Another imaginary crisis
“If I hear one more leftist shill in mainstream media utter the words ‘peaceful protest,’” actor James Woods excreted on X, “I’ll throw up.” The words were over a photo of a burning police car. Texas Senator Ted Cruz reposted Woods’ photo and comment with a comment of his own: “This … is … not … peaceful.”
Cruz is right, it’s certainly not peaceful. And I object to violence in any form except in the regrettable extremity of self defence. But there’s just one problem with the photograph. It’s not contemporary. It is, in fact, four years old.
In other words, the photograph Woods so indignantly posted and Cruz so virtue-signallingly reposted has absolutely nothing to do with the recent peaceful protests in Los Angeles, you know, the ones against Trump’s full body armour Schutzstaffel-style raids of homes and businesses looking for immigrants to intimidate, beat, arrest and torture.
Whether they were deceived or are deliberately lying, Cruz and Woods probably won’t retract their posts, because real or not it served their purpose, to send a message to Dear Leader that they are on his side. And because that photo will rally people to the lie that Trump was justified in sending in the National Guard and the Marines to prevent ordinary Americans from exercising their First Amendment rights.
Stoking imaginary crises is a Republican stock-in-trade, a first-recourse tool in their nefarious toolkit. They’ve been doing it for so long now I wonder if it’s become reflexive, like blinking or breathing.
For example, there is no “crisis at the border,” unless you’re referring to the tendency of people trying to cross it unlawfully, which has been going on for centuries. The point is it’s nothing new, and it wasn’t worse or better under Biden or Trump, it’s just an ongoing thing that Republicans resort to so they can gin up hatred for brown people and justify taking away the rights and money of ordinary Americans. That’s it. There’s nothing else to see here.
Trump’s call for troops in Los Angeles ought to be received as tedious instead of alarming. Yet many Americans behave like James Woods and Ted Cruz. They believe all the bullshit and are happy to lay down their rights so they can feel safe from the brown boogeyman. They are contemptible cowards and bigots, and it disgusts me to know they are fellow Americans.
Every “crisis” since Trump took office has been invented from whole cloth. There is no trade crisis. There is no immigrant invasion. There is no runaway waste, fraud and abuse in useful government social services. Millions of “illegal aliens” are not skiving on welfare and voting, for Democrats or otherwise. It’s all bullshit. It’s all a lie. And Trump is doing it so he can become a dictator. That’s all.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.