“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 55: 6-7
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The Attack on Nancy Pelosi’s Husband is Probably a Harbinger of Things to Come
I read an article by Mark Barabak on Yahoo News titled “Paul Pelosi is a victim of poisoned politics. Those inciting violence must be held to account”. Since I didn’t know anything about Barabak, I googled him. His bio from The Los Angeles Times is below:
Mark Z. Barabak is a political columnist for the Los Angeles Times, focusing on California and the West. A reporter for nearly 45 years, Barabak has covered campaigns and elections in 49 of the 50 states, including a dozen presidential campaigns and scores of mayoral, gubernatorial, congressional and U.S. Senate contests. He also reported from the White House and Capitol Hill during the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations.
In the article, Barabak said,
To say our politics have coarsened over the last few decades is like noting that temperatures drop and daylight shortens as we settle into autumn.
It’s so obvious, it seems the natural order of things.
Barabak is right about the coarseness of our political discourse. I learned about it more than 40 years ago in Charlottesville, VA while I taught at the University of Virginia. I will admit that things are getting a lot worse, though. That’s because Democrats are in power, and they have lost any sense of right and wrong, decorum, pride, common courtesy, common sense, respect, and dignity.
An Example
Adam Schiff is a Democrat member of the House from California. For most of President Trump’s term in office, Schiff was on television constantly telling the American people that Trump was in cahoots with the Russians and that he had hard evidence to prove it. Schiff’s mantra was “Russia collusion, Russia collusion, Russia collusion.” He repeated it ad infinitum. Democrats loved it, but if you are not a Democrat, you got tired of hearing it.
Schiff has an undergraduate degree from Stanford and a law degree from Harvard. That’s a great pedigree. When combined with his involvement with the House Intelligence Committee, Schiff comes across as an authority par excellence on the subject. However, former FBI Director Robert Mueller completed an exhaustive 22-month investigation of the matter and begrudgingly announced that he could find no evidence of collusion between President Trump and Russia.
It wasn’t because Mueller didn’t try to find evidence of Russia collusion. He did everything he could do, and a team of Democrat-leaning investigators did the digging. It was because there was no evidence of Russia collusion to be found.
Schiff is the Democrat shining star in the House. It’s obvious that he is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s fair-haired boy. She is grooming him for greater things. When Mueller’s report blew Schiff’s wild claim about Russia collusion out of the water, what did Schiff do?
Schiff didn’t do a thing. He didn’t apologize for lying to the American people repeatedly for years. He didn’t admit that he was just a partisan political hack void of morals and integrity. He didn’t fess up and tell the American people that taking down the president was his only objective. Schiff just carried on as if nothing had happened. To him, the day that Mueller presented his report to the nation was just another day at the office.
What did Speaker Pelosi do? She made Schiff the point man in her campaign to impeach the president, and Schiff took his modus operandi with him.
What did the media do? Media titans started looking for other ways to attack the president. I didn’t see one article that called Schiff to task, even though what he did was reprehensible.
To Schiff, Speaker Pelosi who was the top elected Democrat official in the nation at that time, and Democrat operatives in the media, everything Schiff did was excusable, because all of them shared his hatred for President Trump. Nothing else mattered to any of them. They simply threw the truth out the window.
I Know a Little About Democrats
While I taught at UVA, I was Democrat Governor Chuck Robb’s Policy Advisor for Regulatory Reform. That was my first foray into politics. I came to UVA from Georgia, and in Georgia while I was growing up, we were Democrats by default. The winner of the Democrat primary in almost every election was the eventual winner in the general election.
I moved to Virginia in 1979 while Jimmy Carter was president. Jim McIntyre was Carter’s OMB Director at that time. Jim is several years older than me, but we grew up near each other in South Georgia, so I knew him. Since I taught strategy and leadership at UVA, I invited Jim to come down from Washington and speak with my classes.
In the fall of 1980, Jim was heavily involved in a hotly contested presidential election. Senator Ted Kennedy was challenging Carter for the Democrat Party’s nomination for president. Even so, Jim accepted my invitation.
Booking a high-profile presidential appointee and a cabinet member no less for an event or a visit at a time like that is not easy, but Jim accepted my invitation without hesitation. I did not publicize his visit, but word of it got out in the Democrat community in the Charlottesville area and spread like wildfire.
