21st Century American 'Cold' Civil Wars

This weekend marks the 158^th anniversary of the First Battle of Bull Run, one of many major American battles during the American Civil War.  Fortunately, America has only had one Civil War thus far; fought primarily but not exclusively about the issue of slavery.  Just because America has not a civil war since the 1860s does not mean that the country has not experienced division and polarization.  For years, many warring factions within the country have participated in “cold” civil wars and in some cases, especially when it comes to domestic terrorism, it seems like the country has had a series of “hot” civil wars.  The domestic terror group Weather Underground fire-bombed buildings in the 1970s to express its disapproval with the Vietnam War while Antifa has unleashed a reign of terror, primarily on the west coast, most recently by beating up conservative journalist Andy Ngo.

While many of the issues dividing the country today fall into the left/right battles that have defined American politics for more than a century, many of the cold civil wars today exist within certain political parties and political organizations. My most recent blog post focused on the recent developments in electoral politics. This blog post will focus on the civil wars that have, to varying degrees, torn apart certain political parties and interest groups within the United States.  Let’s take a look at these cold civil wars and who currently has the upper hand in each of them.

The Squad vs. The Establishment

The intraparty fight in the Democratic Party began when four Congresswomen who now call themselves “The Squad” voted against a bill that attempted to deal with the crisis at the border by giving more money, making them the only four House Democrats to do so. The squad consists of a group of four freshmen Democratic members of Congress who lie on the far left end of the political spectrum, to put it mildly.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts defeated incumbents in Democratic primaries while Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota emerged victorious in Democratic primaries with no incumbent on the ballot.  Nancy Pelosi dismissed their influence, claiming that “All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world…but they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.” Pelosi had previously dismissed Ocasio-Cortez’s influence by declaring that a “glass of water with a D next to its name” could win in a district like hers.

The feud continued when Pelosi addressed “an offensive tweet that came out of one of the members’ offices that referenced our Blue Dogs and our New Dems essentially as segregationists.” Ocasio-Cortez’s Chief of Staff, sent out a tweet arguing that centrist Democrats “certainly seem hell bent to do black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s.”

In response to what they saw as a snub, the four Congresswomen tried to play the race card by arguing that Pelosi decided to single them out because of their skin color. Even liberal firecracker Maureen Dowd saw the cries of racism as ridiculous. It seems as if it never occurred to these women that criticism of them has less to do with their race and gender and results more from the fact that their ideas suck.

Pelosi and “the squad” briefly called off their feud when President Trump sent out a tweet urging the Congresswomen to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” In my opinion, President Trump could have saved himself a lot of trouble by simply quoting Mike Ditka: “If you don’t like America, get the hell out.” While all four of the Congresswomen belong to minority groups protected at all costs by the media and liberal establishment, only one of the four traces her origins back to a country other than the United States.  Ilhan Omar came to the country as a refugee from Somalia; she has since become an American citizen. In response to President Trump’s tweets, the House, led by Speaker Pelosi, voted on a resolution condemning President Trump’s tweets as sracist. However, the kumbayah did not last long. The quartet tried to play the race card once again during an interview with CBS’s Gayle King. Tlaib told Pelosi to keep in mind that their status as “women of color” during the interview, noting that she has received many death threats. Guess what? Congressman Matt Gaetz, a Republican from Florida and a white man, has also received death threats. Unfortunately, death threats come with the territory of public life.  

Numerically speaking, the establishment has the advantage in this cold civil war. However, considering the enormous social media following of AOC, the “squad” may end up winning the war of ideas in the long run.

The squad and the far left of the Democratic Party suffered another setback when the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to table the latest articles of impeachment against President Trump. All four members of “the Squad” voted against tabling the impeachment articles. 

Paul Ryan’s GOP vs. Donald Trump’s GOP

A family feud also broke out in the Republican Primary upon the release of a new book alleging that former House Speaker Paul Ryan retired from Congress last year because he wanted an “off ramp” from President Trump. In response to the Speaker’s swipes at him, the President did not hold back; living up to his reputation as a counter-puncher. In a series of tweets, President Trump claimed that “people like Paul Ryan almost killed the Republican Party” and described the former Speaker and 2012 Republican Vice Presidential nominee as “weak, ineffective, & stupid.” Ryan may not have destroyed the Republican Party but some of the policies he supported certainly caused nothing but headaches for the Grand Old Party.

