There is an obvious, if unspoken, irony in this holiday season’s greeting of “have a happy new year!” At continuing intervals next year, nearly half of the partisans in the country will be triggered by the other half; the apolitical will be in a continuing state of boredom and/or anxiety as the political tussle unfolds; and the losers of that so-deemed “existential” political battle will face four more years of unhappiness, dreading the presumed consequences of their side’s defeat. Yes, happy 2024, indeed!
Knowing that any advice I offer the Left will be derided and disregarded, I will stick to trying to ameliorate the ulcers and angst my fellow Republican populists will endure in the coming year. No, it will not lead to them having a “happy” new year, because for that to happen, only victory in November will suffice. But it will make their year more palatable and, hopefully, more productive.
As exhibited above by my own self-restraint, when confronting the Left, don’t scream at the deaf. The vast majority will be too busy calling you a “hater” to hear your arguments, let alone listen to them, and the few that do listen will be doing so to smear you more effectively as a “hater” at a later date.
One might think this self-evident. Nonetheless, every day Republican populists engage Leftists and walk away muttering to themselves the question, “Why does the Left become so incensed when one questions the destructive tenets and consequences of their ideology?”
Okay, the question is a bit shorter and usually preceded by a slew of profanities, but you get the gist. So, what is their deal?
As people disordered by the delusion that politics is life rather than merely a part of it, the Left readily incorporates their political ideology as integral to their sense of self and their self-esteem. Spurred by a spurious ideology designed to weaponize them as tools for the “transformation” of humanity by any means they can justify to themselves—and they have proven they can justify just about anything to themselves—their political dogma becomes both a sword and shield in their “permanent revolution” against reality, sanity, and its champions. As noted first by Edmund Burke, ideology is an “armed doctrine.”
Consequently, when questioning a Leftist, one is inevitably met with invective, ad hominem attacks of being some cretinous “-ist” or “-phobe,” etc., and, shortly, they will call for censoring your dangerous “hate speech,” your “deprogramming,” and/or your incarceration as an insurrectionary domestic terrorist threatening “our democracy.”
One’s crime? Not only have they questioned the Leftist’s policies, they have also offended the Leftist’s person, particularly their ideologically-infused, inflated, and erroneous sense of moral and intellectual superiority.
The questioner’s mistake was attempting to engage in a rational debate with an irrational person. After all, the Left believes it has the power—and the duty—to coerce you into entering their imaginary Eden or, if you prove recalcitrant, into their reeducation camps. Some questioners don’t know any better; worse, some do know better, but nevertheless get a vicarious thrill (or at least a sense of martyrdom) from poking the Leftist hive-mind. You know, people like moi.
My American Greatness piece “The ‘Complexity’ of Idiocy” concluded with a denouement that sent Lefty hearts a-fluttering and tongues a-wagging, flailing my heinous self for penning: “Oh, that fourth instance where the facts belie one of the Left’s “complex” narratives? ‘The Democrats are the smart party.’” (Where is the “impish” emoji when one needs it?)
Don’t try this at home (or on your home page). Better to remember that Leftists only talk to each other, and all they know is what they’ve been told. Their peculiar concept of intellectual “inclusion” excludes you. Consequently, why fight this blessing? Don’t take the Left’s political bait. Instead, talk with your fellow Americans who know the country is headed in the wrong direction but are unsure of what new direction to go. This is a more salubrious use of both your time and energies and will likely lead to a mutual understanding on both your parts of what we need to do to renew the republic.
In sum, it is the true “national conversation” we need to chart a new path away from the Left’s radical, extreme, and dangerous policies that are deconstructing not only America but western civilization itself. What better way to have, if not an abjectly “happy” one, at least a “happier new year” (and certainly a happier four years after it)?
As for my new year’s resolution? Well… What can I say but “do as I say, not as I do.” (Where is that damned “impish” emoji?!)
Regardless: Happier New Year!
An American Greatness contributor, the Hon. Thaddeus G. McCotter (M.C., Ret.) represented Michigan’s 11th Congressional district from 2003-2012, and served as Chair of the Republican House Policy Committee. Not a lobbyist, he is a frequent public speaker and moderator for public policy seminars and a Monday co-host of the “John Batchelor Radio Show,” among sundry media appearances.