Woke Communism Threat: “We are in a cold civil war …. over the American way of life”
Tom Klingenstein: “We find ourselves in a Cold Civil War. But we have no real generals. A war without generals is no war at all. There is no liberty or death, only death, the death of our once cherished republic.”
Tom Klingenstein is the chairman of the Claremont Institute, and you may have seen his “America is Good” video that made the rounds almost a year ago. His latest video is equally important and builds on his “America is Good” message by enjoining the GOP to recognize that we are, effectively, in a cold civil war over the American way of life.
Tom Klingenstein is the chairman of the Claremont Institute, managing partner of the New York-based investment firm, Cohen Klingenstein LLC., and playwright. He believes that we are in a cold civil war. The enemy—what he calls the “Woke Comms”—are winning, in large measure because Republican leaders have yet to engage. His essays, speeches and plays all encourage Republicans to do just that— to think, talk, and act as if we are at war.
Klingenstein lays out the cold civil war he perceives and offers concrete ways for the GOP and right-leaning voters to fight back, even in the current absence of “generals” in this cold war.
Watch:
The full transcript is available here, but following are some of Klingenstein’s key points.
He begins by noting that the GOP does not currently recognize that we are in a cold civil war, laying out exactly how we are engaged in a cold civil war, and demonstrating the need for our elected GOP representatives to wake up and begin defending our great nation. Yesterday.
We find ourselves in a Cold Civil War. But we have no real generals. A war without generals is no war at all. There is no liberty or death, only death, the death of our once cherished republic.
Leading Republicans who should be our generals fight battles, sometimes with spirit, but they don’t seem to see the war in its entirety, particularly its cultural aspects. This is a war not over the size of government or taxes, but over the American way of life. The war is between those who salute the flag, and those who take a knee. Those who believe that America is built on freedom, and those who believe America is built on racism. Those who are convinced that America is good, and those who are convinced America is bad. These differences are too large to bridge. This is what makes it a war. In this case, a Cold Civil War.
Winning a war requires two fundamental understandings. First, you must understand that you are, in fact, in a war. War time requires very different rhetoric, strategy and people than peace time. Trump is a wartime leader. Second,you must understand your enemy, what it wants and how it goes about getting what it wants. What our enemy wants is the destruction of the American way of life. It goes about it by trying to force everyone to say “America is systemically racist.” If it can convince us of this falsehood, it will be well on its way to overturning the American way of life. Every time Joe Biden accuses America of being systemically racist, he is, though he doesn’t know it, calling for the overthrow of the American way of life.
In a war, you must play to win. But you cannot win against an enemy that has no name, or has many names, identity politics, multiculturalism, anti-racism, wokeism, and more. My entry for a name is Woke Communism, Woke Comm for short. Whatever the name, I think it should communicate totalitarianism because this is what the enemy seeks to impose.
. . . . In short, woke communism will replace American justice with social justice, and destroy law and order, the rule of law, and both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
The lies of the Woke Comms are clear to every American patriot, but they are permeating–unchallenged by the GOP, except by President Trump–every social, cultural, public, private, and economic institution.
Klingenstein continues:
The first and most important lie is, as I have said, America is racist. It is this that is the big lie. We hear it from every direction from morning to night, but endless repetition does not make it true. It isn’t.
The corollary to the big lie is another lie. America is about to be overrun by white supremacists. This is pure nonsense. What the woke comms mean by this lie is that anyone unwilling to kneel before Black Lives Matter is a white supremacist.
. . . . Trump endorsed white culture. This is a lie. Trump endorsed not white culture but American culture, which is open to anyone, of any color, willing to embrace it. I am Jewish, but it never dawned on me that George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, neither members of my tribe, belong any less to me than to any other American. This is one of the glories of America. The Woke Communists want to destroy it.
. . . . We are told that moderate Joe Biden is in charge. Biden is neither moderate nor in charge.
Black Lives Matter care about black lives or righting past injustices. These are among the biggest whoppers. But we should pay attention to BLM because, as we learned during the riots, BLM represents the leading edge of the Democratic Party. Any doubt about the prominence of BLM should have been dispelled by the Biden-Harris administration encouraging American embassies to fly the BLM flag.
