Time on the vast conspiracy to “save” the 2020 election before it even took place
This rather curious article in Time (yes, Time still exists) is getting a lot of attention. You might think that the title of this post is fanciful or facetious, but it’s pretty much a summary of the self-congratulatory title of the piece (by Molly Ball): “The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election.”
Our rescuers:
There was a conspiracy unfolding behind the scenes, one that both curtailed the protests and coordinated the resistance from CEOs. Both surprises were the result of an informal alliance between left-wing activists and business titans. The pact was formalized in a terse, little-noticed joint statement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO published on Election Day. Both sides would come to see it as a sort of implicit bargain–inspired by the summer’s massive, sometimes destructive racial-justice protests–in which the forces of labor came together with the forces of capital to keep the peace and oppose Trump’s assault on democracy.
Left-wing activists and business titans: always looking out for us. As they have been for quite some time. Such a relief to know.
More from Ball:
The handshake between business and labor was just one component of a vast, cross-partisan campaign to protect the election–an extraordinary shadow effort dedicated not to winning the vote but to ensuring it would be free and fair, credible and uncorrupted. For more than a year, a loosely organized coalition of operatives scrambled to shore up America’s institutions as they came under simultaneous attack from a remorseless pandemic and an autocratically inclined President. Though much of this activity took place on the left, it was separate from the Biden campaign and crossed ideological lines, with crucial contributions by nonpartisan and conservative actors. The scenario the shadow campaigners were desperate to stop was not a Trump victory. It was an election so calamitous that no result could be discerned at all, a failure of the central act of democratic self-governance that has been a hallmark of America since its founding.
Their work touched every aspect of the election. They got states to change voting systems and laws and helped secure hundreds of millions in public and private funding. They fended off voter-suppression lawsuits, recruited armies of poll workers and got millions of people to vote by mail for the first time. They successfully pressured social media companies to take a harder line against disinformation and used data-driven strategies to fight viral smears. They executed national public-awareness campaigns that helped Americans understand how the vote count would unfold over days or weeks, preventing Trump’s conspiracy theories and false claims of victory from getting more traction. After Election Day, they monitored every pressure point to ensure that Trump could not overturn the result. “The untold story of the election is the thousands of people of both parties who accomplished the triumph of American democracy at its very foundation,” says Norm Eisen, a prominent lawyer and former Obama Administration official who recruited Republicans and Democrats to the board of the Voter Protection Program.
The Voter Protection Program – again, just working for our own good, looking out for us. How touching. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to listen to some of these recruiting sessions, and/or the way they “successfully pressured social media companies to take a harder line against disinformation.”
Looking at the people on the board of the Voter Protection Program, it is immediately apparent that it is, as expected, a combination of Democrats and of RINOs extraordinaire. The bulk of the latter consist of old Bush and McCain aides, many of whom backed John Kasich in the Republican race in 2016. There is an emphasis on lawfare to make sure that the innovations in voting rules that reduced voting security were defended in court, and on working with attorneys general of the various states. The Republicans on the board are people who have made themselves available to give a bipartisan face to the war against President Trump, and no doubt they were extremely eager to disassociate from him and work to destroy him in 2020.
Some people writing about the article indicate that it’s an admission that the participants gamed the election in various ways to enable Biden’s win. But the article does not admit that. It does something far more devious – it claims that everything this group did was non-partisan, had absolutely nothing to do with wanting Biden elected, and was merely for the noble purpose of guaranteeing a fair election and making sure people didn’t believe Trump’s conspiracy claims which they of course knew would be false even before the election occurred. And to do this, they paradoxically helped to relax the election rules so much that actual fraud and/or claims of fraud would be far more likely, and they did that only for the very noble purpose of stopping the nefarious “voter suppression” the GOP was trying to accomplish. You see, all efforts at voter security can be re-defined as voter suppression, and many courts will buy it.
This is the sort of thing the left and the current Democratic Party (as well as the self-righteous NeverTrumpers) specialize in. They define Trump as evil and any effort to stop him as noble rather than biased, because they are stopping evil and lies.
