In his State of the Union address, President Trump talked of “unity.” He wants the country united, and he wants Democrats and Republicans united.
Here’s the problem with unity: It implies that the united people want the same things.
During the American Revolution, there were colonists who supported the British monarch and colonists who supported the Revolution for a new country based on a Constitution and Bill of Rights. The two sides did not unify and could not. Why? Because they did not want the same things. In fact, they wanted completely different things. Eventually they may have unified, but only after one of the sides won. Most of us today feel fortunate that the right side won.
During the American Civil War, there were supporters of the Union, who wanted the Constitution and Bill of Rights upheld along with slavery outlawed; and there were supporters of the Confederacy, who wanted the Union dissolved and slavery to remain legal in states that wanted it. The Confederacy and the U.S. did not unify and could not. You know the rest. Ultimately, after decades of social and civil strife, the two sides did, by and large, unite.
Today, it’s much the same thing. People on “the left” do not talk about liberty. They talk about restraints on liberty, almost unlimited restraints, not unlike the Communists whose thinkers gave rise to their movement. They place what they consider social justice and equality of income above everything, including the Constitution. The people on the other side, under Donald Trump’s big tent, want a variety of different things. Many of them talk of liberty and appear to mean it. Others are less consistent. Others, like Paul Ryan, John McCain, and other official leaders of the Republican Party are clearly frauds, but they at least feel compelled to talk the liberty talk some of the time, in order to ensure the political survival they so desperately crave.
Regardless, we have two sides here: a liberty attitude versus a totally collectivistic, even Communistic one. The left/Democratic side does not talk of unity like Trump and other Republicans do. They talk of “solidarity.” Solidarity means sticking together with the group, and for the sake of the group. It’s the total opposite, ideologically and psychologically, of the individualism and Bill of Rights — First Amendment, Second Amendment — that enable our entire society to survive and flourish. Democrats in political office do not care about these things, not nearly so much as their own power, if at all. When they fold their arms with petulant scowls, or text someone while the widow of an American military hero is honored, what they’re really saying is: “I want my power back. My power matters most of all. And I will do anything to get it back.”
Donald Trump appears to mean everything he said when he ran for office. Love him or hate him, he’s pursuing everything he promised with dizzying speed. Whether he can succeed remains to be seen, but he’s doing it. The thing about Democrats? They mean what they say just as much. Raw power in the pursuit of what they consider justice is rationalized by any means necessary. Donald Trump is “not their president” because the American government is not their government — not when they aren’t in charge. It’s not a liberty-loving attitude. It’s not even a democratic one. It’s tyranny, pure and simple. Heaven help us all if they ever get back into power.
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