Joe Biden Calls Trump Supporters Outside His Rally 'Chumps'
During a “rally” in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Joe Biden referred to Trump supporters protesting outside his event as “chumps.”
“I’ll work as hard for those who don’t support me as those who do,”
Biden said, in an attempt to prove his commitment to unity. But then he
decided to go off script and added, “including those chumps with the
microphone out there.”
WATCH: Joe Biden insults Pennsylvanians who don't support him, calls them "chumps" pic.twitter.com/QvHgk7nppH
— Trump War Room - Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) October 24, 2020
Joe Biden expects us to believe his message of unity when he calls
Trump supporters chumps? Let’s not forget that back in May, Joe Biden
slandered Trump supporters as racists and xenophobes. “There are people
who support the president because they like the fact that he is engaged
in the politics of division,” Biden said. “They really support the
notion that, you know, all Mexicans are rapists and all Muslims are bad
and… dividing this nation based on ethnicity, race. This is the one
[sic] of the few presidents who succeeded by deliberately trying to
divide the country, not unite the country.”
As for the Biden rally itself, it was another drive-in event and the
campaign reportedly estimated that there were only 130 cars (with a
four-person maximum per car) present, according to MSNBC reporter Eli
Stokols.
Biden drive-in event about to begin in Bucks County, PA. Campaign estimates about 130 cars (4 people limit per car). pic.twitter.com/qu1G9FAaaN
“Joe Biden cares far more about the sensitivities of his coastal
elite base than he does about the hard-working men and women of
America,” said Trump 2020 Communications Director Tim Murtaugh in a
statement. “He has consistently demonstrated his contempt for American
workers by happily shipping jobs overseas, attacking the energy
industry, and now calling hard-working Americans who don’t support him
‘chumps’ – all to appease his liberal extremist handlers. It has never
been more clear that President Donald J. Trump is the only candidate in
this race who will fight for American workers and defend them against
the far-left.”
What are the odds Biden calls another lid tomorrow morning?
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
Source: AP Photo/Charles Dharapak
The headlines grow more disgusting -- and, frankly, more unbelievable -- with each passing day. Jeffrey Toobin, a columnist for The New Yorker, was suspended earlier this week (and placed on leave from his gig as chief legal analyst for CNN) after he was allegedly observed masturbating during a Zoom call with some of his colleagues from the magazine and from WYNC radio. Unsurprisingly, Toobin has become an object of derision and the butt of countless jokes. (Other parts of his unseemly backstory are getting more publicity. This is not, as they say, his first rodeo.)
Not everyone has piled on. CNN anchor Brian Stelter delicately referred to the incident as an "accident" during which Toobin "exposed himself," and warned readers that Toobin has been "sidelined at a pivotal moment in the run-up to the presidential election." Because, certainly, Toobin's unavailability to join the team raking President Donald Trump over the coals is what's really important here.
Kevin Williamson at National Review described the country's reaction to Toobin's conduct as little more than the latest "public-hate ritual." "In the great junior-high cafeteria of the American public square," Williamson writes, "it's Toobin's turn to sit alone." Oh, sure. Because whipping your genitalia out in front of your co-workers and pleasuring yourself in the middle of a meeting is exactly like showing up in seventh grade wearing the "wrong" shoes.
And, right on cue, here come the salivating sexmongers, who never miss an opportunity to further degrade social mores. The day after the ViewToob(in) scandal broke, Jonathan Zimmerman published a column in the New York Daily News in which he informs us that Toobin is "the most mocked man in the United States" only because of schadenfreude and because we're just not comfortable enough with masturbation. Zimmerman closes his piece by saying: "I'm guessing that you do the same, dear reader. Maybe you should stop feeling weird and guilty about that."
