Support the 1/6 Prisoners

One of the cliches of those who have rose from straitened circumstances is to say “we didn’t know we were poor.” 

And I think there’s an element of that for the spiritually poor of today - they don’t know that our society was far wealthier in the past. For those of us of a certain age, our youths certainly weren’t formed in a spiritually rich society but compared to today it was better off.  

I mean, at least we knew the difference between males and females and two of the same sex couldn’t marry. Pretty basic stuff. 

So one of the difficulties is mentally adjusting to the constantly decreasing spiritual wealth of this age.  We certainly see it in politics where a generation or two ago the ACLU would support the right of the KKK to march in the streets.  At the time I found that touching and noble and it affected me. Who was this leftwing organization speaking on behalf of the reprehensible? And what appealed to me at the time was not so much mercy towards reprobates but the idea that there were ideals, that there were principles that transcended whether a person’s views were “good” or “bad”. It was called the “rule of law”.  May it R.I.P..

The ACLU now, of course, doesn't care a fig about the far more serious issue of people charged with crimes like trespassing and sitting in jail for over a year, often in inhumane conditions. The process is the punishment. Who needs a trial when you can hold someone in solitary confinement for a long period of time? All of the ACLU’s bravado melted before the heat of the next illiberal generation. 

Ol’ bloggers Zippy Catholic and Mark Shea pointed out the wrongness of the abuses of the terror suspects held in Guantanamo in the early 2000s. They were understandably concerned about that rule of law, even when applied to non-citizens.  Well, now we know for whom the bell tolled when it came to those Taliban suspects: it tolled for future white Americans involved in the patriot movement. The tells were there for those with ears to listen (though I missed it and hence am catching up).  Note the October 2020 announcement by Homeland Security that white nationalism was the primo domestic terrorist threat, simultaneous to the FBI trying desperately to incite people to kidnap  MI Gov Whitmer. (With one FBI for every woebegotten "plotter”.) Then of course came 1/6 and Ray Epps is free and is working on his wedding rental outfit in Arizona.  There will be no healing on 1/6 until we get an explanation. By all means, hold Trump culpable for not making statements sooner, but trade that for the FBI coming clean. I’ll not hold my breath. 


One could say that justice was always this bad -- just not for whites.  And for sure Native Americans had treaties worth little and Blacks had slavery followed by Jim Crow. In a way, MAGA is learning what Blacks have known for eons: that there’s little justice in the “justice system”. 

So perhaps in that sense my sympathy for the benighted political prisoners is misplaced. Or maybe not, since they - poor rural whites - are the last acceptable prejudice. All’s fair against white trash while Blacks are, as a fully owned subsidiary of the Democrat party, obviously now in a protected class.  These blue collar whites are the true margins that Pope Francis often talks about - even when their own behavior is repulsive or cringeworthy.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer ran into some “German trash” early in his career as pastor. He wrote:

“Every day I am getting to know people, at any rate their circumstances...I meet people with passions, criminal types, small people with small aims, small wages and small sins - all in all they are people who feel homeless in both senses...And I can only say that I have gained the impression that it is just these people who are much more under grace than under wrath, and that it is the Christian world which is more under wrath than grace.” 

By definition, those on the margins will be harder to help given the lack of concern in broader society. Lawfare for GOP (let alone MAGA types) will always be an uphill battle given the Democratic party is the party of elites (academia, woke corporations), and attorneys/ABA are main constituent of Dem power base/funding. 

Which means we need more crowdfunding of lawyers from the right - or should I say from the margins. Pope Francis, the pope of mercy and margins, would surely approve.

Aid can be given here or here. And Julie Kelly has been good on the issue.