Our friend Neil Kumar conducted a bold and energetic campaign in the Arkansas primary elections for a Republican nomination to a U.S. House seat. Not unexpectedly, he lost.  Here is his official statement.

What is most interesting about this matter is the behaviour of Establishment Republicans, confirming how afraid they are of ideas and issues.  Republicans must maintain their “respectability.”   They must never allow a real issue to  intrude into public discussion.  That might make the clueless voters restless and threaten their profit and prestige.  Democrats are not afraid of issues.  That is why Republicans are utterly useless and  always have to be for the latest Democrat fad, just respectably  less so.

Kumar’s incumbent Republican opponent is an Empty Suit carbon copy of most Republican members of Congress.  Kumar brought up the need for an immigration moratorium. All the opponent could say is that “America is a nation of immigrants,” a half-truth slogan from early in the previous century. He added that if immigration is cut down “no fresh ideas, no new blood can come into this country.”

Everything this fellow had to say is meaningless words invented by PR men of the central Republican party.  This man has never given one minute’s thought to the issue that Kumar brought up or probably any other real issue.  Or given one minute’s thought to what his country needs to address.  That might be controversial and upset the comfortable status quo.  Obviously the current immigration situation is unprecedented in American history, a new issue,  and cannot be answered with pleasant bromides of earlier time.  And are Americans incapable of fresh ideas and have to be continually enlightened by foreigners?   Must we be forever a country of immigrants and not a real country?  And what about the morality of continually robbing poor countries of their educated people?  Ask the growing company of unemployed Americans. Foreign tech people are no better than Americans.  They have no new ideas—they are just cheaper and more docile.    

A trusted friend recently asked if I had seen the film “The Siege of Ruby Ridge.”  I had not before but took the opportunity to do so.  Considering that Hollywood is a lie factory, the film seems fairly honest, as far as one can tell.

Let’s always remember the facts.  Federal agents, in a clear case of entrapment, made a charge against Randy Weaver in an attempt to coerce him to testify against others, which he refused.  He failed to comply with an  order to appear in federal court, knowing that he would be imprisoned or coerced.

Six Federal marshals, heavily armed and in camo and body armor, invaded the Weaver’s land.  The did not announce themselves as law officers on legitimate duty.  One agent blew a hole in the back of the Weavers’ 14-year-old son  as he was retreating.  A friend living with the Weavers killed the shooter. 

The death of a federal officer incited even more brutal reprisal.  The Weaver homestead was soon surrounded and besieged by 200  “law officers”  from six different agencies, with armoured vehicles.  Federal officials changed the rules of engagement to allow their people to kill on sight.  A foreign mercenary, hired and trained by the U.S. government, firing from concealment, murdered Vicki Weaver. 

Remember:  Mrs. Weaver, an American woman against whom there were no charges, was standing in the doorway of her home holding her baby when she was murdered by the U.S. government.  It is hard to imagine any more flagrant abuse of citizens by federal power. In a sane and free  society Vicki Weaver would have a monument and a commemorative postage stamp.  In later court testimony, the assassin seemed satisfied with his act.

The siege continued for a week.   Besieged were Randy Weaver and his friend, both wounded, and three little girls, one an infant.  The besieged finally surrendered and Weaver was later exonerated in court.  None of the federal murderers received any punishment.

Along with the later murders by federal agents  at Waco, the truth ought to have sunk in.  Federal agents can freely kill innocent people if the people have been demonized by the press as right wing.  If you are a normal American, an unwoke and disobedient  “deplorable” as Hillary Clinton put it, or one of Obama’s contemptible people who cling to their guns and Bibles, remember you are fair game.

The Library of Congress sells reproductions of the “three most important” American historical documents: The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Emancipation Proclamation.  The first two are about self-government of the people.  The third is an unconstitutional executive order designed to encourage murder of Americans who did not obey federal power under the Republican party.  It did not free a single person.

Lightfoot Lindsay Graham is at it again. He now and then sends out slick multicoloured mailings to remind South Carolinians what a brave and stalwart conservative he is. I have noticed that these promotions have become less frequent lately. Perhaps because his great funder, the gambling king Adelson, has passed away.

