RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/09/02/biden_has_become_a_tragic_prisoner_of_his_own_paradoxes_144120.html

Joe Biden and his handlers know that he should be out and about, weighing in daily on the issues of the campaign.

In impromptu interviews, Biden should be offering alternative plans for dealing with the virus, the lockdown, the economic recovery, the violence and the looting, and racial tensions.

Yet Biden’s handlers seem to assume that if he were to leave his basement and fully enter the fray, he could be capable of losing the election in moments of gaffes, lapses or prolonged silences.

So wisely, Team Biden relied on the fact that the commander in chief is always blamed for bad news — and there has been plenty of bad news worldwide this year.

That reality was reflected in the spring and early summer polls that showed growing discontent with the incumbent Trump, as if he were solely responsible for one of the most depressing years in U.S. history.

But news cycles, like polls, are not always static.

What was true in July is not necessarily so in September and especially in November. Volatile years produce volatile voters. Now, many voters think they see a waning of the virus, a need to get their kids back in school, and a glimmer of hope that the economy is recovering.

A large segment of the public is becoming irate at the nightly looting, destruction and arson that no longer seem to have much to do with the May death of George Floyd while in police custody. Where are the police, the mayors and the governors to protect the vulnerable, the law-abiding and the small-business owners?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/09/02/democrats-liberal-intimidate-silence-trump-conservatives-column/5683248002/

This is a frightful, dangerous moment for America, where free speech and robust debate are under assault by one half of America’s political spectrum.

America’s left-wing has taken a dark and dangerous turn, now openly expressing a desire for its political opposition to be delegitimized, criminalized, intimidated and ultimately banished.

This attitude has been boiling since Donald Trump became president. He’s too dangerous to be allowed to speak, they said, as the likes of Sen. Kamala Harris called on Twitter to suspend his account.

But that seems quaint compared to the left’s rhetoric of the last few days. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi labeled Republicans “domestic enemies” and “enemies of the state” in an unhinged rant rivaling any of Trump’s crazier tweets. And that was after Rep. Ayanna Pressley called for GOP officials to be harassed with “unrest in the streets.”

Words have consequences. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and his wife, Kelley, were put in danger as they walked out of Trump’s GOP acceptance speech in Washington on Thursday night.

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/our-current-maelstrom?token=

I was pleased to join the American commentator, Dave Rubin, on his show The Rubin Report. After acknowledging some of the milestones on my own political journey over the years, we talked about the great movements of thought that have precipitated our current cultural maelstrom on both sides of the Atlantic.

For me, the immediate cause of this turmoil lies in the terminal weakness of liberalism: its embrace of cultural relativism, the doctrine that all cultures and lifestyles have equal value. This prevents liberals from acknowledging that their core values, such as respect for all human life, freedom of conscience or equality for women, make the west superior to cultures which deny freedom and equality and treat human life as expendable.

The tragic paradox of liberalism is therefore this: that its core value of equality means it can’t uphold and defend its values, institutions and historic traditions in order to ensure its own survival. That’s why the west is in such trouble.

I also talked about how conservatism, which no longer understands what it needs to conserve, has lost the cultural plot. Oh – and how the Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s election as US president signalled a fight-back by millions who are not prepared to stand by passively as their civilisation disintegrates.