Dark Nostalgia For Creased Pants

The Dark Knight - The New York Times:

In this surrealistic universe of BOistan it is hard to recall things like "logic" or "reason". David Brooks is supposed to be the CONSERVATIVE columnist for the NY Times. He voted for BO twice, and famously "like the crease of his pants".

Sometimes in that blood-drenched world a dark knight arises. You don’t have to admire or like this knight. But you need this knight. He is your muscle and your voice in a dark, corrupt and malevolent world. 

Such has been the argument of nearly every demagogue since the dawn of time. Aaron Burr claimed Spain threatened the U.S in 1806. A. Mitchell Palmer exaggerated the Red Scare in 1919 and Joe McCarthy did it in 1950.

It was also the argument of every actual protector of the people from real vermin since the dawn of time  -- Demosthenes, Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan.  Let's look at Demosthenes in 342 BC

It is this fate, I solemnly assure you, that I dread for you, when the time comes that you make your reckoning, and realize that there is no longer anything that can be done. May you never find yourselves, men of Athens, in such a position! Yet in any case, it were better to die ten thousand deaths, than to do anything out of servility towards Philip [or to sacrifice any of those who speak for your good]. A noble recompense did the people in Oreus receive, for entrusting themselves to Philip’s friends, and thrusting Euphraeus aside! And a noble recompense the democracy of Eretria, for driving away your envoys, and surrendering to Cleitarchus! They are slaves, scourged and butchered! A noble clemency did he show to the Olynthians, who elected Lasthenes to command the cavalry, and banished Apollonides! It is folly, and it is cowardice, to cherish hopes like these, to give way to evil counsels, to refuse to do anything that you should do, to listen to the advocates of the enemy’s cause, and to fancy that you dwell in so great a city that, whatever happens, you will not suffer any harm.

Brooks seems to argue that even after BO, "we dwell in so great a city that, whatever happens, you will not suffer any harm".

Brooks obviously believes that there is no such thing as "too much government". Were EVERYTHING -- each sentence and glance, scripted by "experts" in Washington, or presumably by such icons of wisdom as himself, the world would be a "better place".

There is no danger in the path we have trod the last 8 years to Brooks. Churchill was a FOOL for the better part of a decade for speaking out against Hitler and what Churchill saw as "rising peril". He was a pariah! Indeed, a "demagogue", as was Reagan for claiming that the USSR would be consigned to "the ash heap of history".

I have to allusions that Trump will be seen as anything like Demosthenes, Churchill or Reagan, HOWEVER, to argue that those who point out that there is danger in the rise of government / Deep State and the destruction of the Constitution are somehow demagogues merely for the FORM  of their argument is intellectual malpractice at least and most probably pure calumny.

BTW ... McCarthy was RIGHT! He may not have been as "smooth" about it as BO and Hildebeast locking up the guy that made the movie that they blamed for Benghazi, but he was WAY more CORRECT about the "Communist Menace" than they were about "Benghazi being caused by a movie!".

'via Blog this'