Zimmerman -- like some of Toobin's other defenders -- seems to be laboring under the misimpression that because conduct is engaged in somewhere, it must be tolerated everywhere. Let us agree, shall we, that just because it is appropriate to empty one's bowels in the bathroom does not mean it should be done in the conference room. And I'm going to further venture a guess that very few people have actually felt compelled to masturbate during conference calls, eight months of COVID-19 Zoom meetings notwithstanding.
But the larger point is that both Zimmerman and Williamson are getting it wrong here. The public's reaction isn't just the latest "two minutes of hate," secret envy or baseless "Mean Girl" bullying.
Millions of Americans display no sympathy for Toobin's (likely temporary) downfall because they are sick and tired of being lectured to and looked down upon by celebrities for whom leftist politics are expected to take the place of a complete lack of personal virtue. And that's putting it gracefully.
For the past four years (in truth, for years before that), the 63 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump have been on the receiving end of nothing but derision from the coastal elites, while we have watched them defend -- and engage in -- behavior that most of us find indefensible.
One would think that after so many of the pious politicians and moralizing media had been exposed as liars and frauds, they'd tone the righteous indignation down somewhat. Or that after the widespread rot that #MeToo exposed, Hollywood celebrities would be just a little reluctant to tout their moral superiority.
But, no. We rubes out here in Flyover Country are supposed to ignore the perversion and kink of the progressive vanguard; their chronic promiscuity; the spouses they wound and betray and abandon; their multiple divorces and the children they damage with their selfish behavior; their substance abuse and stints in rehab; their arrests for shoplifting and drunk driving and indecent exposure; the bribery and corruption and general hypocrisy of criticizing Joe and Jane Six-Pack for opposing policies that they themselves have zero intention of abiding by.
They're just better people, since they're voting for Joe Biden and they really, really support the Green New Deal.
Contrary to Kevin Williamson's take, I don't "hate" Jeffrey Toobin, and I wouldn't wish what he's going through on anyone, whether I agree with their politics or not. Furthermore, famous and wealthy Americans -- like all Americans -- are entitled to cast their vote however they wish, to feel strongly about it and to defend their positions. They are not, however, entitled to some kind of religious deference to their opinion, nor do they have a divine right to condemn everyone who doesn't share their political viewpoint.
Finally, if they want their politics to be more persuasive, or for the public to be more forgiving, they might try a little humility. Americans can overlook a multitude of sins. But hypocrisy, almost never.
Hunter's Ex-Business Partner Says Joe Biden Lied About Business Deals In China, FBI Has Proof
Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter Biden, accused
former VP Joe Biden of lying about his role in his son's international
dealings during a statement to the WH press corps just 90 minutes before
Thursday's presidential debate. Bobulinski, who will be a guest at the
debate, said he has three phones that will prove his claims and he is
giving them to the FBI.
BOBULINSKI: "Good evening. My name is Tony Bobunlinski. I served as a
lieutenant in the United States Navy with high security clearance. My
father and grandfather, both served for decades in our country’s armed
forces. Since leaving the Navy, I’ve been involved in various successful
businesses, both in this country and abroad. I’m making the statement
to set the record straight about the involvement of the Biden family,
Vice President Biden, his brother Jim Biden, and his son Hunter Biden,
in dealings with the Chinese.
I’ve heard Joe Biden say that he’s never discussed business with Hunter. That is false.
I have first hand knowledge about this because I directly dealt with the
Biden family, including Joe Biden. I have also heard the Vice President
Biden said on Tuesday, that Senator Ron Johnson the chair of the Senate
Homeland Security Committee, should be ashamed for suggesting the Biden
family sought to profit from their name. Well here are the facts, I
know. And everything I’m saying is corroborated by emails, WhatsApp
chats, agreements, documents, and other evidence and American people can
judge for themselves.
I brought, I guess, for the record three phones, that spanned the years
2015 to 2018. These phones have never been held by anybody else besides
myself. I was told this past Sunday by somebody who was also involved in
this matter that if I went public this information would be it would
bury all of us, man, the Bidens included.
