Month: May 2024

Credit: RNC

The Republican National Committee (RNC) has intensified its standoff with the Secret Service over security arrangements for the upcoming GOP convention in Milwaukee, demanding a significant revision to the protest zone’s location.

With the event slated to start on July 15, tensions are escalating as party officials fear for the safety of attendees.

Todd R. Steggerda, a legal counsel for the RNC, addressed a stern letter to Kimberly A. Cheatle, Director of the Secret Service, criticizing the current security measures as insufficient and demanding immediate intervention.

The letter, which was leaked to The New York Times, highlighted the “increased and untenable risk of violence” stemming from what Steggerda describes as a “rapidly deteriorating security environment.”

“Despite the Republican National Committee’s good faith efforts over the last four weeks to work with your United States Secret Service (“USSS”) subordinates to resolve the critical flaw with the Security Perimeter in the USSS’s Operational Security Plan (“Plan”), which was the subject of my April 26 letter, the RNC’s grave concerns about the unacceptable risk to public safety remain unaddressed,” Steggerda wrote.

“Rather than dissipating, the overall security climate has worsened significantly over the past month of the USSS’s inaction, as evidenced by the public statements of the anticipated demonstrators. Your failure to act now to prevent these unnecessary and certain risks will imperil tens of thousands of Convention attendees, inexcusably forcing them into close proximity to the currently planned First Amendment Zone,”  he added.

Screenshot

“To date, the local USSS team has been unresponsive to the RNC’s reasonable proposal, as set out in my April 26 letter, to alleviate these safety risks through a very modest alteration of the Perimeter – namely, to expand a small portion of the Security Perimeter approximately one block to the East to encapsulate the Park,” Steggerda added.

Proposed plan by RNC. The diagram illustrates the reduced risk to attendees (with arrows indicating their travel route from accommodations to the Convention)

The Secret Service has defended its security plan. In response to the RNC’s criticisms, Anthony Guglielmi, Chief of Communications for the Secret Service, rebuked Steggerda for publicly disclosing details of ongoing security discussions.

“Our security perimeters are based on public safety metrics, including protective intelligence, risk and threat assessments. Our model is designed to ensure the highest level of security while minimizing impacts on the public. The agency is confident in the security plan being developed, and will continue to focus on working with our federal, state, and local partners to ensure a safe and secure event,” Guglielmi said.

“Publicly disclosing security information, as done in this letter, undermines our ability to maintain the integrity of our security plan and keep the convention, attendees, and the public safe,” Guglielmi said, adding, “demonstration zones for the convention are designated by the host city, not the Secret Service.”

New York Times reported:

But Republicans say the threat of violence has already emerged against supporters of their presumptive nominee, former President Donald J. Trump. A man set himself on fire last month in front of the Manhattan courthouse where Mr. Trump is on criminal trial, and on Wednesday, a suspicious package with two vials of blood prompted a lockdown at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington.

Some protesters have already vowed that they will not remain confined to the designated demonstration site in Milwaukee, just as some have said that they will not apply for permits in Chicago or be corralled there.

Some Milwaukee officials have also made it clear that they want the security perimeter to be as tight as possible to not interfere with the city’s summer activities, the most important economic time in Wisconsin.

Jeff Fleming, a spokesman for Milwaukee’s mayor, Cavalier Johnson, said the city was willing to listen to the concerns of convention planners. But he pushed back on Mr. Steggerda’s assertion that there was a “critical flaw” in the existing security plan.

“We recognize that the security zone is set based on the vast experience of all law enforcement partners,” he added. “If they were to say, ‘Oh, it has to be four additional blocks to the east or west,’ we would respect that decision. That is not what the law enforcement professionals are saying.”

Read the letter below:

The post RNC Clashes with Secret Service Over “Flawed” Protest Zone Plan Near GOP Convention Site appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

The highly anticipated speech by Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, was abruptly interrupted by a lone protester. While the interruption itself may have caused some disturbance, it was the protester’s message that truly shook the room. The bold words and unrelenting passion behind them left Pelosi momentarily stunned and the entire audience captivated. But what was this message that demanded to be heard? And why was it directed at the Speaker herself?

