Tea at Trianon: Leftist Strategy: Divide And Isolate Via Deceptive Labeling

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, August 26, 2024

Leftist Strategy: Divide And Isolate Via Deceptive Labeling

From Jan Greenhawk at The Easton Gazette:

It wasn't the first time it happened. As a Chapter Chair for Moms for Liberty in my county, I am proud to share who we are and what we do. We fight for parental rights to guide the educational, health, and social lives of their children. This means that parents have a right to both encourage their child's exposure to their family's values and at the same time shield their children from those ideas they find harmful or antithetical to family beliefs. It seems fairly simple.

Unfortunately, as the left often does when they wish to denigrate any organization that has conservative values that stand in the way of the progressive agenda, our organization has been unfairly tagged with many allegations such as book banners, anti-gay, racist, extremist, and any other label they feel will harm our credibility. Progressives have even gone so far as to accuse our local chapter of taking dark money from the Hungarian government. It's obvious they haven't seen our bank account.

The problem is that this strategy not only works with other leftist organizations, it seems to work with other Conservative groups as well.

The other day, our group was participating in a meeting with two political actions committee reps on how best to fight a statewide ballot measure in November. It was a meeting that our group had initiated.

At some point in the meeting, the PACs solicited our group's help but added this caveat. It went something like this: "We'd love to have your help but we can't list your organization in our materials since the left has labeled you an extremist hate group."

At that point, we should have ended the meeting. Any discussion past that point was useless, since the PACs had clearly stated that they were going to let the left define our organization for them. Not only that, but their words also indicated that they were implicitly validating the left's label and promoting it. They were allowing the left to do exactly what they wanted to us, isolating and erasing us in Conservative initiatives.

The PACs, who I won't name here because I don't want to demean them like they did us, showed their true character. They defined the relationship they wanted as an "alliance "but it was really going to be exploitation. They wanted to use us and our members but didn't have the guts to defend us publicly.

This is not an isolated incident, but one fairly common in Conservative circles. As soon as the left calls a politician or a group a nasty, unfounded name, groups on the right run to cover and disavow that politician or group for fear they will be called the same name. They use the excuse that aligning with us will hurt them with certain other groups or constituencies. The Left knows that many Conservative groups want to protect their public image instead of doing the right thing. It's how the Left divides and neuters us. (Read more.)