they are spending money on their dumb ideas which, empirically prove to be wrong, ie. War on Poverty, Welfare, cutting defense expenditures, creating dependent society etc.

+++

The Persistence of the Left

Why an ideology so graphically repudiated by history – and so bloody in its application – continues to endure.

by Bruce Thornton, FPM

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 sparked a wave of optimism and triumphalism across the West. Our nuclear-armed rival and ideological enemy had suddenly disappeared, taking with it the shadow of nuclear apocalypse. But for the Left, since 1917 the Soviet Union had been the locus of the hopes and dreams of leftist collectivism. Now history, understood as an ideological game of thrones, had ended, dashing that hope. Liberal democracy, private property, and free-market capitalism had prevailed, and no credible alternative remained.

This optimism was expressed by George H.W. Bush in 1991, when he celebrated this “new world order, where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind––peace and security, freedom, and the rule of law.” Yet the demise of the USSR did not mean the end of various Marxist ideals like collectivism and the “command economy,” which haven’t just survived, but in recent decades have grown stronger under progressivist rule.

How is it that an ideology so graphically repudiated by history and so bloody in its application, has managed to endure, especially in the West, which has provided the greatest and most widespread prosperity, political equality, and freedom in human history?

The survival of the Left has nothing to do with the intellectual coherence or truth of its ideas. Leftism is predicated on dubious, if not wildly absurd, assumptions and ideas about human nature and motivation: secularism, philosophical materialism, determinism, and the technocratic fallacy that “science” can discover and exploit the timeless forces and laws of human progress and social improvement. The latter claim in particular has been repudiated by Marxism’s ghastly toll of 100 million dead, and millions more enslaved in gulags and forced-labor camps like the ones we see today in Communist China’s Xinjiang western region, where more than a million Muslim Uighurs are being subjected to forced labor and brutal “re-education.”

One obvious reason for Leftism’s survival in the West is its successful “long march” through our educational institutions. It started in the universities, where tenure, unions, and a lack of accountability to voters or the market ensured that bad ideas could flourish, then trickle down into K-12 schools through higher education’s monopoly on teacher-training.

Just track how widespread transgenderism, the unscientific notion that biological sex can be chosen, has become. From its beginnings in universities and the work of intellectual farceurs like Michelle Foucault, these pernicious ideas now are shaping grammar school curricula and activities, government regulations, and corporate C-Suites and boardrooms, including the U.S. military.

As transgenderism also shows, this form of Leftism has evolved away from Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy, or the ruthless, dangerous work of making a revolution or organizing on the factory floor. The failure of the Marxist libretto to achieve the predicted eventual triumph of collective ownership of the means of production, and the “withering away of the state,” has made Cultural Marxism much more comfortable and profitable.

This sort of Marxism also has other attractions more suited for the affluent cognitive elites. The decline of faith in a justifying, transcendent narrative does not mean that the need for such assurance and solace disappears. Communism has long been defined as a “political religion,” one based on faith rather than reason and empirical evidence, on many points corresponding to Christianity.

Historian Michael Burleigh has catalogued the similarities between Marxism and the Judeo-Christian heritage:

““consciousness” (soul), “comrades” (faithful), “capitalists (sinner), “devil” (counter-revolutionary), “proletariat” (chosen people), “classless society” (paradise). The ruling classes were going to face a “Last Judgement” . . . . But there were far deeper unacknowledged correspondences, including nostalgia for a lost oneness and the beliefs that time was linear . . . , that the achievement of higher consciousness brought salvation, and that history was progressing with its meaning and purpose evident to the discerning knowledgeable vanguard.”

Moreover, these correspondences fit as well the master narrative of the modern West, particularly the idea that knowledge of the material world is sufficient for understanding and improving the human world, and this progress is inevitable, if only the ignorant and superstitious who “cling to their guns and religion” could be converted––and the anachronistic Constitution be replaced with a technocracy of cognitive elites.

