Fault in the System

townhall.com

Liberal democracies always hold the keys to their own destruction.

Modern liberal democracies have provided most of the wealth and invention that the world enjoys today. From medicines to airplanes and smartphones, not much in the way of innovation has come from the former Soviet Union or China. China is outstanding at production, but they are still weak on the creative front, their smartphones generally having features known on iPhones and Samsung units. My son recently showed me a clip regarding a single Airbus A320 purchase by China. The plane was never seen on any flight radar or recorded moving between locations. Rather, many years later, it was seen derelict behind some factory, not in any condition to fly. The Chinese bought the plane in order to take it apart and copy it piece by piece. Their first commercial plane is that copy and nobody in the West is buying it. The story is reminiscent of B-29 bombers interned in the Soviet Union during World War II. Stalin told his chief designer to copy the planes perfectly. He was told that they were made in inches/feet while the Soviets used metric measurements. Stalin said to copy it exactly as it was. To that, his designer asked if she should include the U.S. Army Air Corps insignia as well.

Dictatorships and other types of top-heavy government do not trust the people. There are features in place, such as secret police, excessive surveillance, kangaroo courts, torture, and jail, to make sure that the people are kept in their place. Leaders in places such as North Korea and Syria of the Assads would return over 97 percent votes for the dictator. I felt sorry for the other 3 percent and their impending arrest and torture. Dictatorships are distrustful, and rightly so. Khrushchev went on a short holiday only to return and find that Brezhnev had replaced him.

Liberal democracies guarantee citizens the greatest freedoms and participation in the political process. One problem with such democracies is that they don’t have built-in systems for autocratic or dictatorial programs taking them over—legally. Hitler famously won the 1933 German elections and then parlayed his minority position into the chancellorship. Once there, he canceled all other political parties and got rid of elections altogether. The liberal democracies find it hard to ban speech or potentially fascistic parties. The latter are given all of the support, protections and even funding as are vanilla political parties that debate green energy and immigration policy. Liberal democracies are generally blind to the totalitarian threats that could wipe them out. And today there are several such threats.

The three most obvious totalitarian systems that often work together against the U.S. and Europe are China, Islam and the Marxist left. China looks for economic, political and military hegemony. Only recently did we learn that Chinese nationals—meaning CCP employees—ran Microsoft’s software for the Pentagon. One cannot look at a Chinese plane or aircraft carrier and not see Western features copied almost to a T. The new Chinese aircraft carrier has an electromagnetic catapult system that the U.S. only recently fielded for the first time with the USS Gerald Ford. What open-minded Americans do not understand is that every Chinese company and many Chinese students are part of the CCP or PLA. The Chinese electric car manufacturers could disable all of their cars in the U.S. and Europe if given the order from the top. The Israel Air Force has banned all such cars from its bases due to spying concerns. We in the West do not understand that students that come to the U.S. may send the latest scientific results or breakthroughs back to Beijing. A chemistry professor at Harvard misled government officials as to his relationship with the CCP and shared U.S.-funded scientific research with the Chinese—to advance their interests as the expense of the U.S.

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The Muslims have grown in number in the West, primarily through illegal immigration into European countries. They have made it clear that their goal—without firing too many shots—is to establish Sharia states in the quaint places that we call England, Holland, France, Spain, etc. If they succeed, life in London will parallel that in Islamabad. All of those lefties who went to Hamas rallies with their new Islamic friends will find that they will have to wear hijabs or stop drinking alcohol. It’s almost worth having this outcome if only to see the shock on their faces. Islam brooks no dissent to following its rules alone. If the increasing Muslim minorities grow and take over European countries (in some cases—again), then life will be much different than it is today. Women will become eigth class citizens and all other religions will be relegated to background noise. Today, this all sounds fanciful in a Christian England, but the Church of England is in crash and burn mode, while the Muslims keep coming and reproducing. At some point, the football team with 35 players on the field wins even if the other team has home field advantage.

The final control-freak group is the Western Marxist left. They are as intolerant as the previous two groups, even if they have nose piercings and blue hair. Many of them marched with the Muslims to celebrate two years since Hamas's barbarity against Jews and others in southern Israel. They rejoiced at the murder of Charlie Kirk, husband and father of two. As others on these pages have frequently written, they want you dead and they are always looking at the means to secure their ability to make that a reality: gun-control to take away your ability to protect yourself, fighting normal voter I.D. requirements so as to guarantee electoral victories, funding anti-Western protests in order to sow chaos and prevent the reestablishment of law and order. The left is as intolerant and violent as both China and Islam. That any human being could celebrate the mass rape and murder of civilians is beyond disgusting.

The only tonic to these three totalitarian tendencies is proactive vigilance. Most Americans and even Westerners want to live in liberal democracies that guarantee their rights to religious expression, free speech, self-protection (U.S.), and political choice. The bad actors are throwing money and energy to exploit the underbelly of democracy to take over institutions and political control. This is a fight for civilization. China already uses social scores and Europe wants to go down the same control freak route. I cannot confirm a picture I saw that claimed to show Chinese youth sleeping on the street due to their low social scores and inability to rent an apartment. They want to bring this garbage to the U.S, and during Covid we got a good taste of what it means not to have freedom of travel or expression. My Israeli family all remember going to a Walmart in Arizona and seeing everybody without masks. We whipped ours off as well and felt human again. The U.S. barely missed the formal establishment of a Stasi “disinformation” office under Joe Biden.

Western societies are more fragile than most realize. Leaders (which today means pretty much President Trump and his associates) need to recognize the totalitarian threats and act accordingly:

*Limit Chinese access to the U.S. via Chinese companies, land purchases and students.

*Reduce immigration from Muslim countries and eject any foreign Muslim illegally in the country or in the slightest violation of his/her visa.

*Find the funding for Antifa and other leftwing chaos makers. If the money bags have violated any relevant U.S. laws, including funding terror, they need to be prosecuted. Most leftists below the leadership show up at protests for money. Break up the funding and reduce the movement to the most committed, which is a relatively small group.

Statists hate freedom. Those who love their freedoms need to preserve what we have—and not take it for granted.