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Gov. Newsom wants to be president and is running on his record of turning California into a bankrupt, filthy, crime-ridden hellhole.
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He would be the fitting successor to Obama and Biden, to usher in the Brave New Socialist Utopia.
He already has valuable experience in ruling over a shithole.
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I believe there is a good chance Biden will announce his retirement, on âhealthâ grounds, and that Newsome will be the Democratic nominee.
This means that we should get the facts about Californiaâs descent into the Thjird World spread about as widely as possible. Liberals will try to refute the facts, but we should be able to shred their arguments. (Relevant links are posted in another thread.)
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You can argue with liberals aka the Left? Iâve long believed that to be impossible. Have you succeeded in changing a Leftistâs mind?
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Well, I changed my mind. And a number of people Iâve known for sixty years â who were members, along with me, of a hard-core Leninist group, in the 1960s and 70s â have changed their minds.
More interestingly, many of the founders of National Review, in the mid-50s, were former Marxists of one flavor or another:
"As editors and contributors, Buckley sought out intellectuals who were ex-Communists or had once worked on the far left, including Whittaker Chambers, William Schlamm, John Dos Passos, Frank Meyer, and James Burnham "[ National Review - Wikipedia ]
[ Frank Meyer (political philosopher) - Wikipedia ]
[ Willmoore Kendall - Wikipedia ]
[ Whittaker Chambers - Wikipedia ]
[ John Dos Passos - Wikipedia ]
Also of current relevance in the Wiki article on National Review:
âBuckley and Meyer promoted the idea of enlarging the boundaries of conservatism through fusionism, whereby different schools of conservatives, including libertarians, would work together to combat what were seen as their common opponents.â
If your world view is that people are divided into Good People and Bad People â Good People being those who are in 100% agreement with you, and, like you, had Totally Correct politics from the cradle onwards, then of course this wonât make sense.
But in reality, many people change their views over time, influenced by, among other things, reality, events. You probably know the expression, âA conservative is a liberal whoâs been mugged.â And the observation that âIf youâre not a liberal at the age of 20, you have no heart. If youâre still a liberal at the age of 40, you have no brainâ.
But itâs not just a question of biological aging, or of the impact of events. Good, cogent arguments can change the minds of at least some people.
But this doesnât happen in a flash. It takes time. We have to plant âthe gnawing worm of doubtâ in our opponentsâ minds, and keep chipping away. One way to do that is to use the opportunity that the internet gives us to, for free (except in terms of our time), reach into the liberal/centrist camp, and show, by documented facts, that their beliefs are mistaken.
Most atheists/agnostics/skeptics are not conservatives. So long as the difference between liberals and conservatives was over issues like the minimum wage, they were relatively impervious to our arguments.
But things have changed. The âOld Leftâ is dying, and is being replaced by the âWoke Leftâ. These people donât believe in Free Speech, which used to be a liberal holy-of-holies. They despise their own country, and Western Civilization in general. The Old Left believed its policies â like universal free childcare â would strengthen famiies. The new âWokeâ Left rejects the very idea of the family, or re-defines it to mean any set of adults (Iâm being generous here â theyâre moving towards explicity pedophilia) having regular sex with each other.
Intelligent âtraditionalâ liberals understand this. See Ruy Teixeiraâs The Liberal Patriot.
[ https://www.liberalpatriot.com/ ] Teixeira was a leading thinker in such organizations as the Soros-funded Center for American Progress [ Center for American Progress - Wikipedia ]
But ⌠events, and perhaps the arguments of informed conservatives, have had an inlfluence on him. He has just become a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute.
[ https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/07/15/capital-city-ruy-teixeira-american-enterprise-institute-00045819 ]
[ https://www.aei.org/press/press-release-aei-announces-new-scholars-in-its-social-cultural-and-constitutional-studies-research-division/ ]
So here is an opportunity for us, a âBridge at Remagenâ moment.
[ Ludendorff Bridge - Wikipedia ]
It can be done. And we can contribute to this process.
