The “Civil War”: Brilliant Insights from Jordan Peterson

By now, we all know who Professor Jordan Peterson is.  Originally, a professor in psychology at Toronto University, he was fired some time ago because he wouldn’t succumb to the tyranny of pronouns.  (For those who don’t know, it was around 2015 or so when this whole nonsense initially took off.)

Anyway, he’s made the international circuit in the Anglosphere, questioning the smelly little orthodoxies of our modern age and often being so bold as to poke holes in the prevailing narratives.  He is, without a doubt, the foremost public intellectual in the world today.

Needless to say, he has drawn immense fire from the institutional Left.  

Originally a self-proclaimed atheist, he has since questioned the precepts of materialism and has even offered profound insights into Christianity –especially into Orthodoxy.  (You can catch these on his YouTube channel if you’re so inclined.)

The respect that he has acquired for the spiritual –as well as the historical–elements that make up the world has allowed him to broaden his understanding of politics, culture, religion –and especially history.  Below you will find a profound discourse on the recent Russian incursion into the Ukraine; what it means for those two countries and more importantly, what it means for the West.  

In Peterson’s view, the Russian incursion into the Ukraine is in fact a “civil war,” not between Russia and its former province, but between the traditionalism that is championed by Russia and the moral degeneracy that characterizes the West at this point in our history.  In the video below, you will find a brilliant exegesis on the West’s intellectual bankruptcy engendered by our moral collapse which forces the other nations and civilizations of the world to flee from the West and embrace Russia, instead. 

It is long (about 56 minutes) but it is well worth your while to watch.  Please take the time to do so, you won’t regret it.

Pax.

 

Comments

  1. LonelyDn says

    UKRAINE RATIFIES CONTROVERSIAL ISTANBUL CONVENTION WITH ITS REDEFINITION OF “GENDER”

    Despite repeated protests from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and other religious organizations, Ukraine has officially completed the ratification of the controversial “Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence,” better known as the Istanbul Convention.

    A number of countries and Orthodox Churches have also warned that the Convention is a trojan horse for LGBT and gender ideology.

    However, Marija Pejčinović Burić, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, welcomed the move from Ukraine in a tweet, noting that it’s the 36th country to ratify “this landmark treaty.”

    The Ukrainian Parliament approved the Convention last month. President Zelensky then signed the law on ratification on June 21, and the document on ratification has now been officially submitted. The Convention will enter into force in Ukraine on November 1.

    His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine and other UOC hierarchs and lay organizations have repeatedly warned about the dangerous ideology hiding under the pretext of addressing domestic violence. “There are ideological landmines hidden in the Istanbul Convention that can undermine Ukrainian society,” Met. Onuphry told the President in December.

    “The essence of the Istanbul Convention is to destroy at the legislative level the concept of marriage as a union between a man and a woman, as well as traditional ideas about family values,” His Eminence Metropolitan Luke of Zaporozhye also said in December.

    As His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir of the Moldovan Church wrote in October, one of the most controversial aspects of the Convention is its definition of “gender” as “socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities and attributes, which a given society considers appropriate for women and men.”

    The Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations again appealed to the Verkhovna Rada in June, urging it not to ratify such a controversial document that will undoubtedly cause societal conflicts, especially in wartime. However, the Rada adopted the Convention just days later.

    The Council of Churches condemned the fact of the ratification, which took place without due public discussion.

    The Istanbul Convention has also been condemned by the Bulgarian, Moldovan, and Polish Churches.

    • Gail Sheppard says

      If they keep doing these things, it’s to their detriment. The world is changing, as we speak. This sort of nonsense will soon be seen for what it is: nonsense (especially during a war).

      A great many people have woken up. People are beginning to see these things for what they are: a sad byproduct of desperation to hold onto something that is irrelevant to feel important.

      I shouldn’t have to ask anyone what pronoun they want to be called. If they have something specific in mind, they should tell me and I’ll explain that I am terrible with languages, especially new ones, and my short-term memory is iffy, at best.

      I am unable and uninterested in their complaints because it means they think they should be treated differently from everybody else.

      I don’t have the faculties or the desire to overcome my language liabilities in an effort to accommodate a very small percentage of the population who frankly come across as rude, demanding, and pushy.

      I don’t like ALL people who are rude, demanding, and pushy so I’m not singling anyone out.

      I don’t have to change. People need to ACCEPT me for who I am, too, and let me converse the way I am comfortable.