Immediately, I was inundated with calls from Democrat Party leaders in Charlottesville and Albemarle County. They had never heard of me, but I had pulled off a feat that none of them could have accomplished.
At that time, the Charlottesville area was a Democrat stronghold, and it was solidly pro-Carter. From a political perspective, Jim’s visit could not be justified, but his visit wasn’t political. It was personal. He was doing me a favor. Local Democrats wanted to know more about me, and they wanted to get me involved in the party.
In 1981, Chuck Robb was elected Governor of Virginia, and Albemarle County Democrat Party Chairman Bruce Rasmussen told the Robb team that the governor should appoint me as his Policy Advisor for Regulatory Reform. That’s how I got involved in state politics. It all started because I knew a prominent person in Carter’s administration. That was it, pure and simple.
Eventually, I got involved in national politics. Ronald Reagan defeated Carter in 1980 and made regulatory reform a strategic initiative of his administration. As Robb’s Policy Advisor for Regulatory Reform, I worked with Reagan’s team to coordinate our efforts. Vice President George H.W. Bush headed up regulatory reform for Reagan, and C. Boyden Gray was his point person. I worked closely with Gray. He served as counsel to the Vice President during the Reagan administration. When Bush was elected president, Gray was appointed White House Counsel.
Bill Clinton was Governor of Arkansas while Robb was Governor of Virginia. At that time, most Americans had never heard of Clinton. He knew that the U.S. was becoming more conservative. To win elections in Arkansas, Clinton needed to look more conservative. Robb saw the problem, too, so Clinton, Robb, and a few other Democrats formed the Democrat Leadership Council (DLC). Its primary purpose was to change the way ordinary Americans see the Democrat Party. Regulatory reform was featured prominently in their efforts.
By the time Robb’s term ended, I knew that I wanted nothing to do with the Democrat Party. I got to see it up close and personal and without spin or filters. Publicly, Democrat leaders would say what voters wanted to hear, but behind the scenes, radical left-wing Democrats were pulling all the strings. Eventually, I realized that the DLC was created to convey a false impression to the American people.
Nothing about the Democrat Party changed as a result of the DLC’s efforts. It was merely a way to bridge the gap while Democrats were not in power. When Democrats regained power, they resorted to their old ways, except this time, they were on steroids.
As I said, our politics have coarsened. I think the reason is that Democrats are trying to shove their “liberal progress” agenda down our throats, and when they have power, they do it with gusto. They want us to accept things that we find unacceptable, and they attempt to demonize anyone who refuses to go along with them no matter how ridiculous and immoral their agenda is.
I am not a Republican, and I never have been a Republican. Since I stopped working with the Democrat Party, though, I have come to hate the Democrat Party because of what it stands for and because of the tactics Democrats use to force their outrageous policies on our country. Some of those policies are blatantly evil.
Over the past few decades, Democrats have taken virtual control of the media in the U.S. They have used their positions of power in the media to create and promote a narrative that they expect us to accept and to stifle the voices of people who disagree with them. Some Democrats have even tried to criminalize normal discourse if the things being said about their policies challenge things Democrats want us to believe.
Social media companies like Facebook and Twitter bought the Democrat Party line and imposed sanctions on people using their platforms if they posted things that didn’t line up with the Democrat agenda. I know that because I have been sanctioned by them. My “offense” was refusing to buy the argument that man-made hydrocarbon emissions are the cause of climate change. That’s another story, though. For now, let it suffice to say that the social media was controlled by Democrats, too, but that’s about to change.
Elon Musk spent about $44 billion to buy Twitter, so he can address the social media problem. He took control of Twitter last Friday. I do battle with the Democrat Party in the public arena. Since I use SnyderTalk, Facebook, and Twitter primarily to get my message out, Elon Musk is working to help people like me, and I appreciate it.
Donald Trump worked to help people like me, too. That’s why Democrats today see him as a persona non grata. Before Trump became president and started working for the American people instead of the Washington elite, Democrats loved him. Top Democrat elected officials at every level of government would climb over each other to take advantage of a photo opportunity with Trump. That’s another great example of the coarsening of political discourse. All you need to do to become a pariah is to take a position that challenges the status quo that was agreed upon by the political elite.
