“The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.” Upon hearing these Robert Frost lines in the film Telefon, sleeper agents would be triggered to mindlessly attack government entities. Unfortunately for the Democrats who beclowned the country trying to impeach President Trump for exercising his First Amendment rights, nothing so stylishly ominous ever passed his lips.
(Note: Trump was acquitted today when only 57 senators voted to convict, well short of the two-thirds majority needed.)
Oh, Trump did use the word “fight” numerous times prior to the Capitol mayhem, points out our Leftocracy. Well, I guess he should be shot.
Of course I don’t mean that. But that’s the point: We all use figurative language at times, including combat-oriented terminology and that which could be called, by an alien oblivious to our cultural norms, “violent.” But if that’s legally actionable, arrest every teen who’s ever told a sibling jokingly, “I’m gonna’ kill you!”
More to the point, we’ll have to arrest every Democrat, too. And Trump impeachment defense lawyer David Shoen made this point very effectively Friday, showing the Senate a video of Democrats not only copiously using the word “fight,” but in some instances actually encouraging violence.
The first example is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) saying, “I don’t know why there aren’t uprisings all over the country; maybe there will be.” This is followed by Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) proclaiming that “there needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there’s unrest in our lives.” Note that the latter was uttered in the midst of the approximately 600 violent Democrat riots of the last year.
Then came senators Jon Tester (D-Mt.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and others talking about the need to go “punch” Trump.” Other lowlights include:
- Biden repeatedly using variations on, if we were back in high school, I’d take Trump “behind the gym and beat the h*ll out of him”;
- Actor Johnny Depp asking, “When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?”;
- Lincoln Project co-founder and political strategist Rick Wilson saying, “They’re still going to have to go out and put a bullet in Donald Trump”;
- CNN anchor Chris Cuomo stating, “Show me where it says protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful” (pro tip: in the Constitution);
- Representative Maxine Waters rabble rousing as she tells a crowd to confront Trump officials in public. “Push back on them!” she said angrily. “And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere!”; and
- Singer Madonna saying, “I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.”
There’s far more in the video, too, which is below.
In fairness, while some of the Democrat rhetoric ranges from irresponsible to evil, other examples constitute legitimate usage of figurative speech. Yet Trump’s words paled in comparison regardless.
The “worst” Trump did, even according to the far-left Poynter Institute, was:
- Encourage supporters to attend a “big protest” January 6;
- Tell supporters at a January 4 Georgia rally that “we’re going to take what they did to us on Nov. 3. We’re going to take it back”; and
- Praise supporters on January 6 for showing up to “save our democracy” and tell them that “we’re going to walk down to the Capitol …You have to show strength, and you have to be strong,” as Poynter relates it, cutting and splicing.
Yet Trump also said January 6, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
Despite this, we’re supposed to be Dr. McCoy when interpreting Democrat rhetoric, but Mr. Spock with Trump’s words.
This is nothing new, however. After the shooting of congresswoman Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) in 2011, ex-vice presidential GOP candidate Sarah Palin was pilloried because she’d previously used cross hairs imagery in a political ad. Yet the mainstream media didn’t complain when Barack Obama said about the Republicans in 2008, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.”
(For the record, both Palin and Obama were using legitimate figurative speech.)
Of course, if neither Trump nor anyone else had called for a January 6 protest, there likely wouldn’t have been violence that day in the Capitol. We also might have been spared the 600 violent leftist riots if Democrats hadn’t engaged in Black Lives Matter agitation and figures such as Kamala Harris hadn’t said the protesting “should not” stop.
We also might have less eco-terrorism if the greentopians would tame their tongues. And when left-wing would-be assassin James Hodgkinson committed the 2017 congressional baseball shooting, he yelled “this is for health care.” I wonder, where could he possibly have gotten that idea? Maybe we should all just shut-up.
It’s said that the “pen is mightier than the sword” because words are powerful. Yet not only would shutting up (and bottling up tension) not end violence, words can also spread Truth. But the reality is this: Speaking Truth, just like telling lies, can inspire unjust violence with the wrong people.
If we inveigh against child molestation or thievery, an irrational individual could possibly attack someone he wrongly identifies as a pedophile or thief. And it only takes one nut in 10,000 listeners to cause a problem. So should we refrain from making all moral pronouncements?
Of course, we are obligated to use our power of words responsibly. But the critical distinction is seldom made: If someone reacts wrongly to a Truth-oriented call to legitimate activism, that’s known in moral philosophy as a “negative unintended consequence of a morally licit action (or utterance).”
Those who lie malevolently or speak recklessly, however, are culpable to an extent even if they didn’t intend for a listener to act wrongly. For their actions weren’t moral at all.
One could additionally say that in our political and cultural wars, what also applies is a Just War Doctrine principle: An action should never be taken unless it “does more good than harm.” Do the Democrats’ words meet this standard?
Of course, “good” is a relative concept to our leftists, one changing based on what works for them politically at the moment.