      The greater LGBTQABC community needs to rein in their counterparts who are presenting them as idiots, which the vast majority are not.

      The sane part of the community should draw the line when these idiots pull children into the mix. Why aren’t you guys out there protesting? Surely you object, too.

      I, personally, don’t care about the LGBT part (that’s between you and God) as long as children aren’t involved and you’re not demanding anything from me. You can have equal rights. That is understandable. No one should be targeting you. I get that. But these other idiots are launching an assault on OUR way of life. It’s not about being equal anymore; it’s about being in our faces and using children for shock value.

      Tell the crazy people that they’re not helping you or anyone else with these tactics. They’re making people hate you which is grossly unfair and making the rest of us crazy by forcing their ways on innocent children who deserve to grow up as God made them before some misguided surgeon mutilates them.

      And don’t claim it’s genetics. It’s about exerting your will over your bodies, over your children’s bodies, and over society which has proven to be detrimental to everyone involved. By making it a legitimate lifestyle choice for our kids you are hijacking their innocence. You are taking away their freedom to reach their own conclusions about who and what they are.

      That’s the fear people have about gay people being parents. They will imprint their own choices which, let’s face it, make it hard to get by in a heterosexual world, onto their kids, putting them at risk for other soul-destroying behaviors like addictions to alcohol, drugs, and even tobacco (200% more likely to abuse), discrimination, mental health issues, and even suicide.

      Why? Why would you want to encourage behavior that comes with all these crippling trappings? Why not give a kid a least a chance to be whatever they’re meant to be, including heterosexual, and not tempt them with propaganda before they’re sexually aware?

      It’s selfish. Because children are innocent and don’t have the maturity and wisdom to sort all this out. I will never support a contingent who chooses to exploit little one in parades, story hours, and even baptisms.

      I would think the LGBTQABC movement would have the same compassion and concern for children. Why would you set a kid up for something like this when it might be possible for that kid to later choose a path which would circumvent all the negative things many of you have found so unbearable?

      You be you, but PLEASE dial it back. Get out of our faces expecting us to change for you. Stop hurting other people, especially children, because it will never bring you the respect and acceptance you say you’re looking for. It will just give us a reason to push you further away.

      • George Michalopulos says

        Very well said, my dear.

        FWIW, I have two (#2) degrees in biological and pharmaceutical sciences. I learned (and anybody can look this up) that there are two biological sexes: male and female.

        Males have an XY chromosome pair while females have an XX chromosome pair. Hence, if you have the former, I will call you “sir,” “him,” “he,” or “my good fellow.” If you have the latter, I’ll call you “ma’am,” “her,” “she,” “young lady.”

        If, however you insist you insist on some insane concatenation of letters (i.e. “xim,” “xur,” “zibednikov,” etc.) I will insist that you call me “your lordship,” “your excellency,” or simply “Defender of the Faith.”

        Wasn’t that simple?

        Now, wasn’t that simple?

    • George Michalopulos says

      You see, this is what people mean by “globo-homo,” not just homosexualization but forced globalist homogeneity on all cultures.

      It’s crap like this that pushes countries into Russia’s embrace. Like it or not.

      • John Anon says

        “There is no Trans-Atalanticism without transgenderism.” ~ Jim Jatras

        US and NATO military priorities are fighting transphobia, global warming, and religious “bigotry.” They want to plant their rainbow flag in Ukraine and destroy Christian Russia. Spoiler alert: God wins.

    • LonelyDn, thank you for this info.
      I’m stunned to see that this was approved by Serbia. Yikes.

    • Mark E. Fisus says

      As His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir of the Moldovan Church wrote in October, one of the most controversial aspects of the Convention is its definition of “gender” as “socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities and attributes, which a given society considers appropriate for women and men.”

      This is the central flaw of the Istanbul Convention. All other errors result from this.

  2. John Anon says

    Jordan Peterson does make some good points, especially in some of his conclusions about the greater civil war which exists on a spiritual plane. This does come down to a godless globalist assault upon the Christian Katehon. However, his initial claim that the Russian Orthodox Patriarch’s “collusion and involvement” in the Putin’s “unprovoked invasion” is “unforgivable” sounds like a script given to him directly by Fred Kagan (Victoria Nuland’s brother in law) and the Russophobic neocons who helped incite the 2014 coup in Ukraine. He also does not spend any time talking about the western support of Stepen Bandera supporting Azov Battalion and Right Sector Nazis and related groups that were used like Vanilla Isis terrorists to destabilize the region and genocide Russian speaking citizens.
    I highly recommend the Oliver Stone documentary “Ukraine on Fire” for anyone who wants a good history of the events leading up to the current conflict. See:
    https://rumble.com/vwxxi8-ukraine-on-fire.html

    • John Anon “Jordan Peterson does make some good points”

      The greatest one was a geographical discovery that Ukraine owns Caspian Sea coast.