Think about that. Our embassies, beacons of American freedom, are flying the flag of an organization committed to the destruction of American freedom.
January 6th, was an insurrection. Every bit a lie. No, this may not have been Trump’s finest hour. And yes, the riots were very wrong and disappointing for a movement that has avoided violence. But let’s be honest, the riots consisted of a score or two of really bad apples, together with several hundred idiots (not a one armed) who thought it would be cool to take selfies in the nation’s capital.
From there, Klingenstein briefly addresses the ongoing censorship by Big Tech, now in collusion with the United States government to silence wrongthink, before going on to discuss the breakdown we are already seeing in the American way of life. A breakdown that is going largely unchallenged by the GOP, a problem he urges them to correct immediately.
Again, watch the video and/or read the full transcript.
Not only must the GOP give up on the clearly failed “live and let live” libertarian fantasy (our enemies in this cold civil war have zero intention of letting anyone live and let live, but they are happy to take advantage of such peace-time thinking while they grab all the power and control they need to crush all opposition), but they must also push back by proclaiming, loudly and often, the truth: America is good. We are not racist, systemically or otherwise, we are not evil, and we will no longer allow these lies to go unchallenged.
The essential thing, as I’ve tried to stress, is for Republicans to understand we are in a war and then act accordingly. War is not a time for too much civility, compromise, or for imputing good motives to the enemy. Our generals must fight as if the choice were between liberty and death. This is no time for sunshine patriots.
And the Republican Party must minimize the influence of libertarianism. Most libertarian influenced republicans are not fit to fight this war. They tell the Woke Communists, “You can live your way, just allow us to live our way.” But the Woke Communists respond, “You must live our way or we will punish you.” “Live and let live” will lose to “do it our way or else” every time.
Of the talked about possible presidential candidates, Donald Trump understands better than the others that we are in a war. And we know he has the courage to lead the charge. 2024 is a long way off. But if the Republican primary were held next month, Trump would be my candidate. True, Trump is risky, but risky times require risky solutions. So yes, it would be nice to find someone with Trump’s virtues without his vices. When you find such a person, I’ll be all ears. Until then, I’m with Trump, vices and all.
Whoever the candidate, he or she and other Republicans should tell the truth as Trump did. They must rebut the lies starting with the big lie, America is racist. In failing to rebut this lie, as virtually every republican has, Republicans are conceding the basic premise of Woke Communism. When we fail to rebut lies, we perpetuate them. Republicans must say America is not racist, period. Republicans must assert this not once but a thousand times. War is a time for assertions.
Republicans must, Klingenstein continues, not only defend America with words, a vital part of recognizing and engaging America’s enemy, in this cold civil war, but also with actions.
They must, as Trump began to try to do, defeat critical race theory in schools, the military, businesses and everywhere else. We simply cannot teach our citizens, current and future, that their country is no good and expect to have a country for very long. No country can survive on a diet of endless self-loathing. We need to teach our citizens to love and cherish their country.
And we need to stop wallowing in our sins of racism. We are talking ourselves into ruin. As far as I can tell, all this talk about racism has brought us nothing but hardship for blacks, division, and race hustlers. Let’s instead talk about what we Americans have in common, and let’s start judging Americans by the content of their character.
Klingenstein concludes with a message of hope.
Americans know perfectly well that their country has sinned. Even so they believe, and quite rightly, that America is as good as it gets. They know that America has, by her example, brought freedom to many millions around the world. And they know that progress in civil rights over the last 60 years has been nothing short of miraculous. We should be very proud of America. It is this pride that makes us strive, as we have always strived, to do better.
I am not without hope. There are many pockets of resistance bubbling up around the country. Parents are pushing back against “America is racist” curricula. Even San Francisco had a rare moment of sanity when it decided not to remove Abraham Lincoln’s name from the high school. The manly don’t tread on me remains part of the American spirit. Many Americans still salute our flag, honor our military dead, and ask God to bless America. Such citizens are part of the huge army that Trump has mobilized. This army is raring to go, but it needs direction. If Republican leaders start speaking the truth, loudly and passionately, the army will follow.
