That shit already started with Washington, the first american conspiracy theorist poisoning the ideological well of the nascent country by cautioning against enemies from within and without trying to undo the country instead of appealing to the coherence of a newly forming society.
Maybe we should appeal to engagement and voting along with vigilance so that the enemies from within don’t find a malleable minority to exploit for victory.
Civil war happened, and we didn’t fix it because Lincoln was assassinated, and Andrew Johnson was pro-South.
We were on this path before Nixon.
That shit already started with Washington, the first american conspiracy theorist poisoning the ideological well of the nascent country by cautioning against enemies from within and without trying to undo the country instead of appealing to the coherence of a newly forming society.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but haven’t we just experienced the results of enemies within? Trump, Vance, and Musk are all American citizens.
Yes. And yet, they used the same concept to justify their grasp for power.
The important part to understand is the paranoid style of the appeal. It’s not an appeal to unity. It’s one to vigilance.
Maybe we should appeal to engagement and voting along with vigilance so that the enemies from within don’t find a malleable minority to exploit for victory.