I have no wish to bury anyone. I’ve never been political. The few
contributions I’ve made have been the Democrats. But what I am is a
patriot, and a veteran, to protect my family name, and my business
reputation, I need to ensure that the true facts are out there.
In late 2015. I was approached by James Gilliar, whom I had known for
many years, about joining him in a deal which he said would involve the
Chinese state owned enterprise CFC China Energy, and what he called one
of the most prominent families in the United States. I was informed
first by Gilliar, and then by Hunter Biden, and by Rob Walker, who was
working with the Biden’s, that the Biden’s wanted to form a new entity
with CFC, which was to invest in infrastructure, real estate, and
technology in the U.S. and around the world. And the entity would
initially be capitalized with $10 million, and then grow to billions of
dollars of investment capital.
After months of discussion, I agreed to Gilliar and Hunter Biden’s
request to become CEO of the entity to be called Sino Hawk, Sino
representing the Chinese side, Hawk, representing Hunter Biden’s brother
Beau’s favorite animal. And between February and May 2017, we exchanged
numerous emails, documents, and WhatsApp messages concerning Sino Hawk,
and its potential business.
On May 2, 2017, the night before Joe Biden was to appear at the Milken
conference. I was introduced to Joe Biden by Jim Biden and Hunter Biden.
At my approximate hour long meeting with Joe. That night, we discussed
the Biden’s history, the Biden’s family business plans with the Chinese,
with which he was plainly familiar, at least at a high level, after
that meeting I had numerous communications with Hunter, Walker, Gilliar,
and Jim Biden. Regarding the allocation of the equity ownership of Sino
Hawk.
On May 13, 2017, I received an email concerning allocation of equity,
which says 10% held by H for the big guy in that email there’s no
question that H stands for Hunter, big guy for his father, Joe Biden,
and Jim for Jim Biden.
In fact, Hunter often referred to as fathers the big guy or my Chairman
on numerous occasions, it was made clear to me that Joe Biden’s
involvement was not to be mentioned in writing, but only face to face.
In fact, I was advised by Gilliar and Walker, that Hunter and Jim Biden
were paranoid about keeping Joe Biden’s involvement secret. I also had a
disagreement with Hunter about the funds CFC was contributing to Sino
Hawk. Hunter wanted 5 million of those funds to go to himself and his
family.
So he wanted the funds wired directly to an entity affiliated with him. I
objected because that was contrary to our written agreements,
concerning Sino Hawk. He said referring to the chairman, his father,
that CFC was really investing in the Biden family that he held a trump
card, and that he was the one putting his family legacy on the line. He
also said to me on May 17, 2017 that CFC wanted to be my partner to be
partnered with the Bidens.
During these negotiations I repeated to hunter and others that Sino Hawk
could not be Hunter’s personal piggy bank, and I demanded the proper
corporate governance procedures be implemented for capital
distributions. Hunter became very upset with me CFC through July 2017
was assuring me the funds would be transferred to Sino Hawk, but they
were never sent to our company. Instead I found out from Senator
Johnson’s September report that the $5 million was sent in August 2017
to entities affiliated with Hunter.
Tomorrow, I will be meeting with the Senate Committee members concerning
this matter. And I will be providing to the FBI the devices which
contain the evidence corroborating what I’ve said, so I will not be
taking any questions at this time."
It’s been repeatedly said that 2016 was the election of the Forgotten Man and Woman, due in part to those large sections of the country who felt their interests were neglected. As a result, a Republican candidate was elected president and a slightly larger Republican majority was established in the Senate with a mandate to address this neglect.
As things have unfolded over the last four years, it’s clear that if this country is to protect the founding principles of liberty and freedom for its people, then this November must become the Common-Sense Election.
No matter your age, sex, ethnicity, family status, or political philosophy, the crises we are facing demand critical thinking and, above all, common-sense in selecting the presidential candidate. Applying critical thinking means looking beyond the personas of the candidates involved and examining their records of action, not applying superficial decision-making based on communication styles.
