Notes on the Way

Special Scenes from the Resistance Edition

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Scene One

Over the weekend, millions upon millions of Americans participated in anti-Trump/Musk HANDS OFF protests across the nation, i.e. HANDS OFF the sacred totems of the Resistance Left. Oh, but wait, “millions upon millions” is a bit of an exaggeration. Really it was a mobilization of the usual suspects: labor unions, transgender activists, civil-rights organizations, pro-Hamas, anti-American antisemites, nuts assorted, and a clown car full of Democratic Party elected officials. In Washington DC, the crowd was regaled with a defense of “our democracy” by none other than that ingrate immigrant, Representative Ilhan Omar—a pro-Hamas, anti-American Jew hater if ever there was one.

And it got better. In an impressive demonstration of doublethink, the comrades chanted: HANDS OFF the courts—now that the courts are doing their bidding. You may recall that not so very long ago, Democrats and progressives were mounting a frontal offensive against the judicial branch, damning and reviling the “rogue” conservative majority on the Supreme Court, seeking to transform a coequal branch of the federal government into a third branch of the legislature with a permanent progressive majority.

“Congratulations to all those who took to the streets on this Hands off [sic] Day of Action,” crowed Senator Bernie Sanders. “Americans will stand tall against Oligarchy, Authoritarianism and Kleptocracy. We will not allow billionaires to get huge tax breaks while Medicaid and other programs are cut. And we will win.” The script never varies, does it? Oh, and by the way, Comrade Sanders has a long record of supporting tariffs, allegedly to protect American workers. But to steal a line from the Nixon Administration, that position seems to have become…inoperative.

Scene Two

And speaking of an impressive demonstration of doublethink, First Amendment martyr and genocidal antisemite Mahmoud Khalil gave one by biting the hand that fed his hateful bigotry with an op-ed article excoriating Columbia University—which for so long tolerated the activities of him and his fellow campus Jew bashers. As if to rub it in, the op-ed was published in the Columbia Spectator, the university’s student newspaper.

Khalil reviled Columbia for its insufficient commitment to river-to-sea ethnic cleansing: “In the 18 months since the genocidal campaign in Gaza began, Columbia has not only refused to acknowledge the lives of Palestinians sacrificed for Zionist settler colonialism, but it has actively reproduced the language used to justify this killing.” Tissue, anyone? He also bemoaned the "abduction” and “kidnapping” of him and his fellow foreign student activists, a scurvy crew indeed that well deserves to be sent packing. Hilariously, he compared Columbia to Vichy France as a regime collaborating with Amerikkan Nazism. Say what? Obergruppenführer Khalil is among Hitler’s biggest fans. Where he comes from, Mein Kampf is a bestseller.

And finally, Khalil denounced the alleged disruption of peaceful pro-Palestinian protests on campus by sinister Zionist provocateurs hurling false claims of antisemitism. Obviously, this garbage human being has figured out that with soggy sentimentalists like Andrew Sullivan, the pose of a victim is most likely to attract their support. Truly, this garbage human being and the Resistance deserve one another.

Scene Three

There are certain politicians who sit around asking themselves, What can I do today to make myself look like a drooling idiot? For Senator Corey Booker, the answer to that question was, I’ll throw a twenty-five hour hissy fit on the floor of the United States Senate!

But as the Associated Press made sure to point out, at least Senator Spartacus set a record with his “feat of determination.” Indeed, the AP story is almost as funny as Booker’s rambling, pop-eyed performance, which grew more unhinged by the hour. Reporters Mike Catalini and Stephen Groves really pushed the envelope of lapdog compliance:

It was a remarkable show of stamina as Democrats try to show their frustrated supporters that they are doing everything possible to contest Trump’s agenda. Yet Booker also provided a moment of historical solace for a party searching for its way forward: By standing on the Senate floor for more than a night and day and refusing to leave, he had broken a record set 68 years ago by then Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, a segregationist and southern Democrat, to filibuster the advance of the Civil Rights Act in 1957.

Somehow, though, I doubt that for the Resistance there was much “historical solace” to be derived from Booker’s adolescent stunt. On the contrary it was a distillation of the aimless futility and magical thinking that has characterized the Resistance since Trump took office. It’s not as if the Prince of the Golden Escalator is depriving the comrades of material. But how can the heirs of Occupy Wall Street excoriate him for the stock market plunge, when they’ve spent years and decades excoriating “predatory capitalism”? How can they argue for a muscular American foreign policy when for years and decades they’ve opposed precisely such a policy? And how can they denounce Trump’s authoritarian proclivities, after supporting oafish pandemic totalitarianism?

No, the Resistance is left with nothing but the defense of the indefensible: all its shopworn boutique issues that smell to high heaven in the nostrils of the American people. But at least they have Senator Spartacus.

Scene Four

Even as Resistance warriors man the barricades against Führer Trump, the sordid tale of how he got where he is today is coming to light. Two new books, the just-published Fight by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, and the forthcoming Uncharted by Chris Whipple, add troubling details to the story of a massive coverup, stretching back to the early days of the Biden Administration, designed to gaslight the American public, which could see quite clearly that something was wrong with the President. In the latter book, we learn that White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain (2021-23) knew the deal. He returned to Biden’s side in 2024 and played a key role in the President’s debate prep ahead of his faceoff with Trump on June 27 of that year. Biden’s two hours and six minutes on stage destroyed his presidency and, as things turned out, paved Trump’s path back to the White House with flagstones of gold.

After the debacle, Klain recited a litany of excuses: Any president could have a bad debate, Biden was merely fatigued after a foreign trip and besides, he had a cold. The President was “absolutely sharp, fit, on top of his game,” he insisted. But this was a lie. In Uncharted, Whipple writes that “The president was fatigued, befuddled, and disengaged. Klain feared the debate with Trump would be a nationally televised disaster.” And so it was—not just for Biden personally but for the Democratic Party, which found itself saddled with that hapless doofus, Kamala Harris, as its 2024 standard bearer.

There are plenty of Democrats and progressives right here on Substack who followed the lead of the media and lent their support to Operation Gaslight. They laughed off the idea that Joe Biden was losing his marbles, accusing people who pointed it out of bad faith, ageism, cheap fakes, etc. But they knew better. Of course they did. They could see what we all saw. And they lied about it. I’ll mention no names, but these people know who they are. And what’s really disturbing is the plausible supposition that they remain proud of what they’ve done.