      • John Anon says

        Good catch, Martin. Who knew that Zelensky was really Prince Caspian in disguise?

    • Outstanding points John Anon. Thank you!

    • Ronda Wintheiser says

      THANK YOU!

      It’s so tiring to keep hearing that Fred Kagan script. Every time you attempt to engage a person spouting it, and give them the larger, more complex picture so that they can see it’s the fault of the U.S., it’s as if they are robots. Their eyes glaze over and they just keep repeating the mantra.

      • George Michalopulos says

        Believe it or not, the Kaganites are losing the argument. Just give it a little more time. (And the price of gas going up another dollar.)

        Did you all not listen to all of it? Peterson said that it’s time to sit and negotiate with Russia. When that happens, Russia will have officially one, Odessa and Kherson will be Russian cities, the Ukraine will be landlocked, and the Black Sea will be a Russian lake, whether Kagan and his ilk like it or not.

        • This is the thing: There’s no reason to be perturbed about what is happening if you are on the side of angels. The West is losing internationally and the liberals are losing internally inside the West. God and the walls are closing in on the focus of evil in the modern world – the Liberals.

    • Here Here! I agree, to blame Putin and HH Kirill personally responsible is a bit much and is slander against them both.
      Never do they put the blame where it’s due The putsch in Kiev and the power behind them, US /NATO.
      Silent they are to the 16,000 civilian deaths in the Donbass.

  3. The first time I saw this, he lost me at the condemnation of Putin and the ROC. He seems to have fallen into the neocon trap that Never Trumpers habitually inhabit. The Kagan clan is evil. It’s good that he finally got to Mearsheimer.

    He flirts with the truth, it’s very beautiful to him, he intellectually explores it. But he is at home in convention rather than the energetic alternative. It is unfortunate given that he has already suffered in a sense for the cause, but he is lukewarm at best.

    Calling Putin a “Soviet-era HItlerian thug” disqualifies him from consideration. I started to turn it off again after that. But then he went into Dostoevsky and I let it go on a few more minutes.

    Alas, he is very myopic and deluded by the “devils” in the atheistic West in his estimation of Putin and the ROC. The obligatory condemnations are disqualifying for me. If he ever gets on the right side of history, his intellect will be welcome.

    Until then, it’s too tedious to bother with.

    • George Michalopulos says

      Misha, when he called Putin that he was speaking through the eyes of the neocon establishment. It was clear to me that he doesn’t believe that. This is especially true when one gets to the end.

      I will say that Peterson kinda, sorta, wants to have it both ways. The censorious public discourse will only allow that much at present. However, in being high-profile, and saying positive things about Russia, its culture, religion (and yes, Putin), he is pushing the Overton Window to the truth.

      That’s my opinion anyway.

      • I’m undecided about him because he tends to wander pointlessly. It seems interesting, but it doesn’t necessarily lead anywhere – which is typical for the academy. I also didn’t get the impression that he was just describing the neo-con position, though he does equivocate dramatically. Basically, IMHO, its double-minded.

        He is very intelligent though and does offer a number of valuable insights. It’s just that he’s standing on sand and parrots too much of the Western pablum.

  4. It is probably very difficult and deeply disturbing for many in the liberal west to contemplate the possibility that their ideology is not the final stage of human development. This is a direct challenge to their phronema/mindset, the operating system through which they understand reality. Perhaps that is Peterson’s problem. He flirts with religion but I have never seen him commit or speak as though he actually has faith. It would alienate the academy of course and perhaps it is a stumbling block for him.

    There will be much weeping and gnashing of teeth when it finally dawns on the minions of Western materialism that the liberal ideology is going the way of the dinosaur and only traditional worldviews will survive the present dynamic credibly intact.

    • Illumined says

      Or it is the final stage of development, just not the way they think. I’ve been reading Archimandrite Athanasius’s Revelation homily series lately. It grows more ominous day by day.

