As Donald J. Trump marches ever closer to securing the Republican nomination, those of us who recognize him for the narcissistic charlatan that he is had the pleasure of watching him get thoroughly thrashed by Marco Rubio during the CNN debate. Douglas Wilson’s comment on the affair was to share a timely quote from H.L Mencken:
“As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”– H.L. Mencken
A perfect response to the swarms of sheeple declaring with fervor that Trump at least “speaks his mind,” when it is apparent to anyone watching that there is not much of a mind to speak of.
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In the far reaches of the Anglosphere, former Australian Prime Minister John Howard is warning that the tentacles of totalitorerance are creeping forward steadily, and perhaps even feeding the beast that is Trump:
In relation to gay marriage, Mr Howard said: “There is nothing homophobic about supporting traditional marriage. Everybody did in the parliament in 2004.
“May I remind you that in 2004, when I inserted the definition in the Marriage Act, the Labor Party supported it. You ought to be able to have sensible discussion on these sorts of things. And you should be able to express a view on these things. But there is a sense in which people are so frightened of being accused of being discriminatory or intolerant that they don’t speak the commonsense view.”
Mr Howard said the standards of civil society in Australia were being undermined by a growing intolerance towards people who did not subscribe to a range of progressive views.
“I think the problem is that too few people are prepared to call it for what it is,” he said.
“I think people are cowed because they think, ‘I can’t say that because I might lose votes or I might offend somebody’.”
He said there was a new form of “minority fundamentalism” emerging, typified by the use of the anti-discrimination law in Tasmania to silence the Catholic Church from stating its position on marriage. Having read the document issued by the Catholic bishops, Mr Howard said: “How anyone can read that as offensive to people who favour same-sex marriage or gay or lesbian people is beyond me.”
He said the situation in Victoria under new guidelines for religious instruction was that “from now on you can sing Jingle Bells in schools but not Once in Royal David’s City or Silent Night”.
“This is pernicious,” he said. “I’m surprised there hasn’t been a greater outcry about it. Nobody is forced to believe in God. Nobody’s forced to follow Christianity. The observance of Christmas and all that goes with it is part of our culture. I must say I have never come across a person of the Jewish faith or of the Muslim faith who has complained that they have had Christianity forced upon them.”
Warning that such cultural intolerance would provoke a backlash, Mr Howard said one of the reasons Donald Trump was succeeding in the Republican primaries was that people felt he was speaking directly to them and shunning any political correctness.
If Trump’s legions of supporters are, in fact, simply thrashing around beneath the suffocating blanket of political correctness, these supporters are making a terrible mistake. If there’s one thing we’ve seen in the billionaire brat, it is his inability to take criticism without immediately morphing into a singularly unattractive tomato.
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Speaking of political correctness, the Fabulous Fascists of the Rainbow Blitzkrieg have been at it again. This time, the Official Victims are two dudes who were denied the right to have a cake baked for their gay wedding by the specific Baptists they wanted it from, and the Real Victims are the Baptist bakers who are now facing the fully fury of the #LoveWins movement:
Edie and David Delorme own the Kern’s Bake Shop in Longview, Texas — known around town for their petit fours and sugar cookies — and also their custom-made wedding cakes.
The Delormes are also devout Christians — faithful members of a nearby Baptist church – and they run their bakery according to the tenets of their religious beliefs.
That became a problem on Feb. 17th when Ben Valencia and Luis Marmolejo requested the bakers make a cake for their upcoming wedding.
“I was up front with them,” Edie told me. “I said, ‘I’m sorry but we don’t provide wedding cakes for homosexual marriages.”
“We don’t do cakes that might conflict with our spiritual convictions,” she said. “It was not something personal against the two young men. We just need to be able to run our business in a way that honors God.”
She offered to provide the gay couple with a list of bakeries that would meet their needs, but she said the men simply walked out of the store.
A few days later she received a telephone call from the local newspaper. The gay couple had gone public — and had accused the Delorme family of discrimination…
Marmolejo told the newspaper he couldn’t understand why the couple just didn’t violate their religious beliefs.
“I don’t see how making a cake for somebody is going to compromise your beliefs,” he said.
Soon after the story was published, the Delormes were overwhelmed with a number of threats against the business and their family. Angry activists posted derogatory reviews on Yelp and other social networking platforms.
“See you in Hell, lady,” read one angry message. “Racist criminals.
“This business is run by a homophobic piece of s***,” another message read.
David and Edie said they have a long-standing policy to turn away any business that mighty conflict with their religious beliefs. They won’t make any tobacco-related cake. They won’t make any alcohol-related cakes either. And no risqué cakes — of any kind.
Remember that whole “live and let live” thing that gay rights activists used to pretend was their entire goal? Yeah, that was hilarious.