As Pelosi began to address the crowd, it was clear that she was met with eager anticipation. Her words carried weight and her presence commanded attention. However, within moments, the mood shifted as a voice from the crowd erupted in a passionate cry against the nation of Israel. The protester’s voice echoed through the room, causing many to pause and listen.

BREAKING: Harvard alum disrupts Nancy Pelosi’s speech at the Harvard Club of San Francisco’s dinner. Alumni and Bay Area community members protested the club awarding Pelosi as a “distinguished citizen” despite her war crimes and horrific complicity in the ongoing genocide of… pic.twitter.com/dzaigltwzC

— Harvard Undergraduate PSC (@HarvxrdPSC) May 21, 2024

Despite the chaotic interruption, the protester’s words were clear and deliberate. It was a plea for justice, a call for action, and a demand for change. Their message spoke of the struggles and injustices faced by the Palestinian people, and the role that the United States played in perpetuating it. It was a message that could not be ignored.

The protester’s boldness was met with resistance from some, but for many, it was a wake-up call. The words they spoke forced a moment of reflection, prompting the audience to consider the realities of the situation and their own role in it. As the chaos subsided, Pelosi herself acknowledged the protester’s right to speak out and the importance of their message.

It’s so heartwarming to see Nancy Pelosi getting called out to her face, but he should have tore up his speech at the end. Isn’t that Hammer Time in the bottom left? pic.twitter.com/tnS8zVYH3t

— • ᗰISᑕᕼIᗴᖴ • (@4Mischief) May 12, 2024

In a world where political leaders often evade difficult topics and avoid uncomfortable truths, this interruption served as a reminder that there are still individuals brave enough to speak out and demand accountability. The protester’s actions may have been disruptive, but they also brought attention to an issue that is often overlooked and ignored.

As the event continued, the audience could not help but contemplate the impact of the protester’s words. Some may have been angered by the disruption, while others may have been inspired by the bravery and determination displayed. Regardless of one’s reaction, it was clear that the message had been received and the conversation had been started.

In a time of division and political polarization, this unexpected interruption brought people together in a moment of contemplation and reflection. It was a reminder that sometimes, the loudest voices are the ones that need to be heard the most.

And as the event came to a close, the words of the protester continued to echo in the minds of those present, serving as a powerful reminder of the power of speaking truth to power.

What are YOUR thoughts?

We want to hear from you! Please comment below to join the discussion.

The post How One Protester Disrupted Nancy Pelosi’s Speech with a Powerful Message Against Israel appeared first on The Conservative Brief.

Welcome to The Gateway Pundit’s Week-in-Review with Elijah Schaffer, where he covers the top 5 stories throughout the week in around 10 minutes.

Please leave your opinions / comments on these stories below as Elijah reads every single one and appreciates your perspective.

The post Top 5 Moments of TRUMP Bronx, NY Rally 2024 – MASSIVE CROWDS! | Elijah Schaffer (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

FBI agents guard President Trump’s home during an unprecedented raid by Biden DOJ.

A never-before-seen memo has exposed a secret Obama administration program that blows up the pretext behind the Biden regime’s sinister raid on President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home back in 2022.

As Gateway Pundit readers know, the Regime authorized the unwarranted storming of the Mar-A-Lago supposedly because Trump had taken classified documents from the White House and was refusing to hand them over. They were even willing to assassinate the 45th president to obtain the materials.

But America First Legal has exposed the Regime’s claim as a lie. They released a Department of Defense (DOD) memo on Thursday from the White House unveiling that the DOD has been “operating and maintaining the information resources and information systems provided to the President, Vice President, and Executive Office of the President (EOP).”

The White House created and very likely maintains information technology that enforces Obama’s executive order so presidents can store their records on DOD servers without them getting exposed.

According to America First Legal, the Biden regime has preserved and retained all EOP records on its servers. Thus, it almost certainly has most, if not all, of Trump’s classified documents.

LOOK:

Credit: America First Legal

Section 2.01 of the memo shows that the White House Communications Agency provides core services related to unclassified records, while section 2.06 shows that the National Security Council offers classified services.

Credit: America First Legal
Credit: America First legal

Section 2.04 of the memo says that all “records created, stored, used, or transmitted by, on, or through the information resources and information systems provided to the President” were stored at the Department of Defense (DOD). As America First Legal notes, this means the White House Communications Agency and the National Security Council at the White House must provide services related to records at the DOD.