  5. John Anon says

    Why the Hatred for Christian Russia by the Globalists?
    By Helleniscope -February 28, 202291419

    Has there been a study of Christian Russia lately? Vladimir Putin came to power in Russia in 1999. The Globalist elites like George Soros and his Russian oligarchs were partaking in the total loot of Russian resources while the Russians lived in poverty. George Soros funds the elections for the Democrat Party, Secretary of State, District Attorney to subvert and destroy the USA within. Soros funds his puppets in Athens, Greece like Mitsotakis, Tsipras, and Papandreou.

    Putin jailed the Russian Oligarchs and kicked out George Soros and his foundations. After 1999, Putin restored the Russian economy. Putin followed advice by Steve Forbes for a flat income tax. Putin surprised Steve Forbes with the 13% flat income tax rate. This means Russian citizens who make $5 million dollars a year pay 13% in income tax. It means those who earn $24,000 a year pay 13% income tax.

    In the past ten years, wealthy Europeans have fled high-taxed France, Germany for freedom in Russia. Ethnic Germans who are sick of high crime, high taxes, and illegal Muslim immigration have immigrated to Russia from Germany. Russia is allowing Christian European South African farmers to settle and farm in Russia.

    Edward Snowden and Steven Seagal have fled the USA for Russia. Both are heroes for exposing the Deep State in Washington DC.

    Putin promotes a pro-family Russian agenda. In other words, ethnic Russian citizens who marry and have kids get loans to purchase homes/appliances, tax credits, and money.

    Putin rebuilt 30,000 Russian Orthodox Churches destroyed by Globalist-funded Bolshevik Communists in 1917. I will go into detail in another op-ed of how President Wilson and US State Department gave Leon Trotsky, a US passport in 1917. He boarded a ship with four hundred agents and cash to Russia to start the Bolshevik Communist Revolution. The Wall Street Bankers paid Trotsky while he lived in New York City. The German Kaiser gave Lenin $10 million and free passage in a secret train from Switzerland via Germany for Russia during the height of WWI.

    Putin addressed the illegal human/child sex trafficking of Russian women to foreign nations. Transnational criminal gangs lured 500,000 Russian women into the sex trade across the world in the 1990s.

    Russia’s Putin put a stop to illegal immigration to Russia. He protects Russian jobs.

    Putin put a stop to President Obama’s drive to overthrow Assad of Syria. Christians worldwide came to Syria to fight with the Syrian Christian, Assyrian Christian, and Kurdish militias. Christian Russia stepped stopped this illegal war started by Obama/Clinton’s State Department from 2011-2016. Russia helped stabilize Libya against the US Deep State’s ISIS. Obama/Clinton destroyed one of Africa’s richest nations, Libya. Putin put a stop to the CIA-created war in Chechnya with Chechen fighters funneled from Turkey. Now, Chechnya is a flourishing province with a reconstructed Grozny.

    Russia has been on alert to who is inside Russia given a history of near destruction by foreign empires and foreign agents. Napoleon’s invasion almost led to the destruction of Russia. The Crimean War was a disaster for the Ottoman Turkish/British Empires. In the end, Russia liberated Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, the Republic of Georgia, Armenia from the Ottoman Muslim Turks. Russia made an alliance with Nazi Germany. However, the Nazis surprised the Russians with an invasion.

    The Greek War of Independence started with the Philiki Etaipeia in Odessa, Russia. Greece owes its liberty from Muslim Turkish slavery to Greeks living and working in Russia. Count Ioannis Kapodistrias served as the Foreign Ministrer of the Russian Empire before 1821.

    In other words, Putin’s Russia is not Globalist.

    Russia kicked out the Globalists and rebuilt their nation within.

    Putin carries a ‘Russia First’ agenda.

    • George Michalopulos says

      Completely agree on all points.

      BTW, Gerard Depardieu also took out Russian citizenship, as well as an African-American boxer (whose name I can’t recall).

      Afrikaners are migrating to Russia in record numbers. As are now Ukrainians. And did y’all catch that clever strategem that Putin did last week? He offered Russian citizenship to any Ukrainian who wants it.

      FYI: #1 destination for immigrants is the USA.
      #2 destination for immigrants is Russia.

    • Excellent summary!

      What the world needs now is more tradition minded nationalists. The nuclear capacities of the major powers will curb any imperial ambitions. “[Country] First” is a good shorthand for that. Each country maximizing its potential leads to a better world. Globalism leads to a totalitarian nightmare.

