Gorsuch nomination creates “community within our nation, chaos in theirs”
This is the fight Democrats want, but I’m not sure it’s really the fight they need
The concept of chaos as a political tactic has been a frequent topic here.
I first explored it on February 9, 2009, with regard to Obama’s opening weeks of his presidency. I focused on one of the most influential books — in an odd way — I read as a teenager, Abbie Hoffman’s Steal This Book.
The post was “Steal This Country”:
As an early teen, I was fascinated with Abbie Hoffman’s “Steal This Book.” The book, by the 60’s radical Yippie, was a guide to using the capitalist system to destroy the capitalist system. Hoffman gave advice on how to cheat various institutions, such as the post office (e.g., mail an envelope to yourself without a stamp, with the return address of the person you want it to go to, and the post office will send it “back” to the returnee for free) all with the goal of disrupting civil society. For someone growing up in a nice suburb, this was mind-blowing stuff.
The introduction to Steal This Book lays out the philosophy of how to destroy the system from within by attacking those who benefit from capitalism (the “rich”) to give to all others by creating chaos:
Community within our Nation, chaos in theirs; that is the message of SURVIVE!
More recently, in late January 2016, during the Republican primaries, I observed Chaos as revolutionary tactic – Donald Trump and Abbie Hoffman:
Enough has been written about how Donald Trump is breaking or rewriting or ignoring all the rules. Or operating in 3 dimensions while everyone else is operating in 2 dimensions.
I see something in Trump, though, that is very familiar to me. It’s the concept of creating chaos in your opponent’s house as a revolutionary tactic. Or to put it another way, being a disrupter.
The now deceased Abbie Hoffman and Trump seemingly have little in common. While Hoffman rejected capitalism Trump embraces it.
Yet they both employed the same tactic. Hoffman tried to create chaos in the economic system, but never really succeeded. Trump has succeeded in creating utter chaos in everyone else’s house (Republican Party, Fox News, other candidates, basically anyone who crosses his path).
That’s only half the equation, though. It’s not just enough to create chaos in others. The second part is to create community within your own house. Hoffman never was good at that; in business Trump has been good at building his own house.
Trump brought that ability to create chaos in his opponents but community with his own, to the general election, and now to the first two weeks of his presidency.
The nomination of Neil Gorsuch is a perfect example of “community within our nation, chaos in theirs”.
This was a home run for conservatives. Even many Never Trumpers are praising it. It’s a thing of beauty, and the rollout was Yuge.
But it has created chaos in Trump’s opponents. There have been many high profile liberal lawyers and commenters who have praised the selection, even if they are still bitter over the Republican refusal to give Merrick Garland a vote during Obama’s last year. While many leading Democratic politicians have open the floodgates of verbal hell on Gorsuch, it’s going to be a hard sell to the public. And it risks a real schism in the Democratic Party — the base is out for blood, the more mature political class recognizes that catering to the base on Gorsuch could backfire by pushing the party too far left.
The L.A. Times reports Trump administration is radicalizing Democratic voters, creating a challenge for the party, Rep. Adam Schiff says:
Ever since the election, party leaders have been debating: “Did we lose because we were too far to the left and we had too small a tent, or did we lose because we are too mainstream and didn’t energize the base?” Schiff asked.
“We are obviously having that debate, but there’s a whole new element, which is the reaction to the Trump administration that makes this different in kind, certainly different in intensity, than I think we’ve ever seen after an election,” he said.
“The more radical the administration is, the more radicalized our base becomes, which just feeds the Breitbart crowd, and who knows where that ends.”
Where that ends is a Democratic Party so radicalized that it become non-functional as a political opposition. The radicalization of the Democratic Party is playing right into Trump’s hands — Americans don’t like it when people burn the flag and bash capitalism, but that is now the face of the Democratic base. The more they riot, the more they disrupt, the more they act out their anger and frustrations, the better for Trump.
I explored this phenomenon, how the Gorsuch nomination has boxed in the Democratic Party into a destructive path, in two interviews today.
This morning I appeared on the Tony Katz radio show:
It really boxes the Democratic Senators in, because their base is going crazy….
This is the worst of all possible worlds for Democrats because Trump nominated somebody with impeccable credentials – somebody who’s even being praised on his credentials by some liberals. I think the former Obama Solicitor General has even praised (Gorsuch) So, this is just a brilliant pick on so many levels….
In the afternoon, I appeared on The Steve Malzberg Show on Newsmax TV:
It’s a homerun at multiple levels … He should be Scalia 2.0, which is the terminology a lot of the leftist critiques are using …. Politically it’s an even more brilliant move, because the Democrats are absolutely itching for a fight on this first nomination, and Donald Trump picked somebody who has impeccable credentials, who is getting praise even from liberal law professors. This is the fight Democrats want, but I’m not sure it’s really the fight they need …. So at multiple levels this was a brilliant choice.
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Comments
One must realize that sowing chaos is a lever that the Democrats use to move the ship of state in their direction. Republican does something they don’t like, scream and carry on like it’s the end of the world. Republican does something they like, stay silent.
I mean when even Dersh admits this guy is fully qualified, the Dems and their opposition seem even more childish. (if that were possible)
It’s not about ‘childishness’ – it’s about power and the fascist means to obtain it against the will of the people.
Don’t minimize their sinister goals by excusing their dangerous acts as juvenile. Hitler and Lenin would be impressed at the persistence of the left and the incredible fecklessness of the GOP.