In the broadest sense, this is an election battle between two distinctly opposite philosophies.
One philosophy has at its center a love for America founded in the freedom and liberty that the Constitution provides; a vision that wants to see this country continue to mature and grow using that philosophy into the more perfect union it was envisioned to be. It recognizes the sins of the past but moves forward in a way to learn from and not repeat those mistakes in the future.
The other philosophy uses an old mask of moderate liberalism to hide that it has been taken over by an ideology that hates our founding principles. This philosophy has been termed “democratic socialism,” but you may recognize it by a more familiar name: Marxism.
This is a battle between a philosophy of control by the people that features freedom, liberty, and choice and one of centralized control and conformance by the population governed under it. A philosophy based on law and order, and taking personal responsibility versus anarchy, ineffective government, victimhood, and grievance. The decision we make in November could very well permeate every aspect of our lives for decades.
On COVID-19
We’ve learned a lot in the last eight months. Yes, it is deeply regrettable to have lost so many lives in this country and around the world. To varying degrees, all nations were caught off-guard. And, in the future, there will be plenty of time to do an after-action report on what we could have done better, and how to prevent such a calamity in the future.
With a vaccine reportedly on the horizon, how is the United States served with a change in presidential leadership at this stage? Other than a national mask mandate, which many states are already implementing (and could prove unconstitutional if pushed by the federal government), what does challenger Joe Biden have to offer that earns your common-sense vote?
On the Economy and Taxes
In this election, we are being given a choice whether to let the person who built one of the most historic economies ever a chance to rebuild that economy versus retreating into the tax-and-spend and job-offshoring economy America muddled through between 2008 and 2016.
Biden’s economic plan looks to shut down major energy industries such as fossil fuels, with the promise of “renewable green energy jobs” over many years. Of course, the targets of these “green new deal” shifts in economic emphasis won’t be realized, if at all, until far in the future. Biden’s team also offers little to no discussion on how displaced earners will assimilate to this “green new deal” future, nor details of how this economic shift will occur.
We have millions still out of work desperate in need of a job now. Predictability and stability should be the name of the game for at least the next four years while the economy recovers. To provide that constancy, America needs an experienced economic mind.
Biden has already said he’d revoke the Trump tax cuts on “day one,” unleash $8 trillion in unbudgeted spending promises on COVID-weary nation, adding $7,800 more annual tax debt per household just to start. America simply can’t afford that.
On Race Relations
What happened to George Floyd was tragic and should never have happened. In this election, two diverse positions have arisen in response: one candidate who believes in liberty, equal rights, freedoms of choice for this nation’s citizens, that all lives matter, and is willing to implement reasonable police reforms.
The other candidate seeks to instill divisiveness by regrounding the founding of this country in hate and uses this hate to attack police forces across the country, seeking to defund these organizations to levels that endanger the citizens they are supposed to protect, with no genuine inquiries into the cause of the problem, nor any logical plan to move forward.
One only needs to look at the situations in Seattle and Chicago to see the future of how the latter vision will unfold, with neighborhoods taken over by gangs or vigilante forces, businesses destroyed, and innocent citizens (including children) being killed.
The Bottom Line
One candidate has a record spanning the last four years that demonstrated historic economic performance; a law and order philosophy that protects citizens and their rights against foreign and domestic enemies, which has strengthened the U.S. military and programs that support its veterans; improved foreign relations and minted historic peace deals involving, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain; sound policy on immigration and border enforcement; and has been addressing inequalities for minority populations with items like business opportunity zones, the Next Step Act, and initiatives such as police reform and education choice, without destroying the successful foundation this country was built on.
The other candidate has no demonstrable, dependable, positive record in any of these areas despite being entrenched in politics for 47 years of his life. Worse, his party seems poised to damage the foundation of this country with Marxist principles.
