Politics of Hatred Brings Success for Democrats and Biden – The Swamp Prevails

With yesterday's inauguration of the Biden/Harris Regime, a seizure occurred in American history whose significance in world history cannot yet be estimated. However, dark times have indeed commenced for the Christian-conservative camp in the USA and the guardians of Western civilization. The tyranny is on.

After four years of fierce propagandist vilification of the 45th President, the "storming" of the Capitol on January 6 created a new opportunity for journalists and commentators to thrive in their ritual Trump-denunciations and judgmental follies. 

The unrest caused by fringe elements of a peaceful demonstration of tens of thousands of Trump supporters is elevated to a democratic catastrophe. Donald Trump is blamed as the sole culprit. That he never called for violence but encouraged his followers to use their right to demonstrate "peacefully and patriotically" is concealed. And that the Capitol security forces opened the gates at just that time when Republican members of Congress and senators were about to present their evidence of election irregularities and blatant voter fraud is not mentioned either.

The united left accuses Mr. Trump of inciting a violent coup and alleges that the Capitol's occupiers are desecrating this landmark of American democracy. It is overlooked that numerous politicians, with strong support by the power centers of the Deep State, have long turned the Capitol into a place of corruption and moral degeneracy. 

Since his 2016 election victory, a policy of hatred that is incompatible with any legitimate opposition work in even the most fledgling republic has been waged to oust President Trump from the White House. In the wake of Hillary Clinton's defeat, Nancy Pelosi, the majority leader of the House Democrats, and Chuck Schumer, until yesterday the Minority Leader in the Senate, as the leading figures of the nation's progressive left, waged an almost irrational campaign of Trump destruction. In this endeavor, they were supported in an unprecedented viciously partisanship way by the bulk of the corporate media. 

Essentially, since Trump took office, a constant coup against him has been underway, a color revolution, a coup d’état without the use of direct military means. 

From the first day, representatives and senators of both parties, dependent on the oligarchic donors of globalist-revolutionary elites such as George Soros, Bill Gates, or Mark Zuckerberg, acted willingly in establishing the globalized New World Order (NWO) against a political outsider. Mr. Trump had gotten in their way by strengthening the nation-state of the United States and his "America first" principle and, with quite some success, set about thwarting their plans. 

Every means was and is considered legitimate to remove the troublemaker. After all, President Trump, despite his weaknesses and constant attacks on him, turned out to be an excellent and influential president. He realized impressive achievements for the benefit of the American people, for instance: 

• tax reform for corporations and individuals; 
• dismantling anti-industrial regulations, and unprecedented economic recovery with record employment figures for blacks, Hispanics, and women (slowed only by the outbreak of the pandemic); 
• improved trade agreements with Canada and Mexico (USMCA) and China; 
• beginning of the restructuring and pacification of the Middle East; 
• initiation of the end of endless wars and the withdrawal of troops from overseas territories; 
• promoting energy production and the first-time production of energy self-sufficiency in the United States; and, perhaps most importantly, 
• the revival of Christian values and social ethics.

Even before Trump took office, the rumor of a collaboration between the Trump camp and Russia (Russia Gate), which later turned out to be completely baseless, had been circulated. Next came a flimsy and doomed impeachment trial for a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Selensky. Yet, the evidence of former Vice President Biden's abuse of office in Ukraine remained without consequence. Nothing happened when former Vice President Biden forced the resignation of a Ukrainian prosecutor who investigated the bribes allegedly made to Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, by the energy conglomerate Burisma. Biden withheld support payments and even bragged about it on tape.

When neither the Impeachment nor Nancy Pelosi's theatrical ripping of the written version of Trump's State of the Nation address before the eyes of the world public brought the desired success, the Democrats thought that in early 2020 a pandemic finally came to their aid to discredit and remove the President from office.

The effects of the pandemic slowed the economic recovery for sure. And while in the federal governance structure of the United States, governors are primarily responsible for implementing measures and fighting a pandemic, they blamed Trump for every single corona death. Nevertheless, Democratic state leaders, who sent corona-infected people to retirement homes and accounted for tens of thousands of deaths, were hailed as heroes. When the American people also saw through this myth, only the massive manipulation of the presidential election of November 3, 2020, could serve as the last resort. Despite clear evidence of gross irregularities and voter fraud – the nonprofit Judicial Watch found that 27 states had a total of 1.8 million more voters than actual voters – politicians and the courts let Trump down. They also upset more than 74 million of his supporters, who considered him an outstanding president because of his economic, energy, immigration, and foreign policy successes. For them – counting only authentic legal votes – he was deprived of his re-election, and they do not consider Joe Biden to be a legitimate President.

