Democracy equals mob rule

Jonathan Alter, the liberal pundit on BSNBC (one of the hundreds) said if the Republicans keep Congress “you can kiss democracy goodbye.” I sure hope so. We don’t live in a democracy. We live in a representative republic. Our founding fathers believed a democracy would be a disaster. The word “democracy” does not appear in the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution.

James Madison voiced his disdain for ‘pure democracy’ in the Federalist Papers. “Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”

In short, a democracy is mob rule. I have long believed that those who use “democracy” as shorthand for a representative republic—on both sides of the aisle—meant no harm. Now I’m not so sure. If a democracy is mob rule then that appears to be exactly what the liberals these days crave. Mob has a negative connotation. That’s why CNN and BSNBC have banned the word from their airwaves when directed at the crazed liberal mobs that lost their minds over the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. The networks childishly speak of “the m-word” as if it’s too offensive to even be uttered. They reserve the word for the white supremacists in Charlottesville, but not the Antifa thugs who confronted them. History has proven that President Trump’s condemnation of bad actors “on all sides” was spot on.

Mob rule is what minorities (in numbers, not race or ethnicity) resort to when they don’t get their way. Intimidation and threats are the tools of desperate people who see any chance of their being part of the power structure slipping away. That’s what we’re witnessing right now. Mobs descend on Republican politicians and cabinet members in public places in an attempt to scare them into submission. Some will ultimately acquiesce just to get their lives back. Compromise in the face of such thuggery is the most dangerous thing they can do.

The radicals who blur the lines of civility, decorum, and even gender are the rabble. They’re not the majority. Their only hope is fear. They have already succeeded to a large degree in changing the language through political correctness. The most chilling words are when someone says to you, “You just can’t say that anymore.” Anymore? So we used to be able to say it until the word Nazis grabbed the American media by the throat and threatened to brand them unhip and counter-progressive if they didn’t carry their water.

There’s more on the line on November 6 than just control of Congress. Much more. We have a chance to put a stake in the heart of much of what ails this country. Liberals in Congress are already proposing legislation if they win. They want to repeal all of Trump’s tax cuts and start writing checks to the poor. Corey Booker wants to give poor kids $50,000 when they reach adulthood. Instead of creating an economy where people can earn their own way they want to destroy that economy and hand out cash. Why? Because it’s the only thing that makes them relevant with voters.

Once the people realize they don’t need the government to succeed it’s over. Nothing quells an unruly marxist mob like success. And one more election just might do it.

So Jonathan Alter is right. If the Republicans manage to hold onto the House and Senate we could very well “kiss democracy goodbye.” And good riddance.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.

Understanding Antifa

I have long been warning you that Antifa is marxist. For the longest time they denied this. They claimed to be just like the boys who stormed the beaches at Normandy to fight the Nazis. They are not. They’re more like the thugs who stormed the streets of Petrograd in 1917 and went on a nearly 110 million-person killing spree until the Soviet Union was finally put to sleep some 70 years later. Now they finally admit to who they are.

A “menacing” group of Antifas recently pulled down their cowardly black bandanas from their faces and showed themselves to the world on Twitter. Their now-familiar logo of the two waving flags, one red and one black, is the exact same logo as the Communist Party of 1930s Germany. This particular chapter in Denver has now dropped any pretense that it’s not marxist. Their logo uses the 1930s nomenclature, “Antifaschistische Aktion,” which means “Antifascist Action.” Only this chapter has added a nice little logo to their flag: The hammer and sickle of the former Soviet Union.

I’ve done a lot of studying on these modern Antifa types. Basically they hate capitalism because they think the capitalist system is broken. The truth is it’s not capitalism that’s broken, it’s them. And I mean this in all sincerity. They believe capitalism is a failure and they are the failures. That’s why socialism and communism have, for so long, attracted the misfits of society.