The gratification Marxism provides from knowing one is part of that elite is another reason Marxism or progressivism, Marxism Lite, has maintained its hold on our culture. In other words, pure snobbery, the sense that one is better than everybody else. By espousing, usually in word rather than deed, the “liberation” of the “oppressed victims of capitalism,” the Marxiste snob can show off his superiority to the vulgar entrepreneurs, manufacturers of low-brow products, and commercial hucksters who generate all the wealth, while also stiring bitter resentment in many “brights,” especially academics who chronically whine that they’re underpaid and unjustly ignored.

The Leftist confection of “false consciousness” also conveniently allows the snob to champion the masses afflicted by this malady at the same time he sneers at “smelly Wal-Mart shoppers.” The snob thinks he’s superior because he knows what’s really politically true, just as he knows which films or novels or restaurants or music or fashion is superior. Leftist ideas, then, are like designer labels, emblems of class superiority. Only the vulgar rich and bourgeois parvenus vote Republican.

Another modification of Leftism is its therapeutic thrust: its sentimental privileging of the suffering masses and victims of American global depredations; and its smug displays of “conspicuous compassion,” as Allan Bloom called it. Hence the therapeutic Leftist opposes free-market capitalism because it creates winners and losers and so hurts people’s feelings, not to mention besmirching the environment. He feels bad about all the unjust suffering in the world, but he practices what Charles Dickens called “telescopic philanthropy,” the conspicuous display of sensitivity to suffering, but from a safe distance.

Endorsing Marxist or progressive illusions about the perfectibility of human life, the sentimentalist chafes at tragic limits and human corruption, seeing these as distortions of a fundamentally good and cooperative human nature. And Marxiste politics is the political program that will sweep away the economic and political impediments to this authentic human nature, one warped by traditional superstitions like free will and responsibility for one’s bad choices––which are in fact determined by an unjust political order.

Finally, “woke” identity politics, a species of parochial particularism––which, like nationalism, real Marxists would have contemptuously dismissed––has added being Left to the “woke” suite of identity markers. Hence the popularity of socialism among the young, who endorse it as a hip token of identity like being trans or gay. Indeed, as Robert Spencer reported,

“Eric Kaufmann, a Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology research fellow, says that this expansion correlates with the students’ identification with the Left: ‘The trend toward LGBT identification among young people, which has seen a threefold expansion since 2008, encompasses both university and non-university young people, white as well as minority. That said, those who identify as ‘very liberal’ are substantially more likely to say they are LGBT and white left-wing activists are extremely likely to do so, with some 70% of very liberal women who support shouting down offensive speakers identifying as LGBT.’”

Being a leftist, like being gay, is now a brand in the intersectionality of identity fashion.

In short, human weakness and frailty––its susceptibility to “black-market” religions, as Chantal del Sol defines political religions; its thirst for status and superiority, and its indulgence of showy feelings that signal one’s superior virtue and compassion––have kept Leftism alive despite its manifold bloody failures, and has helped it to persist by making it immune to empirical evidence and rational argument.

Unfortunately, the rest of us are paying for this reliance on bloody nonsense to secure status, a sense of superiority, and, of course, the acquisition of a fat income, social power, and political leverage. We will likely soon see that the cost is too high.

Bruce S. Thornton is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, an emeritus professor of classics and humanities at California State University, Fresno, and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. His latest book is Democracy’s Dangers and Discontents: The Tyranny of the Majority from the Greeks to Obama.

And:

Liberals have an all consuming desire to destroy the military:
+++

In 2020, Congress established a new Chief Diversity Officer position for the U.S. military.

 The position is appointed by the Secretary of Defense

 not by the president

 not subject to Senate confirmation

 supported by Democrats

 opposed by Republicans.

Although Republicans controlled the Senate at the time, the Senate nonetheless approved the

provision as a small component of the far larger annual National Defense Authorization Act

(NDAA).

In September, GovTrack Insider covered a Republican bill to eliminate that would prevent

Defense Department funds from hosting any more drag shows.