In the latest he reminds us that he stood valiantly against the recent unqualified Supreme Court appointment. Of course it was going to pass anyway. But his latest bold gesture was a recommendation for the murder of the Russian leader who has thwarted the U.S. war-making Deep State. Need we say that this pseudo-macho posturing is not only beneath the dignity of a Senator but also an illustration of a shallow adolescent mind.

Your President, sworn to faithfully execute the laws and defend the Union, has now released into “your country” enough illegal aliens to outnumber the voting population of several States.
 
During the recent French elections I was struck by an ad for the pro-immigration forces. A comely young African woman asks a candidate: “Would you oppose someone like me coming to France for a better life?” This was considered a definitive putdown of a candidate opposed to mass immigration. Who but a bad person could possibly oppose someone wanting to improve his or her life?

This illustrates a major defect in our public discourse these days. The whole statement is momentary, personal, and emotional. Larger issues and time frame do not even appear relevant. What is France? Is it a resource for any foreigner who wants to improve their life? What does this mean for the French people, many of whom would like to improve their lives? Why doesn’t this educated person do something to improve the life of her benighted country rather than become a parasite on another people?

His father was a dashing cavalry officer in the struggle to free the colonies from the British.  Two uncles signed the Declaration of Independence.  His wife was the granddaughter of Martha Washington.

At West Point he was second in his class with an outstanding record of no demerits.  His brilliant engineering work was credited with saving St. Louis from destructive floods.  In the war with Mexico he was chief of engineers on the staff of the general commanding the expeditionary force deep in Mexico and carried out vital and dangerous missions.

As commandant at West Point he improved the institution, giving the cadets an environment of professionalism and honour.  In the period before the war between the States he was commanding cavalry on the dangerous Texas frontier.

When division became inevitable with the election of an aggressively sectional President, he was offered  the supreme command of the forces of the U.S. government to put down “the rebellion,” an opportunity that could lead to fame, wealth, and even the Presidency.  The crafty politicians made the offer indirectly so they could deny it if he refused, which they did.  A “Union” held together by bayonets did not meet his idea of the “Union” that his folks had done so much to create.

He went home to defend his folks, which he did with world-class skill.  He won epic battles again and again with greatly inferior numbers and resources.  In sharp contrast to high-living Northern generals with large staffs and lavishly uniformed escorts, he lived the simple life of a soldier in the field. He was admired around the world and so valued by his soldiers that they blocked him from advancing into the line of fire.  

When defeat was inevitable, he quietly accepted surrender and returned to his family as a paroled prisoner of war and a non-citizen of a country which his people had done so much to  create.  He might have dispersed his men to carry on a guerilla war that could have lasted for years but he knew that his Southern people would continue to suffer with that course.  

His family home had been stolen and maliciously turned into a cemetery for his enemies, but  his fame brought offers of a gift of an English estate and  efforts of businessmen to use his name that would have made him rich. Instead, he accepted a meager salary as president of a small, struggling college. His only hesitation in accepting was fear that he might bring  persecution on the college. 

At Washington College, which in time would become Washington and LEE University, he expanded the curriculum in useful directions and installed a notable honour code.  He urged young men to quietly work at rebuilding the South.  He created what was once known as LEE Chapel, where his final resting place is being hidden from visitors.

President Truman had an equestrian painting of Lee and Jackson in the front lobby of his Presidential Library.  President Eisenhower had Lee’s portrait in the Oval Office, defended him vigorously, and commissioned a nuclear submarine, the Robert E. Lee.  Churchill described him as among the greatest captains in the long history of the English-speaking people.

Almost 20 years after the war, with thousands of small contributions from an impoverished people, was made a statue for Monument Avenue in the city that he had defended.  It was not only a magnificent memorial but also a significant work of art.  Hundreds of people volunteered labour in the erection.  Hundreds of former soldiers slept on the grass around the monument the night before the dedication. The dedication drew the greatest crowd ever seen in the city, and it included African Americans and former Union soldiers.

