The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Argument by Assertion

Posted on | February 3, 2020 | 1 Comment

Sitting here this morning with the TV in my home office tuned to the closing arguments in the impeachment trial, and while I actually tried to ignore this noise — the whole damned Ukraine mess just makes me angry — I could not help overhearing the endless repetition involved. We have heard over and over a handful of phrases: President Trump “violated his oath of office,” and “our democracy” is jeopardized by “foreign interference in our elections.” Indeed, the Democrats claim, “our national security” is endangered because . . .

Well, Vladimir Putin is a dictator and Russia is our enemy — or such is the essence the Democratic argument implies.

Let us cede the point that Putin is a bad guy who has done bad things, and still we are faced with the question of whether a realignment of U.S. foreign policy in Europe is overdue. We can simultaneously (a) favor the independence of Ukraine and other former Warsaw Pact nations without (b) believing that Russia is the greatest threat to those nations. In fact, I believe Stephen Miller and other key Trump advisers would argue, the greater danger to Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, etc., is from the kind of “globalism” advocated by George Soros. The minute you say “Soros,” of course, you’ll be accused of endorsing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and, perhaps also, repeating Russian propaganda. However, it’s possible to think that Hungary’s Viktor Orban and other Eastern European nationalists could be valuable American allies without embracing any kind of paranoid theory, much less anti-Semitism.

Isn’t it the case, after all, that the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe is a direct consequence of increased Islamic immigration to Europe? Why do Jews feel threatened in Paris? It’s not because of any neo-Nazi menace, but rather because Paris is being overrun by Arabs. And who is supporting this influx of Muslims into Europe? Not Russia. Go back to the “Arab Spring” of 2011, which inaugurated the civil war in Syria, which in turn led to the “refugee crisis” of 2015. At every point of that timeline, the Obama administration and the Left in Europe were supporting the forces of political instability and demographic chaos. Let anyone investigate what policies George Soros’s network of tax-exempt advocacy organizations were advancing doing at that time, and see whether it’s a “conspiracy theory” to criticize his influence.

It is a fact — a matter of public record — that four of the House Democrat impeachment managers voted against military aid to Ukraine. How is it, then, they can assert that President Trump is guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors” because he briefly delayed this aid, when if it were up to them, Ukraine never would have gotten any such aid? It’s almost as if Democrats really don’t care about “our national security,” but are merely manufacturing this concern for political advantage.

I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I am deeply cynical, and you’d have to be a damned fool to believe that Democrats care more about America’s national security than does President Trump. Democrats seem to think that all they have to do is assert that Trump is guilty, and that their mere assertion is tantamount to proof of his guilt. This is the only plausible explanation for why they keep repeating the same phrases, as if they believe repetition will give their assertions the force of argument.

This is not how actual arguments work, however, and preaching to the partisan choir — Democrats telling their own dimwit supporters that their hatred of Trump is justified — will not persuade anyone who understand the Constitution, which gives the President nearly unlimited authority (for good or ill) in conducting our foreign policy.




 

Category: Donald Trump, Ukraine

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One Response to “Argument by Assertion”

  1. Friday Links | 357 Magnum
    February 7th, 2020 @ 12:15 pm

    […] The Other McCain – Argument by Assertion […]