What the legislation does

The Restoring Military Focus Act would eliminate the Pentagon’s Chief Diversity Officer position.

 The House version was introduced in July 2021 as H.R. 4668, by Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX21).

 The Senate version was introduced in November 2022 as S. 5119, by Sen. Marco Rubio

(R-FL)

Supporters argue that the military should aim to foster cohesion and might. “The Department

of Defense’s top priority should be to develop our men and women in the Armed Forces into a

united, lethal, and battle-ready force primed to defend the United States’ interests at a

moment’s notice,” Rep. Roy said in a press release. “Instead, the Defense Department has

allocated taxpayer dollars to support Chief Diversity Officers tasked to establish ‘training in

diversity dynamics’ and ‘evaluations and assessments of diversity.’”

“Our military should be focused on protecting our national security, not on promoting woke

nonsense,” Sen. Rubio said in a separate press release. “The current direction we are heading in

is dangerous. If we don’t reverse course, we risk jeopardizing our military strength, national

interests, and security.”

Opponents counter that diversity is part of what makes both the U.S. and the U.S. military great,

and perhaps one single person within the organization should have a full-time job to foster that

goal.

“To ensure the morale, cohesion, and readiness of the military it is essential that our ranks

reflect and are inclusive of the American people we have sworn to protect and defend.”

Odds of Passage:

 The House version has attracted 12 cosponsors, all Republicans

 The Senate version has attracted nine cosponsors, all Republicans

 It awaits a potential vote in the House Armed Services Committee

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Iranian protesters have a secret weapon

By DAVID WURMSER-OPINION

The cult of martyrdom and death fostered by the ayatollahs has backfired, and may well destroy them.

(December 20, 2022 / JNS) Last week, various senior Israeli intelligence sources suggested that, while they believe the Iranian uprising is serious, they do not think the regime will fall. This followed weeks of private signals from the United States that it believes the same.

Israel and the U.S. appear to have reached their conclusions for the same reasons: The uprising lacks a centralized opposition leadership and sufficient funding. A revolution, the intelligence community has concluded, needs both to succeed.

…….Moreover, this worship of martyrdom has created a generation of young people who believe that an idea is worth dying for. The ayatollahs want this idea to be their own totalitarian form of Islam. But this no longer has any appeal to Iranian youth. The idea of freedom—perhaps not fully formed, but very real—has replaced it. The phrase “give me liberty or give me death,” so familiar but so distant to Americans, is now very immediate for Iranians. This is what has given Iranian youth the strength to risk everything in the name of revolution.  CONTINUE

And:

Washington Free Beacon 

NATIONAL SECURITY

Victims of Terrorism Sue Biden Admin for Sending Taxpayer Aid to Palestinians

By Adam Kredo

Victims of Palestinian terror attacks are suing the Biden administration for awarding nearly half a billion dollars in U.S. taxpayer funds to the Palestinian government, which allegedly uses these funds to pay convicted terrorists and their families.

The plaintiffs, led in the suit by the America First Legal Foundation, a watchdog group composed of lawyers, are asking the court to halt the Biden administration’s Palestinian aid program over charges it is sustaining the pay-to-slay program in violation of a 2018 law known as the Taylor Force Act. That law—named after an American who was killed in 2016 by a Palestinian terrorist—bars all U.S. payments to the Palestinian government until it halts the terrorist payment program.  CONTINUE

Finally:

Biden’s policy for Israel: Blame it all on Netanyahu

By World Israel News Staff, 12/20/22

The Biden administration plans to hold Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu “personally responsible” for the actions of right-wing lawmakers in his government, U.S. officials were cited as saying by Politico.

The policy is one the U.S. has been working on since it became clear that Netanyahu would form a right wing, religious government with lawmakers considered to be hardline, including firebrand MKs Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.  CONTINUE

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Unsubscribe

 

Richard, if you were a Christian that wanted to attend worship service in 2020, government officials treated you like a terrorist.