Still, since the article reads like a confirmation of what the right has been saying all along about the Democrats’ and their allies’ efforts to undermine Trump, why publish it? Ball has this answer [emphasis mine]:
“Every attempt to interfere with the proper outcome of the election was defeated,” says Ian Bassin, co-founder of Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan rule-of-law advocacy group. “But it’s massively important for the country to understand that it didn’t happen accidentally. The system didn’t work magically. Democracy is not self-executing.”
That’s why the participants want the secret history of the 2020 election told, even though it sounds like a paranoid fever dream–a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information. They were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it. And they believe the public needs to understand the system’s fragility in order to ensure that democracy in America endures.
My guess is that this story was going to get out anyway – or already has, in the right’s “paranoid fever dream” that turned out to have been correct – and the group wanted to make sure it is defined and described in the way they would like the public to think of it: as a “for your own good” protective device that fortifies democracy.
And they have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. Cheap. Oh, and Russian collusion elected Trump in 2016.
I want to doubly highlight the last sentence of that quote from Ball’s article: “And they believe the public needs to understand the system’s fragility in order to ensure that democracy in America endures.” In other words, they have to continue to manipulate and massage the way information gets to you, as well as to use the legal system, in order to “protect” you from yourselves and the ugly populist democracy you’d like to vote for. So get ready for more of the same, and even an intensification of the control they will wield now that they are in power.
The article is very long, but well worth reading. I haven’t finished the whole thing, although I plan to do so. Here’s a particularly interesting part in light of the events of January 6:
The summer uprising had shown that people power could have a massive impact. Activists began preparing to reprise the demonstrations if Trump tried to steal the election. “Americans plan widespread protests if Trump interferes with election,” Reuters reported in October, one of many such stories. More than 150 liberal groups, from the Women’s March to the Sierra Club to Color of Change, from Democrats.com to the Democratic Socialists of America, joined the “Protect the Results” coalition. The group’s now defunct website had a map listing 400 planned postelection demonstrations, to be activated via text message as soon as Nov. 4. To stop the coup they feared, the left was ready to flood the streets.
As I said, just read it.
[NOTE: By the way, we had a few small hints of this prior to the election. For example, remember the downfall of Jeffrey Toobin during a Zoom call? Remember that it occurred during an election simulation? This was another pre-election story about these “gaming” preparations.]
Well, of course, to save the country you have to destroy the country.
This has Obama’s sordid M.O. all over it.
(But at least it should NOW be perfectly clear why Pennsylvania’s AG Rosen KNEW that Trump would NOT win PA, and why TRUMP was warned countless times by top Democrats not to DARE DECLARE state electoral victories too soon—something that FOX, for whatever reason, seems to have taken to heart…. Not that it wasn’t perfectly clear beforehand.)
And of course we were warned incessantly by the Democrats about Trump’s intention to steal the elections (which should have given the Democrats’ game away from the get-go)…
….along with Obama’s “judicious” (as always) post-election “claim” that Republican electoral cheating was obvious and wide-spread and should (of course) be investigated….
No, these gangsters don’t skip a beat.
Obama, especially, gets off on things like this (Michelle did a great job, too, with her warnings about Republican Party violence)—and Joe Biden, with his insistence on “Unifying America” seems to enjoy it a whole lot as well (though in Biden’s defense, one might make the claim that he’s only parroting what he’s been told to say. Maybe.)….
And whoever it was that advised
Plus this, from Sarah Hoyt:
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/430715/
Related—
Regarding the NY State 22nd Congressional District farce (AKA “election”)
https://apnews.com/article/new-york-courts-elections-house-elections-2e022d809a56d043df42c578faee0214
H/T Powerline blog
The judge—finally—declared the Republican candidate the victor.
But…key graf (by Democratic candidate):
“We have to get it right. Because this is not a raffle, this is a congressional election.”
Yeah, right!
And the kicker: a comment (actually a threat) by said Democratic party candidate claiming that the US House of Representatives can overturn the judge’s decision and seat the “real” winner of this election….
Conclusion: It never ends.
Plus, Barry Meislin, the Dem’s complaint that “voting machines” caused his loss. I laughed out loud.
