Last month, a prominent
figure on the right asked me point-blank, “Why don’t you move?” He was
referring to California, and my stubborn refusal to leave this high-tax,
low-IQ, far-left, illegal-alien-riddled state.
I certainly could move if I wanted to. If I can afford a
four-bedroom house in Beverly Hills, I can afford a mansion in Dickweed,
Montana.
But I ain’t moving. I was born here. I love this state. I’ve
traveled all over the world, and I’ve never found a place as geographically and
climatically perfect as Cali (sorry, Texans, you may have low taxes and such,
but I’ve driven the length of your state twice, and it’s suicide-inducingly
dull).
But the No. 1 reason I refuse
to leave California is that I’d rather die here than give leftists the
satisfaction of driving me out.
In the course of my Holocaust research, I spent a good deal of
my youth in Germany. I got to know many Germans, usually in the context of “Hi,
I’m a Holocaust Jew from America! Let’s be pals.” And in 1995 I toured Japan as
part of an extended lecture gig sponsored by a professor at Tokyo’s Waseda
University.
I was always curious what it’s like to grow up in a “loser” country,
one that surrendered unconditionally only to be occupied and remade by its
victorious foes. Because what did I know of defeat and humiliation? My house
sits on land formerly occupied by wigwams and pueblos, the occupants of which
got their butts royally kicked ages ago, and now the soil is mine. From the
Civil War to the two World Wars, my family has always been on the winning side
of everything. So I was keen to understand how the Germans and Japanese handled
growing up knowing how badly they were pantsed and castrated after WWII.
The overwhelming majority of Germans I met dealt with
the humiliation by apologizing, bowing, and prostrating themselves. It got to
the point where I stopped mentioning revisionism to them, not because they’d
chew me out (they couldn’t…I’m Jewish), but because they’d
literally start crying like children. “We’re a bad people! We did bad things!
We deserve the scorn, we deserve the punishment. We owe the world an eternity
of apologies.”
Christ, I was embarrassed for
them.
The Japs, on the other
hand, handled their lot with greater dignity (no surprise there, due to the
Japanese fetish for honor and the fact that postwar Japan was not subjected to
the grotesque mindfuck the U.S. and Soviets inflicted on postwar Germany). The
most common attitude I found among my Japanese friends was “We took one for the
team.” That “team” being humanity. “We were manipulated into a war with the
U.S., and, as the only people to endure the horrors of large-scale nuclear
bombing, through our misery, the world saw firsthand the terrors of such
things, and that’s why it never happened again. Our dead did not die in vain.”
Fair enough. At least none of the little yella bastards ever
wept in front of me.
The bottom line of my fascination was, what are the
psychological effects of living in a nation where a foreign force came in and
told you “everything you were was bad. Everything you stood for was bad. And
now we’re going to remake you into a good people and a good country,
whether you like it or not. You were foul, you were vile, you were monsters.
But now, we’ll try to make you into decent humans…not that you have any say in
the matter.”
“Thirty years ago, I looked at defeated peoples as curiosities
to be studied. I never thought one day I’d join their ranks.”
That was the question on my mind during every one of my extended
stays in the former Axis nations. And if I’ve come off as a little callous
toward the citizens of those countries, you can take some comfort in knowing
that the joke is now firmly on me.
Because all of a sudden I’m in their place.
Governor
Gavin Newsom’s June 22 Facebook and Twitter address to the people of California should have
been a big story in the conservative media-sphere. It wasn’t, because the right
dismisses California as too far gone. And yes, we are, but that doesn’t mean
what’s happening here isn’t instructive, not with fleeing Californians
resettling in red states and swing states, making them bluer. Not with anti-American immigrants settling in
the heartland and taking over entire congressional districts. So, sure, mock us
in Cali. But don’t ignore what’s happening here, because there are plenty of
people who want the same thing to happen to you.
Pay attention to California as a cautionary tale.
“Stalin”
Newsom’s social media address was the speech of an occupier to a conquered
people. The gist of his lecture was essentially, “Everything this state was was
bad. You Californians who were here in the 1990s were monsters. But we’ve
vanquished you; you’re desolated, done. Your opinions no longer matter, your
accomplishments are being dismantled, and better people are replacing you.”
The speech is only a minute twenty-five. Amazingly, not a single
site on the ’net has bothered to transcribe it, so I’ll do it myself (Newsom’s
words are in italics), with heckling where appropriate.
In
California, I want folks to know you have rights. Know your rights, learn more
about your rights, your legal protection.
Uh, who’s he talking to here?
Know that
you should continue to send your kids to camp, summer school, know that you
should feel confident going to work. We have your back.
