A Tyrant in the Republic

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

Republicans believe that President Barack Obama was as close to having a tyrant in the White House as this country could manage.  Democrats believe the same about President Donald J. Trump.  Yet, in America, we don't even understand the true definition of tyranny.  In fact, tyranny is on the rise, but it is those tyrants who claim the champions of liberty are the enemies of America.

Europeans say they understand the true nature of tyrants.  They have endured a number of them.  Adolf Hitler comes to mind, as does a whole list of communists from the previous century.  But, despite the fact that the Europeans should be experts on the characteristics of a tyrant, their policies regarding socialism and Islam tells us that they, too, have no idea what a tyrant truly is.  Instead, they have invited the tyrants into their midst, and they are colluding with them without the realization that they are in bed with the enemy.

In truth, the Democrats in America, who claim to be the tolerant ones, are the ones showing the most intolerance for those they disagree with, and in truth it is they who best fits the definition of what it is like to have a tyrant in our Constitutional Republic.

Often, the tyranny manifests on college campuses.  We've seen riots erupt over leftist college students refusing to accept an opposing point of view on their campus.  Milo Yiannopoulos comes to mind, whose speech was cancelled after riots erupted that included the burning of public and personal property on the Berkeley college campus.  Anne Coulter comes to mind, whose speech was canceled at Berkeley for fears of a violent response, and then, riots broke out, anyway.  They, the angry snowflakes, blame it all on the rise of President Donald J. Trump, even though their accusations are false, and it is them, not Republicans, who have been going out of their minds with protests, rallies and riots packed with anti-American ridiculousness.

How about Jordan Peterson?  Have you heard about the violent response to his talks?

Peterson has emerged on the scene with a strong message that counters the leftist madness, and embraces morality and common sense . . . and it pisses off the liberal left snowflakes (not to mention the rest of the liberal left socialist commies).

The speaking event where his attendees were accosted was on the campus of Queens University.  The speaker, professor of psychology and clinical psychologist Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, delivered a searing speech, and then the radical, anti-free speech social justice activists confirmed everything he was saying as they laid siege to the lecture hall, pounding on the stained glass windows, screaming "Shame!" in the faces of those who attended the talk.

At one point, they also surrounded and harassed a young female student.

On the same day Antifa protesters shut down an event at King's College in London as well as a Christina Hoff Sommers' event at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland.

In a series of videos posted online and highlighted by Peterson on social media, the student activists can be seen attempting to "barricade" the participants of the event. According to Peterson, after the event, activists were "accosting" participants on the way to the parking lot.

"It was absolutely surreal," Peterson tweeted. "The mob neglected to bring torches and pitchforks, but the sentiment was there: 'Lock them in and burn it down'." A few days before the event, Peterson tweeted that professors at the university had fed into sentiment against him by describing him as "anti-trans/racist/colonialist/anti-Semitic & Islamophobic."

The liberal left is not only doing what they can to silence any message they think favors Trump on college campuses, but the mainstream media is doing what it can to hide any good news about the accomplishments of the Donald Trump administration.

CNN has a "Trump Jobs Tracker" that they hoped would serve as a confirmation of how horrible Trump is doing when it comes to the economy.  However, Trump's record keeps getting better and better, so, as a result, the news network hasn’t recently updated its tracker of how many jobs the economy has presented since Inauguration Day.

The network’s “Trump Jobs Tracker” is part of CNN Digital’s effort to keep its audience updated on whether the president is keeping his promises to release the full potential of the American economy after eight years of anemic growth under former President Barack Obama.

One problem: The last time someone updated the tracker was Jan. 5, when the economy had only added 1,839,000 jobs since Trump took office. Under that pace, according to CNN, Trump is “off track” to fulfill his promise that he’d help create “25 million jobs in 10 years, or 208,333 jobs per month.”

Recent reports revealed that 313,000 jobs were added in February, a rise, if kept up, that could be more than enough set the United States on a healthy pace to average 208,333 jobs per month in 2018.

On Social Media we've also been hearing about the liberal left's intolerance.  In addition to Twitter's Shadow Banning, and Facebook's censoring of conservative content, in a recent survey it has been determined that Democrats are 3 times more likely to unfriend someone on Social Media.

In the survey, 13% of Americans reported blocking or unfriending a “friend” on social media because of their political postings.  The results of the study, carried out by the non-partisan Public Religion Research Institute, showed the impulse to block varies widely based on gender and political leanings.

The study shows Democrats were almost three times more likely than Republicans (24% vs. 9%) to have unfriended someone after the election. A similar disparity turned up for self-identified liberals versus conservatives (28% vs. 8%). Meanwhile, only 9% of independents reportedly booted someone out of their online social circles because of politics.

So much for the tolerance of the liberal left.

The growth of “filter bubbles” in which people live in ideological cocoons that shut out discordant viewpoints, is expanding faster than ever, which, in many cases, leads to some voters becoming less exposed to those who don’t share their opinions.

Reminds me of something my dad used to tell me about "people who don't know what they don't know."

In Oakland, the same city whose mayor has stood defiant against the chief law enforcement official of the United States regarding federal immigration laws and the federal government agencies tasked with executing those laws, the city's residents and business establishments are emulating their leaders' misguided actions.