This article reminds of the infamous Biden video claiming the best voter fraud organization in the history of the country:
https://video.brighteon.com/file/Brighteon-staging/hls/cd570d62-4d20-4ff1-97e6-c7113e9240c6.m3u8
I started reading it and couldn’t stand the smug attitude that came through. Then came the accusation of Trump being an autocrat at which point I gave up. Obama, and now Biden, governing using a pen and a phone and avoiding the need to get Congress’ approval via a vote is perfectly acceptable and naturally not autocratic. What a self regarding worthless bunch.
I’d be willing to bet all these people have a significant financial interest in China too, just like President * and Hunter.
The imposition of their plotting and scheming is just getting started.
“MA Climate Official Says 60% of State Emissions Come from Average People: ‘We Have to Break Your Will’”
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/02/05/ma-climate-official-says-60-state-emissions-come-average-people-we-have-break-your-will/
I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to listen to some of these recruiting sessions, and/or the way they “successfully pressured social media companies to take a harder line against disinformation.” — Neo
I tried to read that Time article, but my eyeballs began to race over the outrageous BS portions, and then they were suddenly at the end.
In related news, that right-wing extremist firebrand in France (no we’re not talking about Marine Le Pen) had this to say about social media companies and their influence on the U.S. election. From Am. Thinker:
It sounds sort of obvious in hind sight, but I hadn’t thought about it before. Macron is saying that only when they knew that they had the election rigging in the bag did they spit in the face of the Trump campaign.
Another interesting thought is, how much does Macron really know about our election? Possibly much more than we do. U.S. intelligence famously spies aggressively on Angela Merkel and other allies. Surely they return the favor.
One should be a little cautious in interpreting Macron’s comments. The EU has a notoriously aggressive anti-trust division that loves to tax and otherwise mess with our biggest corporations.
“Activists began preparing to reprise the demonstrations if Trump tried to steal the election.”
Sounds almost like a quote from The Princess Bride.
Vizzini, “You’re trying to kidnap what I’ve rightfully stolen.”
Why should they fear when no institution will hold them responsible. They will turn their machine to the other elections for House and Senate so they never lose control ever again.
Control the information and stifle any opposition and how will anyone see what they are doing? All of the close and toss-up seats will be won by them
People leaving the Blue states of California, New York and Illinois will bring their voting habits to the (currently) Red states of Texas and Florida.
AOC clones will run in many districts and states to have the “progressive” vision implemented in America. Dark times if they succeed.
Viva Frei really nails the Time article.
https://youtu.be/Lx6OfAdl-UU
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Frei points out that a cabal of lefties met with Zuckerberg and Dorsey in November of 2019 to start planning the election interference, half a year before the Covid panic began. Covid gave them cover but the planning was already done by then and the various law suits to change election laws and practice were already being executed.
And still there’s no one being shot for this.
If we didn’t have cause for CW2 before…
Lee Smith was on this way back in September 2020:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/americas-china-class-fights-trump
A snippet:
“Accordingly, the debate in Washington, D.C., over which great power is feeding more disinformation into the 2020 election cycle isn’t real—it’s not Russia, as collusion impresario and Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff claims, nor, as Attorney General William Barr says, is it China, though he’s closer to the truth. The source of the purposeful disinformation pouring into the American public sphere like untreated sewage is the American elite, led by its tech oligarchs, who own the platforms on which information campaigns are staged and laundered to protect their core interests—foremost among them being cheap Chinese labor and access to Chinese markets.”
The real hatred of Trump is based on his policies of standing up to China. And it’s a large group of interests (The Chamber of Commerce, Big Tech, the NBA, the military industrial complex, the major universities, and more) who are getting rich from China dealings. The Lee Smith article names names and lays bare the reasons why the pro-China forces were so intent on beating Trump. It is a basic story of blind greed wrapped in a cover of confidence that we can deal with China because they can’t catch us. (Ha!) It all seems to tie in with the Time article.
One thing’s for sure. If we are ever to win another national election, we must mount new tech platforms to go around the tech censorship and find more ways to counter the “untreated sewage” and gaslighting the American electorate is being exposed to.