That seems like a big “if” to me. If Republican leaders had a clue, had an inkling of the truth, they would already be defending our nation against the enemies’ lies, they would already be standing up for American exceptionalism and greatness. That they largely are not bodes ill for America, for our way of life, unless the silent GOP at all levels of government are replaced with those who understand where we are and where we are going if things don’t change.
Although Klingenstein doesn’t say it, I will. We, the people, American voters, have a responsibility to ensure that we do not continue to elect Republicans who are silent in the face of and submissive to the anti- and un-American Woke Comms whose singular goal is to destroy our great nation and our American way of life.
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Comments
Thanks for posting this. An amazing and spot on analysis.
It’s great to finally see Trump getting his due on LI lately.
I voted for Trump twice. He was an excellent president. And, if he is the Republican nominee in 2024, I will vote for him again. But he is not a good national candidate. He is completely and totally undisciplined.
Trump was put in the same position as if Gen. Eisenhower had to win WWII while stuck in Occupied France circa 1941. Hard to prosecute a war with the enemy both outside and in one’s camp.
Such an incredible and on point article , I get infuriated that my elected officials do not stand up for us more . The media is another story I had a brief moment of hope when I saw news anchors on all stations upset of leaving our Americans in Afghanistan ,it was momentary ,they fell in line with the White Houses pivot to another issue. Your article gives me hope that maybe just maybe it’s worth voting because after 2020 I felt like why bother they have rigged the system I figured I would never cast another vote , I am still on the fence about that but we will see what happens
Wonder if Lindsay, Turtle McConnell, Kevin McCarthy and other “putative” GOP “leaders” will bother reading the guy’s points.
[April, 1951]
But once war is forced upon us, there is no other alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end.
War’s very object is victory, not prolonged indecision.
In war there is no substitute for victory.
There are some who, for varying reasons, would appease Red China. They are blind to history’s clear lesson, for history teaches with unmistakable emphasis that appeasement but begets new and bloodier war. It points to no single instance where this end has justified that means, where appeasement has led to more than a sham peace. Like blackmail, it lays the basis for new and successively greater demands until, as in blackmail, violence becomes the only other alternative.
“Why,” my soldiers asked of me, “surrender military advantages to an enemy in the field?” I could not answer.
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/douglasmacarthurfarewelladdress.htm
“’Why,’ my soldiers asked of me, ‘surrender military advantages to an enemy in the field?’ I could not answer.”
Conspiracy would explain it, among the global elite. The CFR and its members have their fingerprints all over the decline of America since it was organized in 1921.
The only problem with this presentation is that once again, it assumes that there are two parties in power. It’s not that the Republicans are not engaging. They ARE engaged. But they are almost all allied with the Democrats. THAT is why Trump is so crucial to winning this.
We better take advantage of Trump while he is still with us. As much as I like DeSantis and a couple of others, they are not ready to lead on the strength of their wherewithal regardless of how determined they are. They do not have the independent resources nor the stature of Trump.
Trump MUST prevail in the 2022 elections. Next year’s bloodbath MUST include not only Democrats but a ton of Republican incumbents. We need all hands on deck and that means Cruz, Paul and several others have to stop being one-man parties. It also means that sites like this have to stop covering the McConnells, Grahamnesties and so many other decepticons as if they just scored major victories. Stop empowering these decepticon snakes. We need to empower those who are on OUR side. That means we better get it straight as to who WE are.
I logged in just to like this comment!
And, nothing will change until “observers” get involved in Republican Party politics at the local level. …
The two party system is quickly eroding into a “parliamentary system” as the demonrats and Republicans factionalize. … One fundamental problem of both political parties is that at the county level too many are controlled by local municipal unions and patronage beneficiaries. The occasional non government registered party volunteer who fights to get elected to a county executive committee is ostracized and eventually forced off in a contested election which most voters are unaware even occur, or “worn down”. …
Such is where Mr. Klingenstein could back up his excellent rhetoric with his ability to raise money – for candidates to sit on county executive committees. The funding would go to legal teams to wade through the obstruction ridden election laws and administrative process to gain control of key county committees in order to have meaningful influence over the state committee such that candidates who would represent tax-payers (not primarily municipal workers and special interests) were elected.
