Anybody who covered the Vietnam War, as I did, became familiar with several phrases that were used to explain or clarify American involvement.

Terms like “Body Count,” “Hearts and Minds,” “Pacification,” “The light at the end of the tunnel,” come immediately to mind.

But there was another phrase that with just a few alterations seems to define what is happening in our country today. That phrase is “We had to destroy the village to save it.”

It is still used today to describe the brutal absurdities of war and the destructive extremes American forces went to annihilate the Communist Viet Cong who had taken refuge in the South Vietnamese village of Ben Tre in the Mekong Delta.

During the battle American bombs, rockets and napalm obliterated much of the town, hundreds of innocent civilians were killed, and most of the buildings were leveled. After the battle, a U.S. major allegedly justified the carnage by telling a U.S. reporter: “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.” In other words, the only way to kill the Viet Cong enemy was to destroy everybody and everything around them.

When I watch what is happening today in America’s political universe the phrase that comes to mind is this: “We have to destroy the country to save it.”

It seems to be the justification for the perpetual scorched earth war the Democrat party and their socialist leftists waged against former President Trump and anybody who supported his agenda.

During the Trump administration, the concept of a “loyal opposition” disappeared completely. Do Americans even remember what a loyal opposition is? I sincerely doubt it.

A loyal opposition implies that a party that doesn’t hold the presidency or a majority in the House or Senate can still oppose the actions of the sitting president and the majority party while remaining loyal to the source of the government’s power—our constitutional form of government. In other words, they will not mount a Coup d’état to overthrow the government or impeach a president they don’t like. They will wait for the next election so the electorate can vote the rascals out.

This is what we see happening now with the Republican Party. While Republicans oppose Biden’s $3.5 trillion socialist spending plan I haven’t heard anybody in the GOP yelling for Biden’s impeachment–though it certainly seems plausible that they should given Biden’s horrific performance on our southern border, his mismanagement of the economy, the worst inflation in a decade, and the catastrophic (some might say criminal) exodus from Afghanistan.

Just how does a loyal opposition work, you might ask? Here’s a prime example. During World War II the Democrat Party held the office of president and the Republican Party cooperated fully and without reservation in FDR’s war effort.

In the past, we also saw this form of loyalty play out in the Senate judiciary committee when senators from both sides often voted for a judicial candidate without the kind of political rancor we see today. For example, during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, three of his nominees were approved unanimously (Sandra Day O’Connor, 99-0; Antonin Scalia, 98-0; and Anthony Kennedy, 97-0); Ruth Bader Ginsburg was approved during the Clinton presidency by a vote of 96-3.

Let’s look at the current justices and the votes they received. Clarence Thomas was approved in 1991 by the vote of 52-48; Stephen Breyer was approved in 1994, by a vote of 87-9; John Roberts, in 2005 by a vote of 78-22; Samuel Alito, 2006, 58-42;  Sonia Sotomayor, 2009, 68-31; Elena Kagan, 2010, 63-37; Neil Gorsuch, 2017, 54-45; Eric Kavanaugh, 2018, 50-48; and Amy Coney Barrett, 2020, 52-48.

Given the clear partisan trend in approving Supreme Court Justices I think we can safely say that from this day forward, Supreme Court Justices will have to go through seven levels of hell to attain a seat on the nation’s highest court. The confirmation process is no longer about who is best qualified, who has the best legal mind, who can be the best justice, but what political party he or she belongs to and whether they are liberal, judicial activists, conservative or strict constructionists.  In other words, it has evolved into a form of political combat; a kind of survival of the fittest.

After the disgraceful displays of partisan politics regarding Judge Kavanaugh, if Democrats believe one of their future nominees will fly right through the confirmation process the way Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, or Kagan did they are sadly mistaken. There are long memories in the Senate and the way the last two Trump nominees have been treated means the Democrats are in for some severe retribution.

It’s a sad state of affairs.

The same can be said for the demented and frenzied opposition to President Trump, his cabinet, and his supporters, all of whom have been called the coarsest and most offensive of names—from “deplorables” and racists to Nazis and Fascists by the alleged “loyal opposition.”

The leftists and socialists that appear to be running the Democrat party are intent on turning our republic into a socialist ghetto. Never mind that socialism has failed in every country where it has been tried.

For some inane reason, there are people on the left who want to subject our highly successful capitalist republic to a form of government that eliminates incentive and profit and instead creates a system that says “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”—the highly flawed philosophy of Marxism.

Why? It’s the “we have to destroy the country to save it” argument.

During the Trump administration, the mantra was, “Get rid of President Trump at any cost—even by death if necessary.” (Yes, people on the left actually said that, and some, like goofy Maxine Waters, have come close to saying it).

That’s where we are today. Keep Republicans out of the White House, the Senate, and the House, even if it means destroying our republic and rebuilding it again, preferably in the image of Karl Marx.

So villagers take heed. Watch out for the political napalm, the socialist rockets, and the leftist bombs as we approach the 2022 midterm elections. The barrage from the socialist left has only just begun, and our country just may not survive the onslaught.