      We should even be willing to work with the Muslims toward the destruction of the liberals.

  6. Phillipos says

    Had to turn it off after the initial comments about Putin and the Bishop. I’m sure he made some good points eventually but after that intro he totally lost me.

    • Phillipos,

      Peterson is smart enough to know whom he is addressing. It’s not those who actually understand why Russia acted but rather more conventional Westerners. That’s why it’s such a big deal that he perpetuates the Russophobic slurs. He’s just reinforcing fools in their foolishness.

  7. Putin has brilliant insights too…

    Putin reminded Europe about Nord Stream 2

    https://vz-ru.translate.goog/news/2022/7/20/1168476.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

    The West itself closes gas supply routes from Russia, supplies will decrease if Russia does not receive a turbine for Nord Stream 1, but there is another option – Nord Stream 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

    ‘ … “I don’t know if it’s worth going into details about the energy policy of European countries that have neglected the importance of traditional types of energy and have relied on non-traditional ones. They are great experts in the field of non-traditional relations, so in the field of energy they also decided to rely on non-traditional types of energy: the sun, wind energy,” Putin said. He added that “the winter turned out to be long, there was no wind.” … ‘

    Responding to the dissatisfaction of the West, Putin proposed to calculate how much could be pumped with the help of the remaining capacities, and asked: “What does Gazprom have to do with it?” He stressed that Western countries “closed one route, the second route, put gas pumping stations under sanctions.”

    “Until recently, we supplied to Europe, without Turkey – to Turkey somewhere with a little over 30 billion cubic meters – to Europe 170 billion cubic meters: 55 billion went through Nord Stream 1, 33 billion, if memory serves – Yamal – Europe. On two threads that went through the territory of Ukraine. Through Turkey to Europe – about 12 billion via the Turkish Stream,” Putin said.

    However, Ukraine closed one of the routes for Russian gas supplies to Europe without any reason and solely for political reasons, “everything there functioned normally, no one interfered.” Poland “turned on Yamal to Europe in reverse mode and began to take about 32 million cubic meters from Germany”, that is, it was “Russian gas”, which “turned out to be cheaper for the Poles”, because Poland “took from us at a fairly high price, closer to the market, and Germany takes from us under long-term contracts.

    In addition, Putin said that oil prices would skyrocket if restrictions were imposed on its supplies from Russia. According to him, in the case of oil, the West is stepping “on the same rake” as with the supply of Russian gas.

    Recall, the media reported that on July 17 Canada sent to Germany a repaired Siemens Energy gas turbine used to supply gas through the Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. The turbine remained in Montreal due to sanctions against Gazprom. … ‘

    Clearly the leaders of the West are
    neither the best nor the brightest…

    • Gail Sheppard says

      That’s why this digital war isn’t over. We have to identify and retire every single one of them.

  8. LonelyDn says

    EU Must Adopt ‘Christian Roots and Culture’ and Rework Bloc Parliament – Hungary

    Hungary has told the European Union that it must adopt “Christian roots and culture”, as well as rework the union’s “dead end” European parliament.

    Lawmakers in Hungary voted 130 to 50 in favour of a resolution that mandates the country’s government to push for a number of structural reforms at the EU level, including a rework of the union’s parliament, as well as to make the bloc adopt “Christian roots and culture”.

    The passed resolution also mandates the country’s government to force the union to hand back powers to individual member states, as well as take an ideologically neutral stance in its operations at a time when the union is desperately trying to push for further “EU Empire” style federalisation.

    According to a report by Magyar Nemzet, the current framework that the EU is operating under is not fit for dealing with the consequences of the Ukraine war, as well as the crises brought about due to the placement of sanctions on Russia.

    “As a result of the war and the ill-considered sanctions decisions against Russia, Europe has entered an era of crises and uncertainties, however, the EU’s current treaty framework is not suitable to serve as a basis for cooperation in this era,” the publication reports the resolution as reading.

    “European democracy must be led out of the dead end into which the European Parliament has steered it,” it is also reported as saying. “The European Union must change because it is unprepared for the challenges of our times.”

    To this end, Hungarian authorities are now pushing for the EU’s parliament to be made up of national representatives hand-picked by officials from individual nation states, a change in the opposite direction compared to the future of trans-national elections Eurocrats in Brussels are so desperate for.

