Waiting for John Brown

Guest Post by Southern Sage

I just read the article by Kurt on TBP regarding the inevitability of leftist violence, and the likely end result.  I had this one finished before I did.  Draw your own conclusions.

Beginning at least since the election of Obama and growing with incredible intensity since the election of Donald Trump, observers across the political spectrum have recorded the ever-worsening internal political situation in the United States.  It has now become obvious to all but the most obtuse and clueless pundits that our country is approaching a great and terrible watershed.  It is in the nature of such things that nobody can predict where, when or how the final explosion will come but it is beyond any reasonable question that it will.

The population is hopelessly divided into two nearly equal parts (though I am inclined to believe that our side is far larger than the enemy press wishes to admit).  There is now no realistic chance of “compromise”, meeting each other halfway, or some loaves and fishes’ miracle that will bring about a “moderate” solution to this division.  Idiots like David Gergen or French at the National Review or Jonah Goldberg spout gibberish about “conservatism”.  Radical leftists completely dominate the Democratic Party.  Trump’s supporters remain solid and are increasingly enraged by the words and tactics of the left.  Those who still see themselves in the “center” look more ridiculous and cowardly every day.

Added to this is a vile conspiracy promoted by the Democrats and anti-white Zionist Jews (often one and the same) to displace the core population of our country with a flood of foreign helots.  This sinister plot, initiated with the 1965 immigration law and expanded in recent years by outright illegality on the part of Obama and others, is well advanced.  History does not record any instance of such a situation failing to bring about war or at least mass violence.

The election of Donald Trump was unexpected by also a natural result of the deteriorating situation.  Millions of Americans sensed that the country was spinning out of control or worse, was in the hands of actual Domestic Enemies.  Nothing they have seen since November 2016 has given them any reason for comfort.

Trump is by any measure a remarkable man, love him or loath him.  It is unlikely that any other public figure in America could have stood up to the barrage of hatred, lies, sabotage, illegal partisan attacks, judicial treason, and criminal subversion that has been launched against his administration.  His enormous ego, combative nature, vindictiveness, high intelligence and, let us admit, willingness to get down in the mud, have baffled the leftists and his own spineless Republican Party.  If it is not obvious to you now, let me clue you in.  Forget about Mueller, forget about the shrieking of Maxine Waters, forget about George Clooney, Tom Arnold, and Robert De Niro.  Trump is not going anywhere.  If he leaves the White House before his term is up it will be feet first and toes up, and a hell of a lot of his enemies will be in the same condition.  It is my personal opinion that Trump has already made up his mind that the forces ranged against him are, in fact, the Domestic Enemies named in the Constitution, he considers their efforts to bring him down subversion and treason, and he will respond to their pettifogging nonsense with force should it come to that.  Use your head.  Do you really think Trump is not fully informed regarding the grossly criminal activities of those who would bring him down?  Damn right he is.  I can tell you right now that the worker bees in the intelligence and law enforcement communities have long ago made sure he has enough evidence in his hands to send each and every one of these political vipers to Gitmo, if not directly to hell.

He is, needless to say, a devious person and has no intention of letting his enemies, the enemies of the American people, goad him into a rash or reckless act.  He will bide his time, strengthen his hold on the levers of government day by day, and wait for the Democrats and their leftist allies to walk into a trap.  Trump knows that a showdown is coming and he plans to make sure he wins the shoot-out.

I believe that the Republicans will hold both houses of Congress in November and may possibly increase the number of seats they hold in the Senate.  This may finally drive the leftists over the edge.  Wars start when one side is either so desperate that they fell there is no other way out or because one side or both underestimates the power or determination of their enemies.  The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was the first, an act of national desperation.  The American Civil War was an example of the latter, with Southerners sneering that they could each a dozen Yankees and the Yankees not taking the South seriously, seeing Southerners as a bunch of lazy drunks and slave drivers.  Both sides would soon learn how terribly wrong they were.

In the current instance the leftists have clearly overestimated their numbers, the willingness of their putative “allies” to launch a war against this country’s majority.  [Note: blacks and so-called “Hispanics”, neither group is stupid enough to follow a gang of sleazy Democrat politicians, mincing queers and leftist lunatics into battle.  This is especially true of so-called “Hispanics”, who have little in common with each other beyond a language and some vague cultural ties – many are ordinary middle-class Americans] and, especially, the anger and determination on our side.  They also leave out the detail that our side is heavily armed, the military and law enforcement are in general supportive of traditional America, and, with Trump in the White House, if the leftists start a war we will have lawful authority on our side.  Trump, like Lincoln at Fort Sumter, will wait for the left to strike the first real blow.  And they will do it, too.  They are that deranged.

I recently read two books relevant to our situation and have for years studied the Spanish Civil War, a conflict which should be of interest to any American who wants to know how civil wars erupt.

