Victor Davis Hanson provides a thorough summary of the events and developments of the past decade and more at the hands of Marxist socialist radicalized Democrat party.  It is sobering for sure.

The hint of what was to come was seen in the campus radical and fanatic elements that rose during the '60s as an outgrowth of the antiwar movement, which created a campus radical wing, presaging other riotous elements that developed during the Obama years and after — BLM, Antifa, Occupy Wall Street, successors to movements of the '60s.  They are characterized by Hanson this way:

Democrats have transmogrified into a Soviet-style socialist binary of rich and poor, run by an elite nomenklatura that dictates its orders to its foot soldiers of the underclass. An entire new left-wing vocabulary — clingers, deplorables, irredeemables, dregs, chumps, ultra-MAGA, semi-fascists — has come to express their hatred of the middle class. 

The essay runs down all the important policy positions (or revolutionary commitments) of the left

• Control the courts and use them to solidify a political agenda intimidate opposition judges and threaten to pack the Supreme Court.
• Turn the concept of free speech on its head with censorship and speech codes, expansion of persecution of free speech, and Orwellian misuse of "misinformation" and "hate speech."
• Hijack and intimidate corporate America, and infiltrate it with college business graduates steeped in leftist ideology.  An alliance has developed between socialists and plutocrats at the expense of the middle class.  Plutocrat money is funding leftist causes.
• Race and sexual lifestyle with a newly defined concept of oppression have ruined the rule of law and created chaos and havoc and institutional destruction, civil and familial.
• Tribalism and grievance are energizing forces against the American model of civility and comity.
• Law enforcement and courts have been politically weaponized by the left for partisan purposes and to destroy or disable political opponents.
• Executive agencies are weaponized to impose the leftist globalist agenda and accelerate the rush to an administrative totalitarian state, bereft of reliable elections and self-governance.
• The decline of the Republic is amplified by an open-borders massive-illegal-immigration regime and discarding the concept of citizenship, replaced with just residence.

Dr. Hanson recites the sad story of how easy it was for the left and how much has changed.

The left plays for keeps, and they work their political agenda 24/7.  The result is a Jacobin party that destroys its enemies and tears down the society and its institutions.

Hanson details the damage done and the decimation of the Republic. 

1. Cancel culture, doxing, deplatforming, and shadowbanning are all synonyms for left-wing character destruction.
2. Anyone who strays — will be targeted by the woke bureaucracies, libeled in the media, and ostracized by the popular culture.  (The message is one of deterrence and intimidation.)
3. Impeachment once, twice, and more still is a good thing.  Better still to try a president even as a private citizen. 
4. Special counsels are wonderful — all the more so if they have nearly two years and $40 million to hire a dream team of partisan lawyers. 
5. A good attorney general is a president's "wingman" who uses the law to go after enemies and exempt friends and families from the law, while using indictments to pave the way for reelection. 
6. Lawfare is a legitimate tool of the president, especially when targeting a rival threat to his re-election. 
7. High office is a path to riches.  Selling your name for tens of millions of dollars is not only legitimate, but a necessary perk of the vice presidency and presidency. 
8. The FBI, the Pentagon, the CIA, the Justice Department, and the IRS are underused assets.  With the right mindset and willpower, all are vital tools in neutering your political enemies. 
9. The media are utterly corrupt.  What they cover and what they omit are entirely political decisions and thus can be warped accordingly by government rewards and punishments. 

Hanson closes by suggesting the irony: "What the Left now fears most is the revolutionary model it has bequeathed to America — and what might happen if its monstrous creation falls into politically incorrect hands."

Revolutionaries don't think like that, Victor; they are convinced of their righteousness and the goodness of their cause. 

John Dale Dunn, M.D., J.D. is a retired emergency physician and inactive attorney in Brownwood, Texas.

Image: kolyaeg via Pixabay, Pixabay License.