The betrayal of Trump and the shameful corruption of politics have, for many, entered almost unbearable regions. The Capitol event and the ridiculous accusation Trump instigated an insurrection is the sad pinnacle of this betrayal. 

Violence only needs to be exercised by the right side to be tolerated and sometimes applauded by the Democrats. The arson and looting of left-wing violent perpetrators from the ranks of Antifa and the Marxist Black Lives Matter organization, burning and looting since the summer of 2020, has claimed the lives of a dozen people and caused billions of dollars in property damage. The left-wing mob has stormed and occupied federal capitols in the capitals of Wisconsin and Minnesota. But since this does not fit into the cultural Marxists' narrative, it is neither reported nor used to differentiate the assessment and relativization of violence on Capitol Hill.

But fraudulently voting Trump out of office is not enough for the vile political left in this country. Donald Trump is to be personally ruined and prevented from carrying out any political office in the future. As the last building block of the total Trump discrediting strategy, the political left is now shamelessly instrumentalizing the deplorable, principally irrelevant, and for Trump and his supporters' counterproductive Capitol occupation. With all the votes of Democrats and ten traitorous Republicans, the decision of the House to impeach Trump for inciting violent insurrection for a second time has already been passed. The fate of this impeachment attempt, which is even more absurd than the first, cannot be foreseen in the Senate, but that Republicans stab Trump in the back for a second time cannot be excluded. 

The erasure of Trump's political legacy goes hand in hand with a mental dictatorship that is historically known only from totalitarian regimes of communist and fascist provenance. Trump was and is denied access to social media and deprived of the option of direct communication with the public. His supporters are socially ostracized and, on occasion, even personally threatened and persecuted.

For now, the political left has prevailed on pretty much all levels of the perennial societal struggle. It is most devastating that the politics of utter destruction and hatred have been rewarded and turned out successfully for the dark forces. Instead of making them pay the price for their devastation and attack on decency and humanness, the inertia and spineless complacency of the Republican Party and most of their representatives in governance centers have encouraged the left. The evil will now become even more arrogant.

The Marxist left's totalitarian machinery, which has been intensifying for years, has fully developed and is striking on all levels. The upcoming Marxist-configured policies will be ensured by the Democrat Party holding all three political power centers – Presidency, Senate, House of Representatives. I dare to predict that we will soon compare what is happening in this country with the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 in Russia or the installation of the Khomeini theocracy in Iran in 1979. 

The American society is deeply divided, a large portion of it is deeply frustrated, and the further intensification of the cultural struggle appears imminent. The Biden/Harris agenda is a disaster for the United States, and devastation on all political fronts – from economy to defense, cultural values to immigration, education to free speech – lies ahead. No panacea is in view in the short term, and before the conservative camp picks up the weapons for the culture war once again, it must overcome the emotions of resignation that come with defeat and treachery. 

A Nation Threatened by Ignorance

The ancient adage of how easily the political system of Democracy can degenerate into its evil opposite, an Ochlocracy, a reign of the mob, materializes in the reality of our everyday lives. 

What we see unfolding before our own eyes in almost schoolbook-like perfection is something I've considered possible only as speculation of reason, something that could merely exist as an ideal representation in political philosophy. Yet, here it is. We witness in actuality what happens when a society no longer comes to terms with the crucial social ingredient of any democratically organized collectivity of people – human freedom and its complement, individual responsibility – and succumbs to an orgy of lawlessness and mayhem.