The two books are Division and Reunion:  America 1848-1877, by Ludwell H. Johnson, and Scars of Independence, by Holger Hoock.  The latter is a study of violence in the lead up to and the beginning of   the supposedly dignified and rather picturesque American Revolution.  Accurate books on the Spanish Civil War are hard to find as most of the histories are written by liberals or leftists.  There are several on the International Brigades, the Communist-organized units of foreign volunteers who fought against the Nationalists.  These and a few others will tell you what really happened.

The bottom line is this.  Civil wars start when political polarization reaches the point when the two sides are so far apart that they can no longer talk the same political language and their goals, beliefs, and economic interests have deviated so much that the country’s political system is essentially paralyzed.  In most case well-meaning people cry out for moderation, reasoning and understanding, not grasping that the train has left the station.

Political paralysis is followed by an ever-increasing battle of words in which the other side is demonized.  In our case the other side really is under what we might call a form of demonic possession.  Leftists really are evil people driven by hate, resentment, greed, a hunger for power, and delusions of superiority – intellectual and moral.

In all three cases noted above the language of politics descended into rage and a thirst for violent action against the enemy.  In the case of the American Revolution the Patriots slowly ratcheted up the measures they took against the Tories (now politely called “Loyalists” by most historians)  In the end, after tarring and feathering, whippings, seizure of property and exile, the Patriots simply told the Tories they could leave or be hanged.

The years before the Civil War saw a rising tide of hatred between the regions, each eventually seeing the other as a threat to their very existence.   Wild charges and counter-charges were made, every ugly name and slur in the book was employed and, finally, there was no more reason to talk.

In the Spanish Civil War leftists (as crazy, violent, and sinister as any we have, and indeed with similar ideas) eroded the fragile Spanish republic, intimidated and murdered political opponents, refused to obey the law, and openly dared the conservative forces in the country to fight.  They made absolutely no secret of their intention to turn Spain into a Marxist dictatorship, with a predictable fact for their enemies, such as Catholics, the military, the middle and upper classes, and anybody else who did not buy their program.  The idea peddled by liberal historians that General Franco flew off the handle and mounted a criminal and treasonous assault on “Spanish democracy” is utter rubbish.  Franco quite properly intervened to prevent a violent and irreversible leftist seizure of power.  There are moments in history when men have to make hard choices.  Clinging to the “law” in such cases is cowardice.  You have to do what you know is right.  Franco did.

What Franco also did is win his war against the Reds and severely punish those responsible for bringing this catastrophe upon his country.   There was no “reconciliation” without punishment and repentance.

The same chain of events occurred in the American Revolution and the Civil War and in both cases “law and order” broke down and was replaced by another law and order.

But there is one additional ingredient in the witches’ brew that brings civil war.  I call it the John Brown Moment.  There is a spark, an incident, an event that finally clarifies everything and makes both sides understanding that there is no stepping back from the brink.

In the American Revolution the skirmishes on Lexington green and in Concord provided that spark.  In the Spanish Civil War, it was the murder by members of a leftist-dominated police force of a prominent conservative politician.  In the Civil War it was the raid by John Brown, an Abolitionist fanatic, on the Federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.

Typically, the incidents in and of themselves are almost trivial compared to what comes after.  In the case of John Brown, the murdering, brave old fool tried to cause a slave uprising.  No Virginia slaves wanted anything to do with this “uprising” and the first man Brown and his gang killed was a free black man working for the railroad.  His “war” ended in further bloodshed and, for Brown, a hanging.  It should be said that even Southerners were impressed by his determination and courage.

They were even more impressed by the revelation that several wealthy, prominent Northerners, later to be known as “The Secret Six”, had financed Brown.  The knowledge that respected members of the New England intellectual class had actually donated money to fund a slave revolt stunned the South.  To oppose slavery was one thing.  To arm slaves to murder their fellow whites in the night, men, women and children, was the offense that finally erased the lingering ties of affection between the two sections of the country.  The Nat Turner revolt and the Haitian slave revolt were not distant and hazy tales.  They were horrifying events well within living memory.  The fact that large bodies of opinion in the North apparently considered Brown a martyr of sorts, or even a saint, merely hardened the blow.  War between North and South would follow soon enough.

It is clear enough that many of the readers of TBP scoff at the possibility of another civil war or a similar outbreak of domestic violence.  They believe such concerns are overblown and our situation is unlikely to reach such a boiling point.  They point, correctly, to the much greater ability of the current government to handle political violence compared to the meager resources available in earlier times.  I hope they are right.  Nobody should wish for any kind of civil conflict.

Mr. Vodka insists that I am poorly read, small-thinking and lacking in discernment, incapable of seeing the Big Picture.  16 folks agree with him.  Good for them.  I am reminded of the “sea lawyers” in the platoon of Marines I commanded.  There were always one or two who would assure their fellow Marines that an officer’s authority was not nearly as broad as it was made out to be.  Those butter bars were just all hot air.  I had some amusing conversations when I visited the people who listened to them.  Of course, it was in the brig……….

We will see who is right.