Statue of Greek historian Thucydides in front of the Austrian Parliament in Vienna. By sianstock @ Shutterstock.com
Leftists, advises Victor Davis Hanson, should reread Thucydides on the stasis at Corcyra. Thucydides warned (about 400 BC) that zealots who destroy laws, customs, and traditions for short-term gain soon rue the day they began making such changes. In vain, they seek refuge in the very sanctuaries of behavior that they have destroyed, VDH reminds readers in American Greatness (abridged).
Thucydides is dubbed the father of “scientific history.” He claimed in the introduction to his work to have applied strict standards of impartiality and evidence-gathering to his analysis of cause and effect, without reference to intervention by the deities.
Will the Leftist mob argue that their own rules do not apply to themselves given their innate moral superiority?
Will they employ the John Kerry defense that one must bomb the upper atmosphere with private-jet carbon emissions in order to do the important work of flying around the globe to stop carbon emissions?
The New Protocol?
Regarding the Supreme Court
- Should conservatives mass at the home of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, decrying her radical nihilist abortionist ideology? Is that an understandable cri de coeur? Would such intimidation in the future moderate her extremism? Is that now an acceptable strategy?
- Should Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) now lead a throng of screaming, right-wing protestors to the very doors of the Supreme Court? Should he egg them on by calling out by name Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sotomayor, warning that they have sown the “wind” and will soon reap the “whirlwind,” as they will have no idea what “hit” them?
- Is the new norm that right-wing goons should dog Justice Jackson while eating at restaurants, throng her—and then be contextualized and excused by conservative cabinet members, media, and politicians? Is that our new normal reaction to rulings with which we disagree?
Congress
- If the Republicans enjoy a Senate majority in 2023, should they follow the left-wing cue of Barack Obama—to end the “Jim-Crow-era” and “racist” filibuster, and thereby end “obstructionist” ideologues who prefer “gridlock”?
- Should a newly elected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) tear up on national television the next misleading and factually inaccurate State of the Union address by Joe Biden? Will the nation then voice support for his adherence to the Nancy Pelosi norm?
The Military
- What will be the new norm should a new Republican-appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs or defense secretary vow before Congress, without supporting documentation, that he is rooting out dangerous BLM and Antifa sympathizers in the military as likely insurrectionists?
The FBI and CIA
What, asks Mr. Hanson, will be the new normal?
- Will the FBI investigate Mark Zuckerberg, following his $419 million dark-money trail to see how many state registrars were absorbed by Zuck-bucks cash in conspiratorial fashion?
- Will former conservative CIA directors or directors of national intelligence lie under oath to Congress with impunity?
Should the Left’s rules, asks VDH, be applied equally to the Left right now to ensure that outrage and disgust with such immoral and illegal machinations prohibit their use in the future?
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