The cabal of lefties who worked to steal the 2020 Presidential election pale in comparison to the machinations that the globalists involved in “the Great Reset” have planned.
“You see, all efforts at voter security can be re-defined as voter suppression, and many courts will buy it”
Fixing it for you: .You see, all efforts at voter security WILL be defined as voter suppression, and our judges will endorse it.
Now Winston, you will believe that it was voter suppression, will you not?
And how many fingers can you see?
Not to promote false hope, but even with everything in that Time article…
AND four years of the most unfair and biased media coverage in modern U.S. history…
AND essentially treasonous behavior from our law enforcement and intelligence communities…
AND repeated betrayal and sabotage from within the Trump Administration…
AND a Republican Party at the federal level that did next to nothing about any of the above…
It was still a Presidential election that couldn’t be called until late into the night, the GOP gained seats in the House, and it probably would have kept the Senate if Mitch McConnell wasn’t such an old whore.
That’s how weak the Left actually is. The best thing they have going for them is the willingness of GOP politicians to burn the party down rather than surrender control to conservative populists. And anyone who thinks this is about Trump and will go away with him should check out the issues Pat Buchanan ran on back in the 90s.
Mike
“The pact was formalized in a terse, little-noticed joint statement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO published on Election Day.”
Doesn’t anyone here want to read this statement that became the basis for this Ruling Class pact?
And what about this “Protect the Results” “coalition…website?” Let’s see it, explore the recorded there.
Viva Frei’s breakdown is quite concise and riveting. At least three comments there tell of parents reading the Time piece and crying in pain over the loss of American virtue, one saying he’s ashamed to be an American.
I’ve already expressed the same to an Argentine, a month ago.
I know many – maybe not here- have commented on National Review’s Never Trump taint. For two days I have searched for a column or blogpost on this subversion of our democracy- not a peep. I am done with them forever.
Trump’s assault on democracy, you say?
Got it. Thanks for clarifing, Time …
“…the best voter fraud organization in the history of the country…”
No doubt the only time that Biden has even approached the truth in his long and, er, EXTRAORDINARY career….
But wait!! Hold on a sec: There’s this fact-checking(!!) gem, from the uber-reliable Reuters (though to be fair, they do get the weather right on occasion, sports, economics from time to time)…:
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-fact-check-biden-voter-protection-not-idUSKBN27E2VH
File under: In dementia veritas…
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In addition to the motive Neo offers (that the article is a preemptive attempt to frame a story that is likely to come out anyway–especially with the impeachment trial coming up), I’m guessing that the article is also intended as a psy-op to make conservatives & classical liberals simply give up on politics out of despair.
Oh, Barry Meislin, another Biden senior moment, that’s all. You say we can’t believe anything he says?
Well…I guess I’ll just have to assume that his suggestion of using the Logan Act to knee-cap and hog-tie Michael Flynn was made in “good faith”.
As was his impressively choreographed, brutal, character assassination of Clarence Thomas during the confirmation hearings for the latter.
(And ought one give him the benefit of the doubt on his marvelous “The smartest person I know” expostulation regarding son Hunter? Not an easy choice, certainly; but karitas may, in fact, be appropriate in this case—I mean, what was he expected to say? That Hunter was “the smartest crack addict” he knew?).
https://fox17.com/news/videos/joe-biden-calls-son-hunter-the-smartest-man-he-knows
The only question remaining, I guess, is whether any statement made “in good faith” by one of the more successful heads of a crime family in American politics can be considered “Truth”. (Head scratcher, that one.)
(By the way, those who may be thirsting for Hunter Biden memorabilia will be able to buy his upcoming book, “Beautiful Things”, in several months.
From the horse’s mouth (so to speak):
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/us/hunter-biden-memoir.html
Initial reports speak of this “piece de resistance” as a font of wisdom and soulful experience…the heartfelt, in-depth journey—one man’s trials, tribulations and triumphs in the shadow of one of America’s most prominent political families; with an as yet unconfirmed forward by Dr. Jill, and an afterward by Xi Jinping. Not to be missed.”)