 

Mob Rule and the Plebeians of our Day

But the potential taking over of the country by the mob has not come about overnight, and if ever, will not vanish overnight. I have warned of the imminent 'mental dictatorship' and the looming 'ideological despotism' by the leftist mob in my post of January 31, 2017, entitled "The Tyranny of the Mob." https://www.edwinseditorial.com/2017/01/the-tyranny-of-left.html

In it, I also explained a phenomenon that has gained a prominent position in our time. The mob, the plebeians of our day, are no longer a class of citizens unable to read or write like in ancient times. Today the unruly crowd is built by all those ill-educated and ignorant, intellectually and morally wanting individuals that come from all strata of society – workers and teachers, journalists, academics, scientists, and politicians. Among that vast group of misguided people, I count many if not most of the Democrats in both Senate and Congress, but also neoconservatives among the Republicans and the neoliberal nomenclature in the State Department and other governmental bodies, not to speak of the vast majority of faculty at the institutions of higher learning. 

However, never before has the harm caused by political illiteracy and moral confusion been so immense that it pushes the country to the brink of destruction. The misconceptions regarding the ontology of political and social coexistence have reached alarming and fundamentally threatening heights. I tackled the beginnings of the mania that has brought the U.S. and, albeit to a lesser degree, Europe to the current state of affairs in my blog essay of November 2015, addressing the fallacies and educational delusions that have brought us to the present point of societal disintegration https://www.edwinseditorial.com/2015/11/immigration-us-and-europe-governed-by.html.

Consequently, I bet I would not find one single person among the peacefully protesting and the looting, plundering, and killing hordes of recent weeks, whose awareness would contain a sound political philosophy for human and social existence. And it wouldn't make any difference whether I chose somebody from the more erudite echelons of the protesters, such as college graduates and studied people, mayors and congressmen/women, senators, media people, or less educated participants.

They have all succumbed to the imposition of a 'Culture of Insanity' that has suffocated the minimal reasonableness required for stable social coexistence. By pretending to protest against alleged systemic anti-black racism in the police force in the wake of a black man's murderous killing by a white police officer, demonstrations and riots broke out all across the country. For the most part, law enforcement condemned to stand down by Democrat governors and mayors and let looting and plundering take place unobstructed had to look on as the breakdown of law and order unfolded on an astonishing scale.

Soon, it became clear that the mob, acting under the pretense of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement was out to accomplish something utterly different. As their indifference toward black-on-black violence and the untenable position of disadvantaged blacks in society demonstrates, they instrumentalize the issue of alleged anti-black systemic racism for an issue quite distinct.

The Aim and Purpose of the Radical Leftism

Once calls to defund the police had become ubiquitous in leftist circles, and the mob had begun to establish anarchistic self-government zones and purge the nation's history by destroying historical monuments, the real objective of their lawlessness became transparent. It is all about the profound disruption of national cohesion to overthrow the government, get rid of President Trump, transform the US-American political system into a secularist Marxist-Socialist collective, devoid of its Christian social ethics, and led and governed by a forever-majority of Democrats in the central institutions of political power. 

We are watching a mighty nation soon either descend into a new civil war or fall otherwise apart, a fate awaiting any country that renounces law and order and gives up its monopoly of power and force. Can the destruction of this nation be the objective aimed at by the broader circles of leftism and progressive political quarters in this nation?

No longer can there be any uncertainty about it. The proponents of this mob rule seem to think that abolishing law enforcement and engaging in social experiments on dealing with crime and transgressions would lead to new and possibly more humane ways of governance. 

In their ideological delusion, they think that the arrangement of peaceful social coexistence and the political structures and institutions it requires could be subject to trial and error. Can they possibly believe that attempts at self-organizing and self-governing will bring about improved ways of governance? The ugly leftism's propaganda heads already created a new catchphrase for their policing utopia: Reimagining public safety. They indeed appear to be utterly ignorant that breaking the monopolization of force by the State and dissolving the structures of law and order can only lead to chaos and the overall deterioration of life-quality and the destruction of social peace. A fact that was almost immediately proven by how the community experiment of CHOD in Seattle ended.

In combination with moral deficiencies, a dreadful blend of ignorance has taken hold in this country whose population is facing the results of decade-long indoctrination and an education devoid of classical erudition. Only thus can the disregard for the wisdom of the grand traditions of classical liberal arts and the unbending desire for the destruction of monuments as an attempt to eradicate objectionable history as judged from the angle of ideological prejudice be explained. 

