On the fear factor in politics; a French Resistance hero; Bush 41 and his boat; a noble Mississippian; and more
It is one of the most important elements in our politics today but somehow overlooked, or underplayed: the fear factor. The fear of violence. I have been chronicling it over the years.
Two years ago, Peter Meijer, then a congressman from Michigan, told Tim Alberta about a fellow congressman who had voted against certifying the 2020 election. The reason: The man was concerned for his family’s safety.
“Remember,” said Meijer, “this wasn’t a hypothetical. You were casting that vote after seeing with your own two eyes what some of these people are capable of. If they’re willing to come after you inside the U.S. Capitol, what will they do when you’re at home with your kids?”
Mitt Romney told his biographer, McKay Coppins, about congressmen who refused to impeach Trump, and senators who refused to convict him: solely out of fear for their family’s safety.
A news report from this week begins,
The former chair of the Wisconsin Republican Party said he feared for his family’s safety when he signed paperwork as a false elector for former president Donald Trump.
He said, “Can you imagine the repercussions on myself, my family, if it was me, Andrew Hitt, who prevented Donald Trump from winning Wisconsin? It was not a safe time.”
And it is not a safe time now. This ought not to be, in America. I think all liberals, moderates, and conservatives would agree. But there are extremists, on either end — who resemble one another — who would not.
• Something to take note of, concerning Iran:
The number of Christians arrested in Iran jumped sharply in the last six months of 2023, according to a religious rights group, which called on the government to “immediately and unconditionally” release all Christians detained on charges relating to their faith and religious activities.
For that article, go here. It further says,
Authorities appeared to target distributors of the Bible, with more than one-third of those detained found in possession of multiple copies of the publication.
A wicked dictatorship. Long live freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, freedom of worship — and non-worship — etc. Long live pluralism.
• I am glad to know the name of Missak Manouchian. I had not known it. A news report tells us,
While France hosts grandiose ceremonies commemorating D-Day, Missak Manouchian and his Resistance fighters’ heroic role in World War II are often overlooked. French President Emmanuel Macron is seeking to change that by inducting Manouchian into the Panthéon national monument on Wednesday.
(That was yesterday.)
More from the report:
A poet who took refuge in France after surviving the Armenian genocide, Manouchian was executed in 1944 for leading the resistance to Nazi occupation. Macron is to lead a Paris ceremony in homage to Manouchian at the Panthéon, the resting place of France’s most revered figures . . .
In a statement, the presidential office said, “Missak Manouchian chose France twice, first as a young Armenian who loved Baudelaire and Victor Hugo, and then through the blood he shed for our country.”
Manouchian was a Communist. What would he have been had he lived — had he lived past 1944 and into the 1950s and so on? I don’t know. An interesting subject to ponder.
Many, many of the founding editors and writers of National Review were ex-Communists. William F. Buckley Jr. said they were invaluable. “Crucial,” is a word he once used when discussing the subject. (We were on a stage at Stetson University, in Florida, doing a Q&A.)
• Last week, Alexei Navalny died — was ultimately murdered — in Russia. Remember, there is a junior Putin in Minsk: Alexander Lukashenko. Political prisoners die, or are killed, in his cells, too.
A report from Tuesday:
The Belarusian Social Democratic Party said on February 20 that its member, Ihar Lednik, died at the age of 63 in a correctional colony where he was serving a three-year prison term on a charge of insulting the country’s authoritarian ruler, Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The cause of death is not known. Lednik’s state of health significantly worsened in prison, where he had a surgery on his stomach, his colleagues said. The Vyasna human rights group said Lednik is the fifth political prisoner to die in a Belarusian prison in less than two years.
Alec Bialiatski still lives. He is one of Lukashenko’s political prisoners. He founded Viasna (or “Vyasna” ) — which means “spring” — in 1996. In 2022, he was a co-laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize.
• A word from Christian Schneider, who writes for National Review and other fine publications:
For all of American political history, Trump comparing himself to Navalny would be the type of vile, disgraceful comment that would end a politician's career. And yet it's probably the 3,284th most repugnant thing Trump has ever said.
— Christian Schneider (@Schneider_CM) February 21, 2024
That is a secret of Trump’s success. Because he is a firehose of awfulness, no one ever stops to contemplate one thing — or two things. Or three. It’s just a tsunami. And people shrug.
• A headline reads, “Former President George H.W. Bush’s speedboat has a new owner.” The story tells us,
The 38-foot (11.5-meter) “Fidelity V” was auctioned for $435,000 during the George and Barbara Bush Foundation’s 2024 Presidential Salute . . .
The speedboat sports a presidential seal and boasts three engines with a combined 900 horsepower. It can go up to 75 mph (120 kph) and was used in the waters off Kennebunkport, Maine, where the Texas family has a summer retreat.
I wonder whether the speedboat is a “cigarette boat.” I first heard that term during the Bush 41 administration. I don’t think I’ve heard it since. I also remember that he went marlin fishing — he liked to fish for marlin. Sounds like something you don’t do from a cigarette boat?
I have a lot to learn . . .
• A story of our time, I’m sorry to say:
A Florida man accused of brutally beating and killing his father was upset after learning his dad received “the vaccine,” investigators say.
(If you can bear to read the rest, go here.)
• Something more pleasant: “Charles Sallis, 89, Dies; Upended the Teaching of Mississippi History.” Not that I’m happy that Mr. Sallis died, mind you! But I’m glad to know about his life and work, and admire it.
When he was growing up in Mississippi, he was a “benign bigot,” he said. “In other words, I honestly believed blacks were inferior.” But then he served with black Army officers at Fort Knox in Kentucky. He had other experiences as well — widening, deepening.
Anyway, a valuable life.
• You want to see something perfect?
Sliding in for a kiss.. 😅 pic.twitter.com/Ia27W6jOI7
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) February 20, 2024
• I don’t know if this is perfect, but I have a review for you: here. It’s of the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Santtu-Matias Rouvali, the young Finn, with the pianist Bruce Liu, even younger, who was born in Paris to Chinese parents and grew up in Montreal.
• Here is something written a while ago, but that I have learned about only in recent weeks. It concerns Roger Ebert, the late film critic. (He died in 2013.) This is something written by his wife, Chaz.
The one thing people might be surprised about — Roger said that he didn’t know if he could believe in God. He had his doubts. But toward the end, something really interesting happened. That week before Roger passed away, I would see him and he would talk about having visited this other place. I thought he was hallucinating. I thought they were giving him too much medication. But the day before he passed away, he wrote me a note: “This is all an elaborate hoax.” I asked him, “What’s a hoax?” And he was talking about this world, this place. He said it was all an illusion. I thought he was just confused. But he was not confused. He wasn’t visiting heaven, not the way we think of heaven. He described it as a vastness that you can’t even imagine. It was a place where the past, present, and future were happening all at once.
(To read this remembrance, or account, go here.)
• Throw a picture atcha? Here is a shot of New York, of a winter’s early evening:
Thank you so much for joining me, my friends. I’ll catch you soon.
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