As you make this common-sense decision, think about those you care for. Can you face your children knowing the limits on their education and future opportunities you may have just voted for? Can you face members of your family who may be out of work or facing critical medical situations? Can you face our family, friends, and neighbors knowing your vote may lead police departments to defund, businesses to flee to avoid being destroyed, a rise in joblessness and crime, and untold damage to America’s major cities and suburbs?
Many supporters of the current president have been asked why they are so loyal. First, he gets results, and those results make our lives demonstrably better quickly. Second, he is making it a priority and pride for Americans to maintain and exercise the freedoms that the Constitution was written to provide and protect.
You don’t like Trump’s tweets? Try paying your bills under a Biden presidency with speeches about the “soul of the nation” or “bringing back normalcy.” To me, the common-sense decision is an easy one.
If anyone’s Debate Drinking Game card included the phrase “Look folks,” I imagine you’re feeling a mite hung over this morning.
I think Joe said “Look folks” more often than his trademark phrases “here’s the deal” and “c’mon man.”
In my post about the first debate, I said Trump is a learning debater. He uses his time in the first match-up to figure out how best to target his opponent. And from last night’s debate, it’s clear Trump learned exactly what he needed to do in order to clean Joe Biden’s clock.
And no amount of down-home “look folks” homilies about sitting at your kitchen table could pull old Joe’s ass out of the fire.
Trump’s answers were grounded in reality. He spoke about facts on the ground. And after nearly four years in office, President Trump is able to point to real-life results – whether on unemployment, economic growth, foreign policy, energy independence, and, yes, even the COVID pandemic.
While Trump described results, Biden gave us more pie-in-sky promises cloaked in faux concern.
Maybe someone should tell Joe that repeatedly saying “Look folks” doesn’t make you relatable. And talking about people around the kitchen table doesn’t make your tax-raising, job-killing, health insurance-destroying policy promises successful “kitchen table issues.”
But because President Trump used the first debate to suss his opponent, he knew precisely how to peel back Joe’s façade of folksy homilies and faux concern. As the debate wore on, Trump exposed the real Joe Biden – the angry, combative typical politician who talks a good game, makes untenable promises, but after 47 years in office has nothing to show for it by way of results.
I told my Dad yesterday that instead of bringing a howitzer, Trump needed to bring a scalpel. And, boy did he. His careful evisceration of Joe’s life-long political career and the little he has to show for it got Joe so flustered, he repeatedly stepped on massive land mines.
For example when President Trump called him out on Joe and Kamala’s repeatedly assertions that they were going to end fossil fuel and fracking.
Joe lied so emphatically, he handed the Trump campaign a beautiful gift — which President Trump wasted no time unwrapping.
Joe made it even worse for himself when, after being pushed by Trump, he admitted that he would end the oil industry.
Look folks. Joe is going to destroy America’s energy independence over the magical belief that windmills, solar panels and charging stations will save us.
All those millions of great jobs created over the last four years due to our energy boom will evaporate.
Which means under a “President” Biden, you folks who used to work in the energy sector will be sitting around your kitchen table staring at your unpaid bills, your skyrocketing energy costs and the rising cost of groceries wondering if you’ll be able to afford to pay your mortgage or keep your kid in community college. And you’ll be cursing the day Joe Biden got elected President.
President Trump’s responses to the COVID questions were probably the best I’ve ever heard from him. He was calm, measured, and knew his facts. He showed genuine passion for getting the country back to work and school while learning to live with this virus.
By contrast, Joe demagogued and delivered the most dark, dystopian message of fear.
Yeah, that was it in a nutshell.
I’ve mentioned this before, but remember after he left Walter Reed, President Trump said “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life,” and the media went into apoplectic rage?
The Democrats are banking on you being too terrified to live your life. They want you afraid – too afraid to go back to work or send your kids back to school. Joe’s COVID responses last night were dripping with this kind of dark fearmongering.
After all that fearmongering, Joe’s later claim that he would offer hope not fear was all the more laughable.
