Townahll commentator Larry O’Connor has mentioned on a number of occasions that the current rebellion against enforcing the nation’s immigration laws is reminiscent of South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun’s 1832 doctrine of nullification, that a state could nullify Federal laws within its boundaries, an issue that was supposedly settled by the Civil War. The comparison has led me to contemplate how many more contemporary issues are revivals of past episodes in American history, to the point where I now regard the flow of history symbolically as a helix, that is, motion in a circle superimposed on forward motion. Certain patterns keep recurring, such as the rise and fall of empires – Babylonian, Persian, Roman, Holy Roman, Ottoman, and Soviet, to name a few – against a backdrop of advances over time, not so much improved modes of governance (aside from the American Constitution) as the development of advanced technologies.

Here are some comparisons I have come up with:

The recent shooting attacks on Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents could be a modern-day repetition of the attack on Fort Sumter that began the Civil War. Classical historian Victor Davis Hanson holds that Democrats, infuriated by their loss of power in the 2024 elections, are once again trafficking in sedition and insurrection. Specifically, Paul Crespo reports in American Liberty News that Democrats are inciting violence against ICE agents and cites examples of incendiary rhetoric:

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries implored people to “fight” the Trump administration “in the streets.”

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, called ICE agents “deranged” and said it is “inspiring” to obstruct immigration enforcement.

Rep. LaMonica McIver — who was recently arrested and charged with “forcibly impeding and interfering with federal officers” outside an ICE detention facility — incited her supporters to “shut down the city” because “we are at war.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’ 2024 running mate, called ICE agents the “modern-day gestapo.”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson accused ICE of being “secret police” that is “terrorizing our communities.”

Rep. Eric Swalwell compared federal immigration officers to “some 1800s bank robber or some KGB officer in Russia.”

Democratic officials are complaining that their base is clamoring for “blood running in the streets” as a form of “resistance.”

At the same time, Federal judges are conducting a judicial insurrection in which they flout the Constitution by ordering the executive branch to violate laws passed by Congress, most brazenly Massachusetts Judge Indira Talwani’s order that the government fund Planned Parenthood in violation of a Congressional prohibition. Other instances are cited in a July 11 article in American Liberty News. Judges are even circumventing the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. CASA curtailing the use of nationwide injunctions by “exploiting class action certifications, novel interpretations of the Administrative Procedure Act, or redefining the scope of alleged harm.” The chief offender is identified as Judge James Boasberg, Chief Judge of the DC District Court, who has “managed to seize nearly every case involving President Trump” by “self-assignment and procedural gamesmanship.” All of the foregoing harkens back to the 19^th century, when President Andrew Jackson responded to an unfavorable Supreme Court ruling by stating “Mr. [Chief Justice John] Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it.”

• The institution of slavery may be reappearing in a new guise: rather than chattel slavery, a private individual owning other individuals, it now takes the form of being enslaved by government via a culture of dependency, in which increasing numbers of Americans are compelled to depend on government for their livelihood or benefits, to the political advantage of the party creating the situation.

• The KKK and night riders of the late 19^thcentury are being reincarnated as Antifa, BLM, and similar organizations dedicated to intimidating ordinary citizens into submission as our rights are taken away.

• Elected officials trying to interfere with ICE and other Federal agents carrying out their lawful duties are reminiscent of segregationist Southern governors standing in the schoolhouse door to impede judicially-ordered desegregation, to which Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy responded by calling out the National Guard. Needless to say, President Trump is roundly condemned by leftist politicians and media for acting similarly in Los Angeles.

• Speaking of segregation, that relic of the past is back, this time in the form of voluntary self-segregation by various identity groups. Elite colleges are scheduling multiple graduation ceremonies to accommodate them.

In the final analysis, it all comes down to a question of which way America is going to go. On one hand, the Center for American Liberty is trumpeting victory in a number of civil liberties cases. “Amuse” [a pseudonym], noting in American Liberty News that as Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in Morrison v. Olson, ‘unchecked judicial power becomes ‘a black-robed supremacy,’” proposes impeachment of the offending judges as the best remedy, in preference to taking away jurisdiction or reductions in appropriations. His thesis is that ‘…  impeachment need not lead to removal to serve its purpose. As with many political tools, its power lies in its deployment. The moment a federal judge must hire counsel, answer subpoenas, and explain themselves before the House Judiciary Committee on national television, the deterrent function is fulfilled. Other judges will take note. Few crave notoriety for the wrong reasons. Fewer still relish being compared unfavorably to Alcee Hastings.

“This is not without precedent. In 1804, the House impeached Samuel Chase, a Supreme Court Justice, for injecting partisan venom into his decisions. Though acquitted by the Senate, Chase’s case chilled overt partisanship on the bench for decades.”

I’m not entirely convinced by this line of reasoning. It appears to me that in the 21^st century, as opposed to the 19^th, the concept of shame has been largely abandoned. In many cases, violators of ethical standards actually take pride in their actions; for example, upon being confronted with lying to the American public in saying that Mitt Romney had gone ten years without paying income taxes prior to the 2012 election, the late Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, replied with a smirk, “He didn’t win, did he?”

On the other hand, writing at Townhall, Mark Lewis asserts that the so-called Deep State will continue winning over President Trump because the corruption of our society has reached a level such that “When there is corruption at the top, when evil dominates a country’s leadership, it will eventually filter down to the masses….  And then those indoctrinated masses, in a democracy, now being overcome by evil themselves, turn around and elect more evil leaders.  It becomes a vicious circle.

“Can we change this?  Can we turn America around?  America’s problems, as I have stated many times before, are not economic, they aren’t social, and they’re not political. America’s problem is moral.  If you have a rotten people, you’re going to have a rotten country.  And until we turn this country back to godliness and righteousness, we are not going to save the nation.  Burke one more time: ‘Liberty does not exist in the absence of morality.’  I do not see a change happening anywhere on the horizon.” Sad to say, I find it difficult to disagree with him. Only time will tell which view prevails.

By: By Richard Kronenfeld

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Source: Weekly Blitz :: Writings