Portents

     Friday the Thirteenth is upon us! It’s a good day to talk about portents and omens, isn’t it? And as it happens, I have a few for your consideration.

     First, have a gander at this editorial from the Tennessee Star:

     On Friday afternoon, Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter: “Is anyone archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future? I foresee decent probability of many deleted Tweets, writings, photos in the future.”

     Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin took it a step further tweeting, “Any R now promoting rejection of an election or calling to not to follow the will of voters or making baseless allegations of fraud should never serve in office, join a corporate board, find a faculty position or be accepted into ‘polite’ society. We have a list.”

     Got that – we have a “list.”

     And for a while the list of those to be deprived of the opportunity to have a job or “be accepted into ‘polite’ society” was online at the Trump Accountability Project or TAP.

     Ominous stuff, eh? But the implication that these lists and purges are contingent upon a Democrat victory strike me as misconceived. If you really want to feel a thrill of fear, contemplate this:

The Left’s project will continue even if President Trump manages to win.

     Moreover, it will have almost as much force and terror propelling it as if Biden were to win. Here’s the proof: It’s happening already.

     The Left is both utterly ruthless and without any conscience. Those are its chief advantages. It destroys its opponents without a conscience pang, whenever and wherever the opportunity presents itself. That’s what makes a minority – even a relatively tiny minority – able to terrorize a much larger population. Though a minority, the Left is always on offense: it has what chessplayers call “the initiative.” No one knows where it will strike next – and it’s flatly impossible to defend all our flanks at once.

     Haven’t we seen people lose their jobs for having disapproved opinions on political and quasi-political subjects? Aren’t we already familiar with “cancel culture?” Haven’t we heard enough reports of conservatives being physically harassed and assaulted by Leftists — and not only in public places, but in their homes as well? The Left didn’t need electoral ascendancy to do what it’s already done. It will continue regardless of the outcome of the 2020 elections.

     Consider the pusillanimity of corporate America in this regard. What does it take to get an employee with disfavored opinions told to hit the road? Just a few complaints. Sometimes even one or two will suffice. (I described one typical case in a fictional setting in Love in the Time of Cinema and another in Statesman.) Must I spell out the reasons, or are they clear from the current legal and political environment?

     It’s not just internally that corporations exhibit such arrant cowardice. A business is highly sensitive to “its margins.” By that, I don’t mean its profit margin, though that is important, but the margins in its customer space: those who might buy its products except for factor X, and those who might not buy its products should factor Y emerge. The firm is ever vigilant about advancing on the first margin and protecting the second one. That’s why boycotts are effective, even though they seldom impinge on more than five percent of a company’s sales, whether actual or potential.

     Thus, American business is capable of being bullied by threats to those margins. The bottom line is all that matters. (“A corporation has neither a body to be kicked nor a soul to be damned.” – quoted without attribution by Isabel Paterson in The God of the Machine.)

     Don’t imagine that any mere electoral victory will put an end to the Left’s campaign to terrorize those who differ with them. Nothing can do so but the Left’s total destruction, down to the very last man – and yes, I mean that literally, with all its ugly implications.