Almost all our large cities are now controlled by ignorant, often corrupt, prancing politicians.  In Richmond they got rid of the monument—not just took it down but destroyed it beyond rescue.  And all the monuments to Lee’s famous lieutenants as well as that of the great scientist Matthew Maury, “the Pathfinder of the Seas," were treated likewise.
 
Monument Avenue is now a memorial to a tennis player who died of AIDS.  It would be interesting to know what some intelligent visitor from space or from a future culture would make of this. Perhaps he would sense the petty malice of people who were incapable of building but delighted in tearing down.

Then we have a chorus of high-ranking generals chirping  about “Lee the traitor.”  These men are not soldiers, merely successful in climbing the greasy bureaucratic pole. They are too ignorant of history to understand that the nature of the Union was the issue of the war. They have no merit in accomplishment, intellect, or character. They are only pygmies flopping around in the shoes of better men.

Lee never swore an oath to the U.S. government.  He, like everyone, swore to uphold and defend the Constitution for the United States.  He did that all his life.  He swore no oath to defend the Republican politicians who gained control of the government apparatus. And the Constitution defines treason as “making war against the States,” something which he fought bravely against. 

Vladimir Putin is a statesman, a patriot, a Christian, and an anti-Communist.  Joseph Biden is none of these things.  A statesman is a leader who takes a long range view of his country’s welfare.  Biden is a spectacularly short-sighted and incompetent leader.  A patriot loves his people.  Biden is destroying his people with open borders.  Putin, it seems, is a serious Orthodox Christian.  Biden pretends to be a Christian while supporting abortion.  Putin has helped to hold back Communism in his country.  Biden supports propagation of  the Communist doctrine of Critical Race Theory. 

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a bill that bans discrimination against kinky hair and dreadlocks. Every Democrat in the House and 14 Republicans voted for it.  Don’t the peoples’ representatives in the government of  a worldwide empire have something better to do?  War, economy, social deterioration? Does the Constitution give them authority to legislate about hair?

What would Washington or Jefferson think about this?  Or Andy Jackson or Teddy Roosevelt?  Or even Harry Truman or Eisenhower?

The ordinary unimportant citizens arrested at Charlottesville and in the January 6 “insurrection”  have been brutally treated by government authorities.  Every philosopher of the past who wrote in defense of liberty and republican government has said that such oppression of ordinary folks is a sure sign of a corrupt and tyrannical government.  Oppressing dissenting citizens is  a way in which bad governments intimidate other possible dissenters.  Trump might use a little of his wealth to help such people, most of whom are his voters, but doubtless his son-in-law would not approve. 

Much of the American criminal justice system, down to the local level, is now in the control of a corrupt foreign billionaire named George Soros.  Soros has previously been busy buying the undermining of various European governments.  He has bankrolled the campaigns of a number of woke people to get elected or appointed as prosecutors across the country.  These people are now in effect Soros employees rather than representatives of law enforcement in their communities. They have been systematically releasing violent minority criminals back into society.

Our society is so far beyond its moorings that we might question whether there is any America as we used to know it.  And how useless to ask what Washington or Jefferson would think of us now.

Our only hope in an  evil  regime is that it will become so absurdly excessive in its abuses that there will be a reaction.  That is the way Reconstruction was ended.  After 10 years of tyranny and corruption the Northern public became disgusted with the whole thing and gave it up.   However, with apparently near half the population delusional and the technique of stealing elections now perfected, relief seems unlikely.

The black mayor of Richmond who vandalised Monument Avenue now wants to make Richmond into a “casino city.”

Did the globally mandated mask wearing save a single life?

Joe Biden is a museum quality specimen of a political hack.  He has fed at the federal trough for decades, representing a rotten borough, without ever having a real thought about what is right for his country.  He always says what he thinks  people want to hear.  True or false or concern for the consequences never  comes into it.  Founding Americans would weep with sorrow at such a place-holder ruling the people.

Politics is not the realm of doing good.  Millions of insipid, shallow Americans seem to believe that foolishness.  Politics is the realm of vanity, greed, and deceit.

