Apologies for the lack of a piece yesterday. I had to go to one of the most forbidding places in America: the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. The experience very nearly ruined me. I spent the remainder of the day swatting imaginary insects and chanting old Al Stewart songs. Trust me: you would not have wanted to be around me.
Anyway, the following brief video is what caught my eye this morning:
ON UCHICAGO CAMPUS: U.S. Senator from Michigan Elissa Slotkin hopes planned political prosecutions of republican leaders will scare young conservatives from getting involved in politics. @ElissaSlotkin https://t.co/p7NBJpDcQW
— The Chicago Thinker (@ThinkerChicago) October 17, 2026
In the realm of political competition there are only three levels of interplay:
- Competing with ideas;
- Competing with ad hominems;
- Competing with intimidation and violence.
Of course, a peaceful society would prefer that the competition remain focused on ideas. When ideas butt heads and one proves better than the other, it can become policy with general assent. Life can continue undisturbed. But the enabling condition for competing with ideas is that each side must agree to concede should its idea lose the battle. This in its turn requires that all sides agree on an objective standard for assessing ideas’ comparative performance.
We haven’t seen those conditions agreed to in America for a long time. The animus that characterizes American political rhetoric, while not unprecedented, makes it plain that competition with and through ideas is “off the table.” Instead, vituperation rules the exchanges. Barrages of insult, often descending to slander, are the greater part of what the general public hears.
But the ad hominems level isn’t stable either. To prevent deterioration to the level below that, there must be agreement among all the participants that no one will cast the first stone. The politicians and their hangers-on can flail one another mercilessly by day, but they must revert to amiable drinking buddies by night.
A side observation: When we of the hoi polloi speak of the Establishment, it’s often that enemies by day / pals by night coupling that we have in mind. Such an Establishment can present a surface appearance of competition and opposition while maintaining a quiet collaboration aimed at “not rocking the boat.” But such arrangements are not eternal. If one party becomes sufficiently determined upon hegemony, it can descend to true combat.
The stones began to fly with Donald Trump’s 2015 presidential election campaign. Many were the stories of deliberate disruption of Trump rallies, often involving violence. In the aftermath, investigators such as James O’Keefe unearthed the organizers and specialists in incitement. Now and then an act of violence made the evening news, leading private citizens to wonder what was becoming of the Republic.
We were slipping from the ad hominem level to the intimidation and violence level. The Left had decided that it simply must hold onto the power it had accrued with the presidency of Barack Hussein Obama. Trump threatened to overturn too many established, longstanding agreements between the Democrats and the Republicans. Only God knew what would happen to the D.C. cocktail party circuit.
After the election, many citizens noted increases in disturbing indicators: Mad Maxine Waters’s public fulminations; prominent Republicans and conservatives being harassed in restaurants and other public places; occasional “egging” of cars and houses; AntiFa / Black Bloc attacks on conservative and free-speech rallies. We started getting nervous. There was no way to know how bad things might get. “Buy more ammo” became a watchword.
Well, Miss Slotkin has put us on notice: if the Left retakes Congress in the November elections, the gloves will be off. She speaks only of intimidation tactics, of course; anything else would put her in jeopardy of prosecution. But the subtext to her words is that once we’re back in power, anything goes. Should they elect to employ actual violence, Leftist activists will receive a measure of protection, just as did the disruptors and intimidators sent forth to harass the attendees of Trump rallies.
This is the sort of piece I least like to write. But necessity spares no one. Certainly it has no special regard for an old crank from Long Island.
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