Democrats say that all of us are equal, but they think they are more equal than anyone else.
Democrats say that we have a right to our opinions but that we should keep our opinions to ourselves if they diverge from Democrat orthodoxy.
Democrats insist that we should not present our views and the support for our perspectives in the public arena unless our views line up with the Democrat Party agenda. Democrats think they own the public arena and that only their views should be presented there.
Interestingly, Democrats don’t think their attitudes and actions have caused the coarsening of political discourse. Personally, I think Democrats are delusional. They are the problem. Establishment Republicans share the guilt, but they tend to be more genteel and less obnoxious than Democrats.
A Backlash to Democrat Excesses was Predictable
Anyone who didn’t see a backlash coming had to be tone deaf and blind to reality. I think the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband is a harbinger of things to come.
I understand why people are so angry, and I understand why people who are less educated and more prone to violence than I am would take drastic actions, even criminal actions. The attack on people like Paul Pelosi was entirely predictable.
Following the attack, the San Francisco Chronicle ran an article titled “Attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband shows escalation of rhetoric painting her as enemy No. 1”. That is not correct. Nancy Pelosi is not seen as “enemy No. 1” by non-Democrats. She is viewed as a pathetic old woman who can barely carry on an intelligent conversation, a poor leader, and an immoral human being. She is one of many high-profile Democrats who have big mouths and high perches. They are determined to make all of us go along with Democrat policies no matter what. Their rhetoric is far more shrill, divisive, and offensive than anything being said about them by their opponents.
Through the media, Democrats have urged their supporters to take violent actions against people who don’t support their causes, and they do it as nonchalantly as if they were encouraging their supporters to vote. Democrats are oblivious to the predictable repercussions. That’s a fact that people like Barabak and the people at the San Francisco Chronicle can’t or won’t acknowledge. Candidly, I think what Democrats have done is criminal behavior, but to the Democrats doing it, it’s just business as usual.
Barabak Missed the Mark
In his article, Barabak said, “What assaults us today are seemingly endless accounts, one after another, of lawlessness and political vigilantism.”
For years, Democrats and their operatives in the media have been engaging in actions that promote violence. Consider Portland, Oregon. Democrat leaders in that city allowed hooligans to loot, burn, and kill with impunity, and the state’s Democrat governor didn’t intervene stop them. Why?
They wanted to promote the narrative that violence in the streets was a result of Donald Trump being president. That wasn’t true, and they knew it. They allowed it because they thought it would help them advance their agenda. To them, the looting, burning, and killing were small prices to pay. To Democrats, the people in Portland who suffered because they allowed the violence to occur were just collateral damage.
Oregon Democrat leaders got enthusiastic support from the media that they control. They think Democrats have a right to do things that are blatantly wrong and criminal to advance their agenda but that their political opponents don’t have that right.
When Trump was defeated in 2020, Oregon Democrats and the media changed their tune. Suddenly, Portland had to clean up its act.
Barabak is part of the problem. Concerning the attack on Paul Pelosi in his home, he said, “Much of the blame rests on Republican shoulders, as many of the faithful have embraced outlandish and frankly nutty QAnon theories that paint Democrats as a party of devil-worshiping pedophiles.”
Barabak is attempting to lay the blame for the attack on Paul Pelosi squarely on Republicans. He completely ignores Democrat rhetoric and actions over many years that provoked the backlash.
That is something concealed weapon permit holders are warned never to do. No one is allowed to provoke and incite an incident, shoot someone, and then claim self-defense. That’s exactly what Democrats and their operatives in the media are trying to do right now with the attack on Paul Pelosi.
I live in South Carolina. In my state, we have a law that says your home is your castle. If someone attacks you inside your home, you don’t have to retreat or try to flee. You can shoot a person who attacks you in your home, and it is viewed as self-defense unless you provoked the attack and then fled to your home for safety.
Barabak mischaracterized people who don’t support Democrat policies. Most of them are not Republicans. They are people like me. Most of them don’t even know what QAnon is. They see QAnon as a boogeyman used by Democrats to rally their forces and give them something to say. Lord knows they need help in that regard. To most Americans, QAnon is just another word in the Democrat narrative like “racist” and “white supremacist”. They are used to cast a negative light on Democrats’ political opponents, but they are false assertions void of meaning. They are bogus claims that only Democrats will accept, and those assertions make Democrats’ political opponents angry. Their use is purposeful, premeditated provocation.
