The Coming Civil War

The Coming Civil War?    

Gene Comiskey, Tryon NC

The election of 1860 was a pivotal moment in the history of the United States. The result was the election of a relative outsider to the halls of power in Washington. This choice would have a profound effect on the country, both great and tragic. Great in that slavery was abolished and the Union preserved; tragic in the horrendous loss of life that was the cost of greatness. If the voters of 1860 could have foreseen the tragic component of that equation, would they have made the same choices? The great unknown for us, of course, is how great would have been the cost of the continuation of slavery, the breakup of the Union or both. Would the United States have grown into the economic powerhouse that transformed the standard of living of hundreds of millions of people? Would it have become the arsenal of democracy that saved the world from Nazism, Fascism and Communism? Asking these questions is not just an academic exercise. Asking these questions and knowing history, knowing the true history of the world and the United States of America, is not idle curiosity but a search for understanding. Alternative history fiction is an entertaining genre to indulge in, but real lives depend on the choices we make. Now, almost eight score years after the Civil War, choices need to be made and the results almost surely will be great. We must take the lessons of history and with courage make choices that avoid the tragic consequences of arrogance and ignorance.    Today, we find ourselves at another pivotal moment. The voters of 1860 had a choice of freedom or slavery; today, the choice is between freedom and enslavement to the state. Progressives have also decided to make this the time of choice between life and the culture of death. There is now a frontal assault on the founding principles of this country: “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. This is not hyperbole: there are stark contrasts, not small differences of opinion in the questions that we must face. It is no less than a conflict between the freedom of thought and action we have enjoyed for over two centuries and enslavement to total government control and the empty promises of free education, free healthcare and a guaranteed income. The tragic episodes of the past have been due to tribalism, avarice and the arrogance of power. The genius of western civilization is the understanding that the individual is paramount. Our liberties are not doled out by a tolerant despot or oligarchy; they are ours by right. But our liberties do not come cheap. We must stand up to the latest movement that aims to turn people into the subjects of the all-encompassing state, subservient to the power of the elites. The progressive agenda is nothing less than total control of the country. The key to carrying out their agenda is the promotion of tribalism, dividing the country into as many constituencies as possible. Identity politics to destroy the concept of the melting pot. But “e pluribus unum”, not diversity, is the strength of this country.    The assault on life has recently made headlines, despite mainstream media attempts to downplay this. But the value of human life has always been under assault by the progressives. From Margaret Sanger’s support of eugenics to the modern left’s enthusiasm for abortion, the progressive movement has been the enemy of the right to life. Much of the Nazi belief system was derived from the theories of the American progressive movement. The Holocaust was one horrific consequence of these beliefs, but the progressive holocaust continues to this day with attempts to eliminate all restrictions on abortions and create tolerance for euthanasia and the removal of healthcare and even life support from those considered to have lost value to the state.

The assault on our liberties is multi-pronged. From the denigration of religious belief to the corruption of the media, progressivism aims to remove people from the moorings of the country’s founding principles, replacing them with the oxymoronic phrase ’social justice’. ’Social justice’ is the cover for policies which place the ‘greater good’ above the rights of the individual. In the progressive mind this justifies placing restrictions on the free speech of those who disagree with them. It also allows the media to rationalize ‘advocacy journalism’ over the search for truth. The ends justify the means, so any prevarication or distortion is permissible as long as it is against the opponents of the progressive agenda. This is also illustrated by the corrupt conspiracy of the Obama administration which conspired against conservative groups, spied on independent journalists and plotted against the Trump campaign and Donald Trump’s presidency. It is seen in the slander perpetrated against Justice Kavanaugh and the willingness to abandon the presumption of innocence. It is best exemplified by the attacks on our second amendment right; an unarmed populace is less of a threat.    The assault on our right to property is also multi-pronged and insidious. It requires manipulating people into a state of dependence, hence the false promises of ‘free stuff’ from an ever more pervasive central government. We must wonder how anyone could ignore the lessons of history that socialism has always been an abject failure and often a cruel, murderous one. Is this ignorance deliberate? The takeover of our academic system by progressives suggests that it is deliberate. How do you ignore the results of communist oppression or the recent destruction of the economy of Venezuela?  Arrogance and ignorance. The arrogance of elites who believe that they will reside atop  the monolithic state and the ignorance of their lackeys who will not realize they are being ground up by the machine until it is too late. Unfortunately, there are some who will be attracted by the shiny objects waved in their faces: ‘free education!’, ‘free healthcare!’, ‘free money!’.    We are now involved in a kind of civil war. The progressives have been waging this war against our founding principles for some time. Before his first inauguration, Barack Obama let slip their aim when he proclaimed that they would “fundamentally transform the country”. This was not hyperbole on his part. The raging opposition to President Trump is ample evidence of the left’s frustration that their well-laid plans may go astray. The left and their allies in the mainstream media have determined that Donald Trump must be destroyed if they are to restart their progressive program. We must recognize the seriousness of their determination and dedicate ourselves to the hard work necessary to educate the American people to the truth of their history and the wonderful future that could be ours if we believe in the founding principles. Our choices are again between freedom and slavery: the freedom of the American Republic or the slavery of the totalitarian state.