Another area for volunteering and where Mr. Klingenstein might find productive use of funds he could raise would be in staffing polling places and observers. Again, lawyers to pursue legal challenges are needed. … This is where in 2020 the demonrats crushed free and fair elections through pre-emptive actions across the country.
While there are 80 +/- million who want to complain, few will go through the personal denigration and brain damage of actually fighting the system. So the country is stuck with a two party system. (Mr. Klingenstein is correct the Libertarians do not represent a solution.)
P.S. Yes. I have experience fighting to get on my county committee (with little help; those I “teamed” with “talked but did not walk” to get the signatures required), including confronting nuisance suits by Republicans to question (frivolous and without success) the validity of petition signatures; such suits went so far as to threaten registered Republicans who signed said petitions with subpoenas to swear in open court that the validity of their signatures. Said Republican committee staff with long term placeholder / rubber stamps as described above.
“It’s not that the Republicans are not engaging. They ARE engaged. But they are almost all allied with the Democrats.”
Obviously, after they conquered us, they made our legislature just like theirs.
The decepticons are already surrendering:
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/09/09/rnc-sue-biden-admin-unconstitutional-vaccinate-mandate/
How lame. Another law suit? Really? Kicking the can down the road again? Congress stooping down to the courts rather than doing their jobs? The Marxists have already seized the courts! This is just another attempt by the squishes to assure the torches and pitchforks crowd that the GOP is on it and they can go home.
How about hitting the streets and the airways with a call to action?! Contacting their voters who are apoplectic and want something done now? DO SOMETHING NOW!!!
In a war you go for the win. Otherwise you’re always on the defensive.
The real problem isn’t a lack of generals. It’s that one side is trying to take the rights of white people, and the other side is trying for equal rights. That “other side” will always be on the defensive.
One must fight to win, not to tie.
How about Republicans come right out and tell citizens and employers to unconstitutional mandate? Make it official. Turn this into a REAL civil war of wills. Remind the oath takers that they are not obligated to follow unconstitutional orders. The troops are already marching! The big issue is: who’s in charge here? The citizens or the Uniparty/BLM? Force the issue TODAY! Make that declaration TODAY!
Correction: How about Republicans come right out and tell citizens and employers to IGNORE THIS unconstitutional mandate?
The Left in this country — including the current regime, the Dems, the Dem-media complex, the people running and teaching in the schools and universities, etc. — are saying precisely the same things about America that the Communists and the Soviet Union said about it throughout the 20th century. And their agenda closely matches the agenda put forth by the American Communist party throughout the 20th century.
But because they call themselves ‘Democrats’ we’re supposed to believe they are not really communists.
Right. How stupid do they think we are?
Answer: Very! They expect us to surrender and wake up too late as slaves. Perhaps this new push is jumping the shark.
.
Very.
How stupid do they think we are?
Less than one person in ten actually gives a shit about what is going on in our country. The rest sit round and pluck blackberries. So how stupid are we? Pretty damn stupid
You will be lucky if it says cold.
We are at War.
Useful idiots in the USA have developed into a Fifth Column that will tear the country apart. The so-called “woke” are those who are most easily manipulated by the race-baiters and the Marxists. We must not allow a minority of morons with arse-backward ideas to destroy America.
This is a battle for hearts and minds. Really, the soul of America.
The enemy seeks to turn our open society and our freedoms against us.
We in America have failed to be diligent in protecting our freedom. We left the door open – just a crack – and Tyranny now has pushed a foot in and is trying to bust it open. God help us – we must shut that door tight and lock it.
Because we are at war – we cannot be complacent. We must call them what they are – the enemy. The enemy wants to destroy us and tear-down everything we and our parents and grandparents built.
The enemy are COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARIES. They are counter to the principles of the revolution we won in 1781.
“And the Republican Party must minimize the influence of libertarianism. Most libertarian influenced republicans are not fit to fight this war. They tell the Woke Communists, “You can live your way, just allow us to live our way.” But the Woke Communists respond, “You must live our way or we will punish you.”