If you were a criminal that assaulted innocent people, burned buildings to the ground and ransacked every business in your path, Leftists handed you the keys to the city.

I’ll never forget what they did over the last two years – because they want to do it again.

They pretended it was about safety, but we both know that was a lie.

It was about control.

It was about their agenda.

And it was about their decades-in-the-making war on Christian America.

No matter what you believe or who you worship, this is your fight.

You see, the radical Left is doing everything in their power to rip Christianity from our culture, because that’s where our freedoms, our rights, our liberties -- the values that have defined our nation -- came from.

I explain this at length in Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America.

Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America

By now, you know my story. I’m not a Christian and I never have been.

I spent decades entrenched in the radical Left before I saw them for who they really were.

And I know the reason Leftist politicians hunted down churchgoers like enemies of the state while violent criminals roamed free over the last two years.

It wasn’t negligence, coincidence, or incompetence.

They want to tear Christianity and religion from our country because they want to replace God with government.

They want you answering to the State and the State only.

And they know if they can strip America’s religious foundation, they can finally shred our Constitution and destroy the institutions that made us who we are.

But this war is far from over, and I need you on my side.

That’s why I hope I can count on your generous, tax-deductible donation of $45 or more to the David Horowitz Freedom Center today.

I founded the Freedom Center because I was determined to expose everything I’d learned about the radical Left in the hopes that I could stop them in their tracks.

Since then we’ve published thousands of articles, pamphlets, books and profiles – and we’ve changed hearts, minds and outcomes.

The Left comes after us time and time again because they know just how effective we are.

We’ve been targeted by MasterCard, Discover Card, the Ways and Means Committee, and many more.

But we won’t back down – no matter who comes after us.

Because there is no nonprofit with a history like ours -- or more importantly, a knowledge like ours.

There is no nonprofit with our expertise or understanding of the Left and its motives, or the track record we have to back it up.

That’s why I hope I can count on your generous, tax-deductible gift of $45 or more today – and as a thank you for your support, I’ll send you a complimentary copy of Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America.

Karl Marx said it himself: communism begins where atheism begins.

Simply put, without Christianity, we have no country, and we have no future.

But too many of our fellow citizens don’t understand what’s at stake, or exactly what we’re up against.

And I need your help sounding the alarm.

I hope I can count on you.

Sincerely,

David Horowitz

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The time has come:
+++

Richard,​

No incumbent U.S Senator lost reelection last month.

The professional politicians know they don't have to listen to ordinary people like you and me.

So, today, they voted on and passed a 4,500 page $1.7 trillion spending bill that no one has even read.

In just over two weeks, state legislatures will resume considering an amendment to bypass Congress and impose term limits on the U.S. House and Senate.

Congress has a 21% approval rating.

Yet on Election Day 97% of U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators were reelected.

They are laughing at "We the People".

They know they don't even have to try to do their jobs and they will get reelected.

No matter which political party you support - if any - the careerists on Capitol Hill believe your vote doesn't really count.

They are about to pass one of the largest spending bills in American history without ever having read it and with virtually no debate.

They worked just a few days a week all year long, didn't bother to pass a real budget, and are now jamming everything they didn't do in the previous year into one massive mess of a bill and voting it through sight unseen just days before Christmas.

Our only hope to end this insanity is term limits.

That's why our state chairpersons, coordinators and volunteers are all ramping up for next month.

State legislatures will reconvene to consider the Term Limits Convention legislation -- and Congress can't stop them!

Republicans, Democrats and Independents all want term limits.

Over 80% of Americans know Congress is broken, and unlimited terms in office are destroying our country.

Just look at what is happening today.

These professional politicians care so little about their jobs, they don't even read the bills they vote on!

And in the House, members have been allowed to cast votes via the internet while they are off on vacation!

We need term limits.

And we have the strategy to bypass Congress and get them.

I just need your help.

The fight to go around Congress and use the states to put term limits on the U.S. House and Senate begins again in just a matter of days.

I'm counting on you.

Philip Blumel
President

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++