Credit; America First Legal

Read the full memo aflf-v-dod-final-response.

America First Legal Vice President Dan Epstein released the following statement:

What America First Legal has uncovered after months of investigative work paints an unfortunate picture of the rule of law in Washington. A former President of the United States – the most democratically accountable officer under our Constitution – was subject to a politicized referral concocted by the Biden White House that led to an armed FBI raid of his home – where his wife and youngest child live – and is now subject to prosecution.

And to now realize that the Biden Administration could have avoided an illegal referral process to recover records the government already possessed, that it could have used normal means to ensure that records the former president believed should be housed in his presidential library (not yet built because of the hordes of investigations aimed at silencing him) were subject to a temporary hold for purposes of Archives’ review — yet didn’t — speaks loudly to America: the law protects only those who follow the norms of one party.

Despite the Biden regime having the ability to determine what documents should be returned to the National Archives, they still gave crooked Jack Smith the authority to green-light a raid on the Mar-a-Lago and put lethal force on the table. This means the lives of Trump and his family were put in danger for bogus reasons.

So what was the Regime’s real reason for the raid?

The post Never-Before-Seen Memo Reveals Secret Obama-Era Program that Blows Up the Stated Reason Behind the Biden Regime’s Fascist Raid on Trump’s Mar-A-Lago Home appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Thousands of New Yorkers came out Thursday to see President Trump in the Bronx. It was historic.

THOUSANDS of New Yorkers turned out to see President Trump in the Bronx on Thursday.

** The Gateway Pundit covered the pre-rally crowd live earlier today.

The line to see President Trump in the Bronx was several blocks long.

Via Savannah Hernandez.

BREAKING: Local Bronx officials are estimating that the crowd at Trump’s rally to be between 25k- 30K. The number is continuing to rise. The original capacity was 3,500.

pic.twitter.com/dib8iLM8Fw

— Ian Jaeger (@IanJaeger29) May 23, 2024

Crowd estimates were as high as 25,000 to 30,000 supporters.

More crowd shots via the local Young Republicans Club.

MASSIVE CROWD for the Trump BRONX rally pic.twitter.com/kp63dNsp78

— Trump.AI (@Obielicious) May 23, 2024

The line was several blocks long – in the Bronx!

This is awesome! Look at this crowd in S. Bronx. Trump 2024! pic.twitter.com/vTbIxtpxZk

— (@Ann_Lilyflower) May 23, 2024

The demon lady was there and black Trump supporters totally demolished her.

JUST IN: Notorious liberal troll SCHOOLED by MAGA RAPPER Forgiato Blow and a group of Bronx Trump supporters after she tries to label them Racist..

THIS WINS THE INTERNET.. https://t.co/4hgc7QfiXL pic.twitter.com/XL3gYUwu58

— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) May 23, 2024

The post CROWD SHOTS From The Bronx Trump Rally Are AMAZING – Black-Hispanic Attendance Impressive – Line Goes On for Blocks (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Long gone are the days when Ukraine was at least winning the war on the western news sites’ headlines.

Now, slowly but surely, the MSM has had to face the fact that the outmanned, outgunned and outmaneuvered Ukrainian forces will not win this war on the battlefield, will not get back to pre-war borders, much less reincorporate the Crimean peninsula.

And up until a minute ago, to state the obvious fact that Ukraine will have to cede territory during peace negotiations with Russia got you branded as a ‘Kremlin stooge’ or worse, and only the most courageous politicians, such as Hungarian Viktor Orbán, Slovak Robert Fico as well as American Donald Trump, dared utter these words.

But now, that exact same unavoidable fact has been splashed on ABC News, and voiced by a frontline leader from the Ukrainian army – someone who can’t be shaded as a ‘Vladimir Putin’s shill’.

We are talking about the leader of Ukraine’s 57th Motorized Brigade, an infantry unit battling the new Russian offensive North of Kharkov.

Colonel Oleksandr Bakulin was interviewed by ABC News in the presence of a ‘senior Army leader’ at a secret location.

I’m stressing this fact because I believe it shows that Bakulin has not ‘gone rogue’ in the surprising thing he said.

The situation in the Northern Kharkiv region is ‘quite difficult’, Bakulin says, but Ukrainians ‘managed to slow down the enemy’.

