by Paul Gottfried
Watching the Biden Administration bring into the country tens of thousands of unvetted Afghans, who are neither U.S. citizens nor native Afghans who assisted American troops, I am coming to wonder whether Biden was actually wrong to describe the withdrawal of American forces as an “immense success.” It was, in fact, exactly what Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and other Democratic operatives said it was: a success that will move the Democrats toward their goal of creating a one-party state.
Like the illegal aliens streaming across our southern borders and the efforts to remove restrictions against voting fraud, the influx of Afghan refugees is intended to increase the number of votes that will likely go to the Democratic Party, no matter how badly they mismanage the country.
Looking at these coordinated steps, I am reminded of an idea put forth by Aristotle in book six of the Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle famously insisted on a distinction between technical expertise (e.g., building a house) and deeper, more foundational forms of knowledge. The most primal wisdom is sophia, which deals with universal knowledge that underlies all other true modes of knowing. But Aristotle also raises the question of whether there are not forms of techne that are so well developed that they reflect sophia. The two examples that he cites are Phidias’s work as an architect and Polykleitos’s achievements as a sculptor. According to Aristotle, the excellence that characterizes their technical skills indicates their creators are truly wise.
Although I would not suggest that the Democratic Party is “wise” or “prudent” in the Aristotelian sense or that it aims at the harmonious, virtuous activity (eupragia) that Aristotle recommends, I am struck by the patience and precision with which its leaders pursue their interests. If there is an arete (excellence) that can be assigned to those who assiduously work toward an end, and use every occasion to realize it, then from an amoral perspective, the Democrats deserve our admiration. Everything they do seems ideally suited to generating a popular base for their permanent takeover of our political system.
But there is something that is aiding the Democrats as they attend to their task, namely the unwillingness of the authorized opposition to call them out on exactly what they are doing. One gets the impression from listening to “conservative” commentators that the Democrats are just stumbling from one blunder to another. RealClearPolitics complains about the “unbearable incompetence of the Democrats.” The party in power is allowing incompetent cabinet officials to deal with our southern border. They are also allegedly permitting non-authorized people to board planes in Kabul. One widely read website tries to explain why “the Democrats are so inept in politics.” But what is really going on may be more sinister. The Democrats may be doing precisely what they want, filling the country with voters loyal to their party and making sure they can control national elections.
Salon complains that the “racist Right” is unfairly questioning the motives of those who are encouraging the influx of Afghan refugees: “The reptilian former Trump adviser Stephen Miller weighed in on this theme as well telling Fox News host Laura Ingraham, ‘resettling in America is not about solving a humanitarian crisis, it’s about accomplishing an ideological objective—to change America.’”
Only a fool or someone who is promoting the Left’s plan would deny what Miller is telling us. Presumably what this observer means by “changing America” is creating a permanent Democratic one-party state, in which Democrats and a token Republican opposition will determine our political future. According to Salon, the outcome of the war in Afghanistan would have been “ignominious” no matter how it ended. But at least we are benefiting from this apparent disaster by making the United States more diverse. Only Trumpian racists wouldn’t be applauding our humanitarian program regarding Afghan refugees. It is of course assumed, with good reason, that the Afghan refugees, like those who are crossing our southern border, will vote like Salon’s editors. One wonders how happy these scolds would be to accept right-wing refugees, say, hardened anti-Communist Christians.
The Democrats and their sponsors describe their critics as neo-Nazis who, like Tucker Carlson and Stephen Miller, are afraid of “the Great Replacement.” In my view, whatever replacement might take place in the United States has already occurred, as the white population will soon be in the minority. Letting Afghans in will not change the demographic balance significantly. But what the Democrats are working to do is swell their voting base, by granting citizenship to illegals, and expanding “social services,” affirmative action programs, and anti-white indoctrination. They will be offering these services, among others, to those they are now letting in. The Democrats are following an unchanging telos, and it would pay for their opposition to notice exactly what it is.
– – –
Paul Edward Gottfried is the editor of Chronicles. An American paleoconservative philosopher, historian, and columnist, Gottfried is a former Horace Raffensperger Professor of Humanities at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, as well as a Guggenheim recipient.
Photo “Afghan children” by USACE Afghanistan Engineer District-South CC BY-SA 2.0.