The armed conflict now going on:  One side is led by a statesman and a patriot.  A statesman has a realistic and long term view  of the best interest of his people.  Putin is a statesman and a patriot.  Joe Biden and his accomplices are neither.  They have a puerile self-referential view of the world, are seriously shallow and ignorant of history.  What else explains a claim that “diversity” strengthens the armed forces, against all the evidence of history?  Putin is not a Communist---too smart and experienced for that.  Reverse of the Cold War, Biden and his henchmen are Communists.  They push Critical Race Theory, a form of Marxism.

​In general, one should not criticise and weaken one’s country in time of war.  However, the U.S. is not at war and no constitutional declaration has been passed.  The U.S. government is illegally making war through third parties, based in part on delusional theories of “global democracy.”  This calls for the opposition of every patriot who loves his real country and people. 

Is it not a little odd that people today are getting praise and profit from declaring themselves against slavery, which ended more than a century and a half and five or six generations ago?  Such people, of course, use “slavery” as a weaponised word.  They have no knowledge, understanding, or interest in what life was actually like for black and white Americans in past times.

Heaven knows, Donald Trump has his defects, but he is at least a recognisable American man. Joe Biden is---and always has been---a mannikin without any intellectual or moral substance.  Americans, lifelong victims of advertising, have only an adolescent aptitude for judging the character of potential leaders.  Else Biden would never have risen beyond city council.

Speaking of character, if Americans had any judgment Anthony Fauci would never have become a celebrity and a  guru.  Just a little observation reveals that he is a bad man, the kind of corrupt and self-serving official that historically always appears in degenerating governments.  Americans and our press never ask obvious questions.  What did this man ever do to deserve his high position?  Why is he still exercising power 15 years after retirement age?

Am I the only one who sees the futility of protesting the ongoing destruction of American history we are experiencing?  That is the history of a declining people.  A new people needs a new history to justify their rule.  We have had a President for eight years who had a foreign father.  We have a Vice-President with two foreign parents and many top people today have similar backgrounds.  Why should they care about the history of old Americans?  Their only use for  history, since they have no memorable accomplishments of their own, is as a weapon against the former ruling people because of their alleged past evils.  The America of Washington and Adams, even of Eisenhower and Reagan, no longer exists and its history is alien to our present rulers.  

Many, many years ago, in my callow and misspent youth, I had a lapel button that said:  “Don’t let them immanentize the eschaton.” This was a pretty good saying and conversation starter despite the fact, as I recall, that it was popularized by the intellectually shallow poseur William Buckley.

The saying was an  over-simplified reference to the vast, erudite, and dense writings of Eric Voegelin. Reduced shamefully to the simplest terms, immanentizing the eschaton is an attempt to bring Heaven to earth by the actions of men.  For Christian civilization the given universe is a divine design which includes the human soul.  Immanentising the eschaton  attempts to make men into gods who control history and create a perfect regime according to their ideological dreams. This is, of course, impossible.  Man cannot re-create himself and basic  human nature is a reality in all times and places.  The attempt violates the order of the universe and indicates disorder in the minds of men and in society.  In creating the future perfect world of which they dream, men reject reality in favour   of an imaginary, impossible  world.

This, according to Voegelin, is the characteristic condition of “modernity,”  the defects of which have brought us Communism, Nazism, progressivism, the rejection of traditional wisdom, moral dissolution, and a host of other ills.  The ultimate finish of an attempt to create a dream world is tyranny---the criminalization of dissent followed by  the firing squad.  Failure to create the “new man”  does not deter the progressive, it merely causes him to double down---the inevitable end of which is force against dissidents. We are seeing that now.

Our present American society with Cultural Marxism seems to be progressing toward that end, in some ways even more damaging than Bolshevism.   

The Dream World holds sway.   

The evidence is overwhelming.