What we witness happens when the common ground of foundational moral and civic values in society gets lost. The minimal common denominator for what is right and wrong, lawful and unlawful, good and bad, which is a prerequisite for any permanent structure of communal coexistence, has been terminated by the described culture of ill-education and indoctrination. I dedicated an entire blog post in March 2015, "The Crisis of Morality," to this ontological phenomenon and explained what happens when the crisis of morality manifests itself to such a profound degree as it does currently in the U.S. and many other western nations https://www.edwinseditorial.com/2015/03/the-crisis-of-morality.html.

What unites today's mob members up to the highest positions of political representation is their colossal ignorance regarding human nature. As logical inference, overcoming their lack of understanding regarding the social and political arrangements is indispensable for prosperous and potentially peaceful social coexistence. 

 

Commanding the State of National Emergency

The mayhem of the past few months laid open a severe weakness in the United States' constitutional legislation as well, an aspect nobody in the public realm has yet acknowledged or dared to mention.

This weakness pertains to the question of a functioning hierarchy in situations of national distress. The rift between federal (the President) and regional (the governors), as well as local (the mayors) authorities, demonstrated the lack of specific constitutional provisions for clear leadership responsibilities in situations of national distress. 

Already the back and forth between the President and local authorities during the COVID-Pandemic and the want for an explicit command hierarchy gave a taste of how bad the situation can be. The grave national security crisis unfolding in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by a police officer moved this issue even further to the forefront. 

The lawlessness of recent weeks ruthlessly reflected the deficiencies concerning emergency decision power. Several left-wing governors (i.e., California, Minnesota, Oregon) and mayors (i.e., Chicago, Denver, New York City, Portland, Seattle), acted at will in apparent contradiction to policy directives of the White House and nearly turned their areas of responsibility into war zones. With impunity, they did so for partisan expedience, out of ideological absurdity, or to spite the President. The President's occasional mobilization of national guard troops and the passing of executive orders to protect historical monuments might have prevented the worst from happening. However, the overall state of domestic political affairs of recent weeks with violence and mayhem still dominating many cities is unacceptable.

It seems no longer to be part of educated awareness that the longstanding wisdom of political philosophy and state theory has already resolved this issue profoundly. 

Every government that wants to be capable of decisive action in circumstances of utmost national distress and emergency must include a 'dictatorial element' in its constitution. Indeed, although it might hurt democratic prejudice, truly exceptional situations require the temporary negation of democratic principles and the independence of the supreme executive from legislative majority approval. If the bonum commune means something, even the most hard-core egalitarians in democratic societies must come to terms with this seemingly paradoxical assumption - which neither the founding fathers nor contemporary lawmakers seem to have acknowledged. But this condition might have to change now, where the nation's survival as a homogenous political body is at stake. 

In the U.S., while the constitution gives special powers to the executive in emergency times, Congress can terminate such emergency declaration by joint resolution. The National Emergency Act (of 1976) grants special powers to the President but ties the invocation of this crisis empowerment to certain procedural formalities. And as far as invoking martial law is concerned, both President and Congress can impose it. Besides, the Posse Comitatus legislation impairs the President's powers to use federal military forces for domestic security reasons. There is no clear preponderance on the part of the Head Executive of the Nation, in situations of national distress, to act unilaterally and decide independently of immediate legislative constraint. Lawmakers must not confuse or misinterpret the fact that the President's accountability as the Supreme Leader never ceases. The answerability for his actions in the exceptional cases of national distress has to come after resolving the crisis. Still, it must not hinder his immediate powers to act in difficult situations. 

An attentive observer of recent political developments in the U.S. cannot doubt the legitimacy of the claim to significantly strengthen and centralize the President's executive powers for situations of utter national distress. Yet, it is doubtful that politicians and governmental advisory bodies, in their usual erudite shortcomings, will enact the necessary legislation to give the President sufficient executive powers to override resistance from regional and local authorities in exceptional situations of national agony. 

Future Prospect and Solution

What went down in the past few months in this country leaves no doubt that the fact who commands the situation of national emergency is of paramount importance for the survival of a nation, democratically organized or not.

But what solution is there in the face of the violent attitude and doctrinaire aggressiveness of the left? Political discourse no longer seems to be an option, given that leftism suffocates even the slightest deviation from their notions, both by word and violent deed. It provides little consolation to know why the left has to be intolerant and autocratic – not one of their arguments and claims can withstand earnest critique and hold up to the scrutiny of social and political reality. It is one of the reasons why leftism always wants to eradicate history and focus on the future. Any historical experience available is evidence for the failure of socialism and the poor results of its reign. 

