Here’s the catch: to qualify for the exemption,
idealistic organizations must substantially refrain from lobbying for
legislation or electioneering for candidates. That is, they must forfeit
their core free-speech liberty, the right to political expression.
Their exercise of the First Amendment is taxed by the government. (A
cognate provision of the code, Section 170, applies the same suppressive
caveat to the deduction for charitable contributions and gifts.)

The
law has been in effect so long that the constitutional implications are
rarely given a first, never mind a second, thought. The infringement,
however, is clear and present. So how did we get here? In Hamburger’s
richly supported telling, the explanation is “liberal anxieties.”

Our Orwellian tax code by Andrew C. McCarthy

Look,
I get Jonah’s point.  When you get to the point of dueling tribalisms,
as now, then the partisans on each side just pick up the narrative of
their own side, and damn the torpedoes.  And that’s a shame.

In
other words, we are in a revolutionary situation where nobody will be
satisfied except by a trial of arms between the two American
tribes.  Hopefully, the trial of arms will be a succession of electoral
defeats for the Democrats.

Let
us say it again.  The reason we got Trump is that the conservative
movement – that’s you, Jonah & Co. – and the Republican Party –
that’s you, Paul Ryan & Co. – failed to defend ordinary middle-class
people from years and years of the left calling us all racists,
sexists, and homophobes.  So now Paul Ryan is deploring that President
Trump is firing back?  Hey, Paul, if you had defended us with the
courage and chutzpah of President Trump, maybe you would now be
president, with the Democrats in the middle of another New Democrat
cycle pretending there ain’t nobody here but us moderates.

Instead, we have our General Trump, of whom some like to say, “We can’t spare this man.  He fights.”

Or, as the left likes to say: “Revolution, baby!”

Don’t Like Tribalism? Sorry, You Missed the Bus

‘War of the Worlds’ and the Manufacture of Panic | National Review

No,
these are not Trump’s fires; these are the fires of the left.  They
manufacture outrage to regain power.  The left’s ugliness is
unprecedented in these times.  Leftists’ blaming Trump and the
center-right for everything is sick.  It’s been an epic battle to watch
as Trump builds things while they try to burn them, as Trump
extinguishes one flame after another while they blame him for the fires
they set.

Trump Didn’t Start the Fire

Radical Islam is an ideology that’s quite popular in the world. White
supremacy is a fringe belief that generates outsized coverage because
of the horrible actions of some individuals and the political upside
some in the media see in giving them attention.
Stringing together every act of random violence in the nation—no matter
how ambiguous, disconnected, and muddled the political motives of the
perpetrators might be—does not make a terror problem. Even if it did,
violence is not the monopoly of any group. In the past century,
genocides have been perpetrated in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Some people feed off the idea of drumming people they find
objectionable out of public discourse. I’m not sure someone who uses
hyperbole in the heat of a national debate deserves this fate. But in an
environment where people are (ostensibly)
thrown off their TV shows for a dumb statement about Halloween
costumes, it seems rather extraordinary that others can unambiguously
refer to “white men” as terrorists without repercussion.

Don Lemon’s Attack On ‘White Men’ Isn’t Merely Racist, It’s Misleading

But there’s another element to radicalization: gaslighting. It turns
out that people can radicalize when they are lied to and about. Telling
people not to believe their lying eyes makes them more likely
to engage in extreme rhetoric, less likely to engage in decent
conversation, more likely to raise the temperature. And that increased
temperature makes fringe radicals more likely to engage in violence.

And mainstream actors on the Left are involved in just such a process.

To
remind Americans that the rhetoric on all sides is far too inflammatory
is not “whataboutism.” It is to reiterate basic fact. There is simply
no question that the Left has indeed been involved in promoting and
exacerbating extreme rhetoric, up to and including the greenlighting of
violence.

For The Love Of Decency, Stop The Gaslighting About Inflammatory Rhetoric

To sum up, the Dirty Dozen scale is – just that— a
little dirty.It’s main advantage is that it’s quick and easy to
complete. If you sense that someone (or you) might have the Dark Triad
traits, consider yourself warned.

Shedding Light on Psychology’s Dark Triad

By manipulating white guilt
and railroading a race-conscious agenda through every area of American
society, including the media, pop culture, and the education system,
liberals have stigmatized – and to a large extent, delegitimized – conservatism and the GOP. (I made this point in a recent article at The Federalist titled “Conservatism’s ‘Racism’ Isn’t What You Think It Is”.)

As
result of this racist labeling, conservatives have lost their moral
authority, and their voices have been stifled in the public square.

This
chilling effect has been exacerbated during the Obama presidency, as
people have been afraid to criticize a black president because they
don’t want to be called a racist.

That fear is dissipating, however.

The Sordid History of Liberals Calling Republicans Racists