Editor’s note: This commentary is by Deborah Bucknam, a St. Johnsbury-based attorney and the vice chair of the Vermont Republican Party.
Humanity is blessed with great religions where the faithful believe they are redeemed by God so they have been freed from the stain of sin to live a purer, more godly life, knowing that they, like the rest of humanity, are never without sin. Then there are pseudo religious cults whose believers are convinced they are redeemed so that they are free to live however they wish without consequences — and conversely, those who do not belong to their cult are irredeemably evil. The American political left has taken on the characteristics of the redeemed of pseudo religion, for they believe that they are beyond reproach, and those who are not members of their belief system are beyond redemption.
Events over the past several years highlight in stark detail the grip the doctrine of political redemption has on the left in this country. In 2016, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tellingly spoke of Trump supporters in pseudo religious terms as “irredeemables.” Last summer, President Trump’s actions concerning Ukraine were declared by the left to be impeachable offenses, because they concluded, with no direct evidence, that his motives were evil, while at the same time presidential candidate Biden’s bragging about a direct threat he made to Ukrainian officials was dismissed because Biden is a member of the redeemed. Justice Kavanaugh, a man of impeccable character, was called a gang rapist by #metoo members of the left, based on zero credible evidence, while presidential candidate Biden has been given absolution by many of those same #metoo women after he was credibly accused by a former staffer of sexual assault. President Trump has been portrayed as a monster with no redeemable human qualities, intent on imposing dictatorial powers on our precious democracy.
This religious cult is not new. As Daniel Henninger wrote in the Wall Street Journal recently, it goes back to Franklin Roosevelt, who railed against evil capitalists whose sinful profit motives destroyed their hapless victims. This theme is a perennial one, but it is now coupled with additional sins of the irredeemables: they are racist, misogynists, xenophobes, homophobes and climate deniers.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought the cult’s dogma starkly to light. Instead of arguing the merits of the issues surrounding opening up the country, cult members accuse nonbelievers as being indifferent to Americans’ health and safety. The newest accusation hurled by Democrats concerning Republicans’ concern for mail-in balloting in November is that Republicans are willing to put people’s lives at risk if they advocate in-person voting by secret ballot. And, without irony or self-reflection, the left has portrayed President Trump’s disinclination during this time of crisis to grab dictatorial powers — something they earlier claimed motivated his Presidency — as a catastrophic failure of leadership.
This cult dogma has been spectacularly successful, in large part because it has been adopted by virtually all members of the American establishment: academia, Hollywood, the media, mainline churches, public sector unions, professional organizations and the vast majority of major non-profit organizations — all the Best People. The reasons are transparent: Being a member of a cult gives people a sense of superiority, and the comfort that their beliefs and their moral character will not be seriously challenged. After all, if they and their beliefs are challenged by nonbelievers, the challenges are inherently worthless.
Of course, political-religious cults are dangerous to a democracy. Totalitarian dictators from Lenin to Stalin to Mao and Pol Pot based their murderous regimes on the premise that people who did not believe in their version of socialism did not deserve any God-given rights, including the right to live. Unfortunately, some of that attitude permeates the American left. Justice Kavanaugh did not deserve a fair hearing. President Trump does not deserve to govern, even though duly elected. Taking him down by any means possible is considered acceptable, including spying, making up bogus criminal charges against his associates, and endlessly claiming he’s a traitor to his country knowing there is no evidence to support such a smear. It is acceptable to shout down and disinvite conservative speakers, to shun nonbelievers professionally, and to downplay violence and hate speech against nonbelievers. The Trump assassination fantasies by celebrities and the commentariat, the life threatening wounding of a U.S. Congressman by a Bernie Sanders supporter, and the politically motivated physical assault on a U.S. senator resulting in hospitalization have been met with a collective shrug by the establishment left.
The American left could be a viable and valuable political faction. Its ideas and policies deserve airing, consideration and scrutiny, just like the ideas and polices of the American right. That is how a democracy works. If the left believes its policies are worth considering, then its members should talk about those policies instead of, as it does now, denigrate and demonize anyone who disagrees with them.
The climate change aka environment movement is a religious cult. They also have their own bible, The Green Bible. I haven’t read it because I don’t want to waste my money on fools.
We are a constitutional republic, every democracy goes down in flames, that is why our founding fathers rightfully avoided the term in EVERY founding document. The NWO/Socialists want people to think we’re a democracy, because democracies quickly convert to oligarchies. This is exactly what is happening in Vermont!
Democracies don’t look at the constitution, because they get their power from uninformed, fearful and hateful mobs. Sound familiar?
This is how democracies work? Democracies, go against human nature, natural law and the supernatural laws.
No, democracies don’t work never have, never will.
This is absolutely the funniest thing I’ve read in years! Thanks for tagging me on the read.
If you have any knowledge of history, you would not find this funny. Rather, you would find it frightening, because you would recognize a terrifying progression toward tyranny that has plagued human history – it begins with demonizing and vilifying a group of fellow human beings to the point it becomes acceptable to destroy them. Would that those who are marching down that all too familiar road recognize the path they are on and turn aside before it’s too late.
Well said, Deborah. The endless “virtue signaling”, the shaming of those who raise concerns over loss of civil liberties in the wake of heavy-handed lockdown measures by Governors, the fear-feeders who scream for government to “fix” everything, including, “don’t let me die from this or any virus!”—it’s endless, sad, and leaving patriots with an uphill battle. Thank you for speaking out.
What’s “pseudo” about these multiple religions? They are non-theistic, but they are nonetheless dogmas as you point out. Their beliefs are as doctrinal (and immune to testable reality) as the geocentric universe. Their creed is not subject to debate. They attack and demonize non-believers. the AGW cabal even sells carbon indulgences to assuage the profligate energy use of the privileged elite members, hypocrites flying private jets to exotic locations to join convocations with their popes and cardinals. Joe Biden put it cogently in an Iowa state fair speech in 2019: “We choose (doctrinal) truth over (veridical) facts.” That’s religion. Doctrinal “truth” need neither conform to reality nor even be true; it needs only to be believed to be validated.