As far as Ochlocracy is concerned, the ancient philosophers already warned us that the only way out of the Mob Rule is the tyrannis. The strike of the iron fist is needed to defeat anarchy and restore law and order. It appears as if this role will inevitably fall to President Trump as the last hope for this nation to avoid outright civil war. And even more critical, to prevent the installation of a godless, collectivist, and culturally destructive communist-type despotism from taking place, which will be the inevitable consequence if the Democrats take over the White House and probably even the Senate in the fall. 

There are barely four months left till the presidential elections in November, and the ochlocratic state in many areas and institutions of the country has reached an appalling level. Civil unrest has continued for weeks and doesn't seem to lessen. Mostly Democrat governors and regional politicians are doubling down on their support for rioters and lawbreakers. Even certain Republican politicians and, of course, Never-Trumpers prop up the claims of the revolutionary inclined followers of Black Lives Matter and other radical formations.

In their hatred of President Trump, the radical left is bent on removing him from office at all costs, even at this nation's perishment. They have pushed this country almost to the point of no return. With every day going by that leaves the lawlessness and outright insurgent activity of the mob unanswered, it will become more challenging to return the entire country to stability. 

Restoring order might require extensive use of force, both law enforcement and military. Probably, even martial law and temporary military rule in certain areas are not out of the question.

However, although it is somewhat pathological, it is interesting to note that precisely the media proponents of the mob, in the concrete case, CNN, have already called for martial law. The usual strategy out of the leftist playbook is on full display – to project and reflect their guilt and wrongdoing on the opposition and forestall measures and actions predictably used against them.

The leftist mob and their enablers in the Democratic and Anti-Trump establishment are aware of the decisiveness of the hour. They will not come to their senses unless the mob ceases their lawless activities because of exhaustion and fatigue, or the iron fist will strike to save the nation from itself.

  

A grueling and costly path lies ahead if the country wants to return to its more traditional political order and its Christian roots. We will soon learn whether or not it is already too late.

When the Breakdown of Rationality becomes a Habit

I have been commenting on the political spectacle unfolding in U.S. domestic politics ever since candidate Trump ran for office. I kept arguing that the undignified immensity of it is indeed mortifying.

Over the years, my analyses on the mortifying immensity of this shameful exhibition turned out to be accurate. However, I was wrong on one count when I predicted that the irrational Trump-hatred would subside within a reasonable amount of time, and a sense of fairness would return to the mainstream media. 

This particular prediction certainly did not materialize. On the contrary, the madness continued and even intensified, and while sane minds might think it can't get any worse, it continually does. At least for now, it culminated in the utterly unreasonable impeachment spectacle in the lower chamber of the House. This farce constituted the shameful continuation of the tragicomedy of U.S. domestic politics I began to summarize in my posting of 12 October 2019 https://www.edwinseditorial.com/2019/10/syria-president-trump-one-ups-security.html.

The showdown of the impeachment investigation in House committees was futile and a waste of time. For the most part, utterly partisan and one-sided witnesses and so-called constitutional experts presented their preconceived notions. The longer the process went on, the more false premises, policy misconceptions, and the utterly destructive intent of the Democrats appeared. Their conduct left no doubt that they would never move onto the common ground for ending the political charade. 

Most astonishing, the forces opposing the impeachment, including the vast majority of Republicans and even the President himself, had themselves fooled and tricked into waging an impeachment debate over an indeed phony cause. They fell for a scam, a scheme devoid of any substance and reality. It is quite inconceivable that even the counter forces to this impeachment in politics and the media play along with the charade so willingly.

Instead of not dignifying the unreasonable show trial of the Democrats in the House, they participated as if there was any real substance to the impeachment claims. As was to expect, this encourages the out-of-their-mind Trump-haters, in complete neglect of basic civic principles of governance, to continue and even exacerbate their already appalling showdown. 

It was absolute nonsense when Democrat Representative Adam Schiff - a cold-blooded ideologue, liar, and Trump-hater - as the head of the Intelligence Committee, commenced the impeachment proceedings by claiming "to have found incontrovertible evidence that President Trump abused his power." 

