Is America Already in a Civil War? - Watchman Research Media

This week we were shocked when a deranged leftist named James T. Hodgkinson opened fire on lawmakers – specifically Republican lawmakers – holding a baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia. Once the dust settled, it emerged the gunman was an extreme progressive who loathed the right and followed dozens of anti-right groups on social media.

Immediately, of course, progressives tried to distance themselves from Hodgkinson’s violence. “He’s a nut job,” they said. “He acted alone,” they said.

But one thing they couldn’t say was: “He’s not one of us.”

Unable to spin the shooter as anything except an extreme progressive, the left immediately went into damage control, claiming he shot in “self-defense” and it was really all Trump’s fault. But Hodgkinson’s actions are merely the culmination (so far) of what progressives have been urging, suggesting, cultivating and encouraging from the moment Trump set foot in office.

The increasing militarization and violence of the left is a disturbing trend. Even as they mouth pacifistic platitudes, progressives are far from being the peaceniks they’d like us to believe. There are endless examples:

As David Horowitz says it in “Big Agenda,” “Being an activist in the service of the higher good becomes a license to do anything required to achieve that good. The ends justify the means.”

“Too many guns in America is not the problem,” added Joseph Farah. “The real problem is too many Democrats with killer instincts, seething with hatred and violence in their hearts.”

Very true. In fact, within hours of the shootings social media was abuzz with leftists cheering on the revolution. A Nebraska Democratic Party official called the shootings “so funny.” It’s only a matter of time before other nut jobs (egged on by inflamed rhetoric) will lose it and start gunning down those on the other side of the political spectrum.

Violence is by no means contained to the left. I’ve seen enough threats from conservatives to turn my stomach. The difference, I believe, is there are no calls from the right to attack leftists. There are no party leaders calling for increased violence.

This leads to the inevitable question: Are we already in a civil war?

The 2016 election results took progressives totally, utterly and completely by surprise. Late in the afternoon of Election Day, the Huffington Post was still giving Hillary a 98 percent chance of winning.

When Hillary lost, the left – stunned that they didn’t get their way – began engaging in brutal tactics to emotionally incite followers. They whip up violent sentiment over non-issues and lies. They appeal to the feeeeelings of the uneducated – and we all know progressives think emotionally, not rationally or logically.

These tactics are nothing new, of course. Hitler famously had his propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, who admitted: “The best propaganda is that which, as it were, works invisibly, penetrates the whole of life without the public having any knowledge of the propagandistic initiative.” And don’t forget Vladimir Lenin’s statement: “A lie told often enough becomes the truth.”

The lies (“fake news”) the left is spreading about Trump are legion. It doesn’t matter that these lies can’t be backed by truth, evidence, or documentation. That’s not important. All they have to do is repeat the lies often enough on the evening news, and a significant portion of the nation’s gullible and uninformed people will swallow them – and believe. Then the less stable among them will snap and begin shooting people at baseball practices.

One person noted, “I hate to say it, but we are already in a civil war. The right just hasn’t started fighting back yet.”

There are always those on the right spoiling for a fight. “Bring it on!” they sneer. “We’re better armed than you, and you can’t hit the broad side of a barn.” True, but do these armchair warriors really want to engage in warfare with their neighbors?

People can only be pushed so far. Conflict, it sometimes seems, is inevitable. As a peace-loving person, I find this distressing. Yet clearly there are some things worth fighting for. Patrick Henry said it very well: “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

Progressives seem intent on ignoring any and all constitutional restraints and going on their merry way, regardless of what’s legal. “California and Hawaii have recently announced that they would sign agreements with other nations so they could join the Paris climate change accord,” noted Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips. “Liberal states have this amazing ability to find things in the U.S. Constitution that people haven’t been able to find for over 200 years, but they ignore the plain language of the document that organizes the United States of America.

At this point, is there any way that America can hold together as a single, united country? When states are wanting to sign their own treaties with other nations and when one-half of the political spectrum in this nation wants to strip the other half of its rights and engage in violence against them, survival seems improbable.”

I want to make one thing perfectly clear: The vast, vast majority of Americans, both left and right, simply want to be left alone to live their lives. They want to work their jobs, raise their children, engage their hobbies, enjoy their senior years and otherwise be outside the mayhem caused by activists. But to do this, in the words of Peggy Noonan, “we have to lower the political temperature.”

It’s a pity the progressive activists won’t let us.