With one exception, the wars in which the United States has engaged since its inception involved our nation against one or more external adversaries. That exception, the American Civil War (1861-1865), still elicits an emotional response among our citizens due to the inherent tragedy connected to a nation at war with itself – the whole “brother against brother” dynamic that is recalled whenever discussions of this conflict arise.
One less common aspect of our Civil War (as compared to other nations that have endured civil wars) is that America was geographically divided at the time by the Mason-Dixon line, which divided the Union and Confederate states. This more resembled traditional military conflicts with external adversaries, and has colored many Americans’ idea of what a civil war is like. Unlike our Civil War, civil wars in most nations generally involve disparate or dissident factions fighting against each other and/or whatever regime is holding power.
I’m not going to say that what we’ve been experiencing over the last three months have been the first salvos of a civil war, but it sure looks like it. While hard-line socialists in the Democratic Party are working within the political infrastructure and behaving as though they are conducting the business of governance according to the rule of law and constitutionally established procedures, they are in fact in the process of fomenting civil war – or at least, they have made it apparent that they are willing to go that far if they are not able to gain ascendency via political means.
One of their prerequisites for standing down appears to be the removal of President Donald Trump, whether this is achieved via the general election in November or by some other means. It is clear – and should be clear to historians in the future – that the impeachment proceedings that took place in 2019 and early 2020 were nothing more than an attempted coup against our president.
Failing that, elected officials in Washington (both Republican and Democrat), their supporters, powerful Democrat donors and far left activists in the streets and corridors of power orchestrated violent demonstrations on the pretext of widespread racism on the part of police agencies across the country. Elected officials in Democrat-controlled enclaves have allowed these to persist in order to serve their greater agenda.
And make no mistake: The two-party system in America has been an illusion and a deception for quite some time. Most Republican elected officials who support the president are only supporting him because of his popularity amongst Republicans and swing voters. Nearly all of them hold allegiance to the Washington establishment and have been vehemently opposed to Trump’s housekeeping efforts from the start.
And although we know that political rhetoric has had a tendency to get nasty and hyperbolic during election cycles since our nation’s earliest days, the magnitude of the lies and the level of projection being proffered by everyone from Black Lives Matter and Antifa thugs to Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have truly pushed the boundaries of the surreal. I mean, when Bill Clinton has the nerve to criticize President Trump’s behavior in the Oval Office as he did this week at the Democratic National Convention, it becomes clear that these people have no sense of shame, and have cast both decency and reality to the wind.
It is entirely possible that if President Trump secures reelection, the left will escalate and extend the scope of the violence, touching off a full-blown, costly civil war. I believe it is equally possible that if Joe Biden wins the election, heretofore law-abiding Americans will determine that enough is enough, rise up and take decisive action against leftist dissidents, with the same unfortunate result.
Should this occur, it will be a civil war such as we’ve seen in many other nations over the years, rather than what transpired during the Civil War: Potential enemies will be present in our cities and towns, in our neighborhoods and occasionally in our own homes. Lines between enemy combatants will be blurred, as will those between police, the military and the militias that will inevitably rise up. BLM and Antifa thugs will continue to ply their trade until they are beaten back, or they prevail.
It should be clear by now to all but the intellectually indolent or deficient that those on the left thrive on the suffering of the citizenry at large. In fact, it was the deep suffering generated by the Obama administration that led to the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Now, like spoiled but very dangerous children, the left intends to prolong the pain of civil unrest until we get rid of him.
I shouldn’t have to point this out, but people who thrive on the suffering of others are inherently evil. Prudent individuals do not concern themselves with decorum or even fairness when dealing with evil people. Decisive political action on our part derailed the Soviet Union, and decisive military action defeated the Confederacy during the Civil War and the Axis powers in World War II.
I was out and about in my neighborhood the other day, and I saw my first “Biden 2020” bumper sticker. I couldn’t help but wonder if the man in the car was just woefully misguided, or if we might be facing each other sometime in the near future as enemy combatants.