As Tucker Carlson pointed out in his book, Ship of Fools, Ryan, while working as a legislative aide for Congressman Jack Kemp, led opposition to “Proposition 187, which barred illegal aliens from receiving state welfare benefits.” Had Proposition 187 gone into effect, it would have prevented the nation’s immigration system from reaching the crisis level. In addition, Carlson pointed out that when working for then-Congressman Sam Brownback, “Ryan authored a series of ‘Dear Colleague’ letters that successfully frightened Republicans into neutering” a “bipartisan proposal to significantly curb immigration.”

Curbing immigration would have effectively nullified the need for President Trump. Since the mid-1990s, immigration and the foreign-born population has continued to explode; causing state after state to turn blue. Virginia voted Republican in every Presidential election from 1968 to 2004 but turned blue in 2008 thanks to our immigration policies. In addition to the political consequences, mass immigration leads to economic consequences of having to pay for social services like education and healthcare for illegal immigrants, many of whom do not speak English.  In other words, Ryan’s opposition to cutting back on immigration has made it much more difficult to enact the small-government philosophy he supposedly cares about into law.

Considering the fact that President Trump has a 90 percent approval rating within the Republican Party, I think he has the upper hand in this civil war.  However, numerically speaking, may in the GOP still subscribe to the Paul Ryan philosophy and hope to convert President Trump into thinking that way too.

America First vs. Cheap Labor First

A vote that took place last week illustrated the divide between the America First Republicans and everyone else. Described by Breitbart as a “fast track to valuable green cards” for “300,000 Indian contract workers” with the effect of “incentivizing more low wage Indian graduates to take U.S. jobs from middle class American graduates,” the “Fairness For High Skilled Immigrants Act” passed with only 65 “no” votes. Believe it or not, two of the four members of “the squad,” who seem to hate America, voted for the bill while a majority of House Republicans, who tout their patriotism, voted in favor of it. While high-skilled immigrants might not drain social services as much as the low-skilled immigrants that dominate our immigration system, they still depress wages for American workers.

The “America First” crowd has to change a large amount of hearts and minds if they want to make progress in this civil war.

Planned Parenthood: Medical Organization or Political Action Committee?

Just about a year ago, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards stepped down.  Her replacement, Dr. Liana Wen, wanted to make the abortion giant to focus on establishing a reputation as a medical institution and less on the hot button issue of abortion. After all, from a liberal’s perspective, touting the organization’s gravitas as a medical body, not a political one. After all, a political organization has no business receiving half a million dollars in taxpayer funding every single year. Wen’s approach did not please the organization’s Board of Directors, who voted to axe her earlier this week. Wen wrote in a goodbye letter that “I came to Planned Parenthood to run a national health care organization and to advocate for the broad range of public health policies that affect our patients’ health.” Wen lamented the fact that “the new Board leadership has determined that the priority of Planned Parenthood moving forward is to double down on abortion rights advocacy.” 

In the battle between those hoping to portray Planned Parenthood as a medical organization or at least veiling its true nature as an abortion mill and those hoping to make it an “in your face” political advocacy group, the folks in the latter category have all the momentum.

The Deficit Hawks vs. The Establishment

It looks like President Trump may soon have another primary challenger: former South Carolina Governor and Congressman Mark Sanford. Sanford, unlike the only other Republican primary challenger William Weld, actually has conservative credentials.  Sanford has a personal animus towards President Trump; after all, the President dissed Sanford by calling him “very unhelpful to me in my campaign to MAGA, adding “he is MIA and nothing but trouble” as he endorsed Sanford’s primary opponent; who ended up defeating Sanford.  The bitterness over the primary results in South Carolina’s 1^st Congressional District last year likely carried over into the general election, where Democrat Joe Cunningham eked out a narrow victory.

Sanford, a former member of the Freedom Caucus furious about the exploding national debt, seems to have directed his anger and frustration at the wrong person. President Trump can only sign budgets passed by Congress. His administration provided a budget blueprint that would have balanced the budget within ten years but Congress has repeatedly chosen to ignore it. According to National Review, Sanford has indicated that if he decides not to run for President, he will instead start a think tank organization devoted to addressing the deficit. In my opinion, Sanford could serve as a much better advocate for his cause in that position than he could ever do as President of the United States. 

The unbalanced budgets passed by Congress over the last two decades should prove that the deficit hawks have lost this cold civil war.  Stay tuned for more progress reports on this and all the other “cold” civil wars engulfing the nation.