In the days of our lives as comic shop owners and dealers, a big part of the profession is the acquisition of comics and collectibles. Profit being the driver of such endeavors, naturally one attempts to risk as little capital as possible in these exchanges. We therefore created our version of good cop, bad cop.
It worked like this—a person enters the shop with an idea to sell something. Whoever met this person first is automatically bad dealer. We would look through the horde very pessimistically. “We already have several of these we can’t sell… no real market for these… blah blah blah and so on…” Bad dealer expresses a disinterest in the collection and then tenders an offer so low it’s guaranteed to disappoint the seller, as insulting a price as possible, bordering on the absurd.
Bad dealer then turns to good dealer and says: “I don’t really want any of this stuff, take a look and see what you think.” Good dealer runs through the stuff, with the occasional, “We could use one of these… I do know a customer who asked about this… blah blah blah…” The seller is heartened by the affirmation of his goods by the more affable dealer. Good dealer then offers a price, still blefuscudian in scale, but just enough more than bad dealer’s price, they would agree and sell us the goods.
This was a very good system and almost always successful, leaving us pleased with ourselves and cackling maniacally as we priced out our newly acquired booty. Shameful really.
I recount these experiences in the ersatz Comic Cafe to highlight the methodology now being employed by the modern left in the United States contemporaneously. The modern left leaning electorate, falls into two camps regarding the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America in the Democrat Party.
Some, due to the negligence of our education system, actually believe in the ideas expressed by the DSA. They have no frame of reference for what socialism has wrought historically across the globe. Bereft of disciplined thinking, they, like their pinko predecessors, are keen to immanentize the eschaton at all cost.
Then you have the Democrat voter who is repelled by ideas like doing away with the Senate, defunding police, abolishing ICE, replacing the Presidency and Supreme Court, unrestrained immigration, the abolition of prisons and so on. This is the constituency the media paints as the true base of the Democrat Party.
However—Many of these ideas are a part of the mainstream in the Democrat Party as exemplified by the rise of the so-called “Squad.” All of whom expressed similar platforms for the Party over the last decade or so. The rejection of Squad members by voters in the recent primaries represents a reset.
The ascendency of the Democratic Socialists is the Hegelian chess move meant to deceive the electorate into believing the Democrat Party is not as unhinged as the DSA makes them appear. Van Jones, Rahm Emanuel, Harold Ford and the James Carvilles of the Party, are the good cops. The Zohran Mamdani, Hasan Piker, Bernie Sanders and the AOCs of the Party are the bad cops.
The good cops may dismiss DSA positions involving rewriting the Constitution, Hamas, policing, prisons and immigration they claim to consider outside the progressive movement. Yet Van Jones states; “I’m a strong Democrat, with a winning bipartisan track record. I’m rooted in progressive ideals and policies: criminal justice reforms, Green New Deal, Medicare for All, free education, clean air and water. These are ideas I have fought for my entire adult life,"
To which I remember the words immortalized by the Bard “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” Changing the words you use to frame an idea, does not do away with the idea. Make no mistake, so-called mainstream Democrats share the same vision as the so-called extremists amongst them. They are simply using the extremists to make their intrinsically Marxist vision for the United States more palatable to the masses they seek to bamboozle into voting for them.
When Hasan Piker dons a Chairman Mao outfit publicly, it is theater meant to drive those predisposed to vote democrat to hold their noses, and vote for who the Party really wants to win—the so-called mainstream Democrat candidates who in their hearts believe just like the rest of the far left.
The confirmation of how these people really believe slips out from time to time—A good example is when the “Moderate” Democrat pundit Harold Ford, was shown to have the Andy Warhol portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong on the wall in his home. While you can attempt to write this off as kitsch—I would ask, would you hang a pop art portrait of Hitler on your wall as kitsch if you did not agree with Hitler’s National Socialism/Fascism? If not, why not?
Mao’s Marxist ideology lead to a far greater body count than Hitler’s National Socialism. The reality is men like Ford do in fact agree with Mao’s Marxist principles. When mainstream Democrats like Rahm Emanuel says things like; "Never let a good crisis go to waste,” They reveal they are not shy when employing the Hegelian Dialectic.
Do not be deceived these people are of one accord, the good and bad cop always have the same agenda.
“Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” I Corinthians 15:33
Digital Publius