The fact to the contrary is that Mr. Trump's request to Ukraine to investigate was legitimate and in the interest of the U.S. When Joe Biden was vice president, the Biden family's machinations were corrupt already on the surface. And who would want a politician to become First in Command of the most powerful nation when he had previously abused his power when he was Second in Command? And why should the run for the nomination for president shield somebody from a criminal investigation? Above all, why would President Trump even consider Mr. Biden to be a close political rival – more than a year before the next presidential elections and when it is still highly doubtful that "Sleepy Joe" will emerge to be the Democrat candidate? So Schiff's argument that President Trump did it in "the hopes of defeating Mr. Biden in the 2020 presidential election and enhancing his prospects for reelection" is utterly foolish and beside the point. 

But the mental disorder of the Democrats became even more apparent when they argued, through their henchman Adam Schiff, that Mr. Trump was undermining "a nation at war with our adversary Vladimir Putin's Russia" by withholding $391 million in military aid. 

 As far as I am aware, neither Ukraine nor the U.S. is at war with Russia. And neither Russia-hatred on the part of Democrats and Neocons nor the ludicrous lies of Mr. Schiff makes it so. Instead, as I have pointed out in blog entries in 2015 https://www.edwinseditorial.com/2015/02/another-failure-of-western.html and https://www.edwinseditorial.com/2014/03/ukraine-and-wrong-side-of-history.html, the U.S., with the support of the E.U., instigated a coup in Ukraine and installed the Washington stooge Poroshenko. Then, under the pretense of Russian aggression, the U.S. deployed armored troops and anti-tank missiles in the country as well as in the Baltics. Never has there been a substantial security reason for the stationing of U.S. troops and providing massive military aid to Ukraine at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer. 

The Cold War-minded and Russophobe pack in the U.S. State Department and the Deep State national security complex made the Russian aggression and the war with Russia all up. And they kept relentlessly lying about it to the American public – including and particularly during the impeachment trials. 

Primarily responsible for foreign affairs and national security, President Trump was entitled to withhold military aid to Ukraine and await the corruption assessments. It would also have been within his authority to alter the failed foreign affairs policy toward Ukraine. Unfortunately, while the latter didn't happen, the proceedings demonstrated how the left distorts facts, obstructs Presidential power, and derides constitutional statute.

The Democrats even neglected the verdict of special prosecutor Muller who confirmed that there was no collusion between Russia and then-candidate Trump's campaign after two years of investigation. Mr. Schiff linked the alleged abuse of President Trump's power regarding Ukraine to the disproven allegation that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to support Mr. Trump. 

No matter the facts, the Democrats keep sticking to their guns at all costs. Trump Derangement Syndrome at its best!

The impeachment trial has now landed in the Senate, which could easily dismiss the sham process with the Republican majority. But instead, the Republican Party renders credence to the ludicrous two impeachment articles the Democrats concocted by intending to hold a trial in the Senate. It shows that ill-will and anti-Trumpism are not limited to the Democrats and the radical left in this country. 

 I heard somebody say that the U.S. has only two political parties — one, the Democrats, an evil one; second, the Republicans, a foolish one. I would only like to add that the latter party is also an utterly cowardly one.

Syria - President Trump One-Ups Security Experts Again

To further mark the previous posting's occasion, I would like to state a verity before talking about Syria's conflict. It appears that almost anything the Democrats and Never-Trumpers, Neoliberals, and Neocons stand for, claim, or assert, is a proper gauge for falsehood and outright nonsense. Thus, judgment seems to come easy these days: Espouse the opposite of what these maniacs – such as Pelosi, Schiff, Sanders, Graham, Romney, Bolton, as well as most of the so-called pundits on the MSM networks – state, one cannot be far off the truth. The adequacy and real legitimacy of the respective viewpoint then become just a matter of taste and personal emphasis within the overall judgment range.

That logic serves well to find out the truth regarding the withdrawal of American troops from the northeastern part of Syria and the alleged 'leaving the Kurds in the lurch' is concerned. Consider the opposite of the artificial outrage of the swamp creatures inside and outside the beltway, and the actual reality reveals itself. 