Hunter’s memoir to be published, I believe, by the firm which cancelled Sen. Hawley’s book contract. Truth, indeed.
Time has detailed what China Joe was referencing when he said that the Dems had created The Greatest Election Fraud Organization in US history.
So it comes down to power. The elites created a program designed to apply pressure wherever it was needed (i.e. to show they had more power than Trump supporters) in order to ensure the outcome they desired. Since this ultimately started with the five states with democratic strongholds, the republican legislators in those states with republican controlled legislatures (e.g. Wisconsin) should be publicly pressured to admit whether they were pressured, if so how, and how they responded. Those that went along with the program should be subject to a primary…
Yeah, so they were against disinformation, except when they were the SOURCE of the disinformation, like the possibility that “Trump would try and steal the election”.
Of course. The left’s stock in trade – accuse everyone else of doing exactly what you’re already doint
” ‘Every attempt to interfere with the proper outcome of the election was defeated,’ says Ian Bassin, co-founder of Protect Democracy…”
“Proper outcome” sums up the entire piece and the project’s goal.
This article, in another age, would be called a “limited modified hangout.”
Yes, the election was stolen, as will be all future elections absent major election reforms.
Yes, the judiciary is as corrupt as the Congress, FBI, CIA, NSA, etc.
Yes, the military is as politicized and en route to becoming as corrupt as the above institutions.
Yes, they are planning on disappearing all conservative, patriotic Americans, enshirning into law the illegal election changes that made the theft of the last election possible, and either taking away our second amendment rights or making it prohibitively expensive to exercise those rights.
Yes, they are gleefully just rubbing our noses in it now.
The only question remaining, is how and what, we true Americans will do as push comes to shove.
Shocked, shocked
I wonder why this hasn’t received more attention: “They got states to change voting systems and laws…”
Several states had their voting systems changed illegally and unconstitutionally — not by an action of the state legislatures, as the Constitution mandates, but by lesser (and sometimes unelected) government drones.
And they “recruited armies of poll workers”. Yeah, and we’ve seen how their actions aided & abetted vote fraud.
You see, all efforts at voter security can be re-defined as voter suppression, and many courts will buy it.
‘It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.’
— Winston
Yes, a vast, multi-pronged, elaborate, massive criminal conspiracy—just like the theft of the 2020 election, just like Russia-Gate in 2016-17…. The Democrats do seem to specialize at these enormities, as required by their grand project to “transform America” and their overall plan for being in power in perpetuity.
(After all, since the Democrats are at the cutting edge of morality, wisdom and sophistication, and know what’s best for all of us—especially those deplorable who aren’t buying what the Democrats are trying to sell—what could possibly go wrong?
Compare and contrast:
1.
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/02/07/hydroxychloroquine-for-covid.aspx?ui=a7d70cc9296cf4adf611308334e8812cff43cb35a011b92affd6073e38c0ba63&sd=20120115&cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1HL&cid=20210207_HL2&mid=DM797834&rid=1078103719
(Plus this, from July 2020:)
https://www.citizensjournal.us/how-a-false-hydroxychloroquine-narrative-was-created/
2.
https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2021/02/06/the-bandwagon-of-perdition-n1423705
H/T Instapundit
An old school liberal Democratic relative, with whom I shared the article, was utterly unable to see a problem with the conspiracy described in the article. “They just want to make voting more accessible!”
Discouragingly, all my relative’s reactions always perfectly mirror the liberal view— though they still speak to me even though I dangerously say non Democratic party line things, like supporting Israel, questioning CRT and being against legalized prostitution.
But, wow, the massive blindspot liberals have interpreting data and hearing other points of view has to be a weakness. Appears elites and progressives are exploiting that right now.
None of the left i have known care… they are done with politics, now that they have nothing to pay attention to… and if things go bad, they certainly wont pay attention enough to know it was the product of their choices under manipulation… nothing they will complain about in the future will be seen as stemming from this….
in the end they will get what they deserve..
and for the rest of us? we will get what they deserve too, as we are all stuck in the same basket to hell..