An ignorant cavil. Libertarians are far from pacifists. Unless, of course, Klingenstein believes it is necessary for America to stamp out all convents, monasteries, cooperatives, and communes, all of which are voluntarily communist social arrangements.
A Republican party insufficiently “tainted” by libertarianism gave us gun control laws, the Patriot Act, crony capitalism / fascism, fiat currency, the eternal war on drugs, and other freedom-sucking policies. Be careful what you wish for.
This is why continuing to send your kids to public schools is suicide. This is how we got here, by the continuing indoctrination over the years.
The Republican Party is not the opposition of the Democrats in a civil war, cold or hot. They are allied against the American people and the Constitution. There is no party on the side of the American people and Constitution, and that is the key point defining whether there will be submission or resistance.
Simultaneously, there is no rule of law. Those not favored by the UniParty have no protection in law or the courts. That is another key point in understanding our situation. These things must be realized.
Subotai Bahadur
We, indeed, are in a Civil War. A real Civil War–being a war to determine which side runs the country. The s0-called “Civil War” (1860-1865) was not a civil war–it was a war for secession/independence. The CSA had NO interest or desire to conquer and run the North. They just wanted to leave.
The problem, as eloquently described, is that only one side is fighting.
Mr. Klingenstein offers a valuable analysis of recent events and tactics used by the demonrats in their efforts to destroy the USA.
However, “Identity Politics” and “Racist” are no longer appropriate terms, both are “wornout” and neither captures the essence of the demonrat agenda. …
“Segregationist”, appears a far more appropriate term for demonrat rhetoric. They seek to divide in order to conquer; whether it is race, religion, ethnicity, geography (think “flyover” vs “coasts”, “enlightened beltway” and “Hollywood”), … health status (“woke” vs “unvaxxed”, LBGT(…) vs comorbidities), etc. – all attempt to segment and segregate different groups, such that everyone “must” properly self-identify to have standing. …
demonrats Are The “Segregationist” Party.
Another, issue Mr. Klingenstein unnecessarily raises and which I think clouds the discussion and his excellent presentation – as a country we need to come to terms with who Lincoln was. He was (barry’s hero) a tyrant. He had the country go to war with itself to centralize political and economic power in Washington DC. He suspended the Constitution. He is responsible for the forced (arguably invalid) ratification of the Reconstruction Amendments and “loss” of the missing 13th Amendment. (The abuses under the 14th Amendment have only furthered the federal government’s overreach.) … Disagree, if you will.
The constant deifying of Lincoln should not be used as a unifying slogan for Conservatives; Let the demonrats own him. … Lincoln (a great orator) is a divisive historical figure (his words and actions were diametrically opposed); we need to avoid him as a distraction.
As a born and bred northerner; public school educated, “Battle Hymn of the Republic” singer, I now after too many decades proclaim – The wrong side one the Civil War. We all would be far better off including all the former slaves (from Europe, Africa and elsewhere) and their descendants if slavery had died as a result of economic factors that had already doomed it as an institution by the 1850s and legislation. … The Civil War was just another politically motivated “false flag” in American history.
You just nailed it – so few care. How many of us have had someone in our personal circle say in a pessimistic, deafitist tone “but what can we do?”
I shake my head when I hear “2A will solve this”. Really? Guns are useless when there are no bullets. 2A may let us have arms, but even then, a well armed citizen is far behind on the curve against the vastly weaponized policing systems. I think that everytime I see footage of a metro PD sending in its SWAT – that’s just the start of what the 2A would be up against. And still haven’t said anything about even trying to organize 2A citizens in an environment where it is so easy for Big Bro and Big Tech to decide you are “domestic terrorist”.
think Big Bro doesn’t anticipate citizens rallying together to bring about change in Big Bro? then why the shift to everything being “white supremicist”? Heck – we could form a patriot movement with a majority being black and it would still be called a WS movement – just look at what is happening with Larry Elder.
Forty years ago when I graduated HS, politics was a matter of “different opinions”. Today – there is a growing segment that no longer sees “differences”, but now believes the other side is “incompatible”.