Godwin alert! Too bad for the Left, crying “Hitler!” just doesn’t have the impact it used to. Now it’s just background hysteria.
Soros paid hysteria.
CAIR supported hysteria.
Internet amplified hysteria.
Hollywood (where’s-the-camera?) hysteria.
Eurobureaucrat Brussels hysteria.
University microvictim snowflake hysteria.
PhD pundit hysteria.
IranRussiaChina cheered hysteria.
MSM orchestrated hysteria.
Democrat exploited hysteria.
The Dems and the media are so incessantly anti-Trump in nearly every way, creating chaos and otherwise, many people will become numb to this type of protest very quickly. As Trump’s favorability rises, the media’s will decline. It hasn’t even been a month and every word, action, tweet, etc. has been refuted 24/7. Even the most faithful Bernie or Hillary supporters have limited stamina.
It’s like when Hatch changed the rules on quorums today. Ordinarily that would have been a hugely questionable move – but by the time it happened, it was obvious to all that Hatch had been provoked to the point that everyone knew he was justified in doing it.
The minority should never forget that they should never piss off the majority so much that they just start changing the rules and writing them out of the picture completely. Because as today shows, that is actually quite easy to do.
Abbie Hoffman was a put-on. If you tried those little bits of subversion in Steal This Book—and admit it, you did, even if it was just to try to get the National Park Service to send you a free elk—you’d immediately find out that they just don’t work. Not even the Post Office is dumb enough to deliver a brick with a “Postage Paid” card glued to it, or send an unstamped letter to another Post Office.
But as we’ve seen since the Inauguration, Trump is not a put-on. He’s an existential threat to our established political order—a man who does what he says he’ll do. Their careers, their entire modus vivendi revolves around avoiding just that. They’re now trapped in a world they don’t even recognize.
And it serves the bastards right.
Trump didn’t have to do anything to them. They’re doing it all to themselves—perpetrators and victims, one and the same. All Trump had to do was—finally—give us an alternative. And an entire city became obsolete overnight. If Trump can keep up this pace, he won’t be the new Ronald Reagan, he’ll be the new Prometheus.
Of course, he could still live down to expectations, and bungle it. But there’s no sign of that so far.
Trump said he always studies out two ways (at least) to win.
I can’t see Trump changing his habits of a lifetime now just because he is President!
WINNING!
And the left just burned Milo out at U of C berk
As Milo well knows, he accomplished far more by getting them to act out in a fascistic manner than he ever could have accomplished with an innocuous speech.
The entire point of him going to Berkeley was to get them to act out on the cameras like this.
Prof. Jacobsson, thank you for crystallizing the thoughts I’ve been having. I’ve become convinced that Trump, despite all the hysterics about his narcissism, is acting deliberately to provoke the reactions he’s been getting. He has expertly driven the media and the left around like ping pong balls, careening from controversy to controversy.
I was a never Trumper, convinced he was an awful choice as President. He has proven me wrong, in spades, and I won’t underestimate him again.
When he is done, neither party may exist in any coherent form. He may well revolutionize this country in ways we cannot even yet imagine (hopefully good.)
Cannot wait until The Donald’s next press conference, when he bypasses the AP and calls on a rep from Legal Insurrection – or Bill Jacobson himself, via Skype.
Remember you can follow President Trump’s Tweets, and don’t even have to sign up for Twitter to read them. Just go to the web page of Trump’s Tweets.
So where’s squeaker boehner in all this? (Is he in Hell yet?)
One place where Hoffman succeeded was in making a community of anti-Prohibitionists.
He had an ally:
“Whose interests are served by the drug war? The U.S. government enforces a drug cartel. The major beneficiaries from drug prohibition are the drug lords, who can maintain a cartel that they would be unable to maintain without current government policy.” – – Milton Friedman
The Democratic Left has ceased to exist as an effective national party. After being rejected by a slight majority of American voters, what else do they have but chaos?
I have often thought that the only reason Democrats want to import terrorists from other countries is because they know that eventually chaos will ensue. For the same reason, a non-existent southern border does nothing but destabilize the capitalist structure we have. We already have about a hundred million Americans not working. What is the value in allowing millions more unskilled, unvetted immigrants into the country other than to create chaos?
Every time Muslims slaughter Americans is another opportunity for the Progressive Fascists to violate our civil rights.
On topic, I’ve found through the years that any nominee to the Supreme Court by a Republican is a hit or miss. Too often, conservatives discover they’ve been given a liberal conservative who more often sides with chaos rather than liberty (see Souter, Kennedy, Roberts). So color me skeptical on the conservative stand upon which Gorsuch is being placed.
Progressive/liberal justices, however, seem to get even more socialist as time goes by…
Today, the Dems are reflecting on whether their campaign of perpetual outrage is working.
http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2017-02-02/democrats-permanent-outrage-at-donald-trump
Michelle Malkin started referring to the Islam as the “religion of perpetual outrage” or ROPO for short. ROPO also came with their own poster child: Rage Boy
http://snappedshot.com/ghost/i8v
It looks to me like the time is ripe for renaming the Democrats as the “Party of Pertual Outrage” or POPO for short. Let the contest for poster child begin! I offer for consideration Nancy Pelosi
http://media1.picsearch.com/is?RjryciCb6RdpSukTPsWwhNlVktsuh0-EfytreupmGUg&height=214
Maybe LI should start building a gallery of best pictures of the angriest liberals of the day!
Welcome back.
Thanks!
Pasadena Phil, how about the picture of the Democrats on the House floor protesting something or another.