Quick Take: Teachable Moments
Fighting fascism! Defending "our democracy! Whatever...
Developments in the aftermath of this year’s election have been instructive in several respects. We’ve learned, for instance, that the Left’s cries of fascism and its defense of “our democracy” was nothing but gaseous blather—as two recent incidents have demonstrated.
One teachable moment occurred on air. Without doubt, MSNBC’s Morning Joe was the media epicenter of the Resistance, as the enemies of Donald Trump were pleased to style themselves. Monday through Friday, week after week, the show’s hosts, Joe Scarborough and his wife Mika Brzezinski, poured forth a torrent of strident invective, reviling the former president as an authoritarian goon, a fascist, a racist, a white supremacist, a misogynist, etc. and so forth. If elected president, the Ogre Trump would abolish the Constitution. He would order the military to round up his political enemies and put them in concentration camps. He would strip women of their rights and turn them into Handmaids. On and on it went, rising to a pitch of hysteria that only Nicolle Wallace could rival.
Joe and Mika were no doubt shocked by the American Mussolini’s victory. Fascism was at hand! Democracy was doomed! And so there was but one course of action open to them…a trip to the dictator-elect’s palace in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. There, they congratulated Trump on his victory and proposed an armistice, to which the Prince of the Golden Escalator graciously agreed.
The copious annals of hypocrisy include but few episodes to top this one. Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, who had denounced Donald Trump as an existential threat to American and the world, have now decided that, okay, never mind, they can live with his victory. There have been suggestions that they abased themselves before Trump at the behest of MSNBC management, which must certainly be concerned by the network’s post-election ratings plunge. That may be. But if Joe and Mika truly believed all that they’ve said of Trump, shouldn’t they have stood on principle, even at the risk of their careers? The guy’s an existential threat, after all!
Or maybe not. Maybe—I would say probably—Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski never really believed that at all. Indeed, I doubt that most members of the Resistance believe it either. They certainly aren’t behaving as if they do. That’s useful information.
A second teachable moment occurred in Pennsylvania, where the US Senate race is still up in the air. The Associated Press has called that race for the Republican candidate, Dave McCormick, who holds a slim 17,000 vote lead over his Democratic rival, Bob Casey. McCormick’s margin of victory was narrow enough to trigger an automatic recount as mandated by state law, and Casey has refused to concede. So far, so good.
Things went awry, however, when Democratic officials in three counties announced that they would count illegal ballots—in clear violation of state law and rulings by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. “I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country, and people violate laws any time they want,” Bucks County commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia smugly declared. “So, for me, if I violate this law it’s because I want a court to pay attention. There’s nothing more important than counting votes.”
In effect, Ellis-Marseglia was flourishing a middle finger in the direction of the Keystone State’s high court, which before the election had twice ruled that state law regarding the legality of ballots must be followed. Their Honors were not amused, and in a third ruling, handed down yesterday, they ordered that the Boards of Elections in the three counties “SHALL COMPLY with the prior rulings of this Court.” (All caps and bold type in the original.) On top of that, Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, broke his silence on the matter to scold the rebellious county officials: “Any insinuation that our laws can be ignored or do not matter is irresponsible and does damage to faith in our electoral process,” he declared.
So there you have it. Ignoring or defying the rule of law is how many Democrats and denizens of the broad Left defend “our democracy.” Or to put it another way: The end justifies the means. Well, why not? That was Barack Obama’s policy, and when Joe Biden ascended to the presidency it was his policy also. The Left isn’t behaving as if it respects what may be called democratic norms, from which it seems reasonable to conclude that they’re not really interested in democracy at all. That too is useful information.
And I’m sure that the Resistance has many more teachable moments in store for us. Might we, for instance, witness the return of the pussy hat…?
“By any means necessary” is “the ends justify the means”
That’s what they say