During the recent impeachment trial Democrat Lead Manager Jaime Raskin said a very curious thing.
He quoted Tom Paine, saying, “The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.” He was referring to The Enlightenment of the 17th-18th century. Now Paine lived in a certain time, late 18th century, and Jaime Raskin lives in a certain time, the early 21st century. Paine may have been right. But the tonsured Raskin, a man who teaches law at a prestigious university, forgot one little bump in that road, one little exception: Germany.
The German Enlightenment was indeed outstanding and its leaders like Leibniz, Kant, and Goethe were brilliant and amazing men. Continuing in their tradition, by the early 20th century Germany was perhaps the most intellectually advanced country in the world. But within about thirty years from the start of that century Germany became a nation of brutal ravening wolves, a land where barbaric thugs ruled bloodthirsty masses. Nazi Germany was a place where hate achieved its most systematic form, only to be eclipsed by the Marxists.
But Raskin forgot this or ignored it. In his zeal to push a contrived and farcical argument he ran over world history. He was counting on the fact that most wouldn’t notice his flagrant abuse of historical truth. Wrong, Jaime.
However, this is Democrat standard operating procedure. One looks at history and one sees the folly of socialist policies. Democrats embrace socialism. During the Cold War Marxist powers attemped to subjugate the Free World. They boasted of their eventual victory over the West and had already conquered many free nations. A majority of Democrats sided with the Marxists, during at least the latter stages of the Cold War. In America the dark legacy of Jim Crow and racism is still with us, albeit in much reduced form. But that vile echo does not come from where you’d think. Democrats and their Black Lives Matter allies support a racism so violent and so virulent it would make a Grand Kleagle shrink back in mortification.
Some of them are genuinely ignorant of history, some of them know exactly what they are doing. Like Raskin, they either are not acquainted with the basic facts of world history or they are ignoring those facts to advance a dishonest agenda. Fools or liars, take your pick.
On this kind of thing you’re mostly on your own. I read a lot of publications and we’re the only ones who have mentioned this, even though it stood out like a spotlight in Raskin’s remarks. The major media won’t call out leftists like Raskin because they agree with him and don’t want to ruin the leftist narrative. That’s why it is so important to study history and read historians like Paul Johnson. Because to know where you are, you have to know how you got there.