It’s easy for us to ridicule them. I’ve certainly done my share of that. For this moment I would like to try a different approach. To fully understand disgruntlement one must first understand the disgruntled. These people aren’t losers in the conventional sense. Many a communist has come out esteemed institutions like Columbia University, which was a hotbed of communists during the Cold War. What attracts these people to marxism? To be blunt, many just don’t fit in. Many are socially awkward. They lash out at society in general for their inability to function normally within it. Marxism or Antifa give them a sense of purpose, like they’re changing the world.

I don’t want to sound patronizing, nor do I want to excuse their conduct, but many of these Antifa types are very smart. They’re that nerdy smart we all remember from high school. I’m sure many of these people were made fun of, or at least thought everyone was making fun of them. They also obsess over things including the state of society. It’s easy to look around at the have-nots and assume it’s not their fault. It’s even easier to look at the haves and hate them for what they have. That’s how marxism is bred and spread. It is quintessential class warfare.

Notice you don’t see many Antifas outside of their twenties. Once people grow up and take on some responsibility, perspective starts to change. At 25, my emphasis was solely on me. By 45 my emphasis was primarily on my family and their well-being and their future. Growing up necessarily changes your perspective.

Capitalism provides a competitive atmosphere that continually makes us all better. Is it fair? Not always, but I can’t think of anything more unfair than taking from those who produce and giving it to those who don’t. Capitalism and the United States are inseparable. Capitalism is what made America great, despite what New York Governor Cuomo may tell you. If you are anti-capitalist you are, by definition, anti-American.

The nanny state is for those who need a nanny. For the rest of us, capitalism equals prosperity.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.

Fake News running editorials saying they're not fake news

This is the week of collusion. The week when newspapers across the country band together to write scathing editorials about President Trump while acting as though they’re not colluding to bring his presidency down. This is all done under the “fake news” banner that Trump is attacking them and, by extension, the First Amendment. It’s an ironic confirmation that his accusation of fake news is actually true.

Let’s peel away the layers of this feigned outrage. The president says the fake news media are the “enemies of the people.” The outlets printing and broadcasting fake news about him know exactly who they are. And they know they’re doing exactly what he’s accusing them of, yet they pretend that he’s talking about all journalists. He’s not. Obviously. If that were the case he wouldn’t go out of his way to call on Fox News and ignore CNN, which clearly has an agenda to ruin his presidency.

I’ve often said that media bias isn’t so much what they tell you, it’s what they don’t. Many outlets will tell you only part of the story, leaving out the part that paints the real picture. The fake news outlets do this all the time. How many news outlets have reported that black and Hispanic unemployment are at record lows? How many ever reported that Antifa is a violent and historically marxist organization instead of one that’s just fighting white supremacy? Things look different when you know the whole story.

Then there are the stories that are just plain made up. Like the one from Roll Call’s senior political reporter, Emily Singer. She took to Twitter with a “scoop” that she’d found red-headed Russian spy Maria Butina in an Oval Office photo with Trump. Turned out it was an NSC staffer. That fire didn’t get put out until half the media had breathlessly reported evidence of Russian collusion right there in the White House.

How about Brian Ross from ABC News? He reported that Michael Flynn had been instructed during the campaign to negotiate with the Russians. Turned out the instruction came after Trump was elected president, when presidents-elect normally begin negotiations with foreign powers.

And the little girl from Honduras who became the face of family separation at the border. Turns out the mother and daughter were never separated and were being held in a family detention center in Texas. The mom had broken into the country at least once before.

Who can forget the photo of the little boy whose crying face inside a cage went viral. That picture is still being posted by the open borders crowd. In reality, the photo was taken at a protest on a plaza in Dallas. The little boy ran inside the cage to find his brother. He looked up and saw his mother outside the cage and got scared. That’s when the photo was snapped. That’s the source of the “Trump’s putting kids in cages” narrative, and it’s completely fake.

Shall I go on? I think you get the point. Too many so-called journalists are hiding behind the First Amendment in order to spread something that doesn’t even resemble journalism. It’s propaganda.

If you ever get a chance to ask a journalist why they got into the profession and they say it was to change the world then you know you’re talking to a provocateur of fake news. A journalist’s job is not to change the world. It’s to report the world. If they’re out to change it then they’re adding their own opinions. And that is the very definition of fake news.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.