Yes, we are in a cold war. Yesterday the activist was armed with bullhorns and signs – now we see the rise of ANTIFA – activists who are willing to take the beating and give the beating. So, the cold war has started to simmer…..
This “cold” war will continue to increase in temperature. In different ways across America, With three different fronts. Those willing to use violence (ANTIFA) will continue to become more organized and enboldened by societies failure to neutralize their activites – just look at the West Coast. Eventually, they will be able to start dictating terms and the politicos there will kowtow.
Second front will be the average family, frustrated at their inability to thwart DC, will turn their fury towards to closest local level of elected officials. Been following the school board meetings? Expect to see the temperature and “resistance” rise there as well.
Third – we just crossed – when the President decides Governors are in his way – the friction between Federal and State will continue to exacerbate. Court actions, funding fights – both currently being used to exert the will of either the governor or the President… eventually even that boil over.
Because eventually those Governors who stand opposed to the President will realize they can only resist DC to a certain length and degree as a single state, but if they work together….
Will it be “Hot” civil war? No – doubt we will see another Gettysburg producing Civil War. But I do firmly believe we are heading in a direction where eventually the Federal government itself will declare certain States to be in open insurrection.
and now…time for me to get my first cup of coffee for the morning.
We are an army, literally.
We are standing ready for a leader.
There will come a time when we will wait no longer, leader or no.
And that will be hell, for everyone.
But come it will.
henrybowman: The Libertarian vote was literally the winning margin for Biden in several states, much like that idiot Perot cursed us with the Clintons.
And both the Libertarian and Perot voters strut around bragging about their high minded refusal to compromise. Both groups cannot see the war we are in.
Not a huge fan of Libertarians, either. The ones I know voted for freaking Kanye West and now pretend to be shocked and horrified that we are stuck with Biden and his already failed presidency.
Libertarians are fine in good times, like when you have that extra cushion to splash on whatever luxury, but are utterly useless in this cold civil war in which we have been drawn by the Woke Comms. They are fanciful ideologues who have no real grounding principle beyond “live and let live.” Legalize pot and crack? Woots! Great plan! Legalize prostitution and “man/boy” “love”? Yay! Super awesome. So what if private companies are colluding with Biden’s government to silence dissent? That’s their RIGHT!
Yeah, blah blah blah. Libertarians remind me of patchouli-stinking 60’s radicals, lounging around in their tie-dye tees and slurping up illicit drugs while chanting “it’s cool” while “it’s cool, duding” away our rights. Every human whim is not cool, dude, nor should every human debasement and evil be indulged as an “individual right” or “freedom.” An ideological cold civil war for the very soul of America is the last place for libertarians and their “it’s all good, man!” zoned-out indifference.
Ms. Fuzzy,
Are you actually old enough to have known the 60s ? …
The 60s were (perhaps more than other decades) about transitions, with an arbitrary beginning and end. “Radicals” – beatniks, hippies, civil rights activists, anti-war protestors, etc. – were an aspect but not the substance for most (incense the least of it); except the portfolio of music genres.
NASA, “Great Society”, union strikes (pressman, communications workers, teachers, police (some of the most violent), miners, etc.), Vietnam, nuclear attack drills (fallout shelters), lost submarines, first plane hijackings, cars, Sears’ (for some Penney’s) catalogues, international travel, … availability of public colleges, unsecured consumer credit cards, mutual funds for all, … public housing (northern plantations), … Al Capp’s Lil Abner, Jim Henson’s Muppets, Schultz’s Charlie Brown, … In NYC the Throggs Neck Bridge, Verrazano Bridge – across the country the Interstate Highway System …
I could go on but I wanted to share that your view of the 60s appears somewhat myopic.
What? You do know, I hope, that you have made no point here at all. I don’t do beat poetry claptrap. You’ve listed random crap. Why? What is your point?
Ms. Fuzzy,
I have read enough of your comments (your articles are more thoughtful, i.e., deliberate in thought) to know how reactionary and shallow you have a tendency to be. Born of survivors of the war in Europe who emigrated to the US in the 40’s or 50’s you would have been a “patchouli-stinking 60’s radical”.
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