Existential Threats — Gadsden

Gadsden
The Curia
Published in
4 min readJul 20, 2024

Despite President Biden’s message to “turn down” the rhetorical temperature, his campaign continues to claim that his opponent is “an existential threat” to the country.

President Biden and his supporters have stated (variously) that his opponent is “an existential threat” to democracy or our republic. They have stated that Trump will usher in fascism, cut social security, and make himself a dictator. These are but a very few of the many claims made by the democrats about the horrors that would attend the re-election of Trump.

Existential threat.

The phrase is unambiguous. The left is saying that they believe Donald Trump is a threat to the existence of the United States. That’s not saying he might put policies in place that they don’t like, or sign legislation that they don’t like. That is saying they think one man can remove the United States from the map.

One man.

Isn’t it baffling that congressmen, senators, and presidents — who swear an oath to the Constitution — don’t seem to know what the Constitution says? Maybe it isn’t as mysterious as it might appear at first glance. They know what it says. They’re lying.

I’ve always embraced the maxim ‘Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.’ This area is an exception. Biden knows full well that Trump does not represent an existential threat of any kind. Biden is saying this to cause fear and stir up anger. His supporters in Congress know it as well — and keep repeating the “existential threat” nonsense for the same reason. They aren’t trying to “tone down” the temperature, they are trying to scare and enrage people.

“Fearmongering” doesn’t suffice. The natural reaction to being threatened is anger. If you intend to cause fear, you intend to cause anger.

The claims from the left are manifestly false. Regardless of Trump’s intentions or desires, the office he seeks simply doesn’t hold the power to do the things they claim he will do. To do what the left claims Trump will do would require so many amendments to the Constitution that I can’t even begin to count them. Two-thirds of Congress and three-quarters of the states are simply not going to buy in. The left knows this full well. Biden knows this full well.

It’s quite clear to me that the people making these claims don’t believe them. They are not acting like they believe them. If the existence of the country was about to end I would expect to see military assets being moved around, people leaving the country, and martial law — a host of actions would be justified if anyone believed the country was about to end as the result of an election. I see no such evidence. They don’t believe their own rhetoric.

It’s not enough that the left ignores the fact that the president doesn’t have the authority to make himself a dictator or end the republic, they also ignore what Trump has said he intends to do.

On Trump’s website and within the Republican party platform, Trump says he wants to protect social security and end the weaponization of government against political opponents. He has also said he rejects a national abortion ban. Further — the platform pledges full support for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The left is fully aware of this as well.

I’ve written before about “ Democracy on the Ballot”, “ Lies”, and the media embrace of “ Extremism Sells.” There are all sorts of “reasons” why politicians and the media lie and spread and repeat lies. I’m not going to pretend that some on the right don’t engage in the same thing. None of it is justified.

The existential threat to our republic is the people who want to ignore or do away with the Constitution. The people who embrace censorship, the people who ignore the rights (and agency) of the individual, the people who want more government power, the people who want law-abiding citizens disarmed, the people who think government ought to involve itself in areas where the government is demonstrably incompetent. Those are the people who are a clear and existential threat to our republic. Asking or allowing the court or the executive to create legislation is a threat to our republic.

Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and communist China for all their efforts couldn’t bring this country down. Neither can Donald Trump or Joe Biden. Our system simply isn’t that fragile. But if our citizens abandon the Constitution we will indeed cease to exist.

If you think Donald Trump or Joe Biden can single-handedly bring down this country, I’m sorry but you are stunningly misinformed. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. Ignoring or destroying the supreme law of the United States will bring down this country. Please remember that the next time you hear a politician, pundit, or media personality open their mouth. And remember that the people saying such things are knowingly trying to cause fear, which means they are knowingly trying to stir up anger, which means they are knowingly trying to incite violence.

Ignore the liars. For the sake of the country, ignore the liars.

Gadsden1

Please check out my website Gadsden1.com. Please check out “ The Group” for RSS feeds to some of my favorite writers and podcasters. Thank you for reading! And — I’ve started a store on the website — mostly for friends but you may be interested — check out the Gadsden Store. I have also added a PayPal option to my home page that allows you all to buy old Gads a beer — if you are so inclined.

Originally published at https://gadsden1.com on July 20, 2024.

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Gadsden
The Curia

Independent. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, politicians and judges might want to read it sometime. www.gadsden1.com