The argument that the US has betrayed the Kurds, who fought alongside the US to defeat ISIS, is preposterous and practically nonsensical. With the ISIS caliphate gone, Turkey was determined to establish a safe zone against Kurdish forces in Syria, which it considers an anti-Turkish terror group. US intelligence had observed week-long preparations for a potential operation. It inferred severe intent on Turkey's part, which even in last-minute phone conversations between Presidents Trump and Erdogan could not be discouraged. Quite obviously, the US administration neither greenlighted the operation nor could it dissuade Turkey from carrying it out. Even when reinforced by the relocation of other US troops, the few dozen US special forces in northeastern Syria could neither have prevented nor warded off a Turkish incursion.

It was thus clearly the correct decision to get the US troops out of the way. This move not only helped to avoid combat between friendly NATO forces. It also set the stage for the Kurds to turn to the Syrian Army, which is now moving to the border, taking over the Kurdish population's protection, and is taking back control over its entire territory. 

That military brass as well as all the armchair generals in the US Congress (led by the warmonger GOP Senator Lindsay Graham), who blame the US to have deserted its Kurdish allies, have not yet come to terms with the fact (and probably never will) that the entire Syrian catastrophe began with the ill-advised regime-change operation the US launched against Assad some seven years ago.

In the blog post of May 10, 2013 (https://www.edwinseditorial.blogspot.com.edwinseditorial.com/2013/05/disastrous-foreign-policy-failures.html), I denounced the colossal error of politically and militarily supporting dubious insurgent radicals to promote regime change in Syria, after similar policies in Egypt and Libya had already wrought terrible results.

Since then, we have observed the unspeakable mayhem the US has caused in the misguided and failed regime-change effort to oust President Assad. For this effort, it employed the help of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an anti-Assad conglomerate of Kurds and Sunni Arabs, and the Kurdish PYD, a follower of the communist PKK, which Ankara considers to be a terrorist organization. 

When Russia entered in 2015 to prop the Assad regime and restore the integrity of Syrian territory, it became evident that the US's intervention - illegal according to International Law and unethical in principle (as I explained in the respective postings) - was supposed to fail. Alas, in its Russophobe and foolish regime-change attitude, Washington rejected Moscow's offer to fight the Islamic State jointly. Instead, it provided money and weapons as well as air support and special forces-backing to Kurdish-dominated organizations. 

The failure of Washington's foreign affairs policies and the prediction that it will end in a massive embarrassment for the United States in Syria I explained in my post of September 27, 2017 (https://www.edwinseditorial.blogspot.com.edwinseditorial.com/2017/09/why-my-north-korea-resolve-could-have.html)

  

President Trump's decision not to engage in a war with Turkey will certainly prevent another interventionist folly from taking place – foolishness would have further exacerbated the already complex and highly intricate situation in northern Syria. 

Heavily brokered by Russia, the decision also allowed the Kurdish SDF to do what was long overdue - turn to Damascus and the Syrian Army for protection. It looks like Syria seizes upon the opportunity of the cease-fire US envoys Pence and Pompeo have negotiated with Erdogan to regain control over this part of its territory. Once sovereignty is restored and national security over the entire region provided by its regular armed forces, any reason for Turkish incursion into Syria will be void.

Let us not kid ourselves: The US' former "Kurdish allies" were, in reality, nothing but a bunch of bought – with tremendous amounts of money and armament - mercenaries, who did the US' bidding in the area. Their questionable commitment to fighting the Islamic State was more or less a pretense of carving out a portion of Syria and possibly Turkey and achieving one of their long-term goals of creating some autonomous region for themselves.

All in all, the outcry in US leftist and neocon quarters, as well as the warmongering, is not only unwarranted but outright stupid. Laudable exceptions turned out to be GOP Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and Democrat presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard. Both criticized the interventionist US policies and supported President Trump's paradigmatic change in foreign relations. The loony Hillary Clinton, who perpetrated the terrible policy mistakes during former President Obama's tenure, disparages Gabbard as a Russian agent for her stance.   

What is also quite appalling is the lack of loyalty among the Republican Party, 129 of whose representatives signed on when the House put forward a vote to condemn the President's troop withdrawal in Syria. The military-industrial lobby's grip on Washington, in combination with the meanwhile prominent Trump-Derangement-Syndrome, seems to suffocate any reasonable decency as to the business of war on both sides of the aisle. 

The disregard for the Presidential prerogative to determine the course of foreign affairs and national security and the viciousness with which the belligerent Washington establishment answers any course correction to the failed policies of the past couple of decades is quite alarming. 