Reckonin readers should be aware that our Webmaster, Anne Wilson Smith, has just published an important book,  Charlottesville Untold. It is a thoroughly researched and well-written account of what really happened at the famous Charlottesville event of August 2017.  Contrary to the media’s made-up story and the politicians’ bandwagon comments, it was not a “deadly white supremacist riot.”  It was a classic exercise of anarcho-tyranny in which city and state officials conspired with violent leftist mobs to prevent people who had come to honour General Lee’s monument from assembling and speaking.  It in some ways it anticipated January 6, except in this case it was a direct suppression of free speech.  The book is available at amazon and other places.  The work has already attracted considerable favourable attention and the author has been interviewed on Dissident Mama and Conversation that Matter.  Our webmaster has previously published a children’s  book on Robert E. Lee.

It is perhaps worth noting that we Southerners are not totally defamed and excluded everywhere. Brit superstar Daniel Craig (the latest 007) in a recent film, “Knives Out,” plays his part with a cultured Southern accent.  He is a highly intelligent lead character and does the accent pretty well.  There seems no particular reason for the admirable character to be a Southerner. 

​Our Founding Fathers in their deliberations often referred to “the genius of the people.”  It was a concept long familiar in Western civilizational  discussions of society and government.  What did they mean?

They referred to the particular characteristics of a people that made them an identifiable reality and often a polity.  Ways of life, customs, habits, attitudes, economic pursuits, religion, shared values and concepts of government---a  common sense of their identity as a people. This was always a factor to be considered by statesmen and philosophers.  The “genius of the people” referred to a social reality before government that always had to be taken into account.

The Founders knew that Americans shared something of a common genius, still in formation after the Revolution.  They understood that the  differences between the people of Massachusetts and South Carolina were significant. They even understood there were differences between Massachusetts and New Hampshire and North and South Carolina.  No problem in a confederal union of sovereign states as long as good faith dominated.

By the 20th century a common sense of the genius of the American people had developed.  Just think of the Americans of World War II.  At home and abroad people had a clear sense of what “American” meant. That is now long gone.  There is no genius of a people in Blue America---only a chaos of manners, values, identities, covered by an evil ideology designed to suppress Western civilization at the roots. No real society at all.  Some remnants of an American character as we have known it can be found surviving across Red America, but they are besieged by an aggressive Blue State, leaderless, and no longer fully conscious of their identity as a people.  Any potential leaders of these people are destroyed by the media or the federal police. There is effectively no real freedom of speech, press, and assembly for them. Walking through the Capitol that is supposed to belong to the people is now insurrection. Leftist mobs suppress others as they please.

What do Americans any longer share? Consumerism, debt, television shows, commercial athletics, a fake and evil idea of the purpose of government, and a completely unresponsive ruling class. Two Presidential candidates, Obama and Madame Clinton, have declared in public that a vast part of the population are hopeless “deplorables.” And these are representatives of what used to be the party of the common man. If Americans had any identity, such insults would have driven their authors into hiding.  

But, in fact, such insults go down well with millions of pseudo-intellectuals who like to think of themselves as nobly above the Deplorables.  Future historians, if there are any, are likely to attribute the fall of America to a vast proliferation of shallow learning that is puffed up but disguises a lack of knowledge and wisdom.  A product of the Great Society’s universalization of higher education. This shallow learning is rife among politicians, journalists, professors.  Just listen to their ignorant assertions about history and absurd notions of American omnipotence and virtue in foreign affairs.

What Americans believe and are taught about their history is not bad interpretation. It is a juggernaut of malicious lies.  But  there can be no history where there is no people.  How could we expect immigrant masses from the Third World to know or care anything about the achievements of Americans in founding free institutions and settling a continental wilderness.  We no longer have an American history because there is no American people in effective being.  

Politicians until recently were seldom statesman, and they were often cynical, deceptive, and corrupt.  But they had a tough understanding of how the world really works.  Our leaders, congressmen,  governors and ranking bureaucrats,  now are rich boys without firm character.  They lack the life experience that used to be the lot of even affluent youth. Politics is a matter of posturing to the media and vocal interests.  Many of them have never worked up a sweat at any real work or been acquainted with any real workers.  They have gone to exclusive schools and never had to pinch pennies like most normal folk.  They enjoy, unearned, lavish offices and benefits that they assume is their due.

Such people cannot lead a society that expects to survive.