And, of course as we all predicted, Trump was able to drop LaptopGate – that five hundred pound gorilla – right smack onto the stage.
And Biden’s answers were all over the map.
He tried deflection – look folks, this isn’t about his family, it’s about your families.
He tried flat-out denial – claiming his son did not make money in China. Which the Washington Free Beacon quickly fact-checked and debunked.
He also tried the “Well oh yeah?!” tactic – claiming it is Trump that makes money from Russia, Ukraine and China.
And, of course, he went with the Russian Disinformation canard.
And Trump’s response was great.
Clearly LaptopGate is a sensitive subject for old Joe, and even after a four-day “lid,”he still has no idea how to deal with this damaging scandal.
I also thought President Trump’s responses regarding race were outstanding. Not only did he outline everything his administration has done to improve the lives of black Americans, we also got to see a genuine, heartfelt response to the endless vicious accusations that he is a racist.
Joe’s decision to follow that up by calling President Trump the most racist president in modern history didn’t make Trump look bad; it made Biden look like the race-baiting bastard he’s always been.
This Trump is a racist canard is the stuff of fiction. It’s like I say, there’s the real Donald Trump, and then there’s the media-created, fictional Monster Trump. And, just like he did in the first debate, Biden wasn’t debating the real Trump, but the fictional, frothing-at-the-mouth racist Monster Trump.
The real Donald Trump isn’t the guy Biden wants you to think he is.
And at this point, outside of the Trump-deranged ResistanceLOL, I’m not sure the fictional Monster racist Trump is working anymore.
The closing question – pretend it’s Inauguration day, what is your message to those who didn’t vote for you – was also revealing.
Trump outlined the things he already accomplished in his first term that strengthened the country and our economy. And Joe prattled on, regurgitating his campaign promises and asserting that he’s going to end “systemic racism” – whatever the hell that means.
In the end, Trump acquitted himself well. And by remaining calm and measured while eviscerating his opponent with scalpel-like precision, the President gave Biden just enough rope to hang himself.
As the night progressed, Biden grew angry, impatient and repeatedly burped out the most outlandish lies – like claiming nobody lost their insurance because of Obamacare.
For all the claims by the media over the years that Trump is a big, fat liar, last night it was Joe who just kept delivering one over-the-top lie after the other. And it was beautiful how President Trump was able to lead him down the primrose path directly into each and every lie.
Will this debate change any minds? I doubt it.
Though it might sway some undecided voters (if there are any remaining).
But what it will absolutely do is bolster Trump’s already outmatched voter enthusiasm.
At the end of the day, President Trump succeeded in making the case for himself.
But with his promises of “Bidencare,” Amnesty for “eleven million undocumented,” his magical Climate Change job-killing agenda, and his four-plus decades of inaction, Biden only succeeded in reminding voters why Donald Trump won in the first place.
And no amount of “look folks” homilies and Joe’s claims of “character” and “integrity” are going to change that.
CARIBBEAN—The U.S. Coast Guard announced today that they discovered a man who has been stranded on a deserted island in the Caribbean Ocean for over 5 months after his boat sunk in a storm. A spokesman for the USCG reported that this heroic man has been responsibly wearing his mask the entire time on the island, even though he is the only living soul in a thousand-mile radius.
"This man is a true hero," said Governor Gavin Newsom of California. "He is a shining example of an obedient citizen who dutifully wears his mask even when it makes absolutely zero sense for any sane person to do so. California citizens ought to look to this survivor and emulate him in every way."
Celebrities took to Twitter to respond to the news and congratulate the stranded man on his unwavering commitment to obeying every single thing politicians and experts told him to do. "Thank you," said superstar Mark Ruffalo, "for showing us all how it's done!"
Authorities were planning on rescuing the survivor but later decided his story is just too inspiring and that he will serve a greater purpose if they just leave him there to continue wearing his mask.
