The Left Is Eating Itself

Frontpage Magazine ^ | June 22, 2015 | Daniel Greenfield

[2ndDivisionVet]

In the hot days of summer, the progressive revolution that took over cities and even the national government is frenziedly devouring itself.

The media is pounding away at Hillary Clinton, not because it cares about her foundation’s dirty deals or the contents of her email server, but because it doesn’t trust her ideological commitment. If the media were sure of that, both stories would have been treated like Benghazi; mocked, ridiculed, falsely fact checked and then buried in a haunted Indian graveyard under the New York Times building at midnight.

Instead the media pined for Elizabeth Warren. When the Native American Rachel Dolezal declined to jump into the race, they switched their allegiance to Bernie Sanders; a senile Socialist who fondly reminisces about 90% tax rates. Now Ready for Warren is throwing its support behind Bernie.

This is just the media’s ploy to push Hillary harder and farther to the left. But it’s hard to know how far out there she can go without putting on a big fur hat and belting out The Internationale and the more leftward she moves, the less electable she becomes as she sheds independents and white voters.

The combination of media scandals and leftward moves is doing a lot more damage to Hillary than any of her Republican rivals by leaving her with no choice except to recreate the Obama coalition.

Media insiders think that Bernie Sanders will quietly slink away once Hillary has taken the correct position on capitalism (filthy profiteering swine, except the ones who fund my campaign), the Second Amendment (the only people who should have guns are the nine bodyguards protecting Michael Moore) and the justice system (let’s legalize crime); but they may just be in for a rude surprise....

[2ndDivisionVet]

Comments?

[fieldmarshaldj]

Not fast enough. Chow down, pigs !

[IAMNO1]

I agree with the author, but I think Hillary and the Democrats will utilize their usual ploy, disingenuity, so it doesn't matter what they really think or how far to the left they really are, they'll try (and succeed) at pulling the wool over the eyes of many of the voters.

Interesting article, but I learned in another story Fouad Ajami died a year ago tomorrow. I somehow missed that.

[onedoug]

Just the left, eh?

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Hope they choke themselves to death. Too many evil people in our country anyway. Time to thin the herd, and if the herd wants to do it to themselves, I see no reason why we shouldn’t encourage it.

[bluejean]

“When the Native American Rachel Dolezal”

Okay, this self-identification thing has everyone confused....

That said, interesting thoughts, I’m just not sure that the Queen of the Dem Borg Nest isn’t in some way allowing all of this Sanders/Warren/Whomever to wear out the alternatives and the side-stories so her coronation path later on will be crystal clear. The Clintons are forever royal and entitled, after all. They play the game better than almost everyone. Except of course for the Obamas, who squat in a neighborhood they don’t belong in even better than the Clintons. With the Clintons, we had Bubba and trailer trash goofiness. With Zero, we have the actual dismantling of the USA.

Hillary, being the more diabolical (between Bubba and herself) will probably be much more dangerous in the once-honorable White House than Bubba was.

Amazes me that times have made it possible to say that, but here we are.

[oldbill]

Dream on!

The Left is winning, and not just because the public debate and knowledge flow comes from the monolithic liberal media, but also because the Republican leadership and elites just won’t fight back.

Remember, the Tea Party advocates, the only voice of opposition to the left, are not an organized political party, but a spontaneous grass roots consensus. It alone can’t beat the vast forces allied against it, ironically led by the Republican power brokers.

McConnell and Boehner ain’t punishing the Left (e.g., TPP, amnesty, spending, Obamacare, etc.) they’re punishing conservatives.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks 2ndDivisionVet. While I don't believe Hitlery will be the nominee, it is certain that if she *does* get the nod, the piss-soaked media shills, who currently are working hard to keep her out, will fall into line.

[Jet Jaguar]

This is why the TEA Party was targeted by the IRS. They have, effectively, shut down the movement.

[gleeaikin]

Not only is Republican leadership not fighting back, but they and other right forces also seem to indulge in autophagy.

[nathanbedford]

When Obama couldn’t make anything work, he switched to loudly selective radicalism to turn out his base. It worked and it also created the unsustainable pursuit of radicalism for its own sake.

That explains a great deal of the otherwise unfathomable: Obama excited his base by appealing to their base instincts. These demagogic appeals were not limited to the African-Americans but extended to women, Latinos, homosexuals, college students etc. I don't believe he created the "unsustainable pursuit of radicalism", that is inherent in leftism but I do believe he extended it and democratized it for the mob. The left has seen how powerful a tool demagoguery is and they will be increasingly less restrained in resorting to it.

Why can't we appeal to our base by appealing not with demagoguery but with well-founded fears of loss of liberty, government tyranny, using the examples of Obamacare and the Environmental Protection Agency. Well-founded fears of economic insecurity can be quite properly aroused by referring to Obama's trade agreement. The conservative who can convincingly connect the dots between the national debt and the national trade imbalance with job insecurity can win the election.

The issues are there, the threat is real, we lack only a candidate who can find the words and the courage to utter them.

[Wheelman81]

I believe that is Greenfield’s sarcastic (confusing?) way of referring to Elizabeth Warren. He muddies an otherwise good piece by being a bit too cute.

[Louis Foxwell]

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[Vigilanteman]

Every election season (which is more or less 24/7 now), I dream the leftists will turn on each other like Hitler on Stalin.

And every election season, I'm disappointed because once the Kabuki dance is over, they are marching shoulder to shoulder to promote their leftist agenda.

[MrB]

Comment - it’s impossible to be epistemologically consistent as a leftist/Humanist without the logical conclusion that you must kill yourself.

Most leftists borrow from the Christian value system while at the same time rejecting it.

[oldbrowser]

Not only is Republican leadership not fighting back, but they and other right forces also seem to indulge in autophagy.

That's true, the right also has the same problem as they try to out conservative each other to the detriment of electoral success.

[Interesting Times]

Ping. Let’s hope he’s right.

[zot]

Thanks for the ping. I hope he’s right, but I suspect this media stuff is mostly smoke and mirrors.

[i_robot73]

IMO, you missed a more troubling source...govt indoctrination centers (aka public schools).

We the People, and the Right, have failed to stop the dumbing down of ‘education’, the infiltration of Socialism and the bashing of the nuclear family and church. Not even the force of REALITY can shake the programming after govt has had the little ones’ training for 12+ years.

As the next graduate you see “If you can coerce govt to take from one give to another, what’s to stop YOU being the ‘payer’ instead of the ‘payee’?”

The media only reinforces the same....”We tell you what we WANT you to hear”

[Billthedrill]

The Left doesn't mind eating itself so long as it eats us first. In fact, as the author points out with regard to the French and Russian revolutions, it always does eat itself eventually anyway.

That's little comfort for the rest of the people they've led down the rose-strewn path to perdition. It took three-quarters of a century for the Russians finally to climb out from under, and then climb right back in again.

"The question is who is to be master, that is all," said Humpty Dumpty in Alice Through The Looking Glass, serving as a prototype for the Left everywhere. Words meant only what he intended them to, and served not as a means of communication but as a means of manipulation. After words, naked force. After naked force, Orwell's jackboot on a human face, forever.

Most Leftists who have given the matter any real intellectual effort will tell you they're after liberation, self-actualization (Marx practically invented the term), and the withering away of the State in favor of some proletarian hive mind. In practice this means they want to boss other people around and steal their stuff. The latter formulation is avoided not because of its inelegance but because of its accuracy.