(Of course, as reinforcements for North, Kleesheva, Andreevka and other localities further south are falling prey to Russian advances – which was always Moscow’s plan.)

Furthermore, Bakulin said that the Russians still have reserves [in Belgorod near Kharkov] and are poised to bring these reserves into the battle when the time is ripe.

ABC News reported:

“’We do understand how crucial this [US] aid is’, Bakulin said. ‘The whole the world understands. Yes, our soldiers are brave and courageous, but without this aid, these weapons, shells, everything, without this we would not be able to keep fighting in a war against Russia, just because we are way smaller than Russia‘.”

Bakulin called the Ukrainian army retreating ‘a normal part of the ebb and flow of warfare’. But he introduces the ‘novel’ idea that ‘Ukraine has already won’.

“Despite the advances made but the Russians, he pushed back at the idea that Ukraine is losing the war, saying, ‘I personally think that we have already won this war. The question is at what point it is going to end, and at what stage’.

Bakulin said he predicts that in the end this war will be ended by a deal, saying, ‘Every war ends in peace talks and deals’.”

This is unprecedented, and introduces the new narrative: by merely surviving the war, Ukraine wins.

But Bakulin wasn’t done: he accepted that territory will need to be given up during negotiations, citing the experience of nearby Finland.

“’Little Finland once fought against big USSR’, Bakulin said. ‘Yes, it lost some territories. But it still does exist as a country and Russia doesn’t even look in that direction. We are in a similar position, but I hope we will not lose our land’.”

Now, let me reming you that a ‘senior Army leader’ was present at the interview, showing that this line of narrative ‘Ukraine wins the war merely by surviving’, has authorization to be floated.

“The war is far from over and the lack of heavy weaponry is still operationally critical. He put it succinctly when asked about the casualties caused by the lack of armaments, saying ‘The sweat of the artillery soldiers saves the blood of the infantry soldiers. But if there is only sweat without the shells, then infantry soldiers pay it with their blood’.”

Bakulin’s interview it’s just a cope, but also introduces a new ‘objective’ that is actually perfectly obtainable.

Let’s see if this will become the new mantra: ‘Ukraine already won’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read more:

UKRAINE DARKNESS: Alcohol and Drug Abuse Spike Among the Collapsing Defenders

 

The post Ukrainian Frontline Colonel Admits Country Will Have To Cede Territories to Russia in Peace Negotiations – Calls It ‘A Victory’ appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Screenshot: WBNS

RINO Governor Mike DeWine (R-OH) has called for a special legislative session aimed at circumventing state laws to place Joe Biden on the November ballot, despite clear registration failures by the Democratic Party.

This decision comes after Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose issued a stark warning to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) regarding their non-compliance with Ohio’s stringent nomination laws.

The Gateway Pundit reported that the Ohio law mandates that presidential candidates be officially nominated at least 90 days before the election, setting this year’s deadline at August 7.

However, the Democratic National Convention is slated for August 19-22, well past this cutoff. May 9 was the deadline for the Ohio lawmakers to take some action.

LaRose emphasized his commitment to uphold the law, noting that without a legal remedy or adjustment by the Democrats themselves, their nominee would be excluded from the ballot as per the stipulated regulations.

“I’ve said from here to Colorado that it’s in the best interest of voters to have a choice in the race for president. I’m also duty-bound to follow the law as Ohio’s chief elections officer,” LaRose wrote.

“As it stands today, the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee will not be on the Ohio ballot. That is not my choice. It’s due to a conflict in the law created by the party, and the party has so far offered no legally acceptable remedy,”

“The Ohio House speaker said today there won’t be a legislative solution, so I’ve sent a letter to [Ohio Dems] chair seeking (again) a solution that upholds the law and respects the voters. I trust they’ll act quickly,” LaRose said on Wednesday.

The letter sent to Democratic leadership reads, “The conflict between the August 7, 2024 certification deadline and the date of your party’s nominating convention is well established. In my correspondence to you dated April 5, 2024, I offered two possible remedies: a change in the date by which your party formally nominates a presidential candidate or action by the Ohio General Assembly to create an exception to this statutory requirement. Today, the Speaker of the Ohio House told members of the media there would not be a legislative solution, as there is “just not the will to do that from the Legislature.”

