It dawned on me a couple of years ago but finally crystallized in 2016 and has been reconfirmed in 2017: The conflict between The Cult of Leftism and the patchwork coalition that opposes the Left is not so much a clash of values but rather, a conflict stemming from incompatible mental processes.
The Left is anti-rational. That cannot be understated. They might seem unprincipled or ill-informed but they are committed to Leftism and to leaders who will advance The Left. We want a courtroom battle fought under strict and unyielding rules. The Left wants to delay and disrupt proceedings, replace the judge with one of their own, tamper with the jury and rewrite the transcripts. Where is our middle ground?
Daniel Greenfield at Frontpage nails it:
Democrats have become radicalized by the left. This doesn’t just mean that they pursue all sorts of bad policies. It means that their first and foremost allegiance is to an ideology, not the Constitution, not our country or our system of government. All of those are only to be used as vehicles for their ideology.
That’s why compromise has become impossible.
Our system of government was designed to allow different groups to negotiate their differences. But those differences were supposed to be based around finding shared interests. The most profound of these shared interests was that of a common country based around certain civilizational values. The left has replaced these Founding ideas with radically different notions and principles. It has rejected the primary importance of the country. As a result it shares little in the way of interests or values.
Greenfield's analysis is profound. It also disturbing. We are in a cold civil war that could turn hot with every tick of the clock. A genuine flesh and blood civil war might be inevitable.
We can only negotiate with rational forces who share some common values. The Left's only objective is to conquer America. Brace yourself for what is coming.