"He has enough coconuts to last him a couple of years, he'll be fine," said the USCG spokesman. "Besides, wait till you see how he re-applies his mask between bites!"
"One of the most striking aspects
of equality policies is that they are not born out of demand from
citizens, but out of commitment by the elites."
We are not the
same. Neither men, nor women, nor races, nor ages, nor nationalities,
nor in wealth, nor in training, nor in beauty. We are not equal in any
way. And that is a reason to be proud and happy, because at the end of
the day we are human and not the product of some factory. Let us once
and for all praise difference, bless the inequality that makes some
people prefer beer and others water (because otherwise there would be a
shortage of beer, and that would cruelly condemn us bohemians to
discovering what water tastes like). Allow me to be even clearer: Since
the French Revolution, everything that we have called “policies of
equality” is nothing but the bureaucratization of envy.
“Why do we need more Women In Politics?” a U.N. Women tweet asked
recently. “There are only 14 countries with 50% or more women in
cabinet.” If we weren’t living under the strain of egalitarianism, of
political correctness, and under the suffocating pressure of a
totalitarian roller, anyone reading the tweet would be tempted to take a
breath and simply say, “So what? Yes: so what?” I realize that these
two words can trigger a world war in the climate of 2020, where dissent
pits itself against global progressive abduction.
One of the most striking aspects of equality policies is that they
are not born out of demand from citizens, but out of commitment by the
elites. In the street there is no demand for women rulers, but for good
rulers. We have thousands of examples of bad rulers of both genders.
Cristina Kirchner and Pedro Sánchez are of different sexes, and yet they
are equally stupid and sectarian. It is hard to understand why the
United Nations, all the European governments, the media, and millions of
educational institutions and multinational brands promoting the
feminist fever of equality are making girls believe from school onwards
that they live subjected to men, who are portrayed as potential rapists.
Possibly, the reason for this generalized madness (in Europe, it is
supported with as much enthusiasm from the center-right as from the
left) is what Helmut Schoeck detected in his analysis of society and
envy: It is resentment. There is nothing older.
A few million years ago, man was already deeply envious of his
neighbors. Ovid observed it: “In other people’s fields, the harvest is
always more abundant.” In ancient times, when other settlements had more
food or better health, envious outsiders did not blame it on their
greater ability to hunt, but on witchcraft. Magic, not merit, explained
the inequality amongst primitive man. Many centuries later, socialism
did nothing more than provide exotic words to those old superstitions
that envy provokes. Later on, it was to tackle the greatest of
injustices: to equalize by force, to equalize downwards. And don’t think
that all this happened in the age of dinosaurs: Look at Joe Biden’s
economic program, with its promise to put that immense monster that is
the state to steal dollars from the middle classes to arbitrarily
subsidize minorities. (On second thought, it’s possible that when the
dinosaurs were around, Joe Biden was already promoting the program.)
Perhaps the thesis is best explained by Schoeck. “While, for more
than a century, socialists have considered themselves to have been
stolen from and swindled by businessmen, and since 1950 politicians in
underdeveloped countries have thought the same way about industrialized
countries,” he writes, “by virtue of an abstruse theory of the economic
process, primitive man considers that his neighbor steals from him
because with the help of magic, that neighbor has been able to bewitch a
part of the harvest of his fields.” But there is no magic: As much as
the Castro regime has for decades blamed the United States for its
economic situations, the truth is that its poverty is much the same as
that which has befallen all Communist dictatorships.
I’ll let you in on a secret. In Spain, we have been suffering from a
Social Communist government for nine months, and, for the first time
since the post-war period, experts are warning that forgotten famines
could soon return to our streets. Here, the “magic” element they accuse
is the coronavirus. But there is no magic: It is always Communism, the
atrocious egalitarianism, and the corruption of its leaders after
setting themselves up as priests of a new secular religion.