“With a legislative remedy taken off the table, I must remind you that the deadline is fast approaching, and the matter remains unresolved. Unless your party plans to comply with the statutory deadline, I am duty-bound to instruct boards of elections to begin preparing ballots that do not include the Democratic Party’s nominees for president and vice president of the United States,” it added.

However, the backstabbing RINO governor criticized the Republican-led Ohio House for not passing legislation that would amend this requirement, thereby facilitating Biden’s appearance on the ballot.

“The Senate has passed several bills that would remedy this situation. However, the House of Representatives has failed to do this. The legislature had a session yesterday and again failed to take any action. This is simply unacceptable,” said the RINO governor.

“Ohio is running out of time to get Joe Biden, the sitting President of the United States on the ballot this fall. Failing to do so is simply not acceptable. This is a ridiculous, this is an absurd situation,” he added.

“Therefore, tonight, pursuant to Article 3, Section 8 of the Ohio Constitution, I am calling a special session of the Ohio General Assembly to begin this coming Tuesday, May 28th. The purpose of this session will be for the General Assembly to pass legislation ensuring that both major presidential candidates will be on the Ohio ballot in November, as well as legislation that would prohibit campaign spending by foreign nationals,” DeWine announced.

It’s the first special session called in Ohio since 2004, per WLWT. This is a slap in the face to every Republican in Ohio. While Democrats are busy filing lawsuits and indicting former President Donald Trump to keep him off state ballots, Governor DeWine is bending over backward to accommodate Biden.

WATCH:

The post RINO Ohio Governor Mike DeWine Betrays GOP — Calls Special Session to Include Biden in the November Presidential Ballot Despite Democrats’ Registration Failures appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Earlier this year, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson tried to sever the city’s contract with ShotSpotter, a system that lets authorities know where a gunshot has occurred. People on the left convinced Johnson that the system was somehow racist.

Now the city council in Chicago has defied the mayor and even members of his own party are saying that they want the system back in place.

Johnson was asked about this by the media and seemed stunned.

WTTW News reports:

City Council Votes 34-14 to Endorse Effort to Overturn Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Decision to Scrap ShotSpotter

The Chicago City Council voted 34-14 on Wednesday to endorse an effort to overturn Mayor Brandon Johnson’s decision to scrap the city’s use of ShotSpotter after an intense debate over the gunshot detection system.

The vote represented a significant rebuke of Johnson and the central promise of his campaign for mayor, which vowed to address the root causes of crime and violence rather than focusing on law enforcement.

The order calls for a City Council vote before ShotSpotter is removed from any Chicago ward and requires the Johnson administration to provide alderpeople with a host of data generated by the ShotSpotter system before the city’s contract with SoundThinking expires on Nov. 22.

Johnson could veto the order, which he has said is unlawful. However, two-thirds of the City Council voted in favor of it, raising the possibility that the City Council could override a mayoral veto, which has never happened in Chicago history.

The order approved by the City Council said Johnson “usurped the will of the City Council and their ability to represent constituents” by canceling the city’s contract with SoundThinking, which operates the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system.

Watch this exchange between Johnson and the press:

Mayor Brandon Johnson ended Chicago’s contract with ShotSpotter after activists complained that the gunshot-detection technology is racist.

City Council just voted to REINSTATE it, including many loyal Democrats.

Johnson is not happy about it: pic.twitter.com/Fazp6aZqxH

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 23, 2024

Johnson should read the room. People in Chicago want to feel safe.

The post Chicago City Council Defies Mayor Johnson’s Effort to Drop Gunshot Detection System – Even Democrats Vote Against Him appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

God help us, they found another flag.

The typing classes of these United States have for about a week been obsessing about affairs vexillological at the residences of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Associate Justice Samuel Alito. The first report: Following a dispute with neighbors, Mrs. Alito flew an upside-down American flag outside their Alexandria home. Hysteria ensued. Flying an American flag upside-down, as everyone knows, is a dangerous far-right behavior, a middle step on the steep stairwell down to really deviant political behaviors, like George Lincoln Rockwellism and wearing pastel shorts. (Never mind that the upside-down American flag is a staple of the far-left visual vocabulary, particularly the anti-war movement.)

