If there’s one thing that all extremists have in common,
it’s the pretence – or perhaps delusion – that they are not, in fact, extremists.
I’m sure vehement Trump fanatics see themselves as part of
the great American tradition, rather than members of a movement that is
completely alien to that tradition and which threatens to destroy the
Republic’s democracy.
Likewise, supporters of UK Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn
often like to paint themselves as part of mainstream European social democracy.
Nothing the Dear Leader proposes would be out of keeping with the policies
pursued on the continent or in Scandinavia, they opine. (We’ll leave aside the
fact that they’ll also tell you social democracy is dead. Consistency and intellectual
coherence have never been Jezuit hallmarks.)
They’ll point to the relatively moderate manifesto of 2017,
which was cobbled together as a compromise in a fortnight, and pretend that
this represents the essence and extent of their guru’s political ambitions.
We’re not complete fools. This claim of moderation is the
biggest pile of steaming manure to be dumped on British political life since
the horses paraded at Churchill’s funeral.
The fanatical extremism of Corbyn’s movement is evident every
day on social media. And the latest example surrounds the death of the US politician
John McCain.
In a rare moment of reflection, Republicans and Democrats
in the USA have come together to pay tribute to a man who represented a waning tradition
in politics.
God knows, I wouldn’t have agreed with McCain’s views on a
whole heap of issues, but I respect his belief in the principles of American democracy
and I admire the way he forged a political career after the trauma of
horrendous torture as a PoW.
When he ran for President, he graciously and publicly
disabused one of his supporters who was spreading untruths about Barack Obama. He
also made a remarkable and humble speech to concede defeat in the election in
2008.
Barack Obama will give an oration at his funeral. Even the
veteran leftist Bernie Sanders tweeted his admiration for the late Arizona
Senator.
But supporters of Jeremy Corbyn? They tell me – less than
24 hours after he died of cancer – that McCain is a ‘c**t’, a ‘war-mongerer’ and
a ‘mass murderer’.
Sanders, the Vermont Senator and Democratic primary
contender in 2016 – who is seen as being a very similar figure to Corbyn in
many respects – is dismissed by the social media vanguard as a ‘melt’.
Are these the considered views of a moderate movement?
Are they the comments of people who are part of the social
democratic mainstream?
Are they hell.
They are the ranting of extremists, cranks, conspiracists
and weirdos. The wild musings of no-hopers and misfits, who sadly seem to be filled with some kind of endless and pointless
rage.
Does Corbyn himself support the views expressed? No doubt
he’ll say nothing. Just as he goes into hiding when people want his opinions on
the anti-semitism crisis gripping the party.
Corbyn’s fans will tell you that he's a lovely old fellow, who wants to renationalise
the railways and end austerity. They keep promoting what seems to be a fairly
benign economic agenda.
But railways schmailways. Look at the people that Corbyn
has attracted and encouraged.
This is a movement that calls a dead man a c**t within
hours of his death.
This is a movement that tells us that Porton Down rather than
the Russians were behind the Skripal poisoning.
This is a movement that condemns Zionism and Israel in the
most dubious of ways, but stays quiet about half a million dead in Syria.
Let’s start telling it like it is.
It’s a movement of extremists.
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