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THE VIEW FROM HERE - The Declaration of Independence makes it axiomatic that each individual has inalienable rights including Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness. Furthermore, to be legitimate, a government (1) must protect each individual’s inalienable rights and (2) must have the consent of the governed.
Because a legitimate government must have consent, it cannot be a House Divided Against Itself. When a society is polarized, it ceases to be one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Today, America is polarized between Wokeism and MAGA. Wokeism’s and MAGA’s hard core followers are about 15%. Their numbers appear larger since both Wokers and MAGA ruthlessly run rough shod over the other members of the party. The bulk of Americans objected to cancel culture where anyone who was not sufficiently MAGA or Woke would be booted from their position.
While one can see Wokeism in the Victimization philosophy the 1960s and 1970's, it did not become a formal political philosophy until Nancy Pelosi started her Identity Politics. Her game plan was for the Dems to take over the government and exclude the GOP when minorities became the majority of voters, at which time, they would legislatively expropriate the wealth of the Whites and distribute it among the Blacks and other minorities. People forget that Pelosi comes from California which has become a one party state. When Identity Politics coalesced into Wokeism, it adopted a specific ideology that the world is divided into two groups, Oppressors (Whites and Jews) and Oppressed (primarily Blacks, and other minorities).
The populace did not pay much attention to this polarization until the 2016 Presidential election when Hillary Clinton called Whites a “basket of Deplorables,” who reacted angrily by voting for Donald Trump. Four years later after the bizarre Trump Administration, Joe Biden promised to be a Centrist. Biden said Presidency should not be about Trump’s family or about his family but, as he looked directly into the camera, Biden said “but about your family.” For a few months, Biden did well as a Centrist until the behind the scenes shot-caller, Nancy Pelosi, demanded that he be full 100% Woke. Pelosi saw that Centrism would allow Biden to govern with the support of the Center and moderate GOP, and that would freeze out her Wokers. Biden became an ardent Woker comparing anyone who did not support his pro Black Voting Bill to the white supremacist Sheriff Bull Connor who had released attack dogs on 1960's Civil Rights marchers. In December 2023, the nation was shocked to see that the nature of Wokeism when the presidents of Harvard, U of Penn, and MIT said that calling for the genocide of Jews could be consistent with their free speech policies depending on context.
By the time of the 2024 Presidential campaign, Pelosi had forced Joe Biden to run for re-election, as she did not want to lose her puppet, but when his senility was revealed on TV, she forced him to resign. Kamala Harris took Biden’s place as candidate. She tried to separate from Wokeism, but Pelosi, the Obama’s, and Woke bigwigs forced her to be 100% woke. The center of US voters thus shifted away from the Dems and gave the GOP control of the House, the Senate, the Courts and the Presidency. Although Wokeism’s most prominent feature has become anti-Semitism with its support of Hamas, Pelosi still demands fidelity to Wokeism.
Contrary to Wokeism, MAGA has no political philosophy, but is a cult devoted to consolidating all power in its leader, Donald Trump. Due to his Histrionic and Narcissistic personality disorders, Trump is the perfect dupe for those who want to turn America into a militarized dictatorship. The euphemistic name for these people is Unitary President Theory (UPT). Just as the name prior name of the German Nazi Party was “National Socialist German Workers' Party,” the UPT means a Military Dictatorship.
While the Woke Left has more than ample reason to find Trump’s behavior objectionable, he lacks the power to force the Unitary Presidency upon America. Senate John Thune could have prevented Trump’s excesses by allowing Senators to reject Trump’s extremism, incompetent nominees. Prior to that, the Supreme Court granted Trump immunity for criminal behavior – breaking our inherited Anglo Saxon jurisprudence from before the Magna Carta in 1215 and even before 893 C.E. with Alfred The Great’s code that no man is above the law. Could there be any great than immunity for the President’s criminal conduct because he claims it is part of his core constitutional duties? In issuing its emergency ruling lifting the Ninth Circuit’s stay that enjoined ICE from its abusive behavior during immigrant raids in Los Angeles, Noem vs Perdomo, the majority opinion misrepresented the facts. The legal standard for ICE’s stopping a person was “reasonable suspicion.” When the court’s decision recites materially false facts so that ICE’s behavior appears reasonable, the court is being worse than disingenuous. Altering and omitting material facts is judicial corruption. More than that, it advances the Unitary Executive Theory by allowing ICE to do intimidate whomever Trump desires. We can expect ICE to resume its unlawful behavior including attacking, arresting, and falsely making charges against US citizens for battery on ICE officers. Although the Supreme Court decision does not explicitly condone illegal behavior, ICE realizes that the Supreme Court will mischaracterize the agents’ misbehavior so that it seems legal.
Ignore History At Your Peril
German Nazism is the “gold standard” to instruct an authoritarian how to groom a nation for his abusive, authoritarian, and unconstitutional rule. Americans should learn how the Nazis created an additional army whose purpose was to control German citizens. Initially, it was the SS (Schutzstaffel), Hitler’s body guard, but it grew into army, loyal to Hitler, to police Germans. As the WW II progressed, it extended to all German occupied lands. Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill does the same thing, by giving $150 Billion to ICE for a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) army which will owe allegiance to Trump. For months, Trump’s game plan to use the US military to keep the Presidency beyond 2028 has been evident since he appointed Pete Hegseth Secretary of War and Hegseth called out the Marines for LA, the HSI army will be larger and beholden to Trump.
(Richard Lee Abrams is a Los Angeles-based attorney, author, and political commentator. A long-time contributor to CityWatchLA, he is known for his incisive critiques of City Hall and judicial corruption, as well as his analysis of political and constitutional issues. Abrams blends legal insight with historical and philosophical depth to challenge conventional narratives. A passionate defender of civic integrity and transparency, he aims to expose misuse of power and advocate for systemic reform in local government. You may email him at [email protected])
