With the war in Ukraine raging, we’ve seen how they’re reacted. Ukrainians, old and young, have answered the call to arms. We have old women making Molotov cocktails. Scores more have lined up for arms and ammunition. The Ukrainian people have mounted a tenacious defense that has bogged down their Russian invaders. Ukrainians are telling Russians daily that the only way they can remain is by soaking the land with their blood. They’re not giving up. So, what if that happened here? What if John Milius’ Red Dawn became a brutal reality. How would we react? Quinnipiac did a poll and found unsurprisingly that the most unreliable segment of our population is people who identify as Democrats. Yes, Democrats are weak, unpatriotic, and cowardly. What else is new, but the number of Republicans who said they would flee with the Democrats isn’t good either (via WSJ):
The pollster asked: What would you do if you were in the same position as Ukrainians are now, stay and fight or leave the country? Shockingly, more than half of Democrats (52%) said they would cut and run if the U.S. homeland were invaded. We aren’t talking about women and children, or even some cadre of pacifists and conscientious objectors. This is most Democrats saying they’d rather leave America than defend it. Only a pathetic 40% said they would stick around.
Republicans did better. More than two-thirds (68%) said they would stand their ground. This could be a reflection of the partisan skew in the nation’s distribution of small arms. But 1 in 4 Republicans said they’d flee—not exactly the don’t-tread-on-me spirit I was expecting.
What in the hell has happened to this country? One can hardly imagine Americans of yesteryear exhibiting such high levels of yellow-bellyism. Where have all the Minutemen gone? The Molly Pitchers? The Audie Murphys? The Todd Beamers?
In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor and 9/11, when the nation was on its knees, the call was answered without hesitation by rock-ribbed Republicans and true-blue Democrats alike. Even the turbulent Vietnam era didn’t inspire such pusillanimity. Between 1964 and 1973, 2.2 million Americans were conscripted into military service. Another 15 million were granted deferments for one reason or another. Less than 2% of those who were eligible for the draft opted to evade it, either by going underground or emigrating. Some of them considered the war unjust. Say what you want about the merits of that argument, at least it was an argument.
This, on the other hand, is abject cowardice—at best.
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The only appropriate response here is disgust. Making matters worse, the 52 percenters had the option to lie. It would have cost them nothing to say, “Yeah, I’m a patriot. I’ll stay and fight.” That suggests they put antipathy toward their country above the near-universal human impulse not to look like a quisling.
There you have it, folks, we’re sharing a nation where over half of them would surrender outright because they hate it so much. That’s liberal America. That’s the Democratic Party. And look, the 25 percent of Republicans, the Lincoln Project types—who would join them is also beyond disgusting. We’re screwed with these numbers. We may mock the Red Dawn remake where North Koreans were somehow able to invade the continental United States (using what…a fleet of Boston Whalers?), but with this sort of division—they could if they had the capability and lord knows how far they could penetrate the American heartland.
Liberals view America as inherently racist, so a new invader is a welcome news to these folks. Do they know what an ultra-nationalist Russia does to their bases of support? Two words: 'meat grinder.'
I’ve always thought the notion of American decline was overblown. As we continue under Joe Biden, and now this poll, the more I see that maybe it’s not overblown; we’re in it.