Then the second flag hit. It was discovered by intrepid investigators at the New York Times that the Alitos were accustomed to fly the Pine Tree Flag outside their New Jersey beach residence, along with a Long Island flag (who knew they had a flag?) and, pathetically, a Philadelphia Phillies flag. As everyone knows, the Pine Tree Flag, a Revolution-era banner that bears—you guessed it—a pine tree and the slogan “AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN,” is farther than far right. It’s associated with insurrection. A couple Pine Tree Flags were at the January 6 Capitol riot, you see—really dangerous stuff.

Cards on the table: I have a large Pine Tree Flag hanging in my home office, along with a college banner, a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and a signed photograph of Sweet Lou Piniella. You can see it if you dig up one of my few television appearances. (Very few—my screen presence has been compared to that of Osama bin Laden and Don Segretti. It’s not my medium.) So I’ve got a little bit of personal interest in the crackling electricity flying through the discursive atmosphere, lest I find myself on the business end of a truth and reconciliation process in the third or fourth Biden term.

The modern left just has a thing about flags, especially historical flags. A similar hysteria has attended the Gadsden Flag off and on since at least the Tea Party movement era. At various points in the Trump era, we have been forced to endure a national conversation about whether decking things out with the stars and stripes is an expression of racism and dangerous atavistic aggression. (Having lived abroad, I found the premise particularly puzzling—Americans are fairly restrained in their use of the national flag as a decorative element. In Turkey, any flat surface that doesn’t move too fast is plastered in white crescents on crimson.) Of course, they don’t seem to mind Ukrainian flags or rainbow flags—but that’s a story for another time. 

It hasn’t always been so. Among my other pieces of valued political memorabilia—“Italians for Nixon” and “Full Native Employment” buttons, my father’s ID badge from his time a contractor for the 1992 vice presidential transition—I have a curious yellow button bearing the Gadsden Flag design and the name of the People’s Bicentennial Commission. The PBC was an SDS-adjacent group notionally devoted to coming up with a left-wing alternative to the establishment celebrations of the national bicentenary. They’re best known for disrupting Gerald Ford’s 1975 appearance at the Concord battlefield with an anti-war demonstration. 

Perhaps the defining generational change in leftist rhetoric is its relation to the American project. Older leftist endeavors took their stand on firmly American principles and presented themselves as a continuation of the American project. The SDS itself grew out of the ad hoc free speech movement at the University of California, Berkeley. The entire Whole Earth Catalog–adjacent counterculture was suffused with a kind of Americanism, appealing particularly to the individualism of the frontier. Organs like the PBC had no qualms about decking themselves out with the symbols of the American experience, even the bad old Gadsden Flag. The modern left—you might call it the New New Left—prefers a disruptive hermeneutic hostile to the traditional symbols of American piety. 

As a partisan, I should cheer this development. The American people, whatever their other preferences, still seem to like America. If the right seems to be the only shop in town that is offering a broadly pro-American stance, well, that seems good for the right’s political prospects. The Old New Left was successful in large part because it was able to integrate itself into the American mainstream, particularly at the universities and other commanding heights of American culture. But it seems bad for the nation that one of the major political tendencies is increasingly invested in attacking the nation itself, and its historical symbols.

The PBC was far more politically radical than the New York Times editorial board, as were its allied groups. Few people think the nation would have been better off if the SDS or the Weathermen had come to political power. But it is difficult not to wistfully sift through a box of memorabilia and think we were better off, somehow, when we had a shared symbolic vocabulary, when we all thought that America, for its warts, was a thing worth celebrating in itself.

And, you know, it’s a cool flag. We’d like to see more of that kind of thing, not less.

The post The Alito Flag Furor Shows the Left’s Generational Change appeared first on The American Conservative.

Falsity defines our politics.

In 1961, the scholar and diplomat George F. Kennan observed that

There is nothing in nature more egocentric than the embattled democracy.  It soon becomes the victim of its own war propaganda.  It then tends to attach to its own cause an absolute value which distorts its own vision to everything else.  Its enemy becomes the embodiment of all evil.  Its own side is the center of all value. 

In the realm of domestic politics, we are told that “our democracy is at stake” by politicians and prosecutors who are seeking, in the manner of Middle Eastern or African potentates, to jail the leader of the political opposition. As such, the untruth of  what our current overlords claim about the allegedly perilous state of our democracy is clear enough.

A similar falsity characterizes America and its relations with the world. 

