The mission of the St. Croix Review is to end the destruction of America by reestablishing the family as the center of American life, restoring economic prosperity to an independent middle class, and reviving a culture of tradition.

The Curse of Accusation

Barry MacDonald — Editorial

To the extent that people form their political opinions in reaction to fear and anger, their minds drift toward morbidity and tribalism. Progressives cleverly use the dark tendencies of people as leverage.

It takes hard work and mental discipline to go about one’s business with optimism. One needs the assurance that what one does is useful, worthwhile, and helpful to others. I rely on a power much greater than I am from which I gain courage, strength, and guidance. One of the principles of The St. Croix Review is to assert the necessity of relying on spiritual faith to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves — to find the courage hidden within us.

We must realistically face and understand the mendacious, malevolent, avaricious, chaotic, and irrational forces arrayed against wholesome government. The politics practiced in America today — driven by the progressive movement — is the politics of accusation. It is a very simple trick. The attention of the public, framed by the media, is saturated in accusation. The motives and character of the accuser are ignored, and remain hidden. The target of the accusation suffers the full force and weight of the nation’s demented hatred.

This pattern of accusation and demonization is rampant in America, infecting the entire spectrum of issues. Activists, journalists, progressives, entertainers, and scholars are masters of the art. They accuse others of the turpitude that they themselves are guilty of. Accusation is a double whammy — it casts innocent people under a cloud of disrepute, and at the same time it provides a shield for the accusers, who take advantage of being evil and free of scruples.

It is frustrating to recognize that the accusers themselves are depraved and guilty. There is an element of sadism practiced by accusers. The accused are burdened with disproving charges, while it is difficult to expose the mendacity of accusers as they hide behind their accusations.

• Al Sharpton used the Tawana Brawley incident 1987 to stoke racial division. The young woman was found in a trash bag with racial slurs written on her body, which was covered in feces. She said that four men, police officers and a prosecuting attorney, kidnapped and raped her over four days. The charge received widespread national attention. Americas were shocked by the appalling aspect of the story. A grand jury concluded that the purported assault did not occur, and that Brawley herself had staged the incident. The accused prosecuting attorney, Steven Pagones, successfully sued Brawley and Al Sharpton for defamation. The Tawana Brawley incident is the Hydra of racial politics in America, of which the Jussie Smollett hoax is the latest example. To borrow a phrase from Saddam Hussein, the Tawana Brawley hoax was the “mother of all accusations.”

• President Biden recently accused Republicans of wanting to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits for American seniors. The Republican Party currently has no plans to modify these programs. For generations, Democrats have charged Republicans of scheming to curtail retirement benefits, and the ploy has effectively motivated voters through many political campaigns. Fear is a useful tactic. Both elected Republicans and Democrats understand entitlements are hurtling toward insolvency, but neither party has the wherewithal to honestly address the issue. Senator Rick Scott of Florida and president George W. Bush raised the issue — both were demonized. Sooner or later, as the interest accruing on the national debt becomes increasingly unsustainable, the political stalemate will collapse and government will be forced to cut these programs. Problems which could have been mitigated and minimized will instead be exacerbated and made severe.

• Over some months last year, parents vehemently objected to the indoctrination of their children with gender ideology, to the prolonged imposition of mask mandates, and the prolonged closure of the schools. At school board meetings across the nation, parents voiced their objections. In reaction, parents were accused of being “domestic terrorists” by the National School Board Association. The NSBA wrote a letter to Justice Department prompting the Justice Department to investigate the parents. White House staff colluded in the wording of the letter. Attorney General Merrick Garland sent a memo to federal law enforcement agencies across America directing investigative teams to coordinate with 14,000 school districts. The attorney general and the Biden administration aimed to intimate and silence parents by using counter-terrorist measures against them.

• Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is continuously being accused of bigotry because he led the passage of legislation prohibiting gender activism in public schools. The legislation stops the teaching of sex “education” to students in kindergarten through the third grade. “Story hours” led by men dressed as women to kindergarteners are now prevented in Florida. The “Parental Rights in Education” bill, guided through the legislature by Governor Ron DeSantis, is labeled “controversial” by the corporate, progressive media, and the new law is dishonestly tarred as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by mischievous activists.

Ordinary Americans are assaulted daily with a barrage of dispiriting accusations in the media. We must recognize the toxicity of these attacks. We must emulate the valor of parents at school board meetings throughout America. And we must place our trust in our religious faiths, because the battle to reclaim and reestablish decency in American institutions will necessitate a sustained and determined effort for an indeterminate length of time.

Please recognize the sad, excruciating irony of our predicament, suffering as we are hammer blow after hammer blow of accusation from the Left. The Left accuses good-hearted, decent Americans of being bigots and haters, while they themselves are radiating shock waves of hatred and bigotry. The Left is casting a spell over our children, insinuating that their souls were born into the bodies of the wrong gender, and that a sensible remedy is irreversible genital mutilation, which is styled “gender affirmation.” Progressive activists don’t care about the welfare of children. They are indifferent to the lives of American children. They are using children as cannon fodder to advance a totalitarian agenda.

To regain the health of American society, a determined segment of clear-eyed, patriotic Americans needs to expose and counter the wickedness of the progressive movement. We must not fall prey to disarming guilt over the blemishes of American history. The progressive movement has nothing good to offer America. They intend to burn and raze America.

We ordinary Americans are not the “haters” we are made out to be. The genuine “haters” are those who are fanatically casting these vicious accusations. We should not be afraid to say so.     *