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This is how Ruy Teixeira concludes one of his articles at the AEI site:
âFive months left and Trump is still ahead. Maybe the New York verdict will help Biden. Maybe an intensified campaign focusing on Trumpâs vulnerabilities will move low information, low engagement voters from key demographics back towards Biden. Maybe, maybe, maybe. But fixing Bidenâs vulnerabilities clearly needs to be part of the strategy.â
He is still a Leftist, Doug.
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Jill, people donât change by making a huge leap, at least not most of them. Of course heâs still on the Left. But the question is, what is his direction of motion?
We need to find the rank-and-file âRuy Teixeirasâ â thoughtful people who are becoming increasingly unhappy about what the Left is becoming. We need to engage with them, discuss with them (in a polite way), give them the sort of data Iâve been posting here. Events will favor us.
By the way, how many of the points you listed as defining your beliefs, do you believe Trump believes in?
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I did not say that minds donât change. As you rightly point out, time - aging - changes minds. I doubt that argument changes Leftistsâ minds.
Any man who could even in his dumb youth be a member of a Soros-backed organization is not a respectable thinker. Soros is not just a Leftist, he is a James Bond type villain. Always has been, and gets worse every day he lives. And has a son to carry on his devilâs work with passion and energy. So no point in looking forward to the old manâs demise. The enemy lives.
Why have you left out the âNew Leftâ - the bridge between the âOld Leftâ and the âWoke Leftâ?
I do not want to discourage you from proselytizing. I wish you success as you strive to win âliberalâ, âcenter-leftâ, âsocial justice warriorsâ. Also bleeding hearts and sentimentalists, America haters, BLM members, Antifa members, and other voters for corrupt Joe Biden? Of course if you increase voters for Trump, for the freedom-loving and America-loving Right, you will be doing a good thing. Iâm surprised you still, at your wise age, have the energy and desire to scratch at the fortified edifice of Leftism in the hope of bringing it down.
Trump has won over millions of former Biden voters by offering concrete benefits. Low or no taxes, secure borders, lower cost of living, restored rule of law and equality under the law ⌠these promises are effective in changing votersâ minds. I mistrust the power of argument to move those who have not argued their way into their beliefs but relied on their sentiments rather than their heads to reach them. Surprise me further by bringing some of them by argument into the conservative camp.
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Trump lowered taxes - and increased government revenue. Canceled a great many regulations. Effected the Abraham Accords. Made the US the worldâs biggest producer of oil and gas, even exporting vast quantities of both. Put sensible policies in place to reduce illegal immigration and began the building of a wall. Kept wages up and cost of living down. All this - and much more - in the teeth of vicious opposition, lies, cheating, sabotage, slander and impeachment. He is certainly not against a true market economy even if he is too strong a realist to believe it can be easily or quickly established. He is against the sexual mutilation of children. Against allowing men to compete in womenâs sports. Very much for the family. I will not attempt to draw up a comprehensive list of his virtues and achievements. Not possible really.
If a citizen is not a republican who highly values the US Constitution, is not for a market economy, against minimum wages, for a strong military, for the rule of law and equality under it, against the public celebration of sexual perversions, against illegal immigration ⌠just to begin with ⌠he is not an American conservative.
I hope Trump can restore sanity, decency, prosperity, security to America. He can certainly make things better than they are now. But I fear decay has gone to far to be easily undone, and even he may not be able to save what used to be fairly called the âfree Westâ.
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Iâve grown cynical about that in my dotage. I am not convinced a typical member of any category of the Left is vulnerable to rational argument. Even their alleged worship of âdemocracyâ and âfree speechâ was and still is a sham. To the Left, democracy and all its trappings is like a bus or a train they are hitching a ride on. When they reach their destination of mass control they will get off. Once there they may maintain a facade of democracy with cosmetic âelectionsâ and carefully vetted âfree speechâ but the Party will dominate all offices and the bureaucracy. A few minority parties may remain if they are compliant and remember their place.
I am not even convinced anymore that liberals will be able to see the depth of their betrayal until the boot of authority comes crashing down on their faces. Then they might understand.
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What you describe about leftists is exactly what has already happened in th US. Since they stole the 2020 election and gained control, they are now just maintaining a facade of democracy.
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