Radical Parallels

Guest Post by The Zman

At the end of President Trump’s State of the Union speech last night, the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, dramatically tore up her copy of the speech. Given the state of left-wing politics, it is smart to assume it was a well-rehearsed stunt cooked up by an army of pollsters, drama coaches and consultants. On the other hand, the woman is so feeble minded now it is unlikely she could remember where she is, much less a carefully constructed role. It was probably authentic.

Pelosi is considered one of the more sober minded people in the Democratic Party, but that speaks to the derangement of the party and the political class. Not so long ago, she was a member of the fruitcake wing of the House. That was the collection of far-left goofballs that everyone joked about, often to their faces. Her district was known for being the most left-wing, and whitest, districts in the House. Now she is the Speaker and the head of the “moderate” wing of her party.

This is not without precedent. In the 19th century, radical anti-abolitionists started out as the extreme fringe of social reformers. These were mostly women and effeminate males coming from reformed Christianity. The sober minded reformers wanted to find a practical way to wind down slavery. Even Lincoln saw the radical Republicans as a threat to sanity, but eventually the radicals were able to push their way to the center of American political life in the aftermath of the war.

It is a useful parallel to this age. The story of the Civil War was recast in the 20th century to please the vanity of the new managerial class, so most people have no idea what happened before or after. The impeachment of Andrew Johnson, for example, should be a popular topic today, given what is happening, but that incident does not fit the modern narrative. It was not much of a topic during the Clinton impeachment either, which speaks to the larger issues involved in the narrative.

In the run-up to the Civil War, the radical abolitionists were every bit as delusional about human nature and how society could be organized, as the radicals of this age. Their experience with blacks of any type was limited to those they experienced in their salons and meeting houses. The “magic negro” phenomenon was probably born in this era, as it both titillated and encouraged the radicals. The radical was not ending an immoral practice but saving a glorious people from bondage.

The radicals were sure that defeating the South would not only end the practice of slavery, but wipe out the culture and people that maintained it. This was the birth of anti-white hatred among Northern radicals. These people imagined a South that was literally run by the former slaves, while the white remnant lived under their rule. Of course, the reality of war and its aftermath did not sway them. The reality of reconstruction only made them more fanatical and angrier.

If you look at the history of someone like Henry Winter Davis, a radical from Maryland, you see the decent into radicalism. He was an Episcopal clergyman, then as now a common source of radical madness. He was a slave holder and Whig, then moved into anti-slavery politics. He then flipped into abolitionism, siding with Republicans and eventually becoming a leader of the radicals. He co-sponsored the infamous Wade–Davis Bill, which even Lincoln thought was too much.

It is a useful parallel to now. The radicals of today really thought the election of Obama was the dawn of a new post-white age. They even talked about the parallels between him and Lincoln. The new post-white world would no longer have to tolerate, much less placate, the bad whites in places like the old South. Further, the elevation of Hillary Clinton as the first female president, would complete the circle. The door would finally be closed on old white male America.

Just as the reality of the war and its aftermath further radicalized the already radical Republicans, the election of Trump sent the modern radicals into a frenzy. In the 19th century, the frenzy led to the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, for the crime of holding office and following through on Lincoln’s reconstruction plans. Today, the radicals have impeached Trump for the crime of existing. In both cases, impeachment is a cathartic tantrum or a moan of agony of the unrealized destiny.

Interestingly, Henry Winter Davis wrote a book early in his career, titled, The War of Ormuzd and Ahriman in the Nineteenth Century. In it, Davis described the American Republic and the Russian Empire as the opponents in a global struggle for the salvation of humanity. Given that America could barely guard its own shores at the time, it was quite a grandiose vision. It is a good reminder though that American radicals have had an obsession with Russia for a long time.

Historical comparisons are only useful as rules of thumb, rather than precise, point by point, comparisons. The radicals of the 19th century were operating in a different world than the radicals of today. Even a fanatic like Henry Winter Davis would have recoiled in horror at what passes for normal now. Even so, it is a useful comparison that helps explain the current year. Then as now, radicalism must burn itself out in the destruction of that which it seeks to reform.

In the fullness of time, this age will most likely be viewed as the end point of a cycle that began in the last century. Perhaps the end of several cycles. The end of the Jewish century in America will be a cabal of paranoid Jewish radicals failing to remove the last white male president. Impeachment will be the last gasp of the old order, ushering in an age of reform. Maybe it will be the end point of order itself, setting off the final battle between the radicals and the defenders of civilization.

No one can know, but the Civil War was both the end of a long cycle that dated back to before the founding and the start of something new. People living in the age of Lincoln could easily relate to the people who lived through the Revolution. Two generations later and the people were entirely divorced from their past. They were the product of a new founding, a new republic. Something similar probably lies in store for the people two generations from now. This age will be foreign to them.

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