How stupid of the cabal that swung the election that they did not reach a little further and get more Democrats elected to the House and Senate. Well they did in Georgia, but that was more or less after the fact — the rest of the election was decided and they realized they had messed up on the Congressional races.
Listen to Viva Frei’s vlawg on the Time article. Very perceptive. And scary. You’ve gotta be a true believer to read the Time article and not deduce that our Democratic Republic has been seriously wounded.
WARNING: WAY, WAY OFF-TOPIC
At his blog, Arnold Kling is taking names. (http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/fits-update-2/#comments)
No, this isn’t a conservative libertarian venture into cancel culture. Instead, he’s assembling something he calls “fantasy intellectual teams.” Kling says he’s going to make up some rules for a game his readers can play. Readers can draft intellectuals from his list. I guess it’s supposed to be like a fantasy sports league.
Does this sound fun? I’m not so sure, but I think it’s worth a look, because NewNeo has been listed as one of the fantasy intellectuals. Who will draft her? What will she be made to say? Will she change anybody’s mind? Will she finally eat the apple?
You know, it’s kind of interesting, something that Molly Ball didn’t touch upon: For the past three months since the election, as the results have been tallied and cast and the dramas have unfolded, the mass cancellation of conservatives has ramped right up with even more focus and energy: Facebook and Twitter expunging conservative accounts with no reasons or corrective actions offered, YouTube continuing its demonitizing efforts tailored for squelching conservative content, Chase and Bank of America and other banks acting to cut off account financial and payment services to conservative organizations, or turn over information on private citizens to the Feds without benefit of subpoenas…
I guess the Cabal of Political and Corporate Insiders is still hard at work Fortifying Democracy to make sure the country remains free for all its citizens, or at least some of the preferred ones. Democracy in action !
To paraphrase Capt. RedLegs from The Outlaw Josey Wales: “Doin’ good ain’t got no end.”
The Left knows they have control of the narrative, for the most part. They’ve been playing the “those who live in an alternative reality” narrative against voter skeptics/conspiracy theorists for about a month after the Jan. 6 Capitol siege. It’s their attempt to turn the tables when skeptics played the “alternative facts” for the past four years. The Left didn’t like it when people questioned their so-called journalists (i.e. look at the rube who, on Twitter, said he wore a black tie everyday at work when Trump was in office; look at those who pathetically shared the platitude “We Need Journalists Now More Than Ever”).
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https://amgreatness.com/2021/02/04/americas-political-prisoners-first/
The “Time” vast conspiracy article buries the last vestiges of the long spun pretense that the Democrat Party is the party of the underdog and little guy. It clearly outlines that the powerful crony cabal that includes big tech, finance, academia, and the media plotted to wrestle control from the populists who represent the interests of ordinary citizens.
Today with the abandonment of fiscal restraint and protection of the Dollar, the wealth disparity is growing at a faster pace. Civil unrest could easily expand beyond the far left Antifa and BLM’s “mad dogs on a leash” that were used to intimidate the courts and those who seek safety and order first above all.
The ultimate question is whether more traditional liberal Democrats who still believe in true democracy for the people and the Bill of Rights recognize that their party has lost its way and walk away? Or, will they continue to graze in the flock and let the wolves devour their remaining freedoms in the “great reset”?
Thank you for the link, Miguel. That article is both terrifying and not at all surprising. We are witnessing the advent of authoritarianism at an accelerating pace. Anyone who thinks it will stop or slow down, or that they aren’t at risk, is delusional.
Personally, I never attended a Trump rally, nor did I participate in his campaign in either 2016 or 2020 beyond voting for him, making a few small contributions (including buying a MAGA hat), sharing my views with a handful of friends and posting my pro-Trump opinions on a handful of blogs (including this one). Am I at risk? Absolutely! I don’t see how I could be charged for anything criminal, but I live in a deep blue city in a deep blue state. Were my political views to become common knowledge, any minor incident (perhaps pre-planned by a leftist provocateur) could be escalated by an over zealous leftist prosecutor
That is unlikely. Far more likely…doxxing to damage my personal and professional life. I work for a state agency; i would say 80-85% of my coworkers are left-wing. Up until recently, politics almost never came up at work. But that seems to be changing, with my boss leading the charge. I have always simply remained quiet in these situations yet I suspect this is not likely going to remain an option much longer. I can either become a ‘green grocer’ or face growing suspicion (which can easily be confirmed by an FEC search of my political donations) due to my silence. I’ve ruminated on this a great deal and, as yet, I still don’t know what I will do.
