A high school classmate of mine, an honor roll student and leader back then, long known for her objectivity, sent a compelling letter to a handful of friends. She gave me permission to anonymously reprint her insightful letter, which I slightly modified only for length:
Hello friends, 2020 is such an important election year, I want to share my thoughts with people I believe share my concerns about a possible Donald Trump loss.
In November, we will not be choosing between two old men from our traditional parties. It will be a fight between the cornerstone of our democracy – free-market capitalism – and an extreme-left ideology that has gone mainstream, driven by a confluence of developments:
1) The rise of Black Lives Matter. Many ‘woke’ young people and suburbanites protest so that they can feel good about themselves and ‘atone’ for their whiteness. Most of them don't know that the three founders of BLM are self-proclaimed Marxists whose agenda is to tear down and remake our country.
2) People with far-left beliefs. "The Squad" and others like them have achieved positions of power in the federal government
3) The emergence of Cancel Culture. We see the rise of cancel culture causing censorship at our universities and in the media, and targeting individuals who stray, even in a minor way, from extreme leftist doctrine.
4) A growing entitlement mentality. A large number of the young, ‘entitled’ generation seek radical change. Some are now in positions of power in business and in government (i.e., journalists, mayors, and city council members for instance, who seek to defund the police).
5) A decline in homogeneity. In a few decades, Caucasians will be in the minority. As any population becomes more heterogeneous, widely held, shared values fade away. Hence, what it means to be an American, passed down from "The Greatest Generation," will dissipate. Picture Minnesota's Ilhan Omar running things.
6) A sprawling Antifa movement. Despite their new, official status as domestic terrorists, or because of it, Antifa in the U.S. is gaining more prominence and influence.
7) A complicit media. The U.S. mainstream media is completely in league with far-leftist aims, insists Antifa isn't a threat to domestic tranquility, and covers for BLM leaders who are advocating for violence.
The Handbook of Destruction
The Antifa Handbook, published by Mark Bray, lays bare, for example, the group’s position on free speech. Here are a few chilling excerpts:
Page 143: "How Free is Free Speech? The terms of the debate often presume that anti-fascism is the only threat to an otherwise pristine state of free speech safeguarded by the American government... Rightly or wrongly, the government has placed a number of constraints on speech. It restricts false advertisement, libel, and television commercials for tobacco. It prosecutes incitement to violence, protects copyrights, and it limits when and where pornographic images can be shown."
Page 148: "The false assumption that the United States maximizes free speech rests on the unstated fact that this right only applies to non-incarcerated citizens. Therefore, millions of people in the United States are deprived of elements of this freedom. In contrast, anti-authoritarians seek to abolish prisons, states, and the very notion of citizenship – thereby eliminating this black hole of rightlessness. ...Rather than collaborating with oppressive regimes around the world, anti-authoritarians aspire to destroy them by organizing in solidarity with those who are actively resisting from below."
Page 168: "Anti-fascists conduct research on the Far Right online, in person, and sometimes through infiltration; they dox them, push cultural milieux to disown them, pressure bosses to fire them, and demand that venues cancel their shows, conferences, and meetings..."
Nearly Everyone is the Enemy
Although Antifa refers to the "Far Right," they’ve targeted moderate liberals and centrists, as well as everyone on the right. These anarchists wish to destroy the U.S. We see conservative speakers prevented from speaking on college campuses and journalists being bullied out of their jobs. A recent example is Bari Weiss, a centrist, who resigned from the New York Times. Antifa calls this "deplatforming."
Many can't see these insidious changes because they are blinded by their hatred of Donald Trump and are distracted by the deafening noise of partisan politics. Trump is a narcissistic, bombastic bully, but he's also the guy who stoked our economy, crushed ISIS, gave us record low unemployment, introduced prison reform, and brokered a groundbreaking peace deal in the Middle East.
Once the baby boomers are gone, how radical things might be is hard to know. Trump haters are worried sick about four more years, but four more years is a blip on the radar screen. While they get their knickers in a knot over that prospect, the loss of our country as we know it could occur in 20 to 30 years. I hope I am wrong about all this. In no way will I vote for that vision of the future in 2020.
In case your liberal friends say that Trump hasn't done anything for our country, he has, despite being hounded 24/7/365 for four years. Here is a vital link.