    The resolution also calls for the bloc to abandon its dreams of further structural unity, ban taking on more EU-level debt, and mandate the European Commission to be both politically and ideologically neutral, along with a host of other reforms.

    See: https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/07/21/eu-must-adopt-christian-roots-and-culture-and-rework-bloc-parliament-hungary/

  9. George Michalopulos says

    COVID, chaos, riots and other ills befalling America: judgment from God upon the State Dept and its puppet in Istanbul?

    https://russian-faith.com/opinion-persecution-anti-ecumenism/judgment-on-enemies-of-the-church-n4409

  10. George Michalopulos says

    I must say, in relistening to this podcast by Prof Peterson, I can see why many were put off as he immediately condemns both Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church for the current conflict.

    I am more sanguine however. First of all, the preambulatory remarks are simply “the cost of doing business” in the modern West. It’s like when we condemn sodomy, we preface it by saying something along these lines: “of course we don’t want homosexual thrown off of buildings like they do in the Middle East.”

    The problem, really the answer, is that after the preamble, Peterson says an extensive “but.” As we know, whenever someone says “Of course X, but now I must say Y,” then the “but” negates X in favor of Y. “Of course, Honey I want to take you out for your birthday but I had a golf-date set up with my friends already.”

    You know how that’s going to work out.

    Peterson waxes eloquently on the many failings, flaws and deficits of the modern West. And he admits how given our manifest defects, the rest of the still sensible world cannot –and will not–embrace Western “values.” Putin, Russia, and Orthodoxy are the only paladins available to suffering people.

    And that is for this reason, that one must listen to Peterson’s speech with a discerning ear and understand that he speaks many wise words about the present conflict. And who is really to blame.

    Spoiler alert: it’s not Russia.

  11. Trump and DeSantis to share the ticket in 2024 – videos
    https://theduran.com/trump-and-desantis-to-share-the-ticket-in-2024-videos/

    Analysis from Robert Barnes with Alex Jones on Infowars and Dr. Steve Turley

    Looks like dawn is on the way…

  12. It is worth noting that the American founding fathers did not completely break with the concept of monarchy and for me it has been beneficial to look at the American government as a sort of limited, constitutional monarchy. This is not a baseless characterization. Some northern European Germanic countries had a tradition of elected monarchs. If one conceives of the American executive as a monarch called a “president” it explains many features of American government.

    The president has the power to pardon those who may have committed crimes against the United States. Moreover, he is immune from prosecution so long as he remains in office. He may only be displaced after impeachment (akin to indictment) by the lower house but the upper house, the Senate, our House of Lords, must then vote to remove him by a two-thirds majority if he is to be driven from office. This is the equivalent of a monarchial deposition.

    He is the commander in chief of the military of the United States and the head of the Executive Branch of government, including the Justice Department, the FBI and the CIA. He has the power of limited rule through executive orders (aka “edicts”) and his assent to laws passed by the House and Senate by a simple majority is necessary for their enactment. Otherwise, they must pass such measures by a two-thirds majority for them to take effect over his veto.

    That is quite a lot of power when compared to the position of prime minister in parliamentary systems and actually makes the most sense when you conceive of it as a constitutional monarchy. Moreover, the president is elected by the system of the Electoral College rather than by direct referendum, preserving the geographic balance of power in the realm, so to speak. The entire constitutional edifice is not particularly democratic at all except with respect to the election of representatives. Senators were originally appointed by the states and partisanship was not an inherent feature of the original system inasmuch as the vice presidency originally was supposed to go to the man with the second greatest number of electors.

    The partisan arrangement as well as judicial supremacy (through the decision of Marbury v. Madison) came later. These early Americans were still quite psychologically steeped in monarchism. I point out none of this as criticism but rather as guarded praise, being a monarchist myself.

    But my point is this: None of this American Constitutionalism is inherently incompatible with a dominant party system where one party successfully addresses the aspirations of the vast majority of the people and thus maintains enough homogeneity to rule without a bipartisan system. Bipartisanship is not an inherent feature of our American government.

  13. George Michalopulos says

    Uh oh, looks like St Zelensky is getting ready to be martyred:

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/zelensky-reportedly-strips-three-jewish-oligarchs-of-citizenship/ar-AA102GFQ?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=4fb95a7094bc4a61916a06ecf61d784d

    FWIW, Komoloisky was his mentor and made his media and political career possible.

  14. George Michalopulos says