Ah, he’s talking to illegals. Even though in this speech he uses
the words “us,” “we,” and “Californians,” it’s clear that he’s speaking to only
one type of Californian—illegal immigrants.
You know,
we’ve been through this before, we lived through this same political theater in
the 1990s.
According
to the governor of California, what the people of
California voted for in overwhelming numbers in the 1990s was merely “political
theater.”
Prop.
187…
Nineteen ninety-four’s Proposition 187, also known as the Save
Our State (SOS) initiative, was a ballot measure that established “a state-run
citizenship screening system and prohibited illegal immigrants from using
non-emergency health care, public education, and other services in the State of
California.” Prop. 187 passed in a landslide: 59 percent to 41 percent.
Sixty-five percent of white voters supported it. A majority of black and Asian
voters supported it. Sixty-two percent of independents supported it. But
apparently it was only “political theater.”
…three
strikes you’re out, the fear of the other…
Cali
voters passed the “three strikes” law in 1994 by a whopping 72 percent to 28
percent margin. All we were asking of our criminals was that they not commit
three felonies, yet Newsom thinks we were being very unreasonable indeed. To
him, three strikes represents “fear of the other”…the “other” being murderers,
thieves, and rapists. And who could possibly fear them? And by
the way, it’s a well-known fact that in ’94, policies like three strikes had
the widespread support of black leaders looking to reduce crime in their communities. So who exactly were the “others” they feared?
…we had
people talking down to people, talking past people…
Is he saying we were “talking down” to three-time felons by
telling them, “You should have stopped after your second one”?
And now,
back to Newsom “talking down” to us:
We’re
better than that. We’re resilient. We came out stronger than ever on the other
side. That’s the spirit of our state, and spirit defines this moment.
Who’s
we? We passed Prop. 187. We passed
three strikes. Wevoted to end affirmative action in universities. We voted
to end bilingual education. We voted
to ban gay marriage (2008!). Not all Californians who were here in the ’90s
have fled. Many of us remain. But we’ve been neutered by demographic change and
partisan redistricting, to the extent that “we” no longer matter…to the extent
that Newsom spends the rest of his speech addressing those who are not “we”:
I just
want to say to folks that are anxious about a knock on the door, when we talk
about knowing your rights, no abras la puerta [don’t open the door]. Without a
warrant, you don’t have to open the door. Without a warrant, you do not have to
open the door. You have the right to due process, you have the right to legal
representation. We’re going to make sure you know more about that. We’re going
to make sure that our judicial system sends that message out, our educational
system, our health-care system will send out the same message. We’re
Californians; it’s a special place. The spirit of this state is a spirit of
reconciling all our interesting differences…
…unless those differences include being right-of-center…
…uniting,
as we like to say, around our common humanity. We’re better than this moment in
the United States of America, and know we’re gonna get through it stronger than
ever.
This isn’t
a governor addressing his constituents; it’s Henry Morgenthau ostensibly
addressing the conquered Germans, but in fact only speaking to the Jews and
communists. “Hitler’s dead. His day is over. His supporters will be hunted to
extinction and beaten down by denazification laws. You are
Germany now. No one else’s voice matters. In fact, no German has the right to
even knock on your door.”
To Newsom, the commonsense reforms of the ’90s were Hitlerian,
and people like me are vanquished Nazis.
There’s something unique
about Newsom’s speech. He’s not only badmouthing the people of his own state,
he’s celebrating population replacement. “The Californians who used to live
here were evil. Thankfully, we’ve silenced them or driven them out.” Maybe I’m
wrong, but I can’t recall a previous example of a U.S. governor saying, “This
state used to suck because bad people lived here. Now it’s finally getting to
be an okay place!”
Thirty years ago, I looked at
defeated peoples as curiosities to be studied. I never thought one day I’d join
their ranks.
Reflect for a moment on how healthy Cali was in
the ’90s. Now look at your own state. Are you confident it can never go ass-up
like mine? Don’t be. It can happen to you.
Because Newsom is hardly an anomaly among today’s Democrats. He just happens to
be in a position where he can “let loose” a bit more than other Dem governors.
He no longer has to pay lip service to that segment of the population that
disgusts him.
So, yes, it’s too late to fight for Cali. But if
you live in an unconquered state, fight for it. Fight
against demographic change from outside the U.S. and from within.
And if there’s a home for
sale on your block, and you see a car with Cali plates drive up to the open
house, don’t immediately get hostile; it might be one of our “good” expats.
Just calmly approach the new arrivals and ask them how many genders there are.
Based on the response,
invite them in for pie…
…or get a rope and find a
tree.