The East Oakland cafe is named Hasta Muerte Coffee, and on its website it proudly proclaims its collectivistic nature: "Hasta Muerte Coffee is a new, poc collectively run, worker-owned coffee shop. We are committed to nurturing community while serving the best coffee, hasta la muerte. Offering drinks and snacks and hosting a specialty bookstore, we hope to provide a warm and inclusive atmosphere for friends and neighbors to gather. We believe in non-hierarchical work spaces, quality coffee, and community building."

Such communal/socialist endeavors always go out of business.  Human nature always thrives in an individualistic market with profit incentives, not communal central stores where eventually the takers begin to overpower the producers.

Hasta Muerte Coffee, like the mayor of Oakland, has no respect for law enforcement.  In fact, a post to that cafe’s Instagram account on February 22 showed a crossed-out Oakland police seal and badge below the words “Habla con tu vecinxs no con la policia.”

The post said an Oakland police officer walked into Hasta Muerte, 2701 Fruitvale Ave., on February 16 and was declined service by a worker-owner because “we have a policy of asking police to leave for the physical and emotional safety of our customers and ourselves.”

The post closes with a request for community members, rather than law enforcement, to support the cafe’s safety “[e]specially in an area faced by drug sales and abuse, homelessness, and toxic masculinity as we see here on this block.”

"toxic masculinity"?

Among the reasons of our current social and cultural strife is that the feminist movement has led to the feminization of the males of this society - we have boys who don't know how to be men - yet, this coffee shop is doubling down on the stupidity with their "toxic masculinity" claim.

If being robbed, or terrorized by Islamic terrorists, where people are dying, will Hasta Muerte call the police?  Or will they simply cry out "peace, love, dope" and hope the attackers' hearts melt as they drop their weapons?

I am guessing in such a situation, the leftist nutcakes will be calling 911 when the community let's out a collective "ah, hell no", so that armed police can show up to save them.

We have lost our way.  We have become a godless society who has lost our ability to even understand liberty, much less defend it.  How has this happened?

Growing up, one of my favorite books was "A Wrinkle in Time."  It ranked right up there with The Chronicles of Narnia and Isaac Asimov's "The Kite That Won the Revolution."

I think I enjoyed A Wrinkle in Time because it was engaging, I could relate to the characters, and I appreciated the Christian message that was tucked in between the text.

Guess what?  Today's entertainment industry, when they turned the book into a movie, eliminated those explicit Christian references.

Disney's big-budget adaptation of the best-selling novel "A Wrinkle in Time" has been something I have been looking forward to, despite my disappointment that Oprah Winfrey is in it.  But, according to those who have seen it, the film strips away the book's explicit mention of God or religion, instead trimming down the central conflict to one between "evil" and "light."

The removal of writer Madeleine L'Engle's religious overtones, I am being told, ruined the story.

According to Kim Renfro, "By removing the religious themes, the movie version of 'A Wrinkle in Time' loses part of its narrative arc. This leads to a confusing storyline and muddled message when it comes to the antagonist and the purpose of the celestial characters of Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit, and Mrs. Which.  Christianity is integral to the book version of 'A Wrinkle in Time' by author Madeleine L'Engle, who died in 2007 at age 88, [who] spoke about the importance of her own Christian faith as it relates to 'A Wrinkle in Time.'"

"If I've ever written a book that says what I feel about God and the universe, this is it," L'Engle reportedly wrote in her journal. "This is my psalm of praise to life, my stand for life against death."

In the book, as the Dark Thing is explained as being an evil "power of darkness," they tell the children that fighters have been battling the Evil in the universe for many thousands of years.

"Jesus! Why of course, Jesus!" Charles Wallace yells when Mrs. Whatsit tells the children they know who the best fighters have been.

Meg and Calvin chime in with other fighters, including Leonardo da Vinci and Gandhi and Buddha.

Later in the book, Meg and Calvin are struggling to explain what the Mrs. beings are. Finally Calvin finds the words, and calls them "angels" and "messengers of God."

As Meg gets closer to facing the evil (also called "IT"), she is told that God has called her to his purpose by both Mr. Murray and the angels.

Before Meg re-enters Camazotz to face IT for the final time, Mrs. Who leaves her with the following quote from Corinthians:

"God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are."

The movie skips over all of the religious themes and generalizes "good vs. evil."  Instead of relying on a message from God or using the Mrs. Ws as stand-ins for angels, the movie version of "A Wrinkle in Time" generalizes the idea of evil spreading throughout the galaxy. "IT" is jealousy, fear, and anger, and the Mrs. Ws tell the children that it must be fought by warriors of light and good.

The children, in the film, never refer to the Mrs. Ws as angels or messengers of God.

The story never quite comes together because of the narrative changes.  Though Meg's journey to finding self-worth is a valuable narrative, "A Wrinkle in Time" fails to fully explain anything that's going on. Not only is the IT made entirely abstract (whereas in the book IT takes the form a disembodied brain), but the reason the children have to fight IT is also obscured by prose about "being a warrior of light."

And with the removal of the Mrs. being angels or messengers, their role is also muddled. Where did they come from? They simply say they heard a call in the universe, but how? Why? Have they done this before? What is their real form?

As critics continue reacting to "A Wrinkle in Time" with disappointment and confusion, it's not hard to trace the movie's issues back to the narrative shifts made.

The removal of God from A Wrinkle In Time has confused the story, and the removal of God from society has confused our culture.  They seek, but they reject the God they naturally wish to find.  He is calling, but we chase the laws of man, instead.  As our society begins the fashioning of their golden calves, He awaits them, calling to them.  If America refuses to answer His call, the rock-bottom fall of California is the least of our worries.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary