The Deconstruction of the Democratic Party
Posted on October 8, 2018
Jacques Derrida would approve of the path that the Democratic Party has taken, I think.Derrida was the father of deconstruction, the philosophical movement that swept college campuses in the 1960’s and still plays a profound role in how many liberal arts professors ply their trade today.
The purpose of deconstructionism, according to Wikipedia, “is to show that the usage of language in a given text, and language as a whole, are irreducibly complex, unstable, or impossible. Throughout his readings, Derrida hoped to show deconstruction at work.”
If that sounds like gobbledygook to you, #metoo.
Suffice it to say, the idea behind deconstruction is to destroy basic norms, attack existing power structures, and basically question everything.
If there is an institution that has any role in keeping society together, be it the Church or local government or the Supreme Court, deconstruction tells us to tear down that wall and do something else.
The Democratic party is going full deconstruction these days.
They are embracing the techniques and the language of rabble-rousing protestors, funded --as the Wall Street Journal convincingly documented today (https://www.wsj.com/articles/george-soross-march-on-washington-1538951025) -- by financier George Soros and his Open Society organization.
Those primal screams you heard as Susan Collins attempted to explain why she was voting for Brett Kavanaugh came from many of those paid protestors who presumably got their gallery tickets from sympathetic Democratic Senators.
In case you were wondering, yes, to get a gallery pass, you have to go through a Senate office, and presumably, somebody was keeping of who gave what tickets to whom.
These protestors lacked in basic hygiene what they had in abundance in pent-up anger. They would invade Senate offices, order pizza, and other take-out food, occupy the public spaces for a while, and then go home, leaving in their wake, mountains of garbage, which made a nice companion to their potty mouths.
Deconstruction is all about destroying the norms around the use of language, and so deconstructionists are all about using shocking language and imagery. Hence the proliferation of the infamous pussy hats that made a grand appearance at the Women’s March, as well as the many different “Fuck Trump” signs that you see closely attached to any left-wing protest these days.
The MoveOn movement was founded by a group of left-wing ideologues who wanted the country to MoveOn from the various Clinton sex scandals while he was in the White House. Now, it is going full deconstruction in attacking Brett Kavanaugh for what he may or may not have done in High School.
Kavanaugh was right when he said that the Left was attacking him so vociferously because of his role, however minor, in prosecuting Clinton for lying under oath. What goes around, comes around, the now Justice implied.
Reaping a whirlwind indeed.
There was a story in the New York Times today about the dirtiest block in the City of San Francisco that nicely summed up the limits of deconstruction. (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/us/san-francisco-dirtiest-street-london-breed.html) San Francisco is a liberal paradise where addicts can get any drugs they want, where norms associated with cleanliness and basic hygiene are ignored, where bums prefer to pee in the streets to peeing in the provided port-o-potties, just because. Here is the money quote in the Times story: “Gavin Newsom, a former mayor of San Francisco and the leading candidate for governor in next month’s election, told The San Francisco Chronicle editorial board last week that the city had reached the point of “enough is enough.” “You can be too permissive, and I happen to think we have crossed that threshold in this state — and not just in this city,” Mr. Newsom said. “You see it. It’s just disgraceful.”
But to the left, you can never to be too permissive, especially when you are fighting the white power structure. All must be destroyed in the name of deconstruction.
Most Americans, though, are not into deconstruction.
My guess is that most women, especially married women, don’t think every day about smashing the white male patriarchy. What they really want is their husbands to get off their duffs and help them to improve the economic security of their families.
The Democrats’ laser-sharp focus on the LGBTQ agenda makes sense in the context of deconstructing gender roles as part of an effort to totally transform society. But to parents who want their kids to grow up to have happy families and perhaps provide grandchildren (the vast majority of parents, by the way), this whole thing makes them uncomfortable. They want to open and accepting, but they don’t want their kids besieged with questions about sexuality in 4th grade, they don’t want their daughters going to the bathroom with trans men, and they don’t want to have conversations about how Johnny is taking drugs to become Judy in the 6th grade.
When it comes to drugs and drug use, Democrats are all into decriminalizing not only pot but also other, more dangerous drugs. You can see it in San Francisco and other cities (big and small) across the country. But once again, most families are ambivalent. They see the toll drugs take on their own families; they see how easy availability of heroin has spread death and despair in their communities. Maybe the war on drugs hasn’t worked, but should we just give up and give in? That’s the view on the left and of the deconstructionists.
Most Americans are in favor of legal immigration but have less sympathy for people who come here illegally, especially those who steal social security numbers, rip off our welfare system or get involved in drug smuggling and MS-13 gang violence. The Democrats, in the name of smashing the white patriarchy, want to eliminate ICE and push for open borders, a position once only embraced by the most radical of libertarians. Once again, to create new norms, you must smash old norms, and so that’s where the Democrats find themselves. And plus, it might help them with the numbers, so what the heck.
And once you advocate for the end of law enforcement, you have what happens in Chicago. You don’t want cops to patrol the streets? Get ready for gangs to enforce their own brand of justice.
This is where the Democrats find themselves. Soon they will be advocating for resistance to the Supreme Court, or more likely, for the selective resistance to their decisions. If the new majority makes decisions they like, they will argue for its supremacy. If it makes decisions it doesn’t like, well then, it must be nullified.
This is the new cannon of the Democratic party. When the American people, voting under the rules provided by our system, votes the way the Left wants, then this a great country. However, when it doesn’t, when it elects somebody like Donald Trump, well then something must be done to change the system, to deconstruct it, to tear it down and start over.
Smashing the white patriarchy may make sense to the Deconstructed Democrats, but it makes a lousy campaign theme for the rest of America.