Our friend former CIA officer Charles “Sam” Faddis is one of the smartest guys we know, and an astute observer of American politics. In an important column in his AND Magazine he sounds a warning about the allure of the increasingly radical Democrats and the Republican Party’s lethargy in the face of that challenge.
As Sam put it, “The political center in this country is liquifying. People are white-hot angry. America does not work for them anymore. They want change. They demand change.”
Within the Democratic Party, noted Mr. Faddis, the most radical Marxist figures are ascendant. Individuals like Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, and Zohran Mamdani dominate the news cycle and push almost unthinkably radical policies, including defunding the police, seizing commercial real estate, paying reparations to aggrieved minorities, and the nationalization of the “means of production”. Zohran, now mayor of the nation’s largest city, wants government grocery stores, government child care, free buses, and even higher taxes on those businesses that are still hanging on in New York City.
These are dangerous, misguided policies. They mean the end of the United States as we know it. But in desperate times, people opt for dangerous measures. When your back is against the wall, you can’t put food on the table, and the rent is due, that guy talking about “eating the rich” and burning it all down may not sound quite as crazy anymore. You may have reached the point where you are willing to give that kind of thing a try.
Unless a more palatable alternative is available.
The problem is, the GOP is doing nothing of consequence to change any of this. It pretends none of this is happening. It fields candidates who talk of “bipartisanship” and compromise. The party lives, it seems, in some alternate universe where all is well, and the future is bright. Americans are holding on for dear life and losing what little faith they have left in the system. Republican senators and representatives pump out newsletters touting changes to state license plates, the next Lincoln Day dinner, and the renaming of a bridge at a county park.
The apparent presumption here is that Americans have nowhere to go politically, that the increasingly radical Democratic alternative is unpalatable and unacceptable. That is a gross and potentially fatal miscalculation.
In 2006 that was the message that we conservatives got from the Big Government Republicans, “Yes, we’re bad, but the other guys are worse, so if you don’t vote Republican, the boogeyman’s going to get you.”
And we all know how that went, the loss of the Republican congressional majority and the rise of Obama.
As CHQ Chairman Richard A Viguerie has often said, the most powerful theme in American politics is “send them a message” and this election cycle is no different. The problem is, Americans are rapidly getting much less discerning in who they choose to carry the “message,” as long as the message is delivered with maximum vehemence, the details are almost beside the point.
As Sam Faddis noted, this is, in fact, precisely where the Russians ended up in 1917. The Bolsheviks did not rally them to their cause with long-winded discussions of Marxist theory. They promised “Peace, Land and Bread” to a country starved of all three.
More immediately, this is how Mamdani won in New York, concluded Mr. Faddis. He is a Communist, but he did not hand out copies of the Communist Manifesto and Mao’s Little Red Book. He talked endlessly about rent control, bringing down the price of food, and lowering bus fare. He promised solutions to the problems plaguing New Yorkers. That his solutions will ultimately prove to be nothing of the kind is beside the point.
Mamdani offered a vision of a better life, no matter how illusory. No one else in the race offered anything more than the status quo.
Donald Trump campaigned as the agent of change, and the “send them a message” candidate, however, the principal impediments to delivering that change have been Republicans, particularly a small cabal in the United States Senate. Those obstructionists need to understand the time for equivocation is long past. The Republican Party has a choice to make. It can stand up and stand for something, or it can sit and watch as Americans opt for a very different, much more radical way ahead.
We urge all CHQ readers and friends to share this important information widely. Forward this message to your family, friends, neighbors, church and civic club mailing lists and encourage them to read Sam Faddis’s open letter to the GOP leadership, and then call your Senators TODAY. The Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121, enlist everyone you know to "up the pressure" on the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act, impose restrictions on institutional investors buying single-family homes, and lower drug prices through the MAHA agenda.
As Sam put it, “The political center in this country is liquifying. People are white-hot angry. America does not work for them anymore. They want change. They demand change.”
Within the Democratic Party, noted Mr. Faddis, the most radical Marxist figures are ascendant. Individuals like Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, and Zohran Mamdani dominate the news cycle and push almost unthinkably radical policies, including defunding the police, seizing commercial real estate, paying reparations to aggrieved minorities, and the nationalization of the “means of production”. Zohran, now mayor of the nation’s largest city, wants government grocery stores, government child care, free buses, and even higher taxes on those businesses that are still hanging on in New York City.
These are dangerous, misguided policies. They mean the end of the United States as we know it. But in desperate times, people opt for dangerous measures. When your back is against the wall, you can’t put food on the table, and the rent is due, that guy talking about “eating the rich” and burning it all down may not sound quite as crazy anymore. You may have reached the point where you are willing to give that kind of thing a try.
Unless a more palatable alternative is available.
The problem is, the GOP is doing nothing of consequence to change any of this. It pretends none of this is happening. It fields candidates who talk of “bipartisanship” and compromise. The party lives, it seems, in some alternate universe where all is well, and the future is bright. Americans are holding on for dear life and losing what little faith they have left in the system. Republican senators and representatives pump out newsletters touting changes to state license plates, the next Lincoln Day dinner, and the renaming of a bridge at a county park.
The apparent presumption here is that Americans have nowhere to go politically, that the increasingly radical Democratic alternative is unpalatable and unacceptable. That is a gross and potentially fatal miscalculation.
In 2006 that was the message that we conservatives got from the Big Government Republicans, “Yes, we’re bad, but the other guys are worse, so if you don’t vote Republican, the boogeyman’s going to get you.”
And we all know how that went, the loss of the Republican congressional majority and the rise of Obama.
As CHQ Chairman Richard A Viguerie has often said, the most powerful theme in American politics is “send them a message” and this election cycle is no different. The problem is, Americans are rapidly getting much less discerning in who they choose to carry the “message,” as long as the message is delivered with maximum vehemence, the details are almost beside the point.
As Sam Faddis noted, this is, in fact, precisely where the Russians ended up in 1917. The Bolsheviks did not rally them to their cause with long-winded discussions of Marxist theory. They promised “Peace, Land and Bread” to a country starved of all three.
More immediately, this is how Mamdani won in New York, concluded Mr. Faddis. He is a Communist, but he did not hand out copies of the Communist Manifesto and Mao’s Little Red Book. He talked endlessly about rent control, bringing down the price of food, and lowering bus fare. He promised solutions to the problems plaguing New Yorkers. That his solutions will ultimately prove to be nothing of the kind is beside the point.
Mamdani offered a vision of a better life, no matter how illusory. No one else in the race offered anything more than the status quo.
Donald Trump campaigned as the agent of change, and the “send them a message” candidate, however, the principal impediments to delivering that change have been Republicans, particularly a small cabal in the United States Senate. Those obstructionists need to understand the time for equivocation is long past. The Republican Party has a choice to make. It can stand up and stand for something, or it can sit and watch as Americans opt for a very different, much more radical way ahead.
We urge all CHQ readers and friends to share this important information widely. Forward this message to your family, friends, neighbors, church and civic club mailing lists and encourage them to read Sam Faddis’s open letter to the GOP leadership, and then call your Senators TODAY. The Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121, enlist everyone you know to "up the pressure" on the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act, impose restrictions on institutional investors buying single-family homes, and lower drug prices through the MAHA agenda.