In a 2022 speech in Warsaw, President Biden declared,

We are engaged anew in a great battle for freedom; A battle between democracy and autocracy. Between liberty and repression; This battle will not be won in days or months either. We need to steel ourselves for the long fight ahead.

The framing of international politics as a zero-sum battle between democracy and autocracy is a fairly new innovation, but it is easily disprovable—one need only look at Washington’s most treasured partners, such as Ukraine’s Zelensky (who has outlawed 11 opposition parties and canceled the presidential election in his country, citing the exigencies of wartime), or the murderous Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, or Israel’s Netanyahu, whose behavior hardly needs expounding upon.

The idea that the world is now riven between two camps is a purely elite project—one that, as polling data indicates, the American people are not buying. Nevertheless, over the past several years, our betters in the legacy and corporate media have conjured up a steady stream of what might be called democratic ideation such as this piece by the neoconservative publicist Anne Applebaum. 

In an essay titled Liberal Democracy is Worth a Fight, Applebaum, discussing the chaotic, ill-planned evacuation from Afghanistan observed, “Rarely is the contest between “open” and “closed” societies, between democracy and dictatorship, between freedom and autocracy so crystal clear; rarely has the victory of the latter over the former been so rapid or so complete.” 

Applebaum’s partner in “thought,” the former Ambassador Michael McFaul, has likewise written, “In the global struggle between democracy and dictatorship, and the fight for a peaceful Europe, Ukraine is on the front lines—not unlike West Germany during the Cold War.” 

The portrayal of what, to be sure, are serious strategic and political differences between rival states as a worldwide struggle serves the purposes of legacy media conglomerates, the defense industry, and the NGO-humanitarian complex in the greater Washington-area, but little else. Linking Donald Trump’s MAGA movement to Hungary’s Viktor Orban, Germany’s Alternative for Germany, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, and ultimately to the “Wizard of the Kremlin” is little more than a journalistic construction—and a flimsy one at that: After all, no NAFTA, no MAGA. 

It was, we should not forget, the conscious, well-planned, policy choices of the American neoliberal elite that brought about Trump. It wasn’t a Eurasian despot who convinced Bill Clinton to gut the American middle- and working-classes by following the advice of Robert Rubin and Larry Summers. Nor was it at the behest of the Kremlin or the Chinese Communist Party that the U.S. Department of Justice, under President George W. Bush, turned a blind eye toward the activities of the Sackler crime family, thereby consigning hundreds of thousands of Americans to early graves. And so, to (further) distract from the culpability of our elites for the acute distress that has had its grip on the nation since 2008, a new global crusade has been dreamt up.

In addition to its obvious hypocrisy, another of the many problems with the “democracy vs. autocracy” framing of international politics is that it is far too expansive, which  renders it all the more dangerous. Recall that during the first Cold War, the battle lines were drawn between communism and anti-communism. Generally speaking, the U.S. threw its support behind any type of regime (democratic, monarchical, dictatorial, oligarchical, whatever)  as long as it was not hospitable to the USSR. The gift of ally-ship was granted as long as a state opposed (or said it did) the communist system—it was, in the philosophical sense of the word, negative.

Today, a state must meet positive requirements to be considered for membership in the “democracies” club—states, even ones that have their democratic credentials in order, must now obey specific diktats emanating out of Washington. That this is so becomes clear enough when one considers the U.S. response to Georgia’s new Foreign Agents law (covered here in greater detail) which requires NGOs and “independent” media outlets that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from outside the country to register as organizations “bearing the interests of a foreign power.” Sensible enough—unless of course your “civil society” group is in the pocket of, say, USAID, NED, IRI, the Helsinki Commission or any number of other U.S. government or public-private nonprofits based in Washington.

All too predictably, the law set off a hysterical reaction by the Biden State Department, with Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien rushing to Tbilisi to threaten sanctions on those deemed “responsible” for the bill’s passage. Not to be outdone, the White House press secretary issued a none-too-veiled threat from the podium, saying that the passage of the foreign agents will, “Compel us to fundamentally reassess our relationship with Georgia.”

Ultimately, the “democracy vs. autocracy”  framework will bring us to no good end—serving only as a pretext for intervention against both friend and foe alike.

The post The ‘Global Struggle For Democracy’ is Nothing of the Sort appeared first on The American Conservative.