If you provoke violence, don’t complain when someone hits you in the face.
Democrats want to convey a message to their followers and to the public at large. They want us to believe that opposition to their policies is coming from political partisans and from radical right-wing fringe groups that are full of uneducated, dangerous, and hateful people. They certainly don’t want us to know that a very large number of well-educated, law-abiding citizens in our country see Democrat policies as offensive, immoral, and stupid.
To me, Barabak comes across like Hillary Clinton. Who can forget her “basket of deplorables”?
Hillary labeled people who disagree with Democrat policies as racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, and Islamaphobic. She got a chuckle out of that. So did her audience. In her world, no one can disagree with Democrat policies unless he or she has a mental problem, a phobia.
That’s ridiculous, but like Pavlov’s dog, Democrat supporters have been conditioned to foam at the mouth when they hear those words. In reality, those words are used to provoke even more violence.
I wish Democrats would learn to present facts to support their arguments instead of just slinging slurs at their political opponents. Truth is, Democrats don’t rely on facts, because facts don’t support their arguments.
At this juncture, if any Democrat has a claim on enemy No. 1, it’s Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, not Nancy Pelosi, but both of them have Secret Service protection 24/7/365. They are not easy targets. According to The Washington Post, Capitol Police cameras caught the break-in at the Pelosi’s home, but no one was watching the monitors. Obviously, the Capitol Police and the Secret Service are different breeds of cat.
Pelosi should be smart enough to understand what she has done to herself and to members of her family. I am sorry that her husband was attacked, but she was the instigator. Maybe she has become too well acquainted with Johnny Walker. Taken in small doses, Johnny Walker is fine, but large doses of it tend to cloud the mind and loosen the lips.
Who can forget Pelosi standing behind President Trump at a State of the Union Address tearing up her copy of his speech as quickly as he finished? Millions of Americans witnessed that sophomoric stunt. It was made for television, faux outrage, and it was an escalation of provocation. That’s the kind of thing that ordinary Americans have come to expect from Democrats. I’m sure it angered a large number of people. It may have been the catalyst that triggered the attack in Pelosi’s home. You never know.
This Isn’t Complicated
Violent rhetoric and violent acts provoke violent rhetoric and violent acts. I think Pelosi’s rhetoric and behavior as Speaker of the House has been shameful, but Adam Schiff’s and Maxine Waters’ rhetoric and behavior has been much worse. Lots of other high-profile Democrats have made themselves targets, too. They have said hateful things about their political opponents, and they have urged their followers to aggressively confront people who reject their policies.
Their followers responded by attacking decent, law-abiding Americans in restaurants and on the streets. I have seen video news reports of people being attacked by Democrat Brownshirts simply for wearing MAGA hats or for saying, “Make America Great Again”.
Who do you think caused that to happen? The attackers were motivated to do what they did by people like Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Adam Schiff, etc. It’s a long list. As I said, Democrats provoked this crisis. The backlash has been brewing for a long time, and it’s just beginning.
If Nancy Pelosi realized how odious she has made herself, she would have taken the necessary precautions to protect her home. She’s not the only one. I have mentioned the names of a few others, but there are many more. If they continue down the path they are on, things will get a lot worse.
Words and Provocation have Consequences
Barabak should take his own words to heart. He said, “Words matter. Provocation has consequences.” I wish he understood what he wrote. He is like other Democrats in this respect. They say hateful things about their political opponents and provoke violence against them without giving it a second thought. They think their words and actions are justified, but they think people who disagree with them are supposed to sit back and take it without saying or doing anything.
That’s not the real world. In the real world, words really do matter, and words and actions have consequences. Democrats are just beginning to see the consequences of the things they have been saying and doing for years.
This is a serious issue. The survival of our nation may depend on our coming to grips with the problem.
Candidly, I think our nation has passed the point of no return. I am hoping for the best, but I am preparing for the worst. So far, Democrats are showing no signs that they understand the forces they have set in motion. That’s regrettable, but history teaches us that fascist dictators and their followers always go too far.
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“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”
John 10: 14-18