OG Doug says the first notable thing – that this article destroys any remaining pretense that Democrats are for the little folk. Everyone’s sort of glossing over that fact as we focus on the incredible admissions of election manipulation in the piece. But it shouldn’t be overlooked it go unmentioned when (if?) the next election rolls around.
Ackler, I feel you… My husband took a job last summer with a uniformly leftist nonprofit (any port in the COVID storm), and if he’s outed to them, I believe there’s at least a 50% chance that they’ll “have to let him go”… regretfully, of course, but given his affiliation with dangerous insurrection-planning domestic terrorists, well, what other choice will they have?
Anyone who thinks the impeachment is in any way about Trump isn’t paying attention. They don’t give a flying whatever about Trump any more. All of this – the razor wire, the National Guard, the AOC psychodrama, the social media cancellations based on a speech standard that anything you say (if you’re on the right) may incite violence, therefore anything you say is subject to instant action whether or not violence occurs (note: I do not hold speakers responsible for illegal or violent acts done by people who claim to have been “incited” by the speech; I believe in personal agency). All of these things are about delegitimizing us.
Trump, at this point, only serves to get a lot of us to put a big target on our backs.
Jamie,
I agree entirely and I wish the best for your husband. Since I am a state employee, I am technically protected from being disciplined for my political views. How long that protection will last (after all, support for ‘domestic terrorists’ is not protected) remains to be seen and, in any event, they could always find a convenient excuse to discharge me. Wrongful termination suit based on protected political views? No chance where I live, with a jury pool that will be 75%+ left leaning. It really is heartbreaking as I like and respect most of my colleagues. They’re liberal and left-wing, but not, at heart firebrands. But there’s been a notable shift since the Capitol riots and, especially, since the inauguration. Neo’s example about being interrogated by otherwise apolitical people is fitting here: the left brings out the worst in otherwise good people.
It’s disorienting and uncomfortable for many American conservatives to accept but…we are now dissidents; and despised by many, at that. We are increasingly framed as enemies of democracy (read: the Democrat party and its allies) and will be treated as such. For now, our physical safety is *mostly* not in jeopardy (although that could change very quickly). But beyond that, we will risk a great deal if we persist in expressing our views (or, possibly in even just remaining silent; after all ‘silence is violence’). This is a very real, very agonizing struggle that I never envisioned I would have to face so soon. Yet, here we are.
@Ackler:
Are you technically protected from a Molotov Cocktail through your living room window?
Coz that’s about where we’re at.
Reading Apple News Poz Feed for Australia and have noticed that last few weeks there’s a Neo Nazi scare campaign being hyped up in the press there. Happiness is breaking out all over.
Zaphod,
The short answer is no, I’m certainly not. But, I don’t think we’re are quite at that point…just yet. But we’re close. Very close. Particularly in leftist enclaves, like where I live.
@Ackler:
Hang in there.
Every time (pre-Covid) last few years when I went back ‘Home’ from Asia, I found myself biting my tongue more and more in everyday interactions. Having to live and work in it every day must be another thing entirely. The scariest thought I have is that if I hadn’t moved overseas at a relatively young age, maybe I’d have boiled slowly like the frog and become One of Them…
So extra respect for all of you here who saw the lie from the inside and refused to play along.
Do you know any such Democrats?
Ha. Just reminded me of this … https://youtu.be/Lb1BeZf3ros?t=164
This is good;
https://youtu.be/oCWB4CMou_M
I don’t think the writers and all the parties involved fully realise what they have done. I am glad you brought this article up. I couldn’t finish reading it. It has been so obvious that ‘shenanigans‘ had been occurring for quite sometime. They stole the election and this is just another fluff propaganda piece. I think Malice addressees very points.