It points to the degree of corruption of minds and hearts in the capital and deficits in professionalism, and a lack of comprehension of civic and human affairs.

No doubt, as far as its political culture is concerned, this Republic is in serious trouble.

The United States of America – A Doomed Republic?

The last two and a half years of politics in the United States presented us with the turmoil of hitherto unknown and unprecedented variety in Western democratic republics. The situation has reached a point where the question raised in this essay's title no longer appears far-fetched or inappropriate, as indeed it looks as if the doom of this Republic might be imminent unless something decisive happens reasonably soon.
 
When has anybody seen the political opposition, in utter disbelief over losing a presidential election, engrossed in a policy of destruction against the winner? When has anybody seen the radical political opponent so vehemently and lopsidedly supported by nearly all societal interaction pillars, including print and electronic media outlets, commentators and pundits, academia and education, political representatives at all government levels? When has anybody ever seen such destructiveness and devastation in the wake of democratic elections in an established Republic?

Here is why: A total corruption of the minds and hearts – in other words, want for proper erudition in civic affairs and moral decency – across vast parts of society. The subtle and yet – in its psychological impact – radical cultural-Marxist subversion of society that has been going on for decades claims stunning success.

In the wake of Donald Trump's victory, whoever expected the usual political business continuation must be disappointed. The regular competition between Democrats and Republicans, the typical antagonism between the political left and right as they operate within the conventional boundaries of mutually shared constitutional and civilizational principles, turned out to be much more. It has turned out to be an existential struggle over our entire Western civilization's future, a battle over essential values and principles for Western societies, quite naturally spearheaded by the West's most potent and influential lead-nation, the United States of America. 

This circumstance alone can explain the sheer incomprehensible hatred President Donald Trump faces from significant media outlets and the bulk of the political establishment in Washington D.C. Make no mistake. There is a relentless war going on, not yet waged primarily with lethal weapons, but one in which the Democrat Party and the vast majority of its sympathizers want to bring down this President. 

A significant number of so-called never-Trumpers and RINOs in Mr. Trump's party, assisted by a broad spectrum of globalists and economic and military-industrial profiteers, reject this President and his Christian-conservative policies. They are not only bent on beating him politically; they intend to get him out of the office and utterly destroy him and his family personally. 

It sure appears to be quite an asymmetric kind of warfare. Trump and a relatively small nucleus of government supporters around the White House are waging this cultural war. A few hardcore conservative fortresses in society (such as Ben Shapiro and his Daily Wire) fight against a colossal overload in ill-will and malevolence that reaches far beyond the usual clientele of the Democrat Party and the political Left. 

The gloves began to come off in this 'ad hominem' campaign of destruction about two and a half years ago when Mr. Trump was elected candidate for the presidential race. Since elected and in office, the offensive against him has increased continuously in intensity and wickedness. It has now, at the time of a government shutdown where Democrat leaders apodictically refused to move even one inch toward the fulfillment of Mr. Trump's election promises, reached a new peak. 

How could anybody who has a grain of moral decency left who watched the Senate Minority Whip Chuck Schumer making his hateful statements against the incumbent President still support this Democrat Party? How could anybody bolster a political force led by such a disingenuous and utterly loathsome human being!

But the old ploy of reversing cause-effect relations and blaming the political opponent for one's wrongdoing and devilishness is being pulled off quite successfully by the left. They project their disgraceful personality traits and behavior onto President Trump. When he is rightfully fighting back and setting things straight, they accuse him of being the initial aggressor, evildoer, and disparager of the Presidential office.

It is mind-boggling to imagine what some measure of critical, yet 'constructive' and decent cooperation with the President from the part of Trump-opposing forces could have accomplished for the benefit of this nation and the entire world. Alas, instead, the hatred of Mr. Trump appears to trump all considerations for successful governance and the common good of this nation. If only they can bring down Trump, the left, and their henchmen (and –women) in all kinds of societal strata appear willing even to destroy this country. 

Is there an immediate solution to the ruinous state of political affairs in this country? The same will of the people who elected Mr. Trump and his policies into office must be the will that now ensures that he can implement them. It is on 'We The People' to become proactive, break up the deadlock in Washington D.C. and lead the country back into a productive and constructive social and political discourse.