Victor Davis Hanson engages in the age old practice of frightening the partisans, a practice not unique to conservatives:
If Democrats pick up both seats, first anticipate the end of the Senate filibuster. With its disappearance after 180 years will go the last check on hard-Left power. Then expect a 15-person Supreme Court. With the end of that 151-year tradition will come the birth of a new “living” and fluid Constitution.
Watch for novel efforts, by hook or crook, to navigate around the amendment process of the U.S. Constitution to end the 233-year-old Electoral College. With all the reins of power, perhaps the Left will figure out a way, on Obama’s prior prompting, to admit two new states (and thus four more reliably Democratic senators).
Don’t count out efforts to see congressional legislation to override state legislatures’ voting laws and enforce on the states lunatic new protocols of the sort we saw this November. The effort will be to “broaden” the electorate, discourage “voter suppression,” and enhance “equity and inclusion” — everything from enfranchising 17-year-old voters, ex-felons, and legal non-citizen residents to mandated early and mail-in voting and rules against requiring an ID to vote.
Georgia’s outcome will determine whether federal legislation will likely smother gun rights akin to Europe’s restrictions, strangle the First Amendment to prevent “hate speech,” and re-create an open border and with it hundreds of thousands of new illegal aliens — future progressive constituents all in need of amnesties. Knocking down the wall seems absurd, but such nihilism may offer powerful iconic and psychological relief to the unhinged Trump-hating Left and their Never Trump allies. [National Review]
With nary a mention of the extremism and incompetency displayed by the Trump Administration. Balance, shmalance, eh?
If the Democrats do win the Georgia Senate races – a feat I consider unlikely but not outside the realm of possibility, especially given the recent concerted effort of the Georgia GOP to melt down, as noted by Hanson’s colleague Rich Lowry – then this will be an opportunity for the conservative reader to evaluate their pundits and leadership. I say both because Hanson’s piece is not an outlier, but a nearly iconic example of how both conservative categories manipulate their readers.
As I was saying, the first step is to either print out Hanson’s article, or, preferably, extract from it all of his prophecies of doom, and print those out. Find a magnet and place it prominently on your refrigerator. Now, the important part: as each prophecy is fulfilled, put a checkmark next to it. You’re always passing by the refrigerator, so you’ll often be reminded of the burning skies that must surely be descending upon you.
At the end of 2022 or, if you feel the Democrats need more time, 2024, tot up all the fulfilled prophecies. For those so checkmarked, if any, evaluate whether the United States is a smoking ruin.
Or just seems to be the same, or even better.
The conservatives love to manipulate emotions, so it’s important to be methodical when examining their claims. Hey, I’ll be even-handed – most political parties manipulate emotions, and, while subjects differ – libertarians find taxation terrifying, but don’t seem to care much about abortion, which can obsess both Democrats and Republicans – the methods are often the same.
The question is whether the facts on the ground match the shrieks of apocalypse in the pages of the writers and leaders.
And then whether the audience has the intellectual honesty to demand change, or leave.
