The Enemy Within

The intent of the political harangue that Zhou Baidan inflicted on America last night was to foster a politics of paranoia—to get Americans to scrutinize their neighbors with a view to identifying the enemy within our nation, using the handy Prog identikit for “extremists”. The strategy behind it, as nearly as one can discern, appears to be the strategy that the political Establishment and its proxies in the media have been following since 2016, at least: the strategy of the Big Lie.

Conrad Black provides what amounts to a brief history of the Big Lie in contemporary America: Can This Be Happening In America? Donald Trump, the most investigated man in American history, has been falsely accused of any number of offenses, ranging from the mundane all the way up to treason and espionage. These charges have been thoroughly debunked, but the chilling reality behind the Russia Hoax, the two faux impeachments, the falshoods surrounding the J6 insurrection narrative and the military occupation of our national capital, and now the Mar-a-Lago Raid by a political police force in the guise of the FBI is that these false accusations have been advanced by our core national security and criminal justice agencies for political ends:

We now know that there has never been one scintilla of evidence remotely hinting that Donald Trump was guilty of any such offense, or that he had any inappropriate relations or even a particular regard for the government of Russia. Yet for over two years it was endlessly bandied about that Trump had been “groomed” by Russian agents like the Manchurian Candidate to debase the presidency of the United States into boot-licking subordination to the national interest of Russia. The former directors of the National and Central Intelligence Agencies, James Clapper and John Brennan, solemnly told national audiences that Trump was a Russian intelligence agent and was guilty of treason in favor of the Russians.

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And at the end of his term, he was impeached again for having allegedly fomented an insurrection even though the FBI director had already testified that there was no evidence that Trump or his campaign organization or his administration were connected in any way to the trespass and the vandalism that occurred at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and Trump requested and offered extra security, but this was declined by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Washington mayor Muriel Bowser.

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But there seems to be no doubt the current president and his family were engaged in improper activity [in connection with the governments of Ukraine and China] that not only allegedly involves substantial lawbreaking by family members but also seems to have been suppressed rather than investigated by the FBI. The allegation that the FBI seems to have suggested to Facebook that the allegations against Hunter Biden were likely Russian disinformation and requested that they not publicize them would have been unthinkable six years ago.

The political harangue last night—which would have been grotesque even at a political convention—was a tissue of lies, both big and small, that falsified not only the history of America but, worse, demonized fully half or more of Americans as hate and anger filled people who want “everyone else … to fail.”

Of course, we’ve been prepared for this—that prep began as far back as Hillary’s sneer at the “basket of deplorables” and Obama’s at the “bitter clingers.” But the most immediate prep meme was only days ago when the WH spokeswoman defined “extremism” as … disagreeing with the majority:

“when you are not with where a majority of Americans are, then that is extreme, that is an extreme way of thinking”

In keeping with the ideology of the Big Lie, the spokeswoman’s example of disagreeing with a majority of Americans was: abortion. In fact, for two generations poll after poll has shown that the majority of Americans are in fundamental agreement with the SCOTUS decision overturning the judicial diktat of Roe and are in fundamental disagreement with the Prog sacramentalization of abortion on demand. The wierdly ahistoric nature of this definition was also on full display last night with Zhou’s assertion that “equality” is at the heart of who we are as Americans, and yet if any group of Americans were demonstrably NOT where a majority of Americans were in 1860 that would have been the abolitionists.

Moreover, one cannot escape the impression that the Big Lie is not a one issue Lie—the last years have seen the demonization of all dissent from Prog orthodoxy, not only on abortion but on transgender self mutilation, climate change ideology, experimental gene based injections … The list goes on, but government involvement in attempts to suppress dissent or exposure of inconvenient facts—including FBI efforts to suppress political speech on social media during the recent election

But that Big Lie of extremism was repeated at least five times last night. Never mind the Left’s previous championing of Free Speech absolutism and dissent from the current wisdom. The boilerplate about respecting “political differences” is, of course, qualified with the word “legitimate”. What is IL-legitimate in Prog thinking is defined every time Nancy Pelosi opens her mouth. The pious condemnations of politically inspired violence mouthed by Zhou last night have been exposed as no more than hypocritical lip service by almost daily exhortations to violence by Dems—against anyone outside their mainstream, punctuated by assassination attempts against GOP congressional members and a Supreme Court justice, by forcing other justices to go into hiding to escape harassment egged on by mainstream Prog figures in Congress. The list is too long. The rhetoric is too well known—it is now our daily experience.

However, as much as anything else, the atmospherics of Zhou’s harangue were perhaps the most chilling aspect of the entire performance. The blood red background and, above all, the presence of two uniformed Marines in the background sent a chilling message. Having condemned the Republican party and asserted that “the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and [people who are] a threat to this country,” can there be any doubt that the jawdroppingly unprecedented presence of uniformed Marines behind a POTUS during a transparently political harangue strongly suggests that military force is one the table in dealing with people who are “extremists”, who “are not with where a majority of Americans are”?

Even several CNN commentators picked up on the disturbing implications of this:

Mark Davis @MarkDavis

Again, from #CNN. This is a backfire for the ages.

Brianna Keilar @brikeilarcnn

Whatever you think of this speech the military is supposed to be apolitical. Positioning Marines in uniform behind President Biden for a political speech flies in the face of that. It’s wrong when Democrats do it. It’s wrong when Republicans do it.

Now, one might argue that Zhou, having made repeated calls to action, offered nothing but conceptually empty political bromides laced with standard Prog hate-speech against anyone who is alleged to dissent from such bromides:

America is an idea -- the most powerful idea in the history of the world. …

And un-American embrace of ideology.

“The idea that America guarantees that everyone be treated with dignity. It gives hate no safe harbor. ….

Except, that is, when it comes to MAGA Republicans, who—and these are all direct quotes:

• do not respect the Constitution.

• do not believe in the rule of law.

• do not recognize the will of the people.

• refuse to accept the results of a free election.

• are determined to take this country backwards

• promote authoritarian leaders,

• fan the flames of political violence

• are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country.

• stormed the United States Capitol on January 6th

• brutally attacking law enforcement

• placed a dagger to the throat of our democracy

“That’s who we are. That’s what we stand for. That’s what we believe. And that is precisely what we are doing: opening doors, creating new possibilities, focusing on the future. And we’re only just beginning.

Cue Karen Carpenter?

“Our task is to make our nation free and fair, just and strong, noble and whole.

“And this work is the work of democracy -- the work of this generation. It is the work of our time, for all time.

“We can’t afford to have -- leave anyone on the sidelines. We need everyone to do their part. So speak up. Speak out. Get engaged. Vote, vote, vote.

Nevertheless, the truth of modern communication is that the medium is the message. Atmospherics, theatrics, presentation all count as part of the message. And, tellingly, that’s what disturbed even CNN commentators the most, that’s what they focused on. The presence of the military backing up a hate filled diatribe demonizing half the country, a call to division and civil strife. Count on this—it was all thought out and done deliberately to send a message. Listen up, America!

Sean Davis @seanmdav

I don’t know how Biden’s speech reads in the original German, but I believe the title translates to “My Struggle” in English.

Mairead Elordi @JohnsonHildy

👀 optics 👀 https://t.co/Zc2bYeaAws

Mairead Elordi @JohnsonHildy

👀 optics 👀