If we look at the problem of inequality from afar, we discover that both
the world and life are an inexhaustible source of envy. Beauty is
uneven. Goodness is uneven. Money is uneven. And skin color is uneven.
Age is unequal. Sex is unequal. Wealth is unequal. Stupidity is unequal.
In fact, the great conquest of our civilization is to guarantee equal
opportunity, which is the only equality that does not corrupt but rather
enhances. Everything is unequal, and it stands to reason in a world
where no two dawns are identical, no two fingerprints are identical.
“Primitive egalitarianism, which seeks to level people through the
law rather than make them equal in the face of the law, has always been
the most destructive of ideologies,” Axel Kaiser wrote. The left has
imposed the egalitarian discourse through a feminist alibi. But along
the way, they have been forced to deny the nature of man and woman. It
has not been difficult for them. They began by denying the differences
between men and women, and now they proclaim changing genders according
to which way the wind blows on any given day, without realizing that,
just the same, one could get up and, blinded by the aroma of coffee,
feel like a coffee percolator, and following their reasoning, no one
could deny them their new identity, being obliged to respect their
condition and call them “coffee percolator” and ask them to pour coffee
from their spout. Do not laugh. If you look on the Internet, you will
see that there are a lot of people who feel like a dog or a cat and who demand their right to live as dogs or cats.
The world is a cruel place. Perhaps that is why even the most radical
feminists cannot escape their feminine particularity, in the same way
that hormones do not work miracles on those who venture to change sex.
As the child neuropsychiatrist Mariolina Ceriotti Migliarese recalls, in
words that some already consider controversial, “We are born with the
male or female condition; from our body come all our sensations and that
configures the way of understanding everything.” “The distinction
between the male and female bodies also speaks to us about the diversity
in the way we perceive the world,” she adds, “men, through strong and
fast emotions, and women in a diffuse way at the beginning, but much
deeper at the end.” We are, in short, much more than a simple condition.
But that condition is not for sale.
Envy and resentment play an essential role in the whole egalitarian
universe. One tries to create in women hatred of men; in blacks, hatred
of whites; in poor people, hatred of the rich. I don’t know if it’s more
amazing that the Left has continued since the 18th century to claim the
same ideological failures, or that people born in the 21st century — in
a world of equal opportunity — fall into the trap of hate, resentment,
and envy. We see millions of young people pass by every day believing
that the world owes them something, and we hardly find men who believe
they are indebted to the rest of society. That is the first consequence
of the spread of the leveling fever.
Envy no doubt has its uses too, at least in keeping the mediocre
busy. But it is always an unsatisfied aspiration. “Man’s envy is more
intense when all are almost equal; his demands for redistribution are
louder when there is practically nothing to redistribute,” Schoeck
points out. If you fall into that dynamic, you will always want to have a
bigger car. It’s a legitimate aspiration . . . as long as you can
afford it and don’t demand that the rest of us pay for it.
Christianity has a lot to say about envy. Everything went to hell
because of a mixture of envy and vanity in Eden. I won’t dwell on that,
but it is worth remembering that in the Christian West, the most
effective element against the inequality contained in poverty is
charity. The Left has also tried to ruin it by turning it into
solidarity, which is the corny way of referring to charity, to
generosity, to help amongst brothers, between children of God who know
that what they have, more than by their merits, is the fruit of grace.
This has been taught by Christianity since the first century, and it is
convenient to remember it before the sociological Left continues to
attribute to itself the invention of solidarity.
As for classical liberalism, it points to the market as the natural
leveler — although I would add Christianity as the most effective weapon
against injustice, against inequality. In the end, it is God who gave
man a special dignity and made us equal for all eternity by making us
His children. And even so, one must agree with Kaiser when he states
that “the market is a better system for distributing resources than
authoritarian and planned distribution,” because in the end, “it is
preferable to solve some problems with liberalism than not to solve any
problems with socialism.”
Translated by Joel Dalmau